Justin Marriott is unstoppable. In his opening remarks, he says that Battling Britons has "reached enough of an audience for it to be here for the foreseeable future," and promises a third issue in May ("aerial combat") and a fourth in September (a "future war"special). And here's me still thinking about how to get BAM! off the ground for its first issue!
If you were one the "enough" of an audience for the first issue, you will know the drill. The magazine is a mix of columns, reviews, and adds a couple of interviews to the mix. With a line-up of nine writers/reviewers, there's a clamor of different voices, which makes the reviews and features, even on similar subjects, individual as well as entertaining, such as Paul Trimble's look at Battle stories set in Burma and Justin's reviews of pocketbooks set in the same theatre of war.
Best of the bunch, in no particular order: an interview with collector John Hampton-Guest about his love of Commando; Jim O'Brien interviews Ron Tiner about working for Battle; James Bacon on European and US war comics — I'll happily read about the likes of George Evans and George Pratt all day; Bacon also writes about 'V For Vengeance', the old Wizard series so utterly dark it could still haunt your nightmares; an interview with Keith Richardson and Oliver Pickes about the Treasury of British Comics programme in which possible reprints of Rick Random, Robot Archie and Maroc the Mighty are mentioned; Gary Dodds praises Charley's War; and Jim O'Brien (again) looks back at Marvel UK's Fury and Forces in Combat. Finally, in the looking forward rather than looking back department, Garth Ennis talks about the upcoming Battle Action Special.
With 138 packed pages (44 more than last issue), this will keep you busy for some time.
Battling Britons, ed. Justin Marriott.
Justin Marriott ISBN
979-878210086-5, 138pp, £6.50. Available via Amazon.
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