Commando 5723-5726

Commando's latest issues are on sale from today, Thursday 15th February, 2024, with new contributors joining the Commando ranks – including Commando’s first female artist!

5723: Tomasz and the Top-Secret Engine

Tomasz Zielinski had escaped Poland and the German Blitzkrieg in 1939 by hopping aboard a Polish armoured train headed for safety. That was then, and now, in 1940, he was itching for action, but he and his division were in reserve in the west of France away from the fighting. That was until he was approached by a familiar face with a top-secret mission to head straight into danger to steal an engine right from under the Nazis’ noses! Tomasz was about to ride that train once again!
    Colin Maxwell’s intrepid Polish protagonist returns in another train-filled tale of derring-do! With outstanding artwork on both interiors and cover by Manuel Benet, you’d better get your copy before this train leaves the station!

Story | Colin Maxwell
Art | Manuel Benet
Cover | Manuel Benet

5724: Operation Caveman

Like almost everybody else, Corporal Barney Newman didn’t know whether a stalactite grew up or if a stalagmite hung down. And to him, it didn’t seem very important... until he found himself dodging about in an underground cavern with only stalactites and stalagmites between him and hot Nazi lead.
    But what was Barney, a tank driver, doing in this grotto? It was all part of Operation Caveman!
    Classic Commando from 1970 incoming! In Allan’s thrilling story, a tank crew take shelter from a storm in a cave only to find the Nazis rolling in behind them. Can they keep hidden before they’re found, or will the cave be their grave?! Find out in Issue 5724!

Story | Allan
Art | LS Lucas
Cover | Penalva
First Published 1970 as Issue 517

5725: Madame Revenger!

The Nazis kicked the hornets’ nest the day they rolled into Collette Sauvage’s farm in France. Then they had really gone and done it when they strong-armed her off of her land, using her barn to store their ill-gotten goods. But with a little help from a downed RAF Airman, the Germans would rue the day they messed with the woman known as Madame Revenger!
     Commando 5725 is an issue of firsts – with two brand-new artists making their debuts! Commando is delighted to welcome Alberto Navajo on interior artwork and 2000 AD’s Anna Morozova on cover duty. What’s more, Morozova joining the ranks makes her Commando’s first-ever female cover artist!

Story | Heath Ackley
Art | Alberto Navajo
Cover | Anna Morozova

5726: Desert of No Return

Off they went on another mission, heading steadily into the burning wilderness of the North African desert. They had made many trips like this... but today was different because this time they had a spy in their midst, reporting their every move to the enemy.
    Hardly any of these brave men were going to come back again.
    A classic Commando from the 1980s returns to bring you action and excitement! Bernard Gregg’s intricately woven yarn is brought to life by excellent artwork from Carmona and a burning-hot cover by Ian Kennedy!

Story | Bernard Gregg
Art | Carmona
Cover | Ian Kennedy
First Published 1981 as Issue 1561

Rebellion Releases - 14 February 2024

Reprinting the immediately sold-out Judge Dredd by Brian Bolland Apex Edition this Masterpiece Edition is expanded and reformated for a wider audience!

Acclaimed as one of the greatest artists of his generation for his work on such titles as Camelot 3000 and Batman: The Killing Joke, Brian Bolland’s work on Judge Dredd helped catapult both the series and Bolland himself to international acclaim.

This book will include high resolution scans of original art pages from Judge Dredd epics such as ‘The Cursed Earth’, ‘The Day the Law Died’ and ‘The Judge Child Quest’, as well as Bolland’s masterpiece, ‘Judge Death Lives’. Also included is a gallery of covers ranging from 2000 AD to the 1980s Judge Dredd reprints published by Eagle Comics, which brought Bolland to the attention of American readers and show off his inventiveness and sardonic humour.

This new paperback collection, measuring 307 × 231 mm, follows 2022’s sold out Judge Dredd by Brian Bolland Apex Edition and reformats the stunning oversized collection into an affordable and shelf-friendly paperback edition.

This new Masterpiece edition features the same original art pages as The 2000 AD Art of Brian Bolland Apex Edition, plus the following extra pages: Starlord Annual cover; Prog 77 page 1; Prog 86 Page 6; Prog 96 page 2; Prog 120 page 3; Prog 225 cover; Prog 225 Page 3; Cursed Earth Book One Illustration; Judge Child Quest (Eagle Comics reprint) issue 2 cover; Revolver Romance Special cover; Prog 2000 Tharg page; Prog 2270 cover.

Available to pre-order now. Due to be released 18 June 2024.

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2369
Cover: Luke Horsman

JUDGE DREDD // A BETTER WORLD by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THE ENGLISH ASTRONAUT by Paul Cornell (w) Laura Helsby (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)
FULL TILT BOOGIE // BOOK TWO by Alex de Campi (w) Eduardo Ocana (a) Eva De La Cruz (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ENEMY EARTH // BOOK THREE by Cavan Scott (w) Luke Horsman (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THISTLEBONE // THE DULE TREE by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a) Simon Bowland (l)

The Best of 2000AD Volume 5
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786092-0, 13 February 2024, 192pp, £14.99. Available via Amazon.

