SHAKARA!!!

Shakara, by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint, made his audacious début in Prog 2002 in a riotous strip which saw the destruction of Planet Earth on page one, shortly followed by the unceremonious squishing of the last human being by page three! The story focuses on an almost indestructible being who is a tool of wrathful vengeance for an extinct race. Below are some of Henry Flint's terrifying original designs for the principal character...



The series began deceptively simply; each week we'd be introduced to an immoral, hideous yet amazingly designed race of aliens who would be killed by the laser blades and shurikens of our eponymous hero. However, as the series progressed and the first book came to a close, we were given hints that Shakara's killing sprees were linked and part of a much bigger plan...

The first ever Shakara cover was this beauty for Prog 1277 by friend of the blog, the amazing Clint Langley. Here we see Shakara facing off against the evil Investigator Sneer...


This was followed two progs later by Henry's first Shakara cover, possibly giving us a hint of the galaxy spanning adventures that were to follow.


The first book was collected as a hardback TPB, the cover of which is shown below...

And the printed version...


Book 2 of the saga, Shakara - The Assassin, began with Shakara's execution of the kindly but strangely repentant Dr Lara Procopio, before introducing us to a doomed group of bounty hunters and killers, hired by Shakara's enemies to bring him down. This arc also showed us Shakara's more defiant side as he repeatedly rebelled against the voices that controlled him...

This series spawned a single cover, the inks for which can be seen below:


And here's the coloured version:

The success of Shakara obviously caught the eye of Droid Life creator Cat Sullivan who treat us to this classic in Prog 1455:

Shakara - The Defiant, the third book in the series, introduced us to the evil Cinnebar Brenneka, the villain of the piece who was responsible for the rise and fall of the Shakaran race. We also meet Dr Eva Procopio, the daughter of Shakara's first victim in book 2, who swears vengeance on her mother's killer. You can see how Henry designed the look of Eva below...




In this book we discover the shocking truth about Eva's mother, she was responsible for the virus that had wiped out the Shakaran race, hence her guilt and acceptance of her fate at the beginning of the previous book. During this part of the saga, Shakara defies his masters and saves the life of young Eva, before showing her the crimes of her mother.

Two big names gave us covers for this arc, firstly 2000AD stalwart and Legends creator Nick Percival, gave us this absolute beauty:

Followed by this amazing cover by none other than Brendan McArthy, wow...


Though it appeared differently when published...

Shakara - The Destroyer, Book 4 in the series, saw Brennaka make his move against Shakara and begin to make a weapon to destroy the entire galaxy. During this book, we saw Eva and Shakara's relationship begin to develop, only to be cruelly cut short when Shakara was seemingly killed...

Below we have the inks and final cover for Prog 1657 based on Mick McMahon's classic Cursed Earth cover of Prog 85.


The final, epic book of the series, Shakara - Avenger, saw the regeneration of Shakara and followed his thrilling race against time to stop Brenakka from destroying the universe, before the black plague finally killed him. This world devastating romp was an absolute 2000AD classic with both writer and artist at the very top of their game.

The saga began with another Clint Langley classic, his first fully painted cover for over ten years!

And was shortly followed by this brilliant Neil Roberts illustration - I love it!

For the final two covers, it was up to Shakara creator Henry Flint to close the book on his fantastic offspring. The first showed Shakara destroying the entire star fleet of his enemies by simply driving a planet at them...





And, almost in total contrast to the madness of the previous cover, we have the work of genius that is the Vitruvian Man-like plans for the Shakaran's instrument of vengeance - firstly the rough...

Followed by the amazing final version - just look at that beautiful 2000AD logo, perfect...


Shakara has been a phenomenal series, easily one of the best in recent years. It has quite rightly drawn parallels with classics such as Nemesis and is a fine example of the new golden age of 2000AD. The plaudits often go to Henry Flint for his stunning, mind bending artwork but a special mention must surely go to writer Robbie Morrison, who has given a master class in storytelling here. Let's hope Rebellion plan a huge phone-book sized trade paperback featuring all five books!

Thanks to all artists who have sent images for this post.