Tank KIllers and Traitors lurk in latest Commando comics

There's a fine mix of old and new to the latest Commando releases, on sale today in all good newsagents and for iPad and other IOS devices.

Commando No 4535 - The Fighting Gendarme
Story: Peter Grehan Art: Olivera Cover: Janek Matysiak

A Gendarme, a French policeman. That's what Raoul Laurent was when World War II broke out. Sergeant Laurent decided he wasn't going to bow down before the occupying Nazis, escaping to England to join the Free French Forces and become a Commando.

In time, Raoul was selected for a dangerous mission back in his homeland, helping the French Resistance to locate and destroy vital coded documents that were in Nazi hands. To succeed, though, Raoul would have to rely upon an old adversary from his police days. Not only that, pretty soon it looked like his new allies had a traitor in their midst...

Commando No 4536 - The Tank-Killers
Story: Stephen Walsh Art: John Ridgway Cover: John Ridgway

Tank, panzer, char d'assault, tahk. Call them what you will, these armoured giants struck fear into all infantrymen who faced them in battle.

Not quite all, though. This is the story of four men brought together by the fates of war who challenged the metal monsters and called themselves... The Tank-Killers!

Commando No 4537 - Fly Fast Shoot First!
Originally Commando No 14 (December 1961)
Story: Peter Ford Art: Peter Ford Cover: Ken Barr

The machine-guns chattered their chant of death, the Spitfire spat its eight-forked tongues of flame - and from the wide blue sky tumbled another charred fragment of the once-mighty Luftwaffe.

Mike Arden was a flying fool: a pilot with only one fault. In his eagerness to get into a fight he left more than burned-out Nazis behind him - he left a trail of broken Spitfires too!

So they gave him a choice: Transfer to Coastal Command or stay on the ground.

Mike transferred - and did things with a four-engined bomber that had never been done before!

"I hope nobody minds that I've dipped into 1961 for a story to give a fresh airing but this one really does deserve to be seen again," notes editor Calum Laird of this latest representation of a classic story from Commando. "It's one of very few Commandos to have been written and drawn by the same person and it shows - some of the full-page illustrations which pepper this book are little masterpieces all on their own. If the narrative comes off second-best, it's only because the art treatment is so accomplished.

"Oh and there's no truth in the story that Ken Barr's excellent cover features a Spitfire only because we couldn't fit a Liberator in the space."

Commando No 4538 - Dakota Pilot
Originally Commando No 2087 (May 1987)
Story: Bill Fear Art: Terry Patrick Cover: Ian Kennedy

For Ben Smart, Dakota pilot, things had been going badly. Bad luck seemed to follow him wherever he went, and always managed to strike where it could do the most damage.

And this time, of all places, it had to be the terrible battle of Arnhem

"As usual, Ian Kennedy has done Commando proud with his stunning front cover," notes Depurty Editor Scott Montgomery, "producing an amazing image - a snapshot telling you everything you should expect from the story that appears in between the front and back pages.

"Aerial action and thrills abound, of course, but there's also a solid, character-driven story - by writer Bill Fear and interior artist Terry Patrick - about a pilot who believes he is jinxed and wonders if he's a danger to himself and his comrades.

• downthetubes is pleased to offer an exclusive 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! 

• 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

• Steadfast! the Commando artwork exhibition at The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen runs until 30th November 2012. There are more details about the exhibition on the museum website.

Jokers in the new Pack of Commandos

Here's the intel on the new Commando war comics, on sale now in all good British newsagents...

I recently had a chance to sit down with Commando editor Calum Laird as part of my working day and discuss the future of comics – and digital comics. While he was as canny as ever about Things to Come, I got hints of possible new Commando-related projects in the offing, with a promise of official news as soon as anything was confirmed. Can't wait!

Commando No 4531 - Coming Unstuck
Story: Alan Hebden Art: Carlos Pino Cover: Carlos Pino

 By 1943 the Germans, desperate to counter, the RAF's superfast wooden fighter-bomber, the de Havilland Mosquito, began to build the Focke Wulf Ta154. It was even known as the Moskito!

They soon discovered that holding its wooden structure together wasn't as easy as they thought, and several broke up in in flight. The glue they needed to hold their airframes together was a secret formula only manufactured in Britain.

