Battling Britons v2 no3 (June 2022)

Battling Britons reaches its third issue and is still finding new ways to study the history and content of British war comics. This issue looks at the war in the air as it played out in the pages of the likes of Battle Picture Weekly, Warlord, and the Air Ace and other picture libraries, although it is not solely Spits and Fokkers for the magazine's 100+ pages.

To pick a few favourites out of the twenty or so vari-length features we have Paul Trimble's 'Battle in the Sky' which literally translates his look at air war strips in Battle Picture Weekly into a title; Paul is also the subject of an interview looking at his comic collecting and favourite strips.

James Bacon looks back over the aerial combat comics of Garth Ennis, which makes this an interesting companion piece to the Battle Action special that has just appeared, where Ennis revives Johnny Red and his companion, Nina Petrova. Justin Marriott (editor of BB) also takes a look back, but this time at the artwork contributed by Solano Lopez to the Air Ace Picture Library. Jim O'Brien interviews Commando artist Janek Matysiak, who has switched from traditional art to digital; and Steve Myall looks at aircraft carriers and how they have been depicted.

There is plenty more. I learned, for instance, of a Patreon project to support The Will Production, who produce Ukrainian comics for all tastes, from fantasy to anthropomorphic hamsters. I was also amazed at how many comics Justin had discovered that involved characters ingesting large amounts of drugs.

Battling Britons v2 no3
Justin Marriott ISBN 978-842096775-1, June 2022, £5.50. Available via Amazon.