Rebellion Releases - 11 November 2020

Sharper than Bond, cooler than The Saint – the indefatigable British spy John Steel is back!
    Rebellion is calling this classic character from the golden age of spy fiction back into action for a comic book special in November 2020. The John Steel Files collects two Steel stories featuring stunning art from legendary artist Luis Bermejo (Creepy, Vampirella)!
   Re-presented for a modern audience, these never-before-reprinted comics have been coloured by breakout colourist Pippa Bowland (2000 AD) and will feature a brand new cover by V. V. Glass (The Last Witch).
    Originally a secret service agent during World War II, Steel first appeared in Super Detective Picture Library #157 in September 1959 and became a regular in the pages of the publisher Fleetway’s popular Thriller Picture Library from November 1960, a line of 64-page digest-sized black and white comic books that ran serialized stories, usually consisting of two comic panels per page.
    Steel’s exploits helped make Thriller Picture Library one of the best-selling titles on the newsstand and it featured a variety of war, spy, and detective heroes such as ‘Battler Britton’, ‘Spy 13’, and ‘Dogfight Dixon’.
    Bermejo took over the series in 1960 and may have influenced the decision in early 1961 to transplant Steel from World War Two into the Jazz Age. Gone were his spying exploits in favour of life as a private detective.
    Influenced by the contemporary sophistication of the early James Bond novels, Steel found himself in a world of jazz cafes and shady deals. This switch was reflected in the title of Steel’s stories too – this collection will feature the classics ‘Play it Cool’ and ‘Bullets in the Sun’.    
    Luis Bermejo Royo’s diverse career spanned Spanish, British, and American comic book industries and his style is instantly recognisable on series such as Adventures of the FBI, Apache, Tarzan, John Steel, Johnny Future, Vampirella, Captain Thunder, and his adaptations of Lord of the Rings and books by Isaac Asimov and Raymond Chandler. He passed away on 12 December 2015.

2000 AD Prog 2207
Cover: Cliff Robinson / Dylan Teague (col).

Judge Dredd: Simply Normal by Kenneth Niemand (w) Steven Austin (a) Chris Blyth (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Stickleback: New Jerusalem by Ian Edginton (w) D’Israeli (a) Jim Campbell (l)
Skip Tracer: Hyperballad by James Peaty (w) Paul Marshall (a) Dylan Teague (c) Simon Bowland (l)
Fiends of the Eastern Front: Constanta by Ian Edginton (w) Tiernen Trevallion (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Hook-Jaw by Alec Worley (a) Leigh Gallagher (a) Simon Bowland (l)

The John Steel Files by Luis Bermejo
Rebellion ISBN XX, 11 November 2020, £6.99 / $15.99. Cover by V.V. Glass.

Two classic secret agent stories from the golden age of spy fiction! John Steel is a secret service agent during World War II, but by the Sixties he works as a private detective and haunts jazz cafes. Inevitably he is drawn back into the international world of espionage as he hunts down fugitive Nazi war criminals. Re-presented for a modern audience these never-before-reprinted comics are stunningly drawn by Luis Bermejo with contemporary coloring by Pippa Bowland and a new cover by V. V. Glass.

Faceache Vol.1 by Ken Reid
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781088650-4, 12 November 2020, 118pp, £10.99. Available via Amazon.

Now in paperback - the sold out first volume of the hilarious face-changing adventures by one of the greats of British comics! Ken Reid is consistently name-checked by the greats of comics - from Alan Moore to Kevin O'Neill, John Wagner to Pat Mills - for his unique art that is matched only by his enduring sense of humor. 'Faceache' is the humorous adventures of Ricky Rubberneck, the boy with a "bendable bonce" whose skin stretches like rubber. At will, he could scrunge his face into anything, whether it's mimicking others or turning into grotesque creatures, but always coming a cropper! This is the first collection of this long lost classic from the hugely popular and long-running Buster comic.