First Look: ‘The Stainless Steel Rat Colour Omnibus Edition’ – The Rat Is Back And In Color

by Richard Bruton

One for your diaries, the colour omnibus collection of the 2000 AD adaptation of Harry Harrison’s classic science-fiction novels returns in a new full-color omnibus this December.

Back at the end of the 70s and into the 80s, 2000 AD took Harry Harrison’s classic sci-fi character and brought him into comics courtesy of Kelvin Gosnell and Carlos Ezquerra.

It was an immediate hit and one that makes grown men grow all misty-eyed to this day. Across three series adapting three Harrison novels, The Stainless Steel Rat, The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World, and The Stainless Steel Rat for President, this strip became a classic of 2000 AD’s first golden age. Very much a pulp sci-fi vision of a future, Ezquerra drawing a mean Rat, again pulling James Coburn’s face into comics, and, with Gosnell, gives us something fast and raw and brilliant.

Now we have the complete three-series collection coming out as one big color omnibus, containing everything of the Rat that ever appeared in 2000 AD.

The Stainless Steel Rat is one James Bolivar diGriz, aka Slippery Jim, gentleman thief and conman who lives for the danger, thr risk, and sticking it to authority. He’s later recruited by the The Special Corps, a law organisation made up almost exclusively of ex-criminals, and turned into an agent, the arch-criminal turned into the cop.

The comic kept all of Harrison’s style, a great pulp sci-fi adventure with its tongue firmly in its cheek, that would give us time wars, a femme fatale criminal, and the Rat standing for President!

Here’s the 2000 AD PR for this one and a preview of what to expect in December…

“James Bolivar DiGriz aka ‘The Stainless Steel Rat’ is many things – a con man, a thief, and a member of an elite law-enforcement agency known as the Special Corps. After escaping the corps, DiGriz crosses paths with the beautiful but deadly Angelina who, like Jim DiGriz, is also a master criminal, albeit a lot more ruthless. They must travel through time to stop a master criminal meddling with the past, and help to overthrow an evil President by having The Rat become a candidate for the job himself!

A classic from 2000 AD‘s first ‘golden age’, Stainless Steel Rat is a must-read for fans of Harrison or old-school sci-fi action with bold characters and a wry twist of humour, complemented by Ezquerra’s dynamic and inimitable artwork.”

THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT – COLOR OMNIBUS

Based on the books by Harry Harrison, script by Kelvin Gosnell, art by Carlos Ezquerra

Published by 2000 AD on Wednesday 18 December 2024

Contains the stories –
The Stainless Steel Rat (2000 AD Progs 140–151 – Nov 1979 – Feb 1980)
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World (2000 AD Progs 166–177 – (June – Sept 1980)
The Stainless Steel Rat for President (2000 AD Progs 393–404 – Nov 1984 – Feb 1985)