Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Last American by John Wagner The Last American by John Wagner. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. What can I do to prevent this in the future? If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. Cloudflare Ray ID: 660e6c996d1097ea • Your IP : 116.202.236.252 • Performance & security by Cloudflare. John Wagner. John Wagner (born in the United States in 1949 but raised in Scotland from the age of 12 after his mother moved back there) is arguably one of the most significant British comics writers of his time, and was, along with Pat Mills, partly responsible for revitalizing the ailing British comics industry in the 1970s with his work on the then newly launched Battle Picture Weekly (for which he wrote Darkie's Mob ) and 2000 AD (for which he has co-created numerous characters and strips including Robo-Hunter , Button Man and, most famously, Judge Dredd ). He also co- created Strontium Dog for Starlord (the character later became a mainstay of 2000 AD ) and wrote for Eagle (for which he created Doomlord, Dolebusters and Detective Zed ), Scream! , Tammy and Roy of the Rovers (all for IPC), and edited both Tammy and Valiant (for which he created One-Eyed Jack). He also co-created the independent comics character The Bogie Man (co-created with frequent writing partner Alan Grant), as well as writing Batman for DC Comics in the USA, and The Last American (with Grant and Mike McMahon) for Epic Comics. He frequently used pseudonyms when writing for IPC, including T. B. Grover, A. O'Kay (on Detective Zed ), Brian Skuter (Skuter later became an actual character's name, a journalist who interviews Judge Death), Keef Ripley (used when he wrote The Dead Man ), Mike Stott, Rick Clark and John Howard. In 1979 he wrote the Doctor Who stories 'City of the Damned' and 'The Dogs of Doom' for Doctor Who Weekly (though he and Pat Mills were actually credited as co-writers on both these stories as well as The Iron Legion and The Star Beast since all four stories were originally developed by them both as proposed scripts for the TV series). He remains pretty much the definitive Judge Dredd writer, continuing to write for the series as well as for Strontium Dog . The History of Lager in America. When John Wagner, a Bavarian brewer, arrived in America in 1840, he came with some precious cargo: a supply of lager yeast from his native Bavaria. And as far as American cities go, he picked the right place. Philadelphia had been brewing beer for 160 years. However, the beer that Philadelphia, and the rest of America, had been imbibing was not like the beer Wagner had drunk in Germany. Americans were drinking English- style ales. We have Wagner to thank for introducing the lager to America. It wasn’t easy, however. When German brewers arrived in the U.S., they naturally began to find that much of its barley was a variety called six-row, as opposed to the German two-row. “This stuff was gummier, higher protein, and hard to brew,” Mikey Lenane, Sixpoint’s Formulations Specialist, says. “Basically, the beers were coming out too thick.” To solve this problem, German-American brewers began adding lower-protein grains, like rice and corn, to more closely emulate the German lagers. These pre-Prohibition lagers, with the blend of rice or corn and the six-row barley, were probably delicious and fairly close to what was being brewed back home in Germany. Once they figured it out, these light, cold-fermented, and refreshing lagers soon spread up and down the East Coast, and then across the country. The style especially took off in New York, where, by 1877, George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery (established 1866) became the largest in the country. Prohibition totally shattered America’s beer dreams when it began rolling out, state by state, in 1920. When Prohibition finally lifted, in 1933, what was left was a handful of domestic brewers that now ruled beer-making in America. For decades, mass-produced lagers came from a small number of very large breweries pumping out impressively consistent, if disappointingly flavorless, beers. “What happened over time is rice and corn started being used as flavor lightener … to make less flavorful beer. A lighter beer that people can’t really taste,” Lenane says. John Wagner. In the comics field, Wagner is most famous for his co-creation of Judge Dredd with writer Pat Mills and artist Carlos Esquiere in the pages of premiere UK comics anthology 2000 AD in 1978. He has also worked extensively in the American comics market, most notably with DC Comics' Batman on numerous series. Wagner recently gained much acclaim when his comics series A History of Violence was adapted into the critically acclaimed film of the same name starring actor Vigo Mortensen. Contents. Biography. Wagner was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside writer Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD , for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Early career. Wagner started his career as a sub-editor at D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd in the 1960s, where he met Pat Mills. The pair left to go freelance in 1971, writing for various IPC comics. Wagner later edited the girls comics Sandie and Princess Tina , often adding increasingly bizarre storylines in order to not only amuse himself, but to see if anyone actually read the strips! He briefly left comics in 1974, but returned to help Mills develop Battle Picture Weekly to compete with DC Thompson's Warlord title. Battle was the first title in a wave of tougher boys’ comics IPC were to produce during the 1970s. In Battle , he most notably wrote Darkie's Mob , a tough World War II action series which was among one of the most popular strips in the comic. [1] He also edited Valiant , for which he wrote the tough cop series One-Eyed Jack [2] based upon the film Dirty Harry , and scripted the spy strip Dredger for Mills's Action . 2000 AD. In 1976 Mills brought Wagner in as script adviser for the new science fiction title 2000 AD . Among Wagner 's contributions was M.A.C.H. 1 , a thinly disguised copy of The Six Million Dollar Man , who appeared in the first issue. A more enduring character, however, had to be held over until issue 2. Judge Dredd began as another tough cop in the Dirty Harry mold, but the strip's futuristic setting allowed Wagner to push the crime and punishment theme to extremes, often to satirical effect. The character was initially visualised by artist Carlos Ezquerra, who left the strip unhappy at having to share it with other artists. Wagner also briefly left in the pre-publication stages over a dispute over ownership, but soon returned. Judge Dredd quickly became the most popular story in 2000AD . Some important early stories, notably "The Return of Rico" and "The Cursed Earth", were written by Pat Mills and contributed much to the character's development. Wagner also created Robo-Hunter , with artist Ian Gibson, under his 'T.B Grover' pseudonym. This strip also proved highly popular and in 1978, Wagner and Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra went on to create Strontium Dog for Starlord , a spin off title which would eventually merge with 2000 AD . After the merge, Strontium Dog would become as popular as Judge Dredd and Robo-Hunter . By 1980 Wagner was now writing the majority of his work in partnership with his housemate Alan Grant, although most of their stories were credited to either Wagner alone (under one of his pseudonyms) or Grant alone. Some stories, such as Ace Trucking Co. , were credited to "Grant/Grover" to ensure both writers' got an equal share of the proceeds. Throughout the rest of the 1980s Wagner and Grant were writing the majority of strips in 2000 AD , Battle , the relaunched Eagle and others, although writers such as Alan Moore, Peter Milligan and Grant Morrison also created notable strips for 2000 AD during this time. American work in the 1980s. Wagner and Grant became part of the so-called "British Invasion" of American comics during the 1980s. In 1987 their first title, a mini-series called Outcasts , was published by DC Comics with Cam Kennedy as artist. Outcasts was well received, though it never sold in great quantities, and this success led to the pair writing Batman in the pages of Detective Comics from issue 583. The pair also created the bleak nuclear dystopia The Last American for Epic Comics with longtime Dredd artist Mike McMahon. Wagner says it was The Last American which broke his regular writing partnership with Grant, although Grant says a dispute over the ending of the Judge Dredd story "Oz" was also important. They split their work between them: Wagner kept Judge Dredd, while Grant continued Strontium Dog and Judge Anderson and became the sole writer of Detective Comics . Although the two continue to collaborate from time to time, they have never resumed a full-time partnership. The Bogie Man and the 1990s. In 1989 the first issue of The Bogie Man was released. Published by Fat Man Press, the title was meant to tie in with Glasgow's position as European City of Culture in 1990. Although the title suffered from shipping delays it became Britain's biggest selling independently published comic ever. Wagner had become disillusioned with 2000 AD and writing Judge Dredd during this time, and set out on what was proposed to be his last Dredd story, entitled Necropolis . He had also become part of the creative team on Toxic! , a new weekly comic set up in direct competition to 2000 AD . Apart from The Bogie Man , most of Wagner's strips were rejected for Toxic! as they did not fit in with editor Pat Mills plans for the comic. Of his other strips, Button Man , with illustration by Arthur Ranson, ended up in 2000 AD , where it has spawned three sequels, while another, Al's Baby , a comedy about a gangster who becomes the second man to carry and give birth to a child, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, was published in the Judge Dredd Megazine in 1990. Wagner decided to remain writing for 2000 AD , and Toxic! was eventually cancelled when the publishers went bankrupt in 1991. In that same year, he co-wrote the Batman/Judge Dredd crossover Judgement on Gotham with Alan Grant, with Simon Bisley providing art. The crossover was a huge hit and helped convince Wagner to remain on Dredd, while writing for American publishers on titles such as Dark Horse Comics' Aliens and Star Wars titles, the latter notably featuring solo stories starring the popular Boba Fett character. 