A LEGEND OF BRITISH COMIC BOOKS RETURNS

It's back for a five issue mini-series from Rebellion Publishing.... Battle Action, 2000AD publisher’s relaunch of the title inspired by two classic British weekly comics, Battle Picture Weekly (aka Battle) and Action, returns as a five-issue miniseries, with writer Garth Ennis playing a principal role in its latest incarnation.

Battle Picture Weekly,  still holds an exalted position in my memory - in fact it is probably my favourite comic book ever. But besides that Battle displayed a stunning use of the medium over its run and of course gave us a genuine comic book masterpiece in Charley's War - but more on that seminal strip later.

Battle was launched in answer to rival D C Thompson's  successful war strip title, Warlord and although born out of imitation Battle did better Warlord and is perhaps one of the, if not THE, most important British comic titles ever.

Battle's answer to Warlord's main character, Lord Peter Flint was Mike Nelson codenamed The Eagle - however readers preferred the more gritty strips in Battle and Mike Nelson, although featuring in several series of adventures, was soon dropped. 

Early stars of Battle Picture Weekly were D-Day Dawson, The Bootneck Boy and the truly exceptional Rat Pack which was based very much on the popular movie, The Dirty Dozen.

So well remebered are The Rat Pack that Titan Books have a trade paperback collection  that collects together many of their most popular stories.

which one is Lee Marvin?

"We were looking to movies like Dirty Harry and the spaghetti westerns for inspiration," writer Pat Mills said in his introduction to the story in Titan's Best of Battle. "And with Rat Pack we got it from the movie, The Dirty Dozen. It's an archetype that will never go away."


Another early strip that was hugely popular was D D Dawson - it told of Sgt. Steve Dawson who took a bullet during the D-Day landings but survived. However the bullet moved closer to his heart with every adventure and he knows that it will inevitably kill him. And so he vows to fight on until his own personal D-Day finally arrives. And arrive it did in the issue dated 22 Jan 1977 when the character finally went down. The next two scans depict D Day Dawson's last adventure - click on the images for a bigger readable version.

                                                                                       The comic merged other titles into it during its long run and the details are:

• Battle Picture Weekly (8 March 1975 - 16 October 1976)
• Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant (23 October 1976 - 12 November 1977)
• Battle Action (19 November 1977 - 20 February 1982)
• Battle (27 February 1982 - 1 October 1983)
• Battle Action Force (8 October 1983 - 29 November 1986)
• Battle (6 December 1986 - 17 January 1987)
• Battle Storm Force (24 January 1987 - 23 January 1988)

When the Battle itself began to fail it was merged into the new relaunched Eagle but by then the glory days of British boy's comics was long over.

The world of Battle was a non-PC world where the Americans were Yanks, the Japanese were Japs, the Germans were Nazis and the British were Limeys, but it wasn't always as clear cut and one strip in particular, Charley's War  created by Pat Mills with almost photographic artwork from Joe Colquhoun, was an anti-war strip in a boys war comic and today stands as a true masterpiece of British comics. Titan have published several deluxe hardback volumes collecting the stories with still more to come.

True depth in the comic book medium

TITAN'S CHARLEY'S WAR COLLECTION

It's a bleak and terrible story, but despite the overwhelming cynicism and negativity that surrounds the trenches, there's just a grain of faith in the human spirit. Not enough to ever make this remarkably sad tale ever attractive to Hollywood, but there's something genuinely moving in Charley's letters to his parents and the real friendships forged among the men in the front line. Like most of the great comics Pat Mills created during his most vibrant period of, say, 1976-89, the power of humanity is greater than the power of the "authority" which commands it to do terrible things in the name of royalty, nation or planet.


