Vicente Segrelles' painted graphic novel series. It's Arzach without the humor--but twice the nudity!

This edition reprints the first two Mercenary albums: The Cult of Sacred Fire and The Formula. This first printing is a quarter-inch taller and wider than later printings and the later volumes.

Vicente Segrelles (Barcelona, 1940) is a Spanish comic book artist and writer.

Segrelles gained popularity in Europe for his painted comic book epic The Mercenary (El Mercenario), started in 1980. Set in a medieval fantasy world, El Mercenario follows the adventures of a mercenary in his fight against evil. Every panel of his work for this series (13 volumes to date) is painted in oil.

According to Segrelles, The Mercenary is a "professional warrior of the Country of the Clouds, with quite a Quixotic ethical code. He's not a superhero but effective at work. For that reason, the Mercenary tries to have first quality weapons to compensate his inferiority in front of stronger enemies, and acts cunningly when necessary. He's a honest man who follows his own ethical code and is faithful to his promises. We know very little about his life and nothing about his family, to such an extent that we even ignore his real name."