In this volume: Judge Dredd raises only the law when Mega City One's super-rich consider themselves above it all in Elevator Pitch; crash-land on a Death Planet as Al Ewing (The Immortal Hulk) and Henry Flint (Eerie) introduce the monstrous, weaponized (but dead polite) Zombo; go Swimming in Blood with occult detective Devlin Waugh as he investigates a vampire outbreak in an underwater prison by John Smith (Hellblazer) and Sean Phillips (Reckless, Night Fever); ride out into the Godless wasteland of the Cursed Earth and witness Gordon Rennie (Doctor Who) and Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman) preach faith through firepower in Missionary Man.

Comic Cuts - 9 February 2024

I have been cracking on with the Forgotten Authors book, having now completed the last essay... I hope it's the last essay, anyway. I then spent a day double-checking information in another one and attempting to cut it down. I snipped out about 400 words that I thought were wandering off-topic, and then added about 600 as I checked sources that expanded on some of the story I was trying to tell.

I find it very difficult to keep these essays lean; in truth, they're an indulgence. I write them and publish them with no other editorial hand involved, so I not only throw in the kitchen sink, but a few utensils as well. I don't want any of the research I do to go to waste. It was one of the reasons I started Bear Alley in the first place.

I'm also an obsessive hoarder of odds and ends. I'm trying to sort out some stuff so that I can move my desk and one tiny pile that I moved this morning had three random issues of Fortean Times, some old Christmas cards, flyers for comedy gigs, a book by Ronnie Barker about postcards, some blank sheets of A4, two folders, random issues of film mags Premiere and Empire, some comics, a local newsletter from three years ago, a John Bolton vampire trading card, and more. Much more.

I hope I'm not quite as obsessive as Sid Birchby. He was a long-time science fiction fan and with an interest in Fortean phenomena. The story goes that Birchby's home was destroyed when a bomb made a direct hit on his house iand he spent three days scouring the neighbourhood for the fragments of his Weird Tales collection. An example of the fannish lore about the incident can be found here, where the author notes: "A powerful sense of the fans priorities comes from the fact that the possibility of Birchby’s mother dying in the attack was an aside. (I don’t know if she was killed or not; one source mentions it.)"

The "aside" possibly references J. Michael Rosenblum in Futurian War Digest, who offered the sympathy of all fans both home and abroad to Birchby over the death of his mother when a direct hit was sustained during a day raid. The house was reduced to rubble, and Rosenblum then quotes Birchby as saying...

Imagine my horror! The land’s premier collection of Weird Tales scattered over the entire neighbourhood! A Brundage cover in every back garden! Can you wonder that I was forced to flee the vicinity when my dreadful secret became known? Three days of frantic grubbing under the ruins led to the salvage of about 30% of the collection. Much of it was the worst 30%; stuff by the cheapjacks of s-f; while Lo! and the best Astoundings went to feed the earthworms.

I think Birchby has been hard done by; after all, who knows what else he had written in his letter to Rosenblum. People grieve in different ways and it was mentioned in passing, he may simply have been trying to work through the death of his mother in his own way and he kept his letters to his friends on topic while he was processing his loss.

There was also a question mark about the truth of the story...

A little digging later, I discovered that Sidney Leonard Birchby was born on 4 May 1919, the son of Leonard Birchby and his wife Ethel Emily (nee Goode), who were married a few months earlier (registered in 1Q 1919). Now, sadly, Ethel died in 1922, aged only 24. So it looked like the story was not true.

However, Leonard married again, to Christabel Beatrice Beeston in 1929 and in 1939 the family, including Sidney, who was working at a local chemist's shop, was living at 38 Nightingale Avenue, Waltham Forest. Waltham Forest was peppered with high explosive bombs during and after the Blitz (see here for some statistics). Christabel, a BRCS (British Red Cross Society) nurse, was killed in the bombing raid of 16 December 1940, aged 43.

Writing in Futurian War Digest, Birchby said:

It was only a little one. Just about the smallest H.E. that is made, no doubt. But of its efficacy one could not doubt.
    It arrived at a most inopportune time, at 12 a.m. on a Monday morning before I had completed my ARP for stf. The plan was grand. Everything in one room and in that room, everything into drawers and trunks with the most valued possessions in the safest containers.
    Unfortunately, I had only got as far as having everything in one room, and the bomb had to choose that room to fall in. Result: some valuables survived but much more basically useful stuff perished – instead of lots of relative rubbish that remained intact.

What a sad tale. I don't want to get all maudlin, but I'd hate to see my collection go up in smoke, and I'm of an age where I do need to start thinking about what will become of my library of books. A lot of it is second hand paperbacks of questionable worth; but there's some stuff I have that I think I need to offer to our local university... as long as I can still have access to it!

Something to think about.

In the meantime, I'm reading through the last few of the essays for the book and I'll hopefully see the back of them by next week. Then I can think seriously about Beyond the Void and how best to get some publicity for it. So, something else to think about.

