EL MESTIZO arrives soon!

I've plugged this book before but that was before I had all the info from Rebellion. Besides, it's a good book, so well worth plugging again! 

El Mestizo collects the full story that ran in Battle Picture Weekly in 1977, written by Alan Hebden and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. Sadly, the book went to print before Carlos passed away so there's no mention of his passing. He knew the book was in production though, and from the brief conversations we had I know El Mestizo was one of his favourite strips so I'm sure he'd have been pleased to see it back in print.

Although set in the American Civil War, El Mestizo is basically a Western, and that may have confused some younger readers of Battle who just wanted stories about the military. The strip didn't run for long, but it deserved to run longer, but this book collects the whole run for new readers to appreciate. It's well worth buying, so here's the details plus a preview of the first chapter...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Alan Hebden (w) Carlos Ezquerra (a) 
• RELEASE DATE: 15th November (UK) 28th November (US)
• HARDCOVER, 65 pages
• PRICE: £14.99 (UK) $19.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086575
• DIAMOND: SEP181945

A bitter sweet and much-needed collection of the late Carlos Ezquerra's unconventional Western series. In 1862, as the American Civil War tears a nation in two, dangerous men prosper through bloodshed. El Mestizo was once a slave who managed to escape to Mexico. Now he's come back over the border, a mercenary for hire. But is he really allied to neither side? High-octane revenge Western from the co-creator of Judge Dredd. Perfect for fans of Moebius's Blueberry and the motion picture Django Unchained.

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop & apps for iPad, Android & Windows 10

New comic from Rebellion: SNIPER ELITE

Hot on the heels of The Vigilant special comes another new comic from Rebellion. Sniper Elite: Resistance is a monthly three-issue mini-series and the first issue goes on sale this Wednesday in newsagents and comic shops. 

Based on Rebellion's own video game, this is a war comic for older readers and, yes, the Battle logo in the corner box will be relevant as the series progresses. Wait and see!

SNIPER ELITE: RESISTANCE #1

* CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Richardson (w) Patrick Goddard (a) Quinton Winter (c) Jim Campbell (l)

* UK, NORTH AMERICA & DIGITAL: 29th August 2018 £2.99/$3.99

* DIAMOND: JUN181950

* COVER: PATRICK GODDARD (a) QUINTON WINTER (c)

Based on the global best-selling Rebellion videogame, Sniper Elite: Resistance comes this adrenaline-fuelled thrill-ride 3-issue combat mini-series! Occupied France: Allied SOE hero Karl Fairburne parachutes into Angouleme in a bid to stop the shipment of a new German anti-aircraft weapon.

Preview of the first three pages...

Available in print from: newsagents and comic book stores via Diamond

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop (http://shop.2000adonline.com/) , 2000 AD iPad app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/2000-ad-featuring-judge-dredd/id993151052) , 2000 AD Android app (http://www.2000adonline.com/android) , 2000 AD Windows 10 app (http://www.2000adonline.com/windows10)

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

BATTLE's variety of covers

Last year I showed a selection of dynamic Battle Picture Weekly covers (see here) and, as there were so many great covers over the years, I thought I'd quickly scan a few more to show you today. These are selected from the years 1978 to 1980, by which time the comic's title had become Battle Action due to Action merging into it. Unlike most mergers, where the subsumed comic quickly sees its logo diminished, Battle made the Action title a fixture for a few years and actually incorporated it into a new masthead design as the name suited the comic so well. 

Battle Action had some great covers full of tension and explosive drive. The one above is by Joe Colquhoun.

Carlos Ezquerra was a natural artist to depict gritty war scenes, as this cover demonstrates...

Issue 200 of Battle Action is significant in that it featured the first episode of Charley's War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun. However, the cover of the issue was by Mike Western (with a vignette of Glory Rider by Geoff Campion.)

Battle Action experimented with its cover design more than any other IPC comic of the 1970s. I'm not sure this one using previews of interior strips worked, but it was an interesting attempt!

The best comic covers were the ones where text and illustration worked together for dynamic effect, as with this superb one drawn by John Cooper...

A good cover also grabs attention, such as this one by Cam Kennedy...

Prior to Battle Action, most comics kept the masthead in the same place every week, but this comic shook things up a bit. A logo in the centre of a cover? Certainly eye-catching, and that's what it's all about...

