Sancho Panza

2000AD WALLPAPER PROJECT No 5

Back in 1998 Dan Abnett teamed up with Henry Flint in an attempt to repeat the success he had had with Sinister Dexter three years before. The result was Sancho Panzer about a Robin Hood saviour figure on the war torn planet of Vainglory Five. It lasted eleven progs culminating in the ultimate sacrifice of three lead characters (title character Major Sancho Panzer, a.k.a Val included) saving the planet from the threat of giant worms.

For most people – Dan Abnett included – the series was a flop. For me, I loved it. I still love it on re-reading. There was nothing wrong with it and it was, imo, not given a fair chance. The story was certainly no worse than any Sinister Dexter story and again imo it was funnier, too. That is forgetting the simply sublime artwork by the magnificent Henry Flint. It is certainly one story that stuck firmly in my mind, so in respect to what I thought was a great missed chance at a long running strip I decided to do a homage. I had it all planned out but realised that I could fit it all into one wallpaper when I got started. Here is the first I completed of Sancho Panzer's tank, as infamous as the man himself, Mojo.

2000AD WALLPAPER PROJECT No 6

Here is the second Sancho Panza inspired wallpaper. This piece was much more an exercise in speed painting than anything else. Most of the wallpapers I have done so far have taken seven-plus hours, but this one only took around two. It is my first successful speed paint and I think for the feel I wanted to get I could have done much better if I put more time into it. The only thing I'm really disappointed with is that I didn't manage to give the impression of scale. After all, those are full sized trees the cows are grazing on.

As always Sancho Panzer is the copyright of Rebellion.