Rebellion Releases - 7 February 2024

Collected in its entirety for the first time since it originally appeared in Wham! sixty years ago, Kelpie the Boy Wizard is an exciting, magical adventure illustrated by British Comics’ legend, John Burns.

In days of old, when King Arthur reigned over Britain, there was at royal Camelot an apprentice sorcerer by the name of Kelpie.

Together with his venerable master, the great and powerful Merlin, Kelpie uses his magic to protect the kingdom from evil doers including The Raven and the Weird Sisters of Doon!

First published sixty years ago by Odhams press in Wham!, the complete saga of Kelpie the Boy Wizard channels Arthurian legend through a Harry Potter filter, written by Ken Mennell and featuring the gorgeous black and white artwork of legendary British artist John Burns.

Stories included: 

• Kelpie the Boy Wizard, originally printed in Wham!, 20th June 1964 – 29th June 1964 – 5th September 1964
• The Beast with Seven Heads, originally printed in Wham!, 12th September 1964 – 20th February 1965
• Kelpie strip, originally printed in Wham! Annual 1966

And now, this week's release...

2000AD Prog 2368
Cover: Simon Davis

JUDGE DREDD // A BETTER WORLD by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THE ENGLISH ASTRONAUT by Paul Cornell (w) Laura Helsby (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)
FULL TILT BOOGIE // BOOK TWO by Alex de Campi (w) Eduardo Ocana (a) Eva De La Cruz (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ENEMY EARTH // BOOK THREE by Cavan Scott (w) Luke Horsman (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THISTLEBONE // THE DULE TREE by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a) Simon Bowland (l)

Comic Cuts - 2 February 2024

February hasn't been a good month so far, and we're only one day in. On Wednesday we noticed a leak under the kitchen sink, so I have spent this morning (I'm writing this Thursday afternoon) trying to fix it. Unfortunately, it isn't a blockage, as I'd hoped (because that means unblocking it makes the problem go away). Rather, the seal has perished, so now, if you pour a bowl of water into the sink, it weighs the (horizontal) plastic pipe down just enough for water to leak from where it joins the other (vertical) plastic pipe. No amount of tightening has resolved the problem.

This means we'll be seeing the useless plumber our landlady uses, who took four attempts in recent months to fit a new bath tap. It's working OK (as of this moment) but still needs a part fitted... and he busted the panel at the side of the bath, which hasn't been addressed. I'm filled with dread about letting him loose on the kitchen sink!

And today saw my proofs arrive with one slight flaw: there was a sticky mess on the back cover of one of them. It looks like somone accidentally stuck some packaging tape on the book and tried to peel it off, but left the sticky bit of the tape behind. But it can't be that because there's some stickiness to the front cover as well. To damage both covers you'd need to be Frank Spencer, wallowing in a big tub of packaging tapes, or maybe having a gun fight using packaging tape dispensers.

It makes the book unsaleable. I can't even send it out to a reviewer, so it will have to be replaced... causing more work... pushing back my schedule... delaying work on other things...

You can understand why I'm frustrated. I'd had quite a fun week up until then I spent two and a half days recording something for release in the coming weeks (it's part of a little promotion package I'm trying to put together for when Beyond the Void comes out). I had to work around the roadworks outside. The gas pipe fitters have returned after disappearing last year before they reached us. It had something to do with shutting down the junction and needing traffic lights and I'm still not sure whether we'll be getting new gas pipes this time around or whether we'll have to wait for a third visit from the same company just to do the last two or three houses along our road.

I'm also looking forward to this (Thursday) evening as we're going out to a book launch for the new James Henry novel, The Winter Visitor, a spin-off from the Nick Lowry series set in and around Colchester. This one is set in February 1991, a year or so before I moved to Colchester to make editing Comic World easier.

I'm rattling through a bunch of novels so that I can write up the author for my next Forgotten Authors collection. So far I've read four of five that I intend to read in full; I'll skip-read a couple of others that I read forty-or-so years ago in an effort to speed things up. I'm amazed at how much I read in January, I finished one book that I was reading for pleasure (rather than work) and started another, which I'm a third of the way through already. My for pleasure reading has been very limited in recent years, sometimes as few as four or five books a year.

Not like my younger days when I could race through a book in half a day, leaving time to read another. Dhalgren (an unheard of 879 pages) took three days, and that was only because we were child-minding during the summer holidays. Nowadays, I'm actually put off by the length of some novels, because 500-600 pages means a committment of many months, and I doubt I'd get twice the pleasure compared to reading a 300 pager. No, I'm happy to read two shorter books and leave the likes of Peter F. Hamilton and Neal Stephenson -- two authors whose early novels I very much enjoyed -- for my retirement.

Commando 5719-5722

Globetrotting action and adventure in Commando Issues 5719-5722 — on sale from today, Thursday 1st February, 2024!

