Commando Cover Prelims - Aerial Warfare

The Commando team, as well as managing to publish 104 issues of the comic each year, have been using the official Commando Comics Facebook page to give some behind the scenes info on their titles. This includes some of the preliminary sketches for their covers.

Writer Mac MacDonald covers a wide range of war themes for Commando but these two issues both featured aerial warfare and were assigned to artist Carlos Pino who provided both the internal B&W line art and the colour covers. The first image featured here shows how the title of a given issue of Commando can change even at the last moment as Issue 4584 started off as "Pilot In Peril" before becoming "American Ace".

 

Issue 4584 American Ace

He stepped off a US freighter in Liverpool and walked straight to the nearest RAF recruiting office to join up. A natural pilot, he was at the controls of a British fighter in no time. As his score of victories mounted in the summer of 1940, his fellow pilots never dreamed he carried a secret - one that, if discovered, could be his death warrant!
Free preview of American Ace

Issue 4599 Operation Nachthexen
The German forces that invaded the Soviet Union had much to fear once the Russians' fightback got into its stride. For the Russians are fearsome warriors when roused. What the Germans feared more than anything was the night. For that was when the Nachthexen - the night witches - flew. Because, you see, when the Nachthexen flew, they carried death on their wings.
Free preview of Operation Nachthexen


• There are more details of Commando titles on their official website, www.commandocomics.com, and Facebook page.

COMMANDO SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

downthetubes is pleased to offer a discount on a subscription to DC Thomson's Commando comic, entitling readers to save 50% by ordering using our special discount code!

Follow this link to DC Thomson's subscription page.

When prompted, enter this unique code COMDT - then make your payment and your subscription will be up and running. The price quoted offers a 50% discount for three months at £12.50. That’s £68.50 off the shop price.

Please note, although the offer is not restricted to UK delivery (you need a UK bank account), the price increases for overseas delivery although the offer of 50% discount for three months is the same.

* Saving based on discounted Direct Debit price compared with shop price. First quarterly payment discounted by 50% at £12.50 and £25 per quarter thereafter. UK bank accounts only. One year discounted subscription rate of £99.

Beware of Dinosaurs: Forbidden Planet Chronos Commandos Signing announced

Comic creator and illustrator Stuart Jennett will be launching his new comic Chronos Commandos #1 at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Wednesday 10th July (6 – 7.00pm)

When the Allies and Nazis develop time-diving technology that could see the course of World War II derailed by creatures from the Cretaceous period, only the Sarge and his band of misfit soldiers can save the future by saving history!

Dinosaurs! Giant crocodiles! Time travel! Nazis! Albert Einstein with a machine gun!

Stuart started out as a comic book artist for Marvel UK back in the early 1990’s (drawing Warheads - yes, I was his editor after Paul Neary talent spotted him in Glasgow) before moving into the video games industry as a concept, 3d artist and studio art director. Now, after a long hiatus from his first love, Stuart returns with an unapologetic love letter to his youth with Chronos Commandos - a bullet strewn, time travelling, Nazi stomping adventure serial new from Titan Comics.

Stuart, alongside his wife, is also one of the founders and creative directors of Alien Apple Studios, providing design work across the entertainment industry.

Here's some pages from the first issue!

• For more about Forbidden Planet signings click here

Commando Cover Prelims - Convict Commandos

The Commando team, as well as managing to publish 104 issues of the comic each year, have been using the official Commando Comics Facebook page to give some behind the scenes info on their titles. This includes some of the preliminary sketches for their covers.

One of Commando's current recurring sets of characters are the Convict Commandos, written by Alan Hebden and illustrated by Manuel Benet who does both the internal B&W line art and the colour cover art for the series. Here we have two of Benet's cover prelims, for Issue 4583 Dungeon Of Doom and Issue 4565 The Killing Cage, which show just what tight spots the Convict Commandos manage to get themselves into.

Issue 4583 Dungeon Of Doom
The four-man special force known as the Convict Commandos were in dangerous territory. They had entered neutral Spain illegally and were now deep within a castle which bristled with all sorts of perils - from Nazi interrogators to axe-wielding maniacs. This time even they had got in too deep!
Free preview of Dungeon Of Doom

Issue 4565 The Killing Cage
It was a straightforward assassination mission for the men of the Convict Commandos; the sort of job they had been sprung from jail to do without breaking a sweat. But this time they were up against an adversary who had a lot of experience of attempts on his life. He would make things very hot indeed for Major Guy Tenby's men...using a flamethrower!
Free preview of The Killing Cage


• There are more details of Commando titles on their official website, www.commandocomics.com, and Facebook page.

COMMANDO SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

downthetubes is pleased to offer a discount on a subscription to DC Thomson's Commando comic, entitling readers to save 50% by ordering using our special discount code!

Follow this link to DC Thomson's subscription page.

When prompted, enter this unique code COMDT - then make your payment and your subscription will be up and running. The price quoted offers a 50% discount for three months at £12.50. That’s £68.50 off the shop price.

Please note, although the offer is not restricted to UK delivery (you need a UK bank account), the price increases for overseas delivery although the offer of 50% discount for three months is the same.

* Saving based on discounted Direct Debit price compared with shop price. First quarterly payment discounted by 50% at £12.50 and £25 per quarter thereafter. UK bank accounts only. One year discounted subscription rate of £99.

Rough Cut Comics brings Freedom Collective to book

Rough Cut Comics will release its long-awaited new volume of Freedom Collective stories through the June edition of Diamond Previews.

The original one-shot title – which re-imagined the type of comic-books that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, could have created IF they had been born and worked in the 1960s Soviet Union – became a “sleeper hit” in the independent comic-book scene and has attracted fans such as Grant Morrison and Alex Ross.

It also received the backing of The Jack Kirby Collector and was one of new distributor UKonDisplay’s biggest selling titles at their launch earlier this year.

The new 76-page Compulsory Freedom Collective re-prints the original 20-page one-shot story and adds three brand new adventures featuring the titular Red Avengers, adding more ’Silver Age’ parodies in the shape of The Siberian Six and Ivan Karnage, Agent of KRUSH.

The original teaming of Dom Regan (A1) and Colin Barr are joined in this volume with the art of renowned Kirby enthusiast Dave Golding, award-winning Dave Alexander, Total Fear creator Curt Sibling, and Zenescope Entertainment colourist Derek Dow.

Creators Igor Sloano and Barr are again providing the scripts which truly capture the jingoistic style of the House of Ideas back in the sixties.

Publisher Ed Murphy said: “This is a tribute to a long-lost style of comic-book story-telling. It’s one which conveyed the action dynamics in five-to-nine frame panel pages; with cut-to-the-chase dialogue sometimes conveyed in the now-defunct style of ‘thought bubbles’.

“I’m so glad the original one-shot found its audience and continues to grow in popularity. I think this is a book for genuine comic-book fans and particularly of the Lee/Kirby style which should never be forgotten.”

Rough Cut Comics will attend the Glasgow Comic Con on 13-14th July at the city’s CCA, where they will preview the new Freedom Collective book. Artists Dave Alexander and Dom Regan are also expected to be in the attendance.

• You can find out more about Rough Cut Comics at www.roughcut-comics.com on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/roughcutcomicsuk or their twitter feed @roughcutcomics.

• THE COMPULSORY FREEDOM COLLECTIVE is solicited in the June edition of Previews for shipping August 2013. The product code is JUN131260 and is featured in Page 333 of the edition.