1995 saw the release of the second of his works adapted for the screen (a Bogie Man film had been made by BBC Scotland in 1992 starring Robbie Coltrane, but was not well received and a series was never made). Judge Dredd was a big budget version of the comic based loosely on an early Dredd strip in 2000 AD . Wagner and Grant were invited to write a treatment for the script but were offered no money for doing so, and declined. Dredd was played by Sylvester Stallone and many critics felt this was a poor choice in casting. The film did poorly both critically and at the box office. After this Wagner was reluctant to allow any of his works to be made into a film. In 1997 Wagner wrote his first original graphic novel, A History Of Violence , drawn by Vince Locke for the Paradox Press imprint of DC Comics. The book was very well received critically but did not sell well. Paradox also reprinted the original Bogie Man story. Present day work. Wagner remains a prolific writer for 2000AD . He still writes the majority of Judge Dredd strips each year, as well as his Button Man strip among others. In 2002 he co-wrote with Andy Diggle the first Judge Dredd/ Aliens crossover, Incubus , which was co-published by Dark Horse Comics and 2000 AD . In 2005 his graphic novel A History of Violence was adapted into a film, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris. Wagner had backed the film once he saw the group of actors Cronenberg had gathered. The film has been highly praised and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005. Future mooted film productions include a Button Man movie. Wagner has said he intends to retire from writing Judge Dredd at some point when a suitable replacement writer has been found, occasionally hinting that he favours fellow Scot Gordon Rennie. However, in the meantime he has launched one of the biggest Dredd 'epics' yet - "Origins", intended to flesh out the still sketchy background for the Judge Dredd character. He is a supporter on the Moniaive comics festival held annually each September. The Last American. Twenty years after a global nuclear war destroyed the world, Captain Ulysses Pilgrim is woken from suspended animation by three military robot aides. Selected by his superiors to survive the initial onslaught, Pilgrim now has one last mission; to scour through post-holocaust U.S.A. in the search for other survivors. About The Authors. John Wagner has been scripting for 2000 AD for more years than he cares to remember. His creations include Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Ace Trucking, Al’s Baby, Button Man and Mean Machine. Outside of 2000 AD his credits include Star Wars, Lobo, The Punisher and the critically acclaimed A History of Violence. With over 300 2000 AD stories to his name – not to mention over 250 Daily Star Judge Dredd strips – Alan Grant’s prolific creative record speaks for itself. Outside the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, Grant is well-known to Batman fans following a lengthy run on various incarnations of the title. More recently he has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novels Kidnapped and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Graphic Novel format with artist Cam Kennedy. About The Illustrator. His characters all spiky lines and outsized boots, Mick McMahon – some times known as Mike – co-created perennial 2000 AD favourites The V.C.s, and provided Tharg with many classic episodes of Judge Dredd, Ro-Busters, A.B.C. Warriors and Sláine. Outside of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, he drew an adventure with the original Cybermen for Doctor Who Magazine; Sonic the Hedgehog for Sonic the Comic; and, in America, issues of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight plus the mini-series Tattered Banners and The Last American, the latter co-created with John Wagner and Alan Grant. Product Details. Publisher: 2000 AD (April 6, 2017) Length: 128 pages ISBN13: 9781781085448. Browse Related Books. Resources and Downloads. High Resolution Images. The Last American. Get a FREE e-book by joining our mailing list today! Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster. 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