5719: The Spy of Sweslik Castle

In the Bavarian mountains perched Sweslik castle. In times past, the castle had been a monastery, but in 1943 it was an impregnable fortress which housed Allied prisoners of war. Its German guards claimed that any and all escape was impossible, and they were determined to keep it that way. For there was a spy among the POWs imprisoned at Sweslik Castle… and no-one would escape until he was exposed!
    Newbie writer Rossa McPhillips returns in his third Commando issue which harks back to Escape Colditz and The Great Escape! With gritty interiors from Vicente Alcazar and an outstanding cover by brand-new Commando artist Marco Bianchini! Get your hands on this issue before it escapes!

Story | Rossa McPhillips
Art | Vicente Alcazar
Cover | Marco Bianchini

5720: Arctic Ace

The Fairey Swordfish wasn’t much to look at. Not many men would have chosen to risk their lives in these slow, obsolete kites that looked as if a sparrow could knock them out of the sky. But the Swordfish could carry a torpedo — evil, menacing, packed with high-explosive. And with an ace like Sub Lieutenant Duncan Payne at the controls, the Swordfish could even become a match for a mighty German cruiser...
   Issue 5720 ‘Arctic Ace’ is everything you’d want in a classic Commando: an eye-catching Ian Kennedy cover, a snappy story from RA Montague and outstanding Jose Maria Jorge interiors!

Story | RA Montague
Art | Jose Maria Jorge
Cover | Ian Kennedy
First Published 1970 as Issue 510

5721: Roll Depth Charges!

The HMAS Hibiscus had to be the worst Bathurst-class Corvette in the whole Royal Australian Navy. Its crew was slow and lacked discipline, and its officers weren’t much better. But they were in for a shock, for Commander Bill Turner had been sent in to straighten them out — and he didn’t care how many backs he had to break to do it!
    Resident Aussie writer Brent Towns is back again with another Royal Australian Navy yarn! This time the boys from down under are depicted by Alejandro Perez Mesa in his debut on Commando interior artwork! With a bright and bubbly cover by Neil Roberts!

Story | Brent Towns
Art | Alejandro Perez Mesa
Cover | Neil Roberts

5722: Behind Enemy Lines

How do invasions begin? Most people reckon they begin with a naval bombardment, massive air raids and soldiers wading ashore onto shell-torn beaches.
    But the truth is that before these things happen there are certain people — heroes — risking their lives behind enemy lines, secretly paving the way for the armies that will follow them...
    Issue 5722 is a rip-roaring yarn from 1981, featuring more action than you can fill your pockets with –—for there’s a spy among the ranks of the British and they have to find out who before he destroys this vital mission!

Story | Staff
Art | Ruiz
Cover | KCG Walker
First Published 1981 as Issue 1552

Rebellion Releases - 31 January 2024

Duncan Jones wraps principal photography on Rogue Trooper movie.

Duncan Jones’ (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft, Mute) eagerly anticipated movie adaptation of classic British comic Rogue Trooper has wrapped principal photography in the UK. Written and directed by Jones, Rogue Trooper  is an animated science fiction feature from Rebellion and Liberty Films.

Shot at Rebellion Film Studios in Oxfordshire, breakout talent Aneurin Barnard (The Goldfinch, Dunkirk) stars as the eponymous Rogue Trooper, alongside Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk), Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters, Good Luck To You Leo Grande), and Reece Shearsmith (Inside No. 9, Saltburn). Rounding out the cast is an incredible ensemble, which includes Jemaine Clement (Avatar 2: The Way of Water), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth), Alice Lowe (Black Mirror), Asa Butterfield (Sex Education, Hugo) and Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings).

Rogue Trooper tells the story of 19, a ‘Genetic Infantryman’, who finds himself the sole-survivor of an invasion force. Desperate to track down the traitor who sold him and his comrades out, the super soldier is accompanied by three killed-in-action squad mates, whose personalities have been stored in his gun, helmet and rucksack.

Filmmaker Duncan Jones said: “2000 AD offers a very different flavour of comic action: Political and brutal at times, but always with a Pythonesque twinkle in the eye. Dredd (2012) was a taste of what 2000 AD has to offer and now we get to show the world another side of the beast. It is a genuine privilege to be given the opportunity to make Rogue Trooper.”

Treehouse Digital (The Well) is creating all imagery and animation for the film, working with Jones to bring to life the world of Rogue Trooper from concept art to final pixel in Unreal Engine 5.

Producer Stuart Fenegan commented: “The advancements in Unreal Engine 5 and the inclusion of MetaHuman rigs mean that it is now possible to achieve a very high standard of animation within an indie budget. Working with our amazing partners at Rebellion, Epic and Treehouse Digital we are pioneering and developing a new creative pipeline that will enable independent production of CG animated films.”

Unreal Engine from Epic is a development platform that enables creators across numerous industries to realise real-time 3D content and experiences.

Rebellion CEO, Jason Kingsley CBE, who is a Producer on Rogue Trooper, added: “We are thrilled to be working with Duncan Jones, who is a fellow British creative visionary and 2000 AD fan with global reach. Rogue Trooper highlights Rebellion’s leading position within the entertainment industries. It has been filmed at our dedicated Oxfordshire film studios and combines beautiful storytelling from our iconic 2000 AD comic book universe with animation and production technology from the video game industry. We cannot wait for everyone to see these incredible stories bought to life on screen.”

