By d. emerson eddy — You probably know Judge Dredd. Or at the very least have heard about him in some form or fashion, even if it's just someone making fun of the Sylvester Stallone movie. You might even be familiar with some of the other long running 2000 AD serials like Slaine, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors, Button Man, and Nemesis the Warlock. I'm not intent on covering any of those as I look at some of Rebellion's output this month. Instead, I'm going for the slightly more offbeat stuff that might have flown under your radar. Like Fiends of the Eastern Front by Gerry Finley-Day, Carlos Ezquerra, and Jack Potter.

Originally published in 1980 as a ten part serial across 2000 AD Progs 152-161, Fiends of the Eastern Front worked to blend war torn action set during World War II and the horror of Romanian vampires essentially using the cover of war as a feeding ground. We're guided through the story by the journal of a German soldier, Hans Schmitt, found in then contemporary West Berlin detailing his experience with Captain Costanza and his vampire fiends. Finley-Day uses the journal as an interesting way to frame the story, while it also leans into to the epistolary convention of many vampire stories since Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Carlos Ezquerra's art is exquisite. I may be weird in this regard, but I've always preferred Ezquerra's art in black and white. Not to say that his art either coloured by himself or others isn't great as well, but there's a rawness to the art in black and white that spotlights his scratchy, visceral linework. It works perfectly for both horror and war stories, hitting the reader in the face with the shock of each genre. His use of stippling and hatching for shading and to bring depth to characters is just incredible.

Published originally as five page serials, the story does take a fairly compressed format, resulting in a fair amount of dialogue and narration boxes for Jack Potter to deal with, laying them out fairly well to not obstruct Ezquerra's art and keep everything flowing. There's also just something about Potter's hand-lettered work that helps the overall raw feel of the story.

Though the original Fiends of the Eastern Front serial by Finley-Day, Ezquerra, and Potter does indeed have a definitive conclusion, there have been more stories that go back and expand on Captain Costanza's actions during the war. Included in the collection out now, there's also the “Stalingrad” serial from David Bishop, Colin MacNeil, and Ellie De Ville that goes behind Russian lines and a brief extra from The Scarlet Apocrypha that fits Red Menace into the Fiends story by Dan Abnett, Ezquerra, and De Ville. Overall, they're all highly entertaining, with an interesting perspective on both German and Russian soldiers dealing with a supernatural menace whose loyalties may only lie with himself.

Classic Comic of the Week: Fiends of the Eastern Front

Fiends of the Eastern Front
Writers: Gerry Finley-Day, David Bishop & Dan Abnett
Artists: Carlos Ezquerra & Colin MacNeil
Letterers: Jack Potter & Ellie De Ville
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: August 12, 2013
Price: $7.99
WEST BERLIN, 1980. A GROUP OF WORKMEN UNCOVER A SHOCKING SECRET FROM THE PAST. Buried deep underground are the remains of Wehrmacht soldier, Hans Schmitt, and his diary, which journals his eerie encounter with the Romanian Captain Constanta and his platoon of blood-sucking freaks!
Back in 1943, with the Russians willing to fight until their last man in order to defend Stalingrad, Panzergrenadier Richter discovers Constanta’s secret and learns than sometimes your allies can be just as dangerous as the enemy!
This fiendishly-fun collection features the breathtaking art of Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd) and Colin MacNeil (America, Chopper: Song of the Surfer), with stories from Gerry Finley-Day (Rogue Trooper) and David Bishop (Thrill-Power Overload).
More Info: Fiends of the Eastern Front

Read past Classic Comics of the Week!

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.