Classic Commandos re-released

Another four Commandos will be out this Thursday and as it’s November, thoughts turn towards the Armistice at the end of the Great War. So it's no surprise there's a pair of World War 1 stories in this set of release, one with a light-hearted feel.

There’s also the second from last in DC Thomson's first dozen re-issue series. Number 2 is seen for the first time in 20 years. Number 1 will re-appear on the 8th of December — just in time for Christmas.

Commando No 4443: Killer In No-Man’s-Land
Story: Mac MacDonald Art: Vila Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

As a soldier in the no-man’s-land between your own trenches and the enemy’s in World War One, you expected to get shot at. British soldier Alan Roux and his mates certainly did.

What they didn’t expect was to have to dodge bullets fired from their own side.

Commando No 4444: Kings of the Castle
Story: Mac MacDonald Art: Keith Page Cover Art: Keith Page

Many strange battles were fought during the 1914-18 war but surely the strangest involved a pair of French regimental policemen, a squad of Australian infantrymen, a bunch of escaped German POWs…and a mediaeval stone tower.

Commando No 4445: They Called Him Coward!
Story: Castle Art: Bonato Cover Art: Ken Barr
Originally Commando No 2 (June 1961), re-issued as No 2531 (January 1992)

“BANZAI!”

The powerful Japanese Army was island-hopping its ruthless way down through the South Seas towards Australia. Many a brave Aussie soldier, standing his ground in the green hell of the island jungles, was bulldozed into eternity by the sheer weight of the Nipponese army.

And one Englishman in the Australian army was caught up in the desperate battle. Bob Palmer he was christened, but COWARD was the name they branded him with. Coward, the word that turns a man into the loneliest being on earth, for what soldier seeks a coward for company?

But there was no craven blood in Bob Palmer’s veins — and he proved he was ready to spill every drop as he blasted Jap after Jap into kingdom come.

"This is a classic Commando tale," says Calum Laird, Commando Editor, of this reprint story. "A man who's the victim of a misunderstanding who has to prove his accuser wrong. And with plenty of action along the way to add some spice. That the two men are on the same side but different nationalities hardly matters nor that there’s a third character trying to be a peacemaker between them.

"What does matter is the use of the emotive word Coward in the title and through out the story. It’s one of those loaded words that can’t be spoken except without venom — as amply demonstrated here by Sergeant Fettis.

"Note to the 1961 Commando editor…the word Coward in the title is far too small, make it bigger."

Commando No 4446: Mystery in the Desert
Originally Commando No 1370 (November 1979)
Story: Ken Gentry Art: Cecil Rigby Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

It was going to be Captain David Poole’s toughest mission yet. Posing as a German spy he was to feed the Nazis with false information which would lead their forces into a trap.

Everything was going like clockwork until David met up with a certain Australian pilot — and then everything started to go terribly wrong.

"As I recall, Ken Gentry who penned this tale, was a South African newspaperman with a sideline in Commando stories," says Calum Laird. "I worked on a few of his over the years. Here he weaves a web of deceit with a double-crossing British agent, a straightforward Aussie pilot and a luckless German commander.

"Cecil Rigby who provided the inside art for the story had also worked on newspapers, as a very good caricaturist and he wasn’t bad at Commando either, having been in at the start. "Ian Kennedy, who provided the cover, puts himself in the cockpit of every plane he draws. I hope he made an exception with this one — that looks like a painful crash."

• The Draw Your Weapons exhibition featuring art from Commando continues at the National Army Museum in London this month and runs until 30th April 2012. For the latest information visit: www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/draw-your-weapons-art-commando-comics


• Official Commando web site: http://www.commandocomics.com/


• Commando Official Facebook page


• Click here for subscription information or write to: D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd, The Subscribers Department, Commando Library, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL or Freephone (UK only) 0800 318846


• Commando is also available for iPad and iPhone. The apps are free to download through the Apple iTunes App Store and a digital subscription is priced at £4.99 per month, compared to a £99 annual print subscription. For those not sure there are four free issues to download prior to making a purchase.


• Commando Comics iPhone App on iTunes


• Commando Comics iPad App on iTunes

Toffs, Killer Condors and deadly Paras in new Commandos

The latest issues of Commando are on sale now in all good newsagents – and there's a fine mix of stories this month, which also sees the start of the exhibition of art from the long-running comic at London's National Army Musueum.

