With the release of Babs: The Black Road South #1 on January 14 from AHOY Comics, we sat down with award-winning writer Garth Ennis and chatted about his new comic series. Garth has written many comics, including Hitman, The Punisher, Sara, Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal, The Boys, Preacher, and Babs. The artist on Babs is Jacen Burrows. Jacen has worked on numerous comics, including Crossed, The Ribbon Queen, and Babs.
Hi Garth, happy new year. It’s so lovely to have you here with us again.
For any of our readers who are unfamiliar with Babs, what can you tell us about Babs?
Babs is a barbarian warrior who wanders a fantasy land of sword and sorcery, a wondrous realm of elves, goblins and dragons, a place of endless adventure and deadly peril- but all she really wants is to make enough money to retire and live a life of fabulous wealth and luxury, which seems reasonable enough to me. She’s generally more dangerous and has a far sh*tt*er attitude than most of the people she runs across, but she’s cursed by a run of lousy luck that means her dreams generally go unrealized. This means her adventures continue, whether she likes it or not.
Who is Izzy?
Izzy is Babs’ best friend, another wandering barbarian who hails from the southlands, wherever they happen to be. She’s about as capable a warrior as Babs but slightly less greedy, although generally they have equally awful luck. Izzy sometimes acts as a restraining influence on her friend, but tends to get pulled into her orbit and end up in the same dire straits. You might say they sort of even each other out, but end up in the sh*t together anyway.
What has the feedback been like for Babs Vol. 1?
Good enough to do more, hence the new series. People generally respond well to the earthy humour, sickening violence and peculiar scent of marmalade. I made that last part up, but they did seem to like the scene with the d*ck-enlargement elixir.
Do you have a favourite scene from Babs Vol. 1?
Hard to pick just one. I like the bit with the bear, anything involving the undead couple Gerry & Emma, the dudes’ recounting of Babs’ personal history, and the escape from the slave mines. Special mention for the night-time scene on the deck of the good ship Marillion, running from the strap-on Elven queen to fizzpoppers to barrel throwing to wizard torture.
It seems like you and Jacen are having a lot of fun with the Babs series. Is that the case?
And then some. We’ve been working together for a long time now, over twenty years, and while any creative relationship that lasts so long is essentially built on trust—well, we still manage to give each other plenty of pleasant surprises.
What can readers expect from Babs: The Black Road South?
Babs and Izzy have actually managed to get their hands on some cash for a change, but it quite naturally takes them no time at all to screw things up.Trying to take back what’s theirs they’re soon on the Black Road South to the accursed land of Mordynn—exactly where Babs doesn’t want to be, because she has some pretty bad history with the place. Exactly how bad is something she’s keen to keep a secret, but with the reappearance of a very strange former enemy you know the sh*t will hit the fan sooner or later. A demented dragon, a bondage hobbit and a lord of evil who doesn’t really want the job—all these and more await our heroine at the end of the Black Road…
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Happy New Year! The world may be sliding rapidly down the toilet, but at least there’s six issues of Babs to look forward to. And we’re talking about another series after this. So there’s that.
We would like to say a big thank you to Garth for chatting with us and wish him the best of luck with the release of Babs: The Black Road South.
