Justin Marriott [ed.] - Battling Britons #5

[dem bones]

Justin Marriott [ed.] - Battling Britons #5 (Marriott Publications, June 2023)

BATTLE CRY: Editorial

UPDATES, CORRECTIONS AND APOLOGIES: Elephants, pipes, farmers and a Spring Heeled Jill form the latest updates to previous articles.
INCOMING: The latest mails from our avid fans.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE: Andy Yates talks about his passion for comics.
THE WILD, WILD WEST: Justin Marriott on Lawless, the 2000AD convention held in Bristol on May Bank Holiday weekend.
COMMANDO SWAP MEET REPORT AND REFLECTIONS: James Bacon reports on the swap meet, supplemented by reflections from the organisers and attendees.
FROM OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: James Bacon on the manga which mythologizes the 'Ghost of Kyiv'.
INK JOBS: THE WRIGHT STUFF: Jim O'Brien on Pat Wright who illustrated COMMANDOS, Hellman and Mike Nelson.
MYALL HIGH CLUB: Steve Myall's reviews aerial combat pocketbooks with a spy theme.
RETURN TO BATTLE: Rob Williams talks to BB about his scripts for the forthcoming BATTLE mini-series.
(DOUBLE) CROSS WORDS: Phil Cross reviews Fleetway pocketbooks dealing with double-crossers and dirty rats.
AN AUSSIE DOESN'T KNOW WHEN HE'S BEATEN: Jim O'Brien on Larry Horak who drew war pocket books and the James Bond newspaper strip.
ISLAND OF HATE: James Bacon looks at the war comics which deal with the Irish War of Independence.
A POCKET BOOK FULL OF SPIES: Justin Marriott provides a dossier on the pocket book series from Fleetway with secret agent themes.
FIGHT DIRTY & THE DREDGER FILES: Justin Marriott on ACTION's infamous down and dirty Dredger.
SPIES IN THEIR EYES: Justin Marriott on some of the more unusual uses of the spy theme in DCT's weeklies.
BRITAIN'S DEADLIEST AGENT: Paul Trimble opens his Battle Files on Mike Nelson aka The Eagle.
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!: Justin Marriott on BULLET, the DCT equivalent of ACTION which was just as firey and just as, well, ballsy.
CODENAME CLARK: Peter Clark talks to BB about his role as editor at WARLORD and BULLET.
THE PIPES OF GLORY: Justin Marriott on bagpipes in war comics. Spoiler and stereotype alert!
KEV O'NEILL - A LEGEND AND A CLASSIC: Justin Marriott pays tribute to Kevin O'Neill by flicking through his horror strips for LEGEND HORROR CLASSICS.
JUST HOW MUCH TROUBLE CAN WAR COMICS GET YOU INTO?: Jim O'Brien on the YA fiction books which dealt with the influence of 1970s war comics.
THE ENTIRE US ARMY COULDN'T STOP HIM: Jim O'Brien on the newspaper strip Bishop Fortune, who was stopped, albeit by uninterested editors.
REVIEWING THE SEEKERS: Justin Marriott on the two volumes reprinting the classic newspaper strip.
TOP SECRET PICTURE LIBRARY REVIEWS: Justin Marriott whizzes through capsule reviews of the Fleetway pocket book series.
VALIANT PICTURE LIBRARY REVIEWS: Justin Marriott on the shorter-lived series which reprinted from a variety of pocket libraries.

Blurb:
THE DREDGER FILES - A look at the original run of Dredger in ACTION, studying the TV shows and books that influenced his creators and reviewing key stories. POCKETBOOK SPIES - a history of spies in FLEETWAY POCKET BOOKS, including Secret Agent 15, John Steel, Johnny Nero, Barracuda and John Havoc. A look at spy characters in BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY, including Codename Eagle, Gaunt and Dredger. Artists who worked on spy comics, such as Pat Wright of Codename Eagle and Larry Horak of the James Bond newspaper strip. A study of Larry Horak, artist of the James Bond newspaper strip. PLUS COVERAGE OF - Kevin O'Neill and legend HORROR CLASSICS, Rob Williams on his work for the forthcoming BATTLE ACTION relaunch, spies and traitors in pocketbook stories and much more.

Battling Britons #5, "a quality Marriott publication,"

Available from Am**on

Commentary of sorts to follow over coming days ...

[dem bones]

Artist unknown: Battle Picture Weekly, 14 June 1975: Kevin O'Neill Dracula Must Be Destroyed

The "Spies, Tough Guys and Lone Wolves" issue. Interviewees include Andy Yates, organiser of Commando Swap Meets in Stoke-on-Trent and East Glasgow scout huts, and various attendees of same including Suresh Ramasubramanian, who, flew in from India to spend his birthday with fellow enthusiasts for the recent Glasgow get together to be rewarded with a pack of Tunnocks Tea cakes. Suresh particularly enjoys War Comics with a supernatural slant - perhaps he could be persuaded to comment on his favourites in a forthcoming issue? Other personal picks include Pipes of Glory - Colonel Marriott on the crucial role of the bagpipe in British war comics, be it as torture implement or makeshift stab vest, highlighting three strips based on the heroics of Jamie Richardson at the Battle of the Somme (it may not prove beyond us to scare up an equivalent from ghost fact/'fact' and fiction). For we of ghoulish tastes, a tribute to the late Kevin O'Neill comprises a gallery of covers and panels - some hilariously violent - from 'seventies favourites World of Horror and the poster-mag, Legend Horror Classics, while the Bullet feature concentrates primarily on Fireball's run-ins with killer rats, giant beetles, Jaws II, Satan's seagulls, etc.

See also Commando Horrors