Launching in August, the new ten-issue series will bring readers death-defying heroics and incredible action, delivered by a crack team of top comics creators, including a brand new revival of the controversial series ‘Kids Rule OK’ from Brian K Vaughan (Saga) and Chris Burnham (Batman), and the final story of WWII aerial ace ‘Johnny Red’ by Garth Ennis (The Boys) and Keith Burns (Out of the Blue)!
Combining stories and characters from 1970s classic comics Battle and Action, Ennis said Battle Action will deliver all the thrills that earned the original comics their hard-bitten, action-packed reputations…
“This time we’ve got more stories,” he said, “more brilliant writers and artists – some from last time, some new – and more of an emphasis on Action, with half the ten stories featuring its characters.”
Ennis and Burns will be joined on Battle Action by an all-star lineup of creators including John Wagner (Judge Dredd), Torunn Grønbekk (Thor), Dan Abnett (Warhammer), Rob Williams (Suicide Squad), John Higgins (Watchmen), Henry Flint (Judge Dredd), John McCrea (Hitman), Steve White (Rogue Trooper) and Tom Foster (Judge Dredd).
‘Kids Rule OK’ was the controversial and violent story that led to an issue of Action being pulled from shelves in 1976, now Vaughan and Burnham revisit this landmark series with a story set in a hostile future London where a young American boy runs for his life from a mob of xenophobic British Punks – but he has a secret weapon they aren’t expecting…
“Getting Brian on ‘Kids Rule OK’ is a particular coup,” says Ennis. “I personally think he’s the best writer to get into the business in the last thirty years, and his love of British comics gives this a nice sense of things coming full circle. I secured his involvement at great personal cost, namely a cheeseburger. I think it may have cost Rebellion a bit more.”
One of the most beloved characters in British comics history, Johnny Red is a fighter pilot in World War II who fights for peace and liberation. But this new story will cover a moment in his history which has never been seen before: the final days of World War II. Ennis reveals: “‘A Couple Of Heroes’ sees Johnny and the Falcons battling the retreating Germans at the beginning of 1945. The war has a way to go yet, but for Johnny it can’t end too soon – his friends are nearly all dead, the woman he loves is missing in action, he’s not far off approaching burnout. But a figure from the very beginnings of the strip reappears with an offer of work, one that sees our hero flung back into the maelstrom on the deadliest mission of his life…”
Alongside Johnny and returning heroes ‘Nina Petrova’, ‘Major Eazy’, ‘HMS Nightshade’, ‘Dredger’ and ‘Hellman of Hammer Force’, the series will expand to welcome in new takes on several other classic comics characters and stories – including killer shark ‘Hookjaw’, former-enslaved-man-turned-outlaw ‘El Mestizo’, and violent future sports series ‘Death Game’ – making Battle Action the most furiously action-packed comic on the stands!
The ten-issue series in magazine format kicks off in August with Battle Action #1, which will be available through all good comic book stores through Diamond Distribution.
You can also pre-order the series through the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webstores – including an incredible bundle deal, with each issue delivered straight to your door every month!
And now, this week's releases...
2000AD Prog 2384
Cover: Nick Percival.
JUDGE DREDD // IRON TEETH by Ken Niemand (w) Nick Percival (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THARG'S 3RILLERS // BLUE SKIES OVER DEADWICK by David Baillie (w) Nick Brokenshire (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
INTESTINAUTS // BUSTED FLUSH by Arthur Wyatt (w) Pye Parr (a & l)
BRINK // CONSUMED by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
PROTEUS VEX // DEVIOUS by Mike Carroll (w) Jake Lynch (a) Jim Boswell (c) Simon Bowland (l)
War Picture Library: The Iron Fist by V.A.L. Holding, W. Howard Baker & A. Carney Allan (w) Hugo Pratt (a)
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786200-9, 29 May 2024, 208pp, £19.99. Available via Amazon.
The title story of this collection, The Iron Fist, focuses on the lives of the crew manning the Goliath and the battles they fight, ranging from El Alamein to the D-Day landings - the tank crew rely on each other to get through the hellish situations. Also included in this collection are The Big Arena featuring Australian soldiers fighting in Egypt, and Strongpoint featuring sappers in Italy - each of the three stories in this compilation is stunningly drawn by the Italian comics maestro Hugo Pratt just a few years before he created Corto Maltese.
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