The Rogue Trooper comic was created by legendary artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman) and writer Gerry Finley-Day (Dan Dare) and released by British publishers 2000 AD, home to Judge Dredd, Halo Jones and Sláine.

Rogue Trooper is produced by Stuart Fenegan (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft, Mute) alongside Jason Kingsley (Dredd, School’s Out Forever), Chris Kingsley (Dredd, School’s Out Forever) and Duncan Jones. The film is set to complete in 2025.

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2367
Cover: Alex Ronald

JUDGE DREDD // A BETTER WORLD by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THE ENGLISH ASTRONAUT by Paul Cornell (w) Laura Helsby (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)
FULL TILT BOOGIE // BOOK TWO by Alex de Campi (w) Eduardo Ocana (a) Eva De La Cruz (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ENEMY EARTH // BOOK THREE by Cavan Scott (w) Luke Horsman (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THISTLEBONE // THE DULE TREE by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a) Simon Bowland (l)

War Picture Library: The Crimson Sea by Fred Baker, E. Evans, Donne Avenell (w), Hugo Pratt (a)
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786199-6, 31 January 2024, 272pp, £19.99. Available via Amazon.

The title story of this collection, The Crimson Sea, tells the tale of a younger brother of an officer, both survivors of the sunken HMS Grapnel, who feels he must step out of his brother's shadow with astonishing acts of bravery. There are three other stories in this collection; Pathfinder focuses on an Australian pilot joining the RAF, Up the Marines features tales of Royal Marine Commandos being sent on daring missions behind enemy lines, and in Dark Judgment two rescued POWs are suspected of not being who they claim to be - each of these four stories is stunningly drawn by the Italian comics maestro Hugo Pratt just a few years before he created Corto Maltese!

Strontium Dog Search and Destroy Volume 3: The 2000AD Years by Alan Grant, John Wagner (a), Carlos Ezquerra
Rebellion ISBN 978-187386103-3, 1 February 2024, 192pp, £24.99. Available via Amazon.

In 2150 a catastrophic war led to 70% of Britain's population being wiped out. Strontium 90 fallout led to an increase of children being born with strange mutations. Hated by average humans, the mutants faced terrible oppression when politician, Nelson Kreelman, introduced a series of anti-mutant laws enforced by a brutal police force.
    In 2167 the mutants decided to fight back. Amongst their ranks was a young boy with named Johnny Alpha with white blank eyes and a mutant power that grants him a series of powers, including the ability to see through many surfaces. Driven by tragedy, Johnny has a very personal reason wanting to topple the regime and bring Kreeler down.

Comic Cuts - 26 January 2024

This month seems to have flown by and I'm frustrated at not having Beyond the Void out already. This is what comes of trying to cut costs... 

My idea was to try and get the next Forgotten Authors book in a position where I could order a proof copy alongside some restocks of other books, plus the proof of Beyond the Void to spread the cost of postage. Unfortunately, one of the new essays has required quite a lot of reading, fun but time consuming, and I still haven't managed to get it finished. And then everything had to come to a grinding halt while I did my tax returns and sorted out payments that need to be in by the end of the month.

Hopefully everything that needed doing was done, but the actual numbers were a bit depressing, working out how little income Bear Alley Books had generated for the past couple of years. I've only had a couple of new books out, and I know I need to get more books out on a more regular basis. Hopefully the delays to Beyond the Void won't be a sign of things to come! I do have a couple of new books planned that will hopefully get me back on track.

Talking of sales, I though I'd share the Top Five best-sellers from Bear Alley in 2023:

1) The Trials of Hank Janson
2 =) Eagles Over the Western Front and Countdown to TV Action
4) Longbow volume 2
5) The Men Behind Flying Saucer Review

The latter keeps surprising me. It's only a slim volume available through Amazon, but it sells with reasonable regularity and has now topped 100 copies. Countdown to TV Action remains my all-time best-seller, and I should hit 450 copies some time this year. The Lion index is second best, but has sold only half that number.

But back to Beyond the Void. The (final????, I really hope so!) proofs have been ordered, but won't be here until early February. Meanwhile, I'll try to get Forgotten Authors volume five finished and then get I'm planning to get together a comic strip reprint before cracking on with Action. That's the plan as of today... things may change!

Rebellion Releases - 24 January 2024

Best of 2000 AD is a landmark series from the cult comic, bursting with our greatest stories for a new generation of readers.

Every Best of 2000 AD contains a mix of modern classics and gems from the vault. In each edition you’ll find an explosive new Judge Dredd adventure, fresh essays by prominent popular culture writers, a graphic novel-length feature presentation by global legends and a vintage Dredd case.