                           Battle truly was an exceptional comic book and it's great that the legacy is still remembered and felt even today. It may have started off as a typical gung ho style comic book but the skill of the creators soon led it into avenues previously unexplored in the comic book medium. It was incredible reading for a young kid to be presented with war in a realistic fashion in strips such as Charley's War and Johnny Red. to be presented with the unglamorous truth and to discover that bullets really did hurt and that the glory of fighting for one's country soon becomes secondary to surviving when the reality of war is felt.

Oh you are awful but I do like you!

             On a lighter note Battle had the popular Airfix Modellers Club page which was presented by British comedian, Dick Emery. And the letter's page was supposedly edited by Captain Hurricane that hangover from the days of Valient Comic.

To fully cover the importance of Battle would take more than one, two or even several blog articles - indeed a full scale book would be called for, but the article here is merely a taster of a time when British Comics really were a formidable creative force.

Now bring on the new version

Major Easy: Heart of Stone (Titan Books hardcover collection of strips from Battle Picture Weekly)

Titan Books are doing the classic strips from Battle Picture Weekly proud with their handsome hardcover editions of collected strips. Heart of Stone bundles together the first run of strips featuring Major Easy, a character created by writer Alan Hebden and artist, Carlos Ezquerra. The character became a popular addition to Battle and was soon a reader favorite - So populart,and so fondly remembered in fact, that the character has been updated and reinvented for modern day 2000AD as Cursed Earth Koburn.

Back when I was a kid Easy was one of my favorite characters but reading these strips as an adult I realize that the strip doesn't contain as much nuance as say Charley's War or H.M.S. Knightshade both of which can be put up against the very best war novels,  but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. The Easy strips were standalone tales with only the slimmest of continuity between strips, and Easy is in reality a cartoon character - he is able to survive any attack and his bullets never miss their target. and the enemies he faces are cartoon versions of the stereotypes that served British war comics well for a great many years. The Germans are all vile Nazis, the Italians are cowards and the Americans are loud mouth and foolish, but none of that matters since it always comes down to Major Easy, the hard-arsed Brit who can defeat any enemy and always find time for forty winks amongst the chaos and carnage of total war.

Production wise the book is every bit as good as Titan's Charley's War collection. The strips are printed on high quality paper and bound between rigid boards. The books are a must for any serious collector of British comics as well as those wanting a trip down memory lane.

Garth Ennis presents Battle Classics

Physically Titan Books have thrown everything into producing a highly quality deluxe hardback book that will take pride of place on the shelves of anyone interested in not only 1970's UK comic culture but anyone who likes intelligently told war stories. When I first heard this book was coming out I'd assumed it would be another anthology like the recent Best of Battle and collect together several episodes from the best known Battle strips but this is not the case. It is an anthology but it collects together the complete runs of both HMS Nightshade and The General Dies at Dawn as well as a several one off stories.For that latter think Tharg's Future Shocks from 2000AD but in a war setting.

 This is a far better idea than the 2009 Best of Battle collection (which I felt was a missed opportunity) since by collecting together the complete runs of each story the book really does these classic tales justice.

There's an introduction by comic books superstar Garth Ennis and this is not the standard couple of hundred words liberally sprinkled with a few 'Greats' a lot of 'Cors' and several 'Wows', but a full scale in depth essay that looks at what the original writers and artists achieved with the story.

And Battle often achieved great things - personally I think that Battle is the best British comic of all time and

easily eclipses 2000AD, which came from the same publishing house and shared many creators, but war stories fell out of vogue while Sci-Fi continues to prosper. Hence 2000AD is still here while sadly Battle is not. To my mind Battle was better at telling stories and in their very best stories such as Charley's War, Hellman, HMS Nightshade, Johnny Red or even Major Easy the strips had characters that defied the conventional comic book stereotypes and were presented as very real people with very real concerns. 2000AD has been very much influenced by Battle and over the years has tried to retell Battle stories in a SF setting but I don't think they've ever been truly successful at this. Battle at its best seemed real...very real indeed.

