Maybe the country's got war fever or preferably it's a thirst for nostalgia, because following the success of the two bumper Commando collections from Carlton Books, the company is now set to release two follow up volumes. These however originate not from DC Thomson, but from Commando's rival comic books Fleetway's War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library.
Although Commando is the sole surviving war digest being published today (8 titles a month) the original "picture library" comic in this format was War Picture Library, launched in 1958. The two £14.99 compilations from Carlton, Unleash Hell and Death or Glory each reprint 12 issues from War and Battle Picture Libraries respectively. Even better; the books will reproduce the artwork 25% larger than originally published, and Fleetway had some great artists on these stories!
More details can be found on the sites that broke this exciting news; John Freeman's excellent Down the Tubes website and Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog. (Incidentally, Steve is the editor of these collections and he knows his stuff. Check out that link for full front and back cover repros of the books.)
One of my English teachers (also my third-form master, now deceased) used to write for those digests at one point in his career. As an aspiring comics writer/artist (I never got further than journalism and freelance gag cartooninga) I was very impressed. They didn't have artist or writer credits, did they?
ReplyDeleteThey didn't unfortunately. (Nor did practically any other British comic at the time.)
ReplyDeleteI understand the Commando website now lists credits for the current issues.
Lew