In this volume: Judge Dredd makes a Tempus Fugitive of literature’s most famous time-travel enthusiast; tremble as Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint deliver galaxy-wide carnage at the hands of the retribution of a dead race, Shakara The Avenger; during a long, hot summer something rots at the heart of a council estate in John Smith and Edmund Bagwell’s Cradlegrave; Dredd sends his cadets into the Cursed Earth to face The Hotdog Run; The government agents of Ice Station Delta find their problems snowball when they tangle with Shako, the only polar bear on the CIA death list!

Boasting brand new covers from an all-star line-up of artists including Star Wars concept designer Ian McQue and Eisner-award winner Anand Radhakrishnan (Blue in Green) with designer Tom Muller (X-Men), Best of 2000 AD is the essential gateway into the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

And now, this week's release...

 
2000AD Prog 2366
Cover: Rufus Dayglo.

JUDGE DREDD // A BETTER WORLD by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THISTLEBONE by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a) Simon Bowland (l)
ENEMY EARTH // BOOK THREE by Cavan Scott (w) Luke Horsman (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THE DEVIL’S RAILROAD by Peter Milligan (w) Rufus Dayglo (a) Jose Villarrubia (c) Jim Campbell (l)
FERAL & FOE // BAD GODESBERG by Dan Abnett (w) Richard Elson (a) Jim Campbell (l)

 

Comic Cuts - 19 January 2024

The release of Beyond the Void creeps closer. I felt I should delay getting a final proof until I had sorted out the problems with the previous printing errors. The copy corrected has now landed and I'm doing a quick stock take to make sure the latest proof benefits from the shared postage, as the various proofs have so far cost me about £70 in printing and postage. Obviously I want to get everything just so before I offer it to paying customers, but it has been a rather frustrating time as I had hoped to have the book out already.

Still, I'm very pleased with it and the delays have meants I've been able to add a couple of things that I've come across in the past week or two -- some additional books added to one of the bibliographies, for instance. The research for all of my books is ongoing and I stumble upon information all the time. It's usually quite minor, adding the name of an artist or a date. Then, once in a while, I come across some information that means revising an old piece quite heavily.

That happened to me this week with one of the essays for the next Forgotten Authors volume. I wrote a little biographical sketch of James Skipp Borlase back in 2009 or thereabouts that I gave a once-over when I included it in the reprint of On the Queen's Service, published early last year.

I thought Borlase was the perfect author for for the Forgotten Authors series, but I didn't want to do a straight reprint of something already available. So I did some digging and managed to open up a bit of a can of worms. Borlase was a prolific writer of newspaper serials and they included a lot of "by the author of" credits which I had never really followed up due, originally, to a lack of resources, and, last year, a lack of time... and, I might add, I wasn't expecting to learn anything more as the title chains I had seen repeated many of the same serial titles.

But for this revision I wanted to chase up all those titles and see if I could put dates to the serials... and there were some big surprises. I turned up three or four pen-names that he used, one in Australian newspapers and a couple used in British boys' story papers, and also found that he had written a boys' serial prior to the story I had thought his first.

I have to say that making discoveries like that are what I live for!

However, most of the work I have been doing has been tinkering around the edges of essays. There are a couple that were written a couple of years ago for fun (and, I admit, with an eye to putting together another FA volume) where I'd been very careful to note sources, most of which were newspapers and magazines, but what I hadn't done was note the page numbers on which information was taken. So I spent the whole of Wednesday retracing my every step that I'd taken to write an essay about Alfred Duggan, which has 90 footnotes. I'm probably going to spend all of Friday doing the same to other essays.

That said, I'm about 45,000 words into what is likely to be a 70,000 word book. So I'm getting there.

I don't have much else to say; the Forgotten Authors book has kept me busy to the point that I'm doing nothing else. So our illustrations this week are a few random scans (older readers might remember them from the pre-pandemic years when I was scouring the charity shops a little more regularly).

Commando 5715-5718

Commando Issues 5715 – 5718 go on sale today, Thursday 18th January, 2024!

5715: Steer into Danger

The salty seadogs are back for another oceanic adventure in the Pacific! In mid-December 1943, the Japanese sent a cruiser squadron south to wreak havoc amongst the Allied shipping lanes. But they never counted on the experienced skippers of HMAS Tiger and HMAS Wombat to put a stop to them before too much damage was done! Three cruisers pack a heck of a punch, though, and the Aussie buccaneers will need all the luck they can muster to come out of it alive — especially when one of the ships has a man at the wheel who is afraid to fight!
    Commando Issue 5715 ‘Steer into Danger’ is another episode in Aussie writer Brent Towns’ series about the crews of HMAS Wombat and HMAS Tiger — the renegades from Down Under! With Esteve Poll’s amazing artwork and yet another stunning Keith Burns cover to top it off!

Story | Brent Towns
Art | Esteve Polls
Cover | Keith Burns

5716: Wear a Nazi Helmet

Only three men were left alive in a dug-out on the British front line in Italy, Lieutenant John Regan, his wounded batman and a captured German officer. Nazi soldiers were swarming forward to smash through this weak point. John had no men left to repel them, but he still had one desperate remedy. As the Germans charged towards him, he slowly lifted his field telephone...
    Issue 5716 ‘Wear a Nazi Helmet’ is a prototype for what makes up a classic Commando. Allan’s well-crafted story about brothers in arms turned enemies by a misunderstanding is wonderfully illustrated by Aguilar’s artwork. Jordi Penalva is on top form with his standout cover with a British soldier wearing a Nazi helmet!