HMS Nightshade then, the lead story in this collection, originally ran in Battle for about a year and told the story of the HMS Nightshade, a Corvette class (a small easily maneuverable warship) warship which is assigned to protect the convoys taking supplies across the U Boat infested seas.

The modern corvette appeared during World War II as an easily built patrol and convoy escort vessel. The British naval designer William Reed drew up a small ship based on the single-shaft Smiths Dock Company whale catcher Southern Pride, whose simple design and mercantile construction standards lent itself to rapid production in large numbers in small yards unused to naval work. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, later Prime Minister, had a hand in reviving the name "corvette". Wiki

The story uses a device similar to that used in Charley's War but where that classic World War 1 story was narrated largely by letters home from serving soldier Charley Bourne, Nightshade is told by aging George Dunn who is telling his grandson all about his adventures in the second world war as a member of the Nightshade's crew.

There are some stunning secondary characters and all are capable of surprising us. Take for instance the character of Parsons - at first this bullish man who delights in making the lives of weaker crew members a misery seems to be the stereotypical school bully placed in a war situation, but he grows over the space of several issues and even dies a deeply touching and incredibly heroic death. This unexpected act of Parsons throws the reader a curve ball and is as powerful as anything ever seen in the best war movies. In fact I'm going to use a 1970's comic bookism here - WOW!

Other characters were equally well flushed out and by the time the reader reaches the last story he is left exhausted though all the better for it. This story really is a fitting tribute to the brave men who served on ships like the Nightshade.

The General Dies at Dawn in another classic story and unusual in that the protagonist is a German character. Battle did several stories from the German point of view, most notable Hellman but The General Dies at Dawn is easily the best. It originally ran for eleven issues, the complete run is collected here, and also uses the device of one character relating the story.

 This time the narrator is Otto Von Margen who has been condemmned to death for cowardice and treason. He is the holder of the Knight's Cross and as he relates his story to his jailer we learn how this great man has fallen so  low. Again Garth Ennis precedes the story with a detailed essay and here's another comic bookism - COR!


This book then is a must have for anyone who enjoys stortelling in a graphic medium, and comic book fans brought up on Superman, Batman and others could give this book a try and discover that there is far more to comic books than brightly coloured lycra and unusual muscle development.

BATTLE 1ST NOV 1975

The cover date 1st Nov 1975 - that would have made me nine years of age when I first read this issue - I never missed a copy of this from the first, which gave away free badges, right upto the mid Eighties when it became little more than a rag for selling toy soldiers.

An exciting cover featuring wartime secret agent Mike Nelson, code name Eagle. The character was Battle's answer to Warlord's, Lord Peter Flint and this issue starts a new story, Return of the Eagle.

The first strip inside is D-Day Dawson - Steve Dawson, a man who took a bullet on D-Day, a bullet that moves closer to his heart each day and will eventually kill him. This episode sees Dawson and his crew advancing through an occupied town.

That's followed by King of the Yanks - which tells of Flight Lieutenant Jeff King of the RAF who is serving with an American Squadron. As always the brit comes through in this story and saves his American friends. How very British, old boy!

Then following that is the aforementioned Return of the Eagle and after that, Bootneck Boy - which is a further adventure with Royal Marine, Danny Boyle.

The colour middle pages belong to The Dirty Dozen a-like, Rat Pack. This story is great gung ho fun and told in a language that would have the politically correct lot up in arms.

This is followed by two pages of ads - a couple of stamp clubs and a Look and Learn book of the prehistoric world which was on sale at the time. Promising facts from 50 million years ago and all for £15p.

They Can't stop Bullet follows and I remember not really liking this story because the hero had a moustache - For some reason I had a thing against moustaches when I was a kid.

The issue wraps up with Sergeant Without Stripes and the back cover features a breakdown of a Sherman tank.

These comics were great and there's nothing like these out there for the kids of today - true lines like, "Die you yellow skinned nip!" or 'Eat lead Jerry beasts!" may be frowned upon by todays keepers of our morals but - they were sure FUN.