Carlos Ezquerra (November 12, 1947 – October 1, 2018), who at times went by the name L. John Silver, was a Spanish comic book creator who contributed to the Star Wars: Mara Jade – By the Emperor's Hand comic. Living in Andorra, he primarily created comics in Britain. He is most well known as the co-creator of Judge Dredd.
During the 1970s, he was employed by Battle Picture Weekly, and he drew strips such as Rat Pack, Major Eazy and El Mestizo.
While 2000 AD was being developed, he designed the look for the characters, city environments, and technologies for John Wagner's Judge Dredd character. Despite his creation of the character, editor Pat Mills rejected Wagner and Ezquerra's initial Judge Dredd strip. Instead, a more introductory story by a different creative team was chosen for the character's debut. Their original strip was eventually used years later in an annual. Due to disagreements with management, such as his and Wagner's Judge Dredd story being rejected in favor of someone else's work on a character he helped create, Ezquerra left 2000 AD in 1977 and went back to work for Battle Picture Weekly.
Carlos Ezquerra and John Wagner also developed the Strontium Dog character for Starlord in 1978. When Starlord ceased publication, the strip was then moved to 2000 AD. Other strips he drew for 2000 AD included Fiends of the Eastern Front and adaptations of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels. He later came back to Judge Dredd to draw one of the most famous mega stories, the Apocalypse War, and continued to draw some of its most memorable adventures. Ezquerra, a long time fan favorite, continued to draw Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog on occasion.
Ezquerra also worked with writer Garth Ennis on Bloody Mary, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, War Stories, a Hitman annual with artist Steve Pugh, and two Preacher specials (The Good Old Boys and The Saint of Killers miniseries) for DC Comics, as well as Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Entertainment.
He provided the artwork for the Judge Dredd epic Origins in 2000 AD.
Carlos died of lung cancer on October 1, 2018.
- Star Wars: Mara Jade – By the Emperor's Hand
- Boba Fett ½