Story | Allan
Art | Aguilar
Cover | Penalva
First Published 1970 as Issue 507

5717: Allies at War

They were once allies — Britain and France. The two nations’ men stood together, united against the Nazi threat. But everything changed when France was overrun, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the unthinkable — attack Mers-el-Kebir and sink the French Navy’s ships.
Two men were caught in the middle — one British, one French. Two men who had once fought together and now fought each other. They were… Allies at War!
    Commando 5717 features a debut, as brand-new artist Alejandro Perez Mesa joins the ranks of Commando on cover duty! Returning to Commando is Rossa McPhillips, the writer of this hard-hitting piece about men caught on either side of the war. And let’s not forget Paolo Ongaro who always delivers on interior artwork!

Story | Rossa McPhillips
Art | Paolo Ongaro
Cover | Alejandro Perez Mesa

5718: The Line-shooter

 Flying Officer Hubert Shank seemed to be a daring, resourceful character. He’d done everything from motor racing to smuggling... or so he said. So when he and his crew had to force-land their Whitley in Germany, you could bet Hubert would have a few tricks up his sleeve to aid their escape... if his stories were to be believed, that was!
    And the final issue in this set is an RAF romp by RA Montague with artwork from legendary British comics artists John Ridgway and Jeff Bevan! This issue is so good, it has to be seen to be believed!

Story | RA Montague
Art | John Ridgway
Cover | Jeff Bevan
First Published 1981 as Issue 1565

Rebellion Releases - 17 January 2024

BATTLE ACTION RETURNS WITH A COLLECTION OF TWELVE NEW STORIES!

Air Ace Johnny Red and Angel of Death Nina Petrova face off against the Nazi invaders, lethal British agent Dredger deals with the abduction of the only person dear to his stony heart, and the louche Major Eazy must lead his men through the Devil’s Garden of El Alamein. There’s action aplenty with roguish British commandoes Rat Pack, along with Death Squad, their equally deadly German counterparts. And the hellish arctic ocean is the setting for HMS Nightshade, the classic tale of war at sea.

Writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) is joined by an incredible roster of top-tier talent, with stories by original Battle Action writer John Wagner (Judge Dredd, Robo-Hunter), Torunn Gronbekk (Thor, Red Sonja), Rob Williams (Suicide Squad, Petrol Head) and Dan Abnett (Guardians of the Galaxy, Lawless), and featuring art by industry greats like Keith Burns (Out of the Blue), Chris Burnham (Batman, Doom Patrol), Henry Flint (Hawk The Slayer) and John Higgins (Watchmen, Dreadnoughts). There’s blazing Battle Action on every page!

Battle Picture Weekly was where the revolution in British comics began. Created in 1975 by writers and editors Pat Mills and John Wagner, it introduced new grittiness into comics with its cast of anti-heroes and misfits. Its bombast and energy sparked a sea-change in what comics could do, leading to Mills’ creation of the controversial Action and the globally influential 2000 AD.

The new Battle Action mini-series celebrates the merging of this landmark title with its controversial stablemate, Action, a combination that took the two comics to even greater heights. Now, more than forty years after the original, some of the cream of British comics talent are bringing these classic characters back to life.

This volume contains:

• JOHNNY RED by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns
• HMS NIGHTSHADE by John Wagner and Dan Cornwell
• CRAZY KELLER by Garth Ennis and Chris Burnham
• D-DAY DAWSON by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade
• DREDGER by Garth Ennis and John Higgins
• MAJOR EAZY by Rob Williams and Henry Flint
• COOLEY’S GUN by Garth Ennis and Staz Johnson
• DEATH SQUAD by Rob Williams and PJ Holden
• HELLMAN OF HAMMER FORCE by Garth Ennis and Mike Dorey
• NINA PETROVA AND THE ANGELS OF DEATH by Torunn Grønbekk and Patrick Goddard

 And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2365
Cover: Alex Ronald.

JUDGE DREDD // A BETTER WORLD by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (w) Henry Flint (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
THISTLEBONE by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a) Simon Bowland (l)
ENEMY EARTH // BOOK THREE by Cavan Scott (w) Luke Horsman (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THE DEVIL’S RAILROAD by Peter Milligan (w) Rufus Dayglo (a) Jose Villarrubia (c) Jim Campbell (l)
FERAL & FOE // BAD GODESBERG by Dan Abnett (w) Richard Elson (a) Jim Campbell (l)

Judge Dredd Megazine #464
Cover: Lee Milmore.