Another terrific cover by Joe Colquhoun...

Mike Western was one of IPC's top artists, having illustrated covers for Valiant for most of its 14 year run. A versatile artist who could turn his hand to a slightly lighter style (eg: Buster's Leopard from Lime Street) or to darker, more dramatic material suited to Battle Action...

With all the fuss made about how violent Action was in 1976, people tend to forget that Battle was equally as grim at times. No publisher today would approve a cover for a kids' comic showing a knife at a throat, even if the subject was a Nazi. Art by Carlos Ezquerra...

Another dramatic Mike Western scene, showing that even a dog could look deadly on the cover of this comic!

In 1980, Battle Action had a revamp, swiftly diminishing the Action part of the logo and bringing back the original Battle masthead. Its major change though was that strips now started on the cover (Charley's War and Johnny Red alternating week by week). Although this meant the comic suddenly looked very old school in its design, I must admit it was this issue that caught my eye and started me buying the comic. That said, I was 21, older than its target audience, so I've no idea what kids thought of this rather old fashioned looking cover revamp. I suspect many were not impressed, because this was the start of many changes for Battle that would eventually lead to its demise.

That said, how could anyone resist such a great illustration by joe Colquhoun?

Battle Action and the cover images in this post are Copyright ©Rebellion Publishing Ltd. 

Ron Turner's SPINBALL WARS (Battle-Action 1978)

The artist Ron Turner delighted comics readers in the 1950s with his superb science fiction strips such as Space Ace and Rick Random, and in the 1960s with his colour work on The Daleks for TV21. By 1978 he was illustrating The Spinball Wars for Battle-Action, and I'd like to show you a sample of that today. This episode is from Battle-Action dated 7th January 1978.

The Spinball Wars had begun life as Death Game 1999 for Action in 1976, changed to the less violent Spinball when the comic was toned down, and later became Spinball Wars to suit the war-themed Battle Picture Weekly when it and Action merged in 1977. Though not as gory as the early issues of Action had been, Battle-Action was still more brutal than most comics, as you can see from this strip with someone being riddled with bullets, his corpse staring blankly at the reader. Ron Turner's style would have perhaps been too slick for a traditional war strip but it was ideal for the futuristic Spinball Wars. 

Hopefully, now that Rebellion have the rights to this old material, perhaps we'll be seeing collections of Death Game 1999 and Spinball Wars in the future?

BATTLE cover selection 1975 to 1979

Right from its early issues in 1975, Battle Picture Weekly used a combination of terse captions and striking artwork to deliver dynamic, eye-catching front covers. Admittedly, D.C. Thomson's Warlord had been the inspiration (see here), but IPC's Battle took it to another level, making previous kids' comics look sedate in comparison. 

Here's a selection of some of the best Battle covers...

Art: Geoff Campion

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Geoff Campion

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Mike Western

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Ian Kennedy

Art: Joe Colquhoun

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Mike McMahon

Composite artwork.

Art: Joe Colquhoun

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

All covers scanned from my own collection of comics.

Artwork © Rebellion A/S

EL MESTIZO! (1977)

The issue of Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant dated 4th June 1977 introduced its readers to a brand new character: El Mestizo, created by writer Alan Hebden and artist Carlos Ezquerra. The debut of the series was announced with a brilliantly designed cover (above) with art by Ezquerra. 

Traditionally, war comics tended to focus mainly on World War 2 although Battle did broaden its scope somewhat. Even so, a story set in the American Civil War with a lead character who was a lone gunman clearly had elements of a 'Spaghetti Western' about it too, making El Mestizo a unique strip in the comic. I'm not sure how that went down with readers. One would think it'd be welcomed as a refreshing change, but some readers can have fixed preferences when it comes to comics. 

At any rate, the series only ran for 16 weeks, ending in the issue dated 17th September 1977. I'm not sure if there was another series. As always, Carlos Ezquerra's artwork is a joy to see and this is some of his best work of the period. Without further ado, here's the first episode. One of the most interesting things is how that first page slowly builds up to the entrance of El Mestizo. It was very unusual for British comics to use sequential techniques like that at the time...