We've included a reminder about that and some special events tied in with it at the bottom of this feature.

Commando 4423: Mercy for None!
Originally Commando No 4 (July 1961), re-issued as No 2547 (March 1992)
Story: Castle Art: Gordon Livingstone Cover Art: Ken Barr

Sitting tensely together in the Dakota on their way to the night drop into Occupied Europe, ten hand-picked paratroopers jokingly nicknamed themselves the ten little soldier boys. Fate must have smiled, for it turned out to be a grim and deadly jest.

One by one, at the hands of the Nazis, they were picked off. One by one, they died the death of heroes…


Mercy For None!

"They say that gallows humour is the darkest of all," notes by Commando Editor Calum Laird in his introduction to this reprint issue of Commando. "And this story has the blackest stripe of that type of humour running right through it. As the Paras at the centre of the action begin to meet their fates, one of their numbers starts to recite a macabre rhyme which can have only one fatal ending.
"
Artist Gordon Livingstone, in one of his earliest outings for Commando, enhances the darkness of the tale with generous use of black ink while cover artist Ken Barr leaves you in no doubt that there’s plenty of action waiting inside.

"Classic Commando — you can see, and read, why they were such a runaway hit from Day One."

Commando 4424: Tunnel of Doom
Originally Commando No 450 (January 1970), re-issued as No 1271 (November 1978)
Story: Allan Art: Bielsa Cover Art: Jordi Penalva

Flat on his stomach on the railway line, Private Andy Morgan crawled forward grimly. It was up to him to stop a Nazi armoured train — and all he had to do it with was one single hand-grenade.
And what made it even tougher for Andy was that the only two guys with him were the type who would pack up and run if things got dicey.

In this brilliant tale we meet a couple of ne’er’do’wells who seem to positively revel in their bad attitude and lack of discipline," notes Commando Deputy Editor Scott Montgomery.

"The aptly named Dodger Harland and Scrounger Dunville are classic Commando characters and it’s not long before they’ve had a bad influence over Andy Morgan, our fledgling hero.

"However, when push comes to shove, perhaps these two aren’t quite what they seem…Redemption is a common Commando theme and this cracking story, with its gritty interior art and a superbly painted cover by Penalva, has an eerily original spin on it.

Commando No 4425: Pride of the Desert
Story: Alan Hebden Art: Benet Cover Art: Benet

What do you get if you send a marauding, aristocratic “Toffs Brigade” on a race against time to recover their stolen regimental silver?

You get a rip-roaring adventure, that’s what!

And if that’s not enough, don’t forget to add a battered but trusty Bedford QL lorry nicknamed “Queenie”…better known as the Pride of the Desert!

Commando 4426: Killer Condor 
Story: Mac Macdonald Art: Carlos Pino Cover Art: Carlos Pino

“Relax, it’s one of ours.” So said the U-boat’s look out as the looming shape of a Focke-Wulf Condor appeared over them.

Unfortunately the crew of the bomber didn’t seem to realise that the sub was on their side for its lethal payload was soon tumbling down to bring destruction and death to the men below.

The Killer Condor had struck again but surely at the wrong target…

Draw Your Weapons Special Events

Here's a reminder of the run down of events that are part of the Draw Your Weapons exhibition featuring art from Commando at the National Army Museum in London this month.

When the Comics Went to War
8th September 2011, 7.00pm

Exploring the history of the British war comic book genre, from the first publications to the present day, this talk charts the evolving depiction of warfare and the experiences of the children who lived through it.

Draw Your Weapons Art Workshop
5th, 12th and 26th November 2011 2.00pm-3.30pm

Exclusive workshops for budding artists of all ages to learn new techniques, design their own storyboard and hear the tales behind the artwork. These Saturday workshops will be hosted by popular comic illustrators and by acclaimed war artists.

• For the latest information visit: www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/draw-your-weapons-art-commando-comics

• Official Commando web site: http://www.commandocomics.com/

• Commando Official Facebook page


• Click here for subscription information or write to: D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd, The Subscribers Department, Commando Library, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL or Freephone (UK only) 0800 318846  

• Commando is also available for iPad and iPhone. The apps are free to download through the Apple iTunes App Store and a digital subscription is priced at £4.99 per month, compared to a £99 annual print subscription. For those not sure there are four free issues to download prior to making a purchase.  