JUDGE DREDD: RAVENOUS by Mike Carroll (w) Anthony Williams (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
SPECTOR: INCORRUPTIBLE by John Wagner (w) Dan Cornwell (a) Dylan Teague (c) Jim Campbell (l)
DEMARCO, PI: A PICTURE PAINTS by Laura Bailey (w) Rob Richardson Simon Bowland (l)
BLACK MAX by Ken Mennell, & Frank Pepper (w) Alfonso Font (a)
HOOKJAW by Si Spurrier (w) Conor Boyle (a) Giulia Brusco (c) Rob Steen (l)
JUDGE DREDD: UNDER SIEGE by Mark Russell (w) Max Dunbar (a) Jose Luis Rio (c) Simon Bowland (l)
TALES FROM THE BLACK MUSEUM: THE UGLY STICK by David Barnett (w) Lee Milmore (a) Simon Bowland (l)
HARROWER SQUAD: CALHAB COUNTRY by David Baillie (w) Steve Yeowell (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Judge Dredd Case Files #43 by John Wagner, Gordon Rennie, John Smith, Si Spurrier (w) Colin MacNeil, PJ Holden, Carlos Ezquerra, Laurence Campbell, Simon Fraser, Paul Marshall, Peter Doherty, Inaki Miranda, Lee Garbett (a)
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786094-4, 18 January 2024, 304pp, £24.99. Available via Amazon.

In this volume of the best-selling Complete Case Files series, Dredd uncovers the House of Pain, a no-way-out, brutal torture prison for serial perps, and must stop Orlok from spreading a lethal bio-virus – from beyond the grave! And, after a mysterious package is delivered to the Grand Hall of Justice, Dredd ventures into the Cursed Earth in search of answers that will unveil the history of the Judges, and their ascent to total power.

Comic Cuts — 12 January 2024

Because of an error on the last pair of proofs I had printed, I'm still waiting on a copy of Beyond the Void that I'm happy with. Hence no news of when the book will be available. (But it will be soon, I promise.)

I'm told that the corrected version will be with me in a couple of days, after which I will print off two more copies, just to make sure that the book is printing correctly, so there is still a couple of weeks to go. I should add that the problem with recent proofs wasn't the colour or anything like that. The printer had a problem with the trimming of the book, which meant that they cut about a milimeter off the top of the header (the text that often runs along the top of the book); I made the header smaller, but the trim was still very close, so I have since dispensed with it entirely. It's partly my own fault for trying to make the most of every page and not losing space to wide margins — the only way to keep the pagination down on what is quite a big (and expensive to print) full-colour book.

Not that I'm unhappy with the end product, and it has now been seen by one more person (I think outside of Mel and me, only two people have seen copies)... and they now have a printed copy to take home and read. That lucky (?) person is my book collecting pal Steve Chibnall, who was visiting the University of Essex to do some research. We spent an enjoyable evening at a local pub chatting about books old and new, catching up on our latest projects and enjoying what turned out to be some nice pub grub.

It was actually our second choice of pub, but the first (The Greyhound) was packed, with no tables available for eating. So we headed down to the Rose & Crown on the river front, and it was almost empty. By the time food arrived it was filling up quite dramatically and we realised why others had avoided it... there was a poker tournament planned for the evening which took over most of the tables. Mystery solved.

While I won't mention the project that brought Steve to the University (that's up to him to reveal), I can say that he is working on another book about books, and, more specifically, a book about book jackets. I suspect this is going to take some time to complete, but I'm already thinking of how I can guarentee getting the first copy off the presses. Maybe start bribing the author and praising him outrageously. So that's a book coming out from Steve "Mr Cool" Chibnall.

About five columns back I mentioned that I'd had to change a number of passwords that might have been compromised thanks to the ransomeware hack of the British Libraries databases. Well, part two of that fallout is that I might not see any PLR for a while, as the BL is in charge of paying out Public Lending Rights.

Now, I have to admit that this is not a big deal for me as very few of my books make it into the lending library system. The last books that did in any meaningful way were the large War, Battle and Air Ace reprints I did for Prion 15-20 years ago. I did reasonably well out of them in the period 2009-18, although not the thousands that JK Rowling or Richard Osman would expect to receive.

My best year earned me £81.26. Most years I don't get anything because I don't achieve the minimum of £1, although I had a surprise in 2021 when I was paid £4.78 — and all thanks to one book being taken out just before the Covid lockdown. With libraries closed, all books already on loan were automatically renewed, and that one copy of Aces High clocked up 100 loans! Thanks, whoever borrowed the book... it was a very pleasant surprise and would be just enough for a pint in 2024! (Seriously, the Office of National Statistics has worked out that the average price of a pint of lager is £4.58, up from £1 in 1987.)

It was bitterly cold on our trip out to the pub, but at least it wasn't snowing. We had snow earlier in the week, and, content provider that I am, I filmed it. Twenty seconds it took before I came to my senses and realised that most people have seen snow and didn't really need to see that latest snowfall in my back garden. But I'm putting it up anyway.

What is surprising is that a couple of trees are in bloom and I can only think that it is down to the mild weather we have been having. That's the mild weather we were having just before the snow. Things have gotten a lot chillier over the past week, and I'm going to end this seemingly ceaseless chatter because it's damned cold in my office and bed is warm and welcoming.

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