So the Germans came up with a plan to steal some from the source…only to come up against a bunch of plucky Brits determined to stop them - or come to a very sticky end!

Commando No 4532 - Mario's Express
Story: Stephen Walsh Art: Vila Cover: Ian Kennedy

Colonel Mario Girotti was not really much of a soldier. He was more than happy to be stuck in the North African desert, in charge of a rarely-used railway station. He spent his days listening to classical music on his trusty gramophone or reading poetry.
 
But the culture-loving Italian's peaceful war was rudely interrupted by the arrival of a group of his fellow countrymen, followed by some Nazis, all bent on escaping the oncoming British onslaught with some looted priceless treasure and, naturally enough, they wanted one of Mario's trains.

Mario decided that maybe the time was right to fight after all!

Commando No 4533 - Blood Valley
Originally Commando No 49 (Dec 1962)
Story: Dorward Art: Philpott Cover: Ken Barr

Every path that led upwards from Blood Valley to the Nazi-held fortress of Cassino was a path of death. On these bullet-swept slopes many a hero had been born - and had died. But still the German flag flew triumphantly from the battlements.
 
And then the Commandos were sent for - hand-picked Commandos who had their own cunning and courageous ways of bringing arrogant Nazis to their knees.
 
Here is their heroic story.

“There's a saying that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in this case it's exactly what you should do! Ken Barr's Commando is loaded with contained menace and pent-up ferocity,” says editor Calum Laird of this story. “Make no mistake, author Dorward is going to put a hard-hitting story in front of you with very few punches pulled. Those of a nervous disposition should look away now.
 
“The inside art, with Philpott's characteristic dark and brooding lines, backs up this hard edge. At times it's difficult to remind yourself that this really is fiction."

Commando No 4534 - The Jokers
Originally Commando No 2144 (December 1987)
Story: Peter Mackenzie Art: Keith Shone Cover: Ian Kennedy

Alf Cunningham and Percy Potter were the jokers in the pack. Oh, they were good pilots, all right, it was just that they had a nasty habit of landing themselves, and everyone around them, in deep trouble. Not exactly the best pair of men to rely on when there's a German cruiser on the loose in the English Channel!

“The main conflict in this European World War 2 tale is, naturally, between British and German forces,” notes deputy Scott Montgomery of this re-presented tale. “However, there is another conflict going on. One between a couple of rebellious RAF pilots - the “jokers” of the title - and a stuffed shirt Royal Navy officer who they manage to continually annoy.

"Commando thrives on extra story flourishes like this and author Peter MacKenzie keeps the narrative flowing well, as does artist Keith Shone. And, of course, kudos to veteran illustrator Ian Kennedy for yet another stunning aircraft cover - this time of an Avro Anson right in the thick of the action."

• downthetubes is pleased to offer an exclusive 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! 

• 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

• Steadfast! the Commando artwork exhibition at The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen runs until 30th November 2012. There are more details about the exhibition on the museum website.

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From writer and fan Stephen Walsh

Name: Stephen Walsh

Currently working on:

WarWorldz for Strip Magazine with John Freeman and the artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo. Also working on scripts for Commando ("The Flaming Dagger" is out now) and further adventures of Charlotte Corday with Keith Page ("The Iron Moon" is available from Print Media; "London Calling" is available from TimeBomb Comics).

First memory of 2000AD?

I saw the "Tharg Arrrives on Earth" animated TV ad in February 1977. So I rushed down to the newsagent, only to find that a pal of mine had snagged the last copy. He proceeded to drive me mad for the next week with hints about the great stuff in the comic. Dinsosaurs! Politicians hung from lampposts! He completed my frustration by refusing to let me even glance through the issue. However, as sometimes used to happen in those days, extra copies of number one arrived the next week. So I had progs 1 and 2 in one go. Thrill power overload! Massimo Belardinelli's Dan Dare centre-spreads melted my brain. Organic spaceships! Yottleberry sun-shakes!

Favourite Character or Story?

Pat Mills' Dredd story "The Man Who Drank The Blood Of Satanus", drawn by the great Ron Smith; The early chapters of The ABC Warriors, with one-of-a-kind artists like Mike McMahon, Kevin O'Neill and Brendan McCarthy taking turns on episodes; Halo Jones; Frank Hart, the Visible Man...a very long list. We should resume this chat in the nearest pub.

