COMMANDO 5015 to 5018 out this week

Despite blogs like this and others spreading the word, there are still some who think Commando folded years ago. Nope, D.C. Thomson still publish 4 issues of Commando every fortnight, - that's 8 issues a month, - alternating brand new stories with classic reprint every other issue. 

Here's the info on the four issues that will arrive in newsagents this Thursday...

This week’s bundle of Commandos will take you across the battlefields and skies of WWII, from the Steppes of Kursk to Northern Italy and the perilous skies above the English Channel, and perhaps even a little further…

5015: Home of Heroes: Hunt and Harass

Story | George Low | Art | Muller | Cover | Ian Kennedy |

As you can tell from Ian Kennedy’s thrilling cover, Tom’s team from “Sucker Punch” (Commando No. 4979) are back in George Low’s latest original story, and this time they must face the evil Rauss, notorious for his love of torture, and his sidekick Weiss, a Nazi dame with a killer shot. This time Tom’s crew reluctantly team up with Yankee Major Jake Ryan, who has his own vendetta against the deadly Weiss.

Muller’s artwork style is reminiscent of its period setting, opting for larger eyes and narrower chins, characteristic of 1940s animator Grim Natwick. Muller also has a flair for adding drama and dimension, experimenting with different angles and perspectives.  

5016: Gold Collection: The Loner

Story | Feldwick | Art | Sostres|Cover | Ken Barr

Originally Commando No 336 (June 1968)

Legendary pioneering Commando artist, Ken Barr’s cover says it all. As the dastardly Nazi pilot fires his luger from his ditched plane, pilot Jacuqes Ledoux flies overhead, the French flag on his tail just visible (detail of which is certainly not lost in Sostres’s interior art), as the blood red of the title bleeds into the blue waves underneath.

But, unlike the shooting Nazi, Ledoux is a true gentleman, who believes in chivalry above all else, even in war. However, Ledoux’s squadron don’t like that, believing the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. So why is Ledoux showing them mercy? Could he be a German spy?

Set in the skies over the English Channel, Feldwick’s story masterfully uses this location to show two nations fighting against one, and how two rival pilots might learn to bridge their differences.

5017: Action and Adventure: The Elefant

Story| Colin Watson | Art | Vicente Alcazar | Cover | David Alexander

Colin Watson’s original story is inspired by the tank battles on the Steppes of Kursk in 1943, in which 6,000 tanks fought, making it the largest tank battle in history. But no detail is spared in David Alexander’s cover or Vicente Alcazar’s depiction of Panzer Mark IVs, T-34s, Ferdinands, and, of course, the Elefant.

The story follows the crew of one such Ferdiand, and later the eponymous Elefant, led by Heinz Schmitt, who are fighting the Red Army in Operation Citadel, until they are blackmailed by their reprehensible C.O., Oberst Oscar Braun, whose only concern is profit.

5018: Silver Collection: Time Warp Warrior

Originally Commando No 2545 (February 1992)

Story | Mike Knowles | Art | C. T. Rigby | Cover | Ian Kennedy

In a spectacular collaboration of three Commando Comics veterans, we dig deeper into the Science Fiction vein of last release’s “Flight of Fancy” (Commando No. 5011), in a story featuring time travel, telekinesis and body transference.

Mike Knowles’ story is set far in the future of Earth, when a wise and kind council rule peacefully. However, this harmony is threatened when evil Dextra travels back in time with four others to retrieve the lost art of warfare from different periods in human history. Humanities only hope is “ancient” warfare historian, Cam, who is sent back to stop them, armed only with his vast knowledge of war.

C. T. Rigby’s detailed art captures everything from the Roman uniforms in ancient Britain, to the armour of King Henry V, and finally the battlefronts of WWI and WWII. And, as usual, Ian Kennedy’s cover is spectacular, depicting Cam as literally out of this world, standing tall with planet Earth behind him.

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