Via IGN, AHOY Comics have announced “Babs,” a sword-and-sorcery comedy reteaming writer Garth Ennis and artist Jacen Burrows. The six-issue series, kicking off this July, follows Babs, a barbarian thief, and her annoying enchanted sword, Barry, as they make their way around their world trying to get rich, all while pursued by Tiberius Toledo and his band of “very white” knights.
“While enacting her latest half-assed get-rich-slow scheme, Babs uncovers Toledo’s foul plot to exploit the baser instincts of the local townsfolk, landing her headfirst into an epic battle. Babs wasn’t looking for a fight… but then again, she’s never found a bad situation she couldn’t make a hundred times worse…” The synopsis also teases Babs contending with wizards, dragons, trolls and demons, plus “an itchy metal wardrobe.”
Ennis says, “Writing Babs was an absolute hoot. The character is one of my favorite types — good at the job but crap at life, with a lousy attitude to boot — and the world of sword-and-sorcery provides endless opportunities for deeply disrespectful humor. Having our heroine smash her way through goblins, ogres, imps, incels and other vermin was extremely satisfying; nobody’s going to be Making Middle-earth Great Again while she’s around.”
The book marks the second from Ennis and Burrows to have been announced in as many weeks, following the Marvel miniseries “Get Fury,” starting in May. Burrows says, “I’ve been lucky enough to work in a lot of genres over the years but I have always wanted to work on a fantasy story. I’m having such a great time getting to design the world and characters and I can’t wait to take readers on this wild ride. The humor, the action, the wild creatures, and settings, this really is a dream project for me!”
The project also marks the first from either creator at AHOY. Tom Peyer, the publisher’s editor-in-chief, says “Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows [have] master[ed] the genre of orcs, dragons, and living swords, adding an ill-gotten bounty of humor and heart. Babs herself — an outsized spirit of greed, frustration, courage, and comic violence — will linger in your memory.” It remains to be seen if Babs’s home will rule out a crossover with another anarchic Ennis heroine, “Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal,” which publisher AWA Studios are planning to crowdfund an “Expanded Director’s Cut” of.
Regardless, “Babs” #1 will be released on July 17. It remains unknown at the time of writing if the protagonist’s name is short for Barbra, or a play on “barbarian.”