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

What I remember most is the great sense of anticipation that each issue generated; the feeling that anything could happen; that whole universes of weird wonder were being opened and their howling, mad-eyed denizens unleashed on the readership.

Looking back, it's also clear that John Wagner's work on Judge Dredd is one of the greatest sustained feats of the imagination in comics. His influence is everywhere now; as a maker of stories and ideas that came to pervade the culture, he's right up there with Jack Kirby.

What would you most like to see in 2000AD as it heads to its Forties?

Unfortunately 2000AD stopped jumping off the shelf into my hand quite some time ago. I'd love it to jump out at me again; to be essential.

If you worked on 2000AD, do you have an anecdote you'd like to share about your experience of Tharg and his minions?

I remember bombarding the Nerve Centre with a different Future Shocks script every day for six weeks one summer. Later, when I chanced to meet the then-current Tharg, he told me where I could stick them. Golden days.

• This post is one in a series of tributes to 2000AD to mark its 35th birthday on 26th February 2012. More about 2000AD at www.2000adonline.com

2000AD © Rebellion

Flaming Heck! It's some new Commandos

Just because it was Valentine’s Day this week, Commando hasn’t gone all lovey-dovey. Oh no! Four More action-packed tales are now on sale in all good newsagents for adventure fans...

Commando No 4471: The Flaming Dagger
Story: Stephen Walsh Art: Keith Page Cover: Keith Page

As a 12-year-old living in Paris in the early days of the Second World War, Isaac Vidal hoped that freedom would soon come again to France. He had every confidence that it would for did not his favourite comic have a battling British hero who would thwart the Nazis at every turn?

His optimism was not shared by all, for the Flaming Dagger was a character from fiction and everybody knows that fictitious heroes never win wars. Do they?

Commando No 4472: Battle In The Snow
Story: Ferg Handley Art: Vila Cover: Janek Matysiak

December, 1944. In the midst of the German Ardennes Offensive, an American GI — Corporal Joe Wallace — regains consciousness after a skirmish. Suffering from a head wound, he has no memory of who he is or what happened to him and his buddies.

As he fights to regain his memory, Joe has to battle for his very survival…

Commando No 4473: Killer Ship
Originally Commando No 44 (Nov 1962)
Story: Eric Hebden Art: Cecil Rigby Cover: Ken Barr

Every night as darkness spread over the Mediterranean, sailors of the German Navy who were on duty grew nervous and uneasy. For this was the time the ghost ship would strike.

Out of the night would roar a sleek, black E-boat with the skull and crossbones flying from its masthead.

And on its bridge stood a British sailor as bold as any pirate of the Spanish Main, Lieutenant Bart Mason of the British Navy — running his own private war.

"1962 was the second year of Commando’s history and they struck gold time after time," notes title Editor Calum Laird of this re-issue. "Writers like Eric Hebden used their full imagination to come up with classic characters and plots, just like here. Eric’s son Alan has the same talent.

"Cecil Rigby’s inside artwork works very well here, with a strong line and skillful use of black for the night scenes. There’s very little you can say about Ken Barr’s cover art that hasn’t been said before, but his capture of the speed of the killer E-boat really is something. You can almost smell the salt and the diesel!

Commando No 4474: Hit ‘Em Hard!
Originally Commando No 2111 (August 1987)
Story: Alan Hebden Art: Jose Maria Jorge Cover: Tony Corbett

Nick Bonner led a squadron of Curtiss Kittyhawks against Axis forces in North Africa in 1941. They were slogging it out with the Italians for supremacy of the skies. It was a tough fight, but one which was about to take a savage new twist when a ruthless group of Luftwaffe pilots arrived…

"This super air tale from 1987 was written by Alan Hebden, who still crafts many a cracking script for us today," says Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor. " Interestingly, Alan’s dad, Eric, was also a veteran Commando author. Check out his sterling work on “Killer Ship”, (No 4473) the 1962 classic reprinted alongside this story.

