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Thursday, May 24, 2018

BATTLE is back... sort of. All-new comic from Rebellion

Battle Picture Weekly (later known simply as Battle) was one of the most successful UK comics of the 1970s, and enjoyed a long 13-year run, notching up over 600 issues. Now, Rebellion have revived the name and logo as a new imprint for a three-issue mini-series starting in August.

Sniper Elite: Resistance is the actual title of the comic, and it's based on the popular videogame. It will be in the American sized format and on sale through comic speciality shops. (No word yet on whether it'll be available in newsagents.) Written by Keith Richardson with art by Patrick Goddard, issue No.1 goes on sale August 29th. 

Although it's highly unlikely we'll ever see Battle or any other old comic revived as a weekly anthology comic, (those days are long gone) this is a good way to use the name for today's audience. It's not the first time the title has been associated with a licensed product of course, having used the Action Force name in the 1980s.

It's also interesting to see Rebellion getting into the American market directly. They've previously licensed characters to U.S. companies (such as IDW's Judge Dredd comics) but this approach seems similar to that used by Titan. Basically they're British comics, edited and created in the UK, but printed and distributed in the USA (and imported into the UK). Rebellion have done it before with their Free Comic Book Day editions of 2000AD but I think this is the first time they've done it with a mini-series.

You can find out more information on Sniper Elite: Resistance at the 2000AD website here:
https://2000ad.com/post/3545





2 comments:

Dale Brown said...

This interests me a lot. If Battle is never coming back, then this looks like the next best thing.

Lew Stringer said...

I don't think Battle will ever return as a weekly anthology. That "business model" is a 20th Century thing. I will predict that we may see Battle characters in mini-series like this though. Pure speculation on my part. (And no doubt we'll see more reprint collections of classic Battle strips.)

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