CORTEZ and the Fall of the Aztecs

    Soon after the New World was "discovered", an ambitious man set forth to make his fame and fortune.

    He sailed his ships to a strange land to embark on his quest and when he arrived, he saw a vast and brutal empire laid out before him.

    It was an empire with destruction and death as its honor. It was an empire that stretched its tentacles of fear for 100’s of miles. It was an empire built upon the foundation of bones laced with the temptation of gold.

    It was the Aztec Empire and the "Old World" had never seen such a bloodthirsty race.

    But he was determined to conquer it, by any means necessary and to insure his men would not think of returning to Spain during the campaign, he did the unthinkable.

    He burned his ships.

    It was now either conquer…or die.

    And Cortez with his 400 men set out to vanquish an empire that numbered over a million.

Called by the Los Angeles Reader, the finest example of graphic story telling they’ve seen, Cortez is a fascinating look at an empire just waiting to be devoured. Contrasting Cortez with the Aztec leader, Montezuma, this series set a new standard for historical comics. Cortez is a tremendous historical character that has attracted attention in books and studies yet has never been successfully captured on film.

It is the saga of one man thirsting to conquer an empire against a ruler who tried to appease both his subjects and his gods.

Cortez had unwittingly and unknowingly, stepped into the path of the returning God, Queztalcoatl. His arrival had been foretold for generations by the superstitious Aztecs and by the time they had discovered he in fact, was not the true God, it was too late.

For Cortez had on his side, the belief in the three things that mattered most in life....

The King.... God.... and Gold.

It was the old world against the new. One Christian god against dozens of deities. But Cortez had more than Jesus on his side, he had an unseen organism that swept through the land and decimated more of the Aztecs than any army ever could....smallpox.

Cortez- he felt the heated radiance of Jesus Christ that hangs about his cause while Montezuma waits, fevered by the burning rage of destiny.

Cortez and the Fall of the Aztecs is one of the most compelling events in history. 

Released as a two issue series from Tome Press.  Written by Gary Reed (under the name of Brent Truax) and Mitch Waxman with art by Waxman.  Currently being reformatted for a trade paperback.

Gary Reed's Thoughts and Notes on Cortez
Cortez was one of my earlier excursions into historical comics.  Overall, I was happy with it but some production problems caused some situations where the issues didn't come out as good as I would've have liked.  But I thought the story worked out good and still think it would make a fantastic movie as the story of Cortez's conquest is one of the most compelling in history.  Mitch Waxman did the art and this was after his first series of Plasma Baby which dealt with the Aztec Gods...so he was a natural.  I think its Mitch's best work.  I also have to say that Mitch was a participant in all aspects of the script and would have to be considered a co-writer on the series in many of the scenes.  It was a fun project.