"The inside art here was by the great Jose Maria Jorge, another Commando stalwart, who sadly died in 2010 and is much missed. It’s a small consolation but at least his dynamic, wonderfully-detailed black and white line art is still with us to enjoy all over again."

• 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

Commando haunts the newsagents once more...

Here's details of the latest issues of DC Thomson's war comic, Commando, on sale in all good newsagents now. It's another cracking relase of both old and new tales - some featuring men haunted by ghosts, some soldiers haunted by their own fears - and still at the bargain price of just £1.50 an issue.

Commando: 4447: Colours of Courage
Originally Commando No 1182 (December 1977), re-issued as No 2412 (October 1990)
Story: Cyril Walker Art: Arthur Fleming Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

The proudest possessions of any regiment are its colours - the flags which it carries into battle. Its history is recorded on these colours, the victories it has won.

A regiment guards its colours fiercely. To have them captured by the enemy is a terrible thing. But when a man hands over the colours to save his own skin it is a disgrace that brave soldiers can hardly bear think about...

"If there are two things difficult to get right in a Commando they are French Resistance stories and ghosts," says Commando Editor Calum Laird of this reprint issue. "Resistance stories could easily be 63 pages of skulking about avoiding searching German soldiers and ghosts could easily look like normal characters drawn without enough ink.

"Thanks to ace story-teller Cyril Walker, 'Colours Of Courage' cracks along with plenty of action to break up the tension. And Arthur Fleming - an art teacher from Glasgow - manages to skilfully depict a glowing figure despite only having black ink and white paper to work with.

"Wrapped in one of Ian Kennedy's superbly drawn and laid-out covers it's got all it needs for a cracking Commando."

Commando No 4448: The Four Scars
Originally Commando No 185 (October 1965), re-issued as No 831 (April 1974)
Story: Eric Hebden Art: Victor de la Fuente Cover Art: Ken Barr

Corporal Bill Kirk felt the tiny life-raft rock lazily as the Jap struggled aboard. Both turned to look at the sinking Jap prison-ship they'd been on - Bill a prisoner, the Jap a guard. Then they turned back, to look at each other; and what that Jap read in Bill Kirk's eyes made him start back in fear.

But there was no escape for him. With only the vast empty ocean and the sharks circling the raft for witnesses, they grappled in a fight to the finish...

"I've mentioned before that I found my childhood Commando issues at the back of the garage a few years ago," says Calum Laird of ths story. "Some I had to look at again to refresh my memory, but not this one. I don't know how many times I read and re-read this in the 1960s but it must have been a lot because I had almost total recall.

"Ken Barr's cover with its ethereal hand hovering over the action, Victor de la Fuente's action-packed, high-energy inside art and Eric Hebden's crackerjack of a story with its startling twist were just what the doctor ordered in 1965 and are equally so today. I think so anyway and I hope you'll agree.

"As an aside, Ken Barr used a sheet of transparent plastic sheet with the outline of the hand painted on it to get that ghostly effect. I certainly didn't know that in 1965."

Commando 4449: Days Of Danger
Story: Stephen Walsh Art: Vila Cover Art: Nicholas Forder

Simon Katz was a young German and a fervent anti-Nazi. A brilliant mathematician, he escaped Germany by the skin of his teeth and went to work as a code-breaker for the British.

Not long after, Sergeant Barney Taft also made an escape - from the bullet-strafed beaches of Dunkirk.

Though they were on the same side, when circumstances threw the pair together, they clashed bitterly. But could they manage to work together against a ruthless enemy? They would have to if they were to survive.

Commando No 4450: The Nightmare War
Story: Mac MacDonald Art: Keith Page Cover Art: Keith Page

Private Franz Bauer, a German Army engineer wounded during the invasion of France, was haunted by the deaths of his comrades in the same battle - wiped out by a mine. When he recovered he threw himself into his new job developing the remote-controlled Borgward IV demolition vehicle, hoping it might save other German lives.

His chance to save thousands of lives would come, but he would be working alongside an unlikely ally - someone who had nightmares every bit as bad as Franz's.

• 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

Keith Page steampunk creation 'The Iron Moon' goes digital

Britain's dedicated mobile comics publisher ROK Comics, has just launched an iPad edition of the steampunk graphic novel The Iron Moon, a creator-owned comic story by acclaimed Commando comics artist Keith Page and film writer Stephen Walsh.

