Commando 5027-5030: On Sale 15 June 2017
Brand new Commando issues 5027-5030 are incoming, ready for
all Commando fans to take home!
Size doesn’t matter in this Commando bundle, as our heroes
range from the mighty John Littlejohn, a big Commando with an even bigger
attitude, to weedy West Virginian combat medic Jimmy Hopper. But in Commando
it’s about bravery, not bulk, and our heroes have it in stacks!
5027: Home of Heroes:
A Game of Hostages
The third instalment of Lieutenant Tom Dell and his S.A.S.
squad’s adventures doesn’t disappoint as our boys prove they are still just as
adept at landing themselves in trouble as they are at shooting their way out of
it. But when their Yankee friend, Major Jake Ryan, rescues a reluctant German
scientist, he is quickly dashed away to a secret soviet bunker, used as a
hostage to negotiate the release of the scientist, for whom the Russians have
their own nefarious plans….
All this is wrapped up in Ian Kennedy’s stunning pastel
cover, in which we see soviet soldiers’ silhouettes shooting from the mist, an
eerie fairground and Commando first, glowing in the background. Meanwhile, a
departure from Muller’s stylistic interior artwork in ‘Hunt and Harass’
(Commando No 5015), Vila and Morhain’s character designs still match their
previous iterations, but with their own flair, opting for a more classic
Commando look.
|Story | George Low | Art | Vila & Morhain | Cover | Ian
Kennedy |
5028: Gold Collection
Rogue Commando
Powell’s massive Commando John Littlejohn domineers the
pages of R. Fuente’s illustrations, filling panels from head to toe! There’s an
especially thrilling scene, justly captured in Jamieson’s cover in which a
Yugoslavian partisan clings to a snapped rope, hanging perilously over a
ravine, while the mighty Littlejohn bridges the frayed ends with only his
muscles.
But big as he may be, Littlejohn also manages to find
himself in trouble. And hot-tempered, he
was no stranger to a fight, be that with Italians, Nazis, the Yugoslavians he’s
trying to help or even his fellow Commandos…
|Story | Powell | Art | R. Fuente | Cover | Jamieson |
Originally Commando No 349 (August 1968)
5029: Action and Adventure:
Hopper’s War
Jimmy Hopper’s cousin Rick always bullied him. Jimmy was an
average kid, he never made the effort. But Rick was different, he joined the
army the day he turned eighteen, never shying away from anything, so maybe he was
right to judge him. But when Jimmy was drafted in 1968, he wasn’t ready to
fight. He wasn’t happy with killing. That was when he decided to become a medic
– saving lives instead of taking them. But when Rick is reunited with Jimmy
amidst the violence of Vietnam, he sees him as only a coward, the bad blood
still running between them…
Using this unusual perspective for a Commando issue, Janek’s
cover, while dramatic, with windswept jungle, a smoking flare and medics
hurriedly loading a wounded soldier onto the helicopter, attention is instantly
drawn to the medical red cross, a stand out theme in the issue.
Also, like his work in ‘A Game of Hostages’, Morhain’s thick
black lines take inspiration from Commando artists from the Golden era of
pocket libraries, giving Commando its instantly recognisable artwork. But
adding his own style, his illustrations use of white space during lulls in the
fighting works as an excellent contrast to the use of dark, heavy blacks during
the action, perfectly encapsulating the confusion and horror of battle.
|Story | Ferg Handley | Art | Morhain | Cover | Janek
Matysiak |
5030: Silver Collection
Cold Sweat
Trust is the key theme in Costello’s Silver Age story from
the 1990s. After Colin Copper falls off an icy slope and is left behind in a
blizzard during the British retreat in Norway he is saved from death by a
Norwegian villager. But, as the Nazis tighten their grip on Norway, Colin has
to get out. Shown the way by the Norwegian’s son, Leif, Colin is soon captured
by Nazis. Was is Leif? Has Colin been betrayed by the son of his saviour? Find
out in this issue!
With a setting like Norway, it’s easy to show flat barren
snows capes, but Rigby simply does not allow this, dotting the panels with
tall, thick pines and carefully shaded slopes. As a result, this dramatic
setting is not lost in Phil Gascoine’s dark and moody cover, with Colin, caught
in fear and surprise as two German soldiers take aim at him, framing the cover
and barring all escape.
|Story | Costello | Art |C. T. Rigby | Cover | Phil Gascoine
|
Originally Commando No 2613 (November 1992)
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