Old comics are a joy and I when I found this 33 year old beauty in a second hand shop this week my eyes nearly popped out. As you can see from the picture it's in wonderful condition . Rare for British comics of this age-they were never made with the best quality paper and were about as durable as the average daily newspaper. Usually they would be swapped around the school playground several times and then fall apart.
Ahh, this takes me back to a time when the world was black and white, when Roger Moore was James Bond, Tom Baker was Doctor Who, the music charts were still groovy, trousers had flairs, hair was long and I didn't have so many wrinkles.
The first story is D- Day Dawson which I remember was a fave of mine as a ten year old boy. From what I remember of the character he was shot in the D-Day landings but survived - however a bullet
was lodged too close to his heart to be removed and will eventually kill him. He reasons, in best boy's own style, that when he goes it will be fighting the Hun. In the days of this comic the writers and artists were never credited. So I don't know who wrote and drew these classics. Hopefully someone out there will know.The following story is Lofty's one man Luftwaffe which I don't really remember in much detail but it is about a British pilot who has infiltrated the Luftwaffe
That's followed by a page of Ads - one for Hales models in which a rather handsome King Tiger Tank is featured, another for stamp collectors and a full colour page telling another Amazing War story - this issue it's Barnes Willis, inventor of the bouncing bomb used by the dam busters.
Then we had Day of the Eagle which was Battle's answer to rival comic Warlord's Lord Peter Flint but the character was never as popular as the publishers hoped. Indeed it was the flagship story upon the original launch but I think it only lasted two series.
The Panzer Poachers follows which is a true war story in pictures - this issue featuring the 9th Lancers.
The inside double colour pages features The Rat Pack which was a wonderful story featuring a platoon of convict soldiers. Obviously influenced by the movie,The Dirty Dozen it would become a much loved and long running strip.
This is followed by The Flight of the Golden Hinde which tells the improbably story of a Royal Navy replica of the Golden Hinde trying to negotiate war time waters and get back to good old blighty.
This is followed by The Bootneck Boy which was a popular strip about Danny Budd and his war time adventures. The final story is Terror Behind the Bamboo Curtain which tells of a Jap prisoner of war camp.
The back cover is taken up by a Trebor Advertisement sponsored by TV's Top of the Pops with a competition to 10 DJ Disco sets and 2000 Best of Top of the Pops LP's. Apparently the first 40,000 entrants gets a free metal ALL STAR ring with twelve football and pop star pictures. WOW!
I'm not sure if I entered but I certainly didn't win. Click on the image and it will go full size and allow you to have a go at the comp. Mind you the closing date's gone but it's fun all the same. I can get all the answers. Can you?
As I close this post it occurs to me how absurd it is. A review of a boy's comic thirty odd years after the fact. But then the text and pictures may be off interest to someone. Maybe reading this post will take someone on a journey down memory lane so I guess it isn't so absurd after all.
Back in the day when comics were considered disposable no one who worked on this issue could have foreseen people writing about their work in decades to come. That would have seemed like science fiction. Shit when this comic came out VCR's, DVD's, The Internet, Mobile Phones, bottled water and a million other everyday things were all things of science fiction.
9 comments:
wow...that is a very cool find. I used to collect comic books a long long time ago. I remember buying them used for ten cents a piece. Do kids still read comic books anymore?
merelyme - think it's only the adults that read them now. LOL
Gary, you must have a fantastic second hand shop! Some of your finds like this are pretty cool. I'll look for this one... Did you get a chance to pick-up The Mammoth Book of (I believe) Horror you mentioned?
David - had to order it. When I went Borders had sold their one copy. It'll be in Wednesday. And for second hand shops I visit several a week.
My wife and I always hit a couple bookstores over the weekends. The last time I lucked out with first editions of Leslie Charteris and Alistair MacLean... I'm looking forward to your take on the Mammoth Book.
I never find decent stuff like this in second hand shops. The odd IPC annual perhaps, and once a 1908 Chatterbox annual! I have to use ebay to buy actual old comics!
I read "Battle" comic every week from the very first issue. I didn't continue with it to the very end though as more and more comics were merged with it and some of their stories printed within it lost its magic for me.
For those of you looking for copies they can often be found on ebay UK.
Here's a great link to the comic:
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/ComicInformationPages/BattlePages/BattleHomePage2.asp
And for those who were fans of Johnny Red (my favourite) the complete series can be found here:
http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/intro.htm
This is worth checking out too:
http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/battle.html
Steve - I too gave up eventually. When they started bringing in the Action Force characters the comic lost its edge. I think at that time all the creative talent were over at 2000AD and had forsaken Battle. Pity - I think it was better than 2000AD for much of its run.
Gary, I responded over at Western Pulps board, but wanted to say you should feel good about 2 things, getting Cuban cigars and finding old comics at second hand shops. We in the states only get Hondurans maybe with Cuban seed cigars. As for, comics there hard to turn up, especially old ones like I and you like. However, I did get over 100 Western Story Pulps this year at a Flea Market, great find and good reading. Max Brand, Frank Richardson Pierce, and many others all from the 20's! Also, read a Gladwell Richardson Novel (an Englishman living in Arizona)called Spurs from West Pulp Nov 1945. Excellent writer, have another West with his The Three Mavericks in it going to read soon. Look him up, very prolific, must have had some paperback reprints of his work. Jonathan across the pond.
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