Described as 'Rorke's Drift in Space', The Iron Moon is a fast-paced steampunk-inspired adventure starring no-nonsense adventuress Charlotte Corday and is now available worldwide for iPad from the Apple iTunes store.

In the story, the twentieth century is just around the corner and Queen Victoria is hale and hearty as she heads into the second century of her reign. The British Empire stretches from the white cliffs of Dover to the red skies of Mars. Go-getting men and women of the imperial dominions flock to the colours, eager to make reputations and fortunes in the wilds of high space.

Take lieutenant Charlotte Corday, for instance. Born in what used to be known as France, she has risen to prominence through the ranks of the Royal Space Navy and now finds herself up to her neck in her greatest escapade yet. Watch as she travels to the mysterious Iron Moon! Marvel as she grapples with a conspiracy that may see the galaxy plunged into war! Goggle as she meets new and strange races, both mechanical and biological! Ponder how she manages to put away so many cups of tea! And prepare to have your brain scrambled as she scoops us up and carries us to the very limits of this universe... and into the next!

ROK Comics partnership with Stephen and Keith is one of several new agreements with comics publishers and comic creators. These include the release of an iPad edition of the first issue of the adventure anthology comic STRIP Magazine, published by Print Media Productions, which includes a special 'prequel' strip for The Iron Moon.

Iron Moon writer Stephen Walsh has written multiple volumes of DC Thomson's Commando Picture Library, as well as the graphic novel The Acid Bath Case (illustrated by Kellie Strom). He co-wrote the feature films How Harry Became A Tree, released in 2001, directed by Goran Paskaljevic and the upcoming Where The Sea Used To Be, directed by Paul Farren. He's currently working on a documentary about John Ford with the director Sé Merry Doyle, as well as preparing further adventures of Charlotte Corday with Keith Page.
Inspired by the great British comics artists of the past such as Frank Hampson, Don Lawrence and Joe Colquhoun, Keith Page has worked full-time in comics and illustration for some 17 years. Subjects have ranged from television-related material such as Thunderbirds, science fiction, and his current war stories of all periods for Commando.

This isn't, of course, the first time Charlotte Corday has featured digitally. Keith Page previously created two adventures which have been offered on mobile phones and published another strip, Witchcraft Street, as a web comic.


A variety of Keith's work can be seen on www.keithpageukcomicsartist.blogspot.com.

ROK Comics recently launched its first fully originated comic, TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E. which is initially being published as a weekly web comic (at www.theteammobile.com), followed by roll out on iPad and other devices.

The company has previously published creator-owned and licensed strips for mobile, with three iPhone apps – Ligeia the Vampire by Rodrigo Diaz Ricci, The Mobile Gospel by Rich Diesslin and Madd Science by Steve English.

Further iPhone and iPad apps, working with a number of different publishers, are in development.

• The Iron Moon can be downloaded for £4.99 at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-iron-moon/id472627046?mt=8


• Visit ROK Comics at: www.rokcomics.com


• A print edition of The Iron Moon is available from Print Media Productions – www.printmediaproductions.com

In Review: London Calling

Artist Keith Page, best known for Commando but who has also illustrated Thunderbirds and Dan Dare over the years, has an unusual character in the form of dimension hopping French agent Charlotte Corday whom Page considers to be something of a Jerry Cornelius figure -- although Garth or Adam Eterno might be closer from a comics perspective.

With a story by Commando writer Stephen Walsh, London Calling places a confused Charlotte in 1950s London in which not everything is quite as it should be. During World War II, the French experimented with giving their troops vampire blood to try to make them impervious to bombs and bullets but post-war this backfired with an outbreak of vampirism in the country. To prevent the vampires taking over Paris the city was taken out of time using captured Nazi technology and now, as it tries to return, it is causing ripples in the fabric of time that are affecting Charlotte Corday in her undercover mission in London.

There, befriended by a charming vampire called Luca and while looking for another French agent, she gets caught up in a raid on a vampire club by the Metropolitan Police's V-Squad and is arrested suspected of being a vampire herself.

The whole plot is book ended by a different Charlotte recovering her children from a flooded London and telling them the story of the book to pass the time.