• Commando Comics iPhone App on iTunes

• Commando Comics iPad App on iTunes

Convict Commandos debuts

Four new Commando issues are on sale now in newsagents, continuing our 50th year countdown from 12 to one of re-issues of the original dozen Commandos. This month sees Number 10 “Hun Bait”, written by Dan Dare writer David Motton under the pseudonym Bernard Castle, drawn by Gordon Livingstone, given a fresh airing.

Also launching this month is the first Convict Commando story, a mini-series of adventures for these new Commando heroes devised by Alan Hebden which will run in Issues 4371, 4379, 4387 and 4395. " And maybe more to come," hints editor Calum Laird.

Alan Hebden will be familiar to downthetubes readers, not only for his Commando work, but for his work on the 1970s title Battle Picture Weekly, for which he created strips such as Major Eazy and Crazy Keller, and also wrote scripts for Rat Pack and D-Day Dawson, among others. His body of work is immense, but he has resisted most attempts by fans of his work to be drawn into talking about his contributions to British comics.

Commando is now available through a digital subscription service — DC Thomson’s first foray into this medium. "Although it’s early days (the first month is just finishing), the numbers are building," says Calum, "as are those for the much longer established paper subscriptions."

Commando No 4371: Convict Commandos
Story: Alan Hebden Art and Cover: Benet

There you are — stuck in a military prison in Singapore when the Japanese smash into town. You know that if being a prisoner of the British is bad being a prisoner of the Japanese will be ten times worse.

So if a man in British officer’s uniform was to offer to get you out if you’d work for him, you’d agree to do anything he ordered, wouldn’t you?

The Convict Commandos did… and probably wished they hadn’t!

Commando 4372: Sky Sniper
Story: Ferg Handley Art: Vila Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

Soaring above the battlefields of the Western Front, the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps saw themselves as guardians of chivalry — gentlemen fliers.

So Lieutenant James Wilford, the pilot of a Farman MF11 Shorthorn, got a shock when he met his new observer, Captain Alan Kingston. This gun-toting, hardened veteran had already seen action in the trenches — and had no time for old-fashioned chivalry. If the Huns wanted a fight… they’d get one!

Commando 4373: Hun Bait
Story: Castle Art: Gordon Livingstone Cover Art: Ken Barr
Originally Commando No 10. Previously re-issued as No 2595. Now released in as near to the original presentation as possible.

They were keeping him away from the front line — a man like Sergeant Kelly! And yet this big Australian had such a deadly hatred for the enemy it made him into a fighting fury, a battling, raging, soldier supreme.

But John Kelly was a trier, and exciting was the path he trod to defy authority and get his hands on the enemy’s throat.

David Motton, who also wrote several Dan Dare and Jet Ace Logan stories, wrote this story under the pseudonym Bernard Castle. Alive  and well, and out in the western desert, downthetubes recently interviewed him here.


Commando 4374: The Eye of Ra

Story: Mike Knowles Art: Giralt Cover Art: F.D. Phillips
First Published in 1978 as Commando No 1212 and chosen by Scott Montgomery, Commando’s Deputy Editor

It was carved on the wall of an ancient tomb. The Eye of Ra, sun-god of Egypt. The legend said that if it gazed on anyone defiling the tomb, that person was doomed. The men who discovered it laughed at the idea, but one of them died violently and the others vanished without trace!

The war brought soldiers to Egypt, and among them was the brother of the dead man. From the moment his troop-train was ambushed until the moment he finally stood in that same tomb, Alan Fisher was to run into more dangers than he had ever thought possible.

• The Commando iPad and iPhone apps are free to download through the Apple iTunes App Store and a digital subscription is priced at £4.99 per month, compared to a £99 annual print subscription. For those not sure there are four free issues to download prior to making a purchase.

• Commando Comics iPhone App on iTunes


• Commando Comics iPad App on iTunes

• Official Commando web site: http://www.commandocomics.com/

• Click here for subscription information or write to: D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd, The Subscribers Department, Commando Library, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL or Freephone (UK only) 0800 318846