Review Fix Exclusive: Garth Ennis Talks ‘The Tankies’ And More

Review Fix chats with comic book writer Garth Ennis, who discusses his new Dead Reckoning graphic novel, “The Tankies,” as well as what it’s like to work with original characters.

About The Tankies:

From the bloody battle for Normandy to the Nazi heartland, from war’s end to the killing fields of Korea, the men of the British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment fight battle after battle against terrible odds. Whether outnumbered or outgunned, the Tankies soldier on–as their motto would have it, “From Mud, Through Blood, to the Green Fields Beyond.” 

You can find more information about the book here: https://www.deadreckoning.org/book/the-tankies/

Review Fix: What inspired this comic?

Garth Ennis: One of the many war stories I’d always wanted to tell involved the British tank crews of WW2, and their trials and tribulations against their generally better led and equipped opponent- the German Panzer force. I was also keen to try depicting different aspects of a major battle as it developed, in this case the Normandy fighting after the D-Day invasion of 1944. Later on I wanted to handle a one-on-one duel, which we have in the second story in the collection, The Firefly And His Majesty. Lastly, I wanted to portray the Tankies in another war: Korea in 1951, when they finally have a tank that could have taken on the German monsters, but then find that they’re up against a different sort of enemy entirely.

Review Fix: What was it like to work with penciller Carlos (Ezquerra)? What do you think he adds to the book?

Ennis: I grew up reading Carlos’ work on Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, so it was enormously gratifying to work with him on so many stories over the years, like Condors and Rifle Brigade. He was absolutely invaluable on The Tankies, not just for his expert storytelling and facility with military hardware, but for his wonderful sense of character. His take on Sergeant Stiles is perfect, and his ability to depict a tank crew at work- four or five white guys of similar age, all wearing the same uniform and equipment, all sitting in the gloomy interior of an armored vehicle- came in very handy indeed. Very few people could have pulled that off.

I still miss Carlos terribly, there were just no other artists like him.

Review Fix: What makes it different than the other series you’ve worked on over the years? Who do you think will enjoy this comic the most?

Ennis: This tends to be the kind of thing I never really think about, I just write the stories and hope for the best. So far it’s worked out okay.

Review Fix: Where do you think it stands in your comic book legacy?

Ennis: Quite comfortably alongside my other war fiction- the other Battlefields stories, the War Stories series, and individual titles like Sara, Out of the Blue and The Stringbags. It also makes a nice companion volume to Dead Reckoning’s Night Witches collection.

Review Fix: Mark Milar once told me that it’s so much more satisfying to work on your own characters than established ones. Do you agree?

Ennis: He’s quite correct. Although it can be highly enjoyable to work on your favourite established characters (in my case Fury, The Punisher and Johnny Red), being able to create your own material is really the way to go. Creatively and commercially it really is what makes the most sense. No one can tell you how a given character should behave, or try and shoehorn them into some dopey crossover- and, of course, owning the material you’ve created puts you in a far stronger position financially. 

Review Fix: What makes these characters special to you?

Ennis: I’m terribly fond of Stiles- he’s something of a grotesque, but he’s got enough heart that his journey from angry bastard to melancholy survivor still resonates with me, particularly when he reaches a degree of understanding about his achievements. I also quite like what I did with the German Panzer commander- good humored, kind to his men, very human and somehow all the worse for it, given that he’s a diehard Nazi. Really I find that more believable than some sort of easily dismissed goose-stepping caricature. And I like the other Tankies who appear in the three stories- their life expectancy is sometimes limited, but I think I managed a decent depiction of the young conscripts who suffered and strove against the armies of the Third Reich for all those years.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Ennis: Another Punisher miniseries, a new time travel comedy called Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal (published by AWA/Upshot), a WW2 story about the British in Burma called The Lion & The Eagle, another series of Jimmy’s Bastards, a new story featuring the savagery of the Russian front from TKO, who published Sara- starring a rather different woman protagonist- and a couple of projects from UK publisher Rebellion that I think will surprise a few people.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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