As the above might suggest the main story is a little bizarre. This is partially deliberate, due to the time ripples caused by the French which throw up images of a Nazi-occupied London, HG Wells' Martian invasion and Orwell's 1984, but also because there is just too much trying to happen.

As much as I would like to read more about the French vampire problem, I think that a straight French agent caught up in the London vampire underworld would have worked better without the whole out-of-time-Paris trying to contact a confused Charlotte, which only serves to confuse the reader as well.

That said, there is much to recommend the book. Stephen Walsh's script revels in in-jokes from TV film, radio and novels - they come thick and fast and I'm sure that I didn't even catch them all. Keith Page's black and white artwork, so familiar from his many issues of Commando, has more depth and detail that that title allows for and his designs for the V-Cars squad with their black cars, Vespa scooters and crossbows will raise a smile while he manages to get many faces familiar from 1950s and 1960s film and TV into his crowd scenes.

Charlotte Corday gas had a somewhat unusual history with stories appearing on the ROK Comics mobile comic platform and on Keith Page's blog before finally appearing in this softcover black and white book and now in the hardcover colour book, The Iron Moon. Full marks must go to Steve Tanner of Time Bomb Comics for choosing to publish this first paper version of the Charlotte Corday character. With the majority of Time Bomb's output being colour US size comics, a 52 page, A4, black and white graphic novel is a step in a new direction for the publisher.

With its story and artwork brimming over with ideas, London Calling is an impressive first outing for Keith Page and Stephen Walsh's Charlotte Corday character which is worth looking out for.  

• There are more details of London Calling and how to purchase it on the Time Bomb Comics website. Keith Page's blog with previews of future issues of Commando and other graphic novels that he is working on is here. 

• There is an interview with Keith Page on the downthetubes main site and his Witchcraft Street strip featuring a young Charlotte Corday is serialised on the Witchcraft Street blog.

Trailer for The Iron Moon graphic album released

Print Media Productions first hardcover graphic album, The Iron Moon (ISN: 978-0-9567121-0-3) will be on sale at the British International Comic Show on 16th - 17th October.

Check out the trailer of this new steampunk tale from Stephen Walsh and Keith Page now, now available via myEBook!

THE IRON MOON

A Charlotte Corday adventure

RULE BRITANNIA! BRITANNIA RULES THE STARS!

The twentieth century is just around the corner and Queen Victoria is hale and hearty as she heads into the second century of her reign. The British Empire stretches from the white cliffs of Dover to the red skies of Mars.

Go-getting men and women of the imperial dominions flock to the colours, eager to make reputations and fortunes in the wilds of high space.

Take Lieutenant Charlotte Corday, for instance. Born in what used to be known as France, she has risen to prominence through the ranks of the Royal Space Navy and now finds herself up to her neck in her greatest escapade yet. Watch as she travels to the mysterious Iron Moon! Marvel as she grapples with a conspiracy that may see the galaxy plunged into war! Goggle as she meets new and strange races, both mechanical and biological! Ponder how she manages to put away so many cups of tea!

And prepare to have your brain scrambled as she scoops us up and carries us to the very limits of this universe... and into the next!

• For more information on Print Media Productions titles visit www.stripmagazine.co.uk

Charlotte Corday Times Two - graphic novels, that is...

Time Bomb Comics has confirmed their next release, the graphic novel London Calling, will be launched at the British International Comics Show next month (October 2010).

Written by screen-writer Stephen Walsh with stunning artwork by renowned Commando artist Keith Page, London Calling is a complete thrilling adventure, told in a style that harkens back to classic British comic strips of yesteryear.

Set in a 1950’s London one-step sideways to our own, secret agent Charlotte Corday encounters invading Martians, talking puppets, unexpected cameos, and the vampire-hunting coppers of the Metropolitan “V” Squad as they deal with an outbreak of vampires at Highgate Cemetery.

Both Stephen and Keith will be attending a signing session at the Time Bomb Comics table during the BICS weekend, where another Charlotte Corday tale featuring a different incarnation of the universe-hopping femme fatale - the steampunk adventure The Iron Moon - will also be on sale from Print Media Productions.

• For more information on London Calling visit: www.timebombcomics.com