Carlos Ezquerra is a guest at the Manchester Film and Comic Con this weekend. Why not come along and meet the great man? 
http://www.filmandcomicconmanchester.com/

Battle Picture Weekly, IPC's big launch of 1975

Cover art by Oliver Frey. (Thanks to David Roach for that info.)

Surprisingly, although this blog is now in its 10th year I seem to have neglected one of the most popular comics of the late 20th Century. Let's put that right with a look at the first issue of Battle Picture Weekly.

By the mid-1970s, IPC hadn't been having much success with their adventure comic launches. Both Thunder and Jet had bombed after 22 weeks each, the revamped Smash! was gone, as was the long-running Lion, and even their most successful new comic, Scorcher, had folded after nearly five years of publication. DC Thomson still had a fair number of comics, and the expansion of Marvel UK's line of reprints was also a threat. Then, in 1974, Thomson's launched Warlord, a new, dynamic-looking comic filled with war stories. It became an immediate hit. Knowing the company's old formula was no longer working, IPC hired freelance writers John Wagner and Pat Mills to produce a rival comic to Warlord, - and they succeeded admirably. 

Battle Picture Weekly No.1 was published on Thursday 6th March (or possibly the day before, as "Every Thursday" comics usually appeared on Wednesdays). The title was derived from IPC's long-running Battle Picture Library pocket-comics. (Most kids, and contributors, would just refer to the weekly as Battle, so that's the name I'll use here.) One of Warlord's visual strengths was its limited use of colour for the covers with fiery reds and yellows (although that may also have been a budgetary consideration). Battle competed by upping its game to utilise the more expensive Web Offset printing methods. This enabled fully painted cover art and better paper than standard newsprint. (Although it downgraded to cheap newsprint after the first 12 months.)

Inside, page two kicked off the comic with a short and snappy message to welcome the readers. No pseudonymous 'Pete/Mike the Office Boy' types with fictional anecdotes as had been the norm on Scorcher and Smash! This was clearly a new no-nonsense kind of IPC comic for a modern generation. The stories would also have a more direct approach to dialogue and action, making them exciting and fast paced.

Page three brought us Battle's first character; D-Day Dawson written by Gerry Finley-Day and drawn by Colin Page I believe. (Sadly, the comic was uncredited at this point.) Dawson was "a man with nothing to lose" due to a bullet lodged near his heart and would prove to be a popular strip for quite a while. 

Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe saw a pilot officer escape a prison camp and adopt a dead German's identity to join the Luftwaffe so he can secretly shoot down German planes. 

The Flight of the Golden Hinde was perhaps the most old school (and daftest) of the contents, with a replica sailing ship embarking on its war against German shipping. Superb artwork though, which looks like that of Vanyo to me but I'm unsure.

The full colour centre pages featured Day of the Eagle, introducing us to British secret agent Mike Nelson, code-named the Eagle. Written by Eric Hebden and drawn by Pat Wright. By the end of chapter one, Nelson had been assigned his mission; kill Adolph Hitler! 

The Bootneck Boy by Gerry Finley-Day and drawn by Giralt was about the trials and tribulations of young recruit Danny Budd...

Rat Pack was Battle's main feature with six pages devoted to the strip. (A luxury back then, when most strips ran to half that amount.) A straightforward premise inspired by The Dirty Dozen; criminals with specialist abilities commissioned to work as a crack commando unit. Story by Gerry Finley-DAy, art by Carlos Ezquerra.

The Terror Behind the Bamboo Curtain closed out the comic; a tense story of prisoners of war in Burma. 

On the back page, a regular feature called This Amazing War! Perhaps too jolly a title for the image of death shown beneath it. 

Although Battle was unashamedly influenced by Warlord it definitely had its own approach to the stories. Warlord's main character was a pillar of the establishment, Lord Peter Flint, whereas Battle's main strip featured four hardened criminals. Overall, Battle had a grittier, tougher (and more violent) edge than its rival, an aspect that Pat Mills and John Wagner would also bring to Action and 2000AD of course.  

Battle was also far tougher than its companion comics Tiger and Valiant, although Valiant would later undergo a revamp by John Wagner to bring it up to date. (A move that was sadly too late to halt its cancellation but at least made it more suitable to merge into Battle in late 1976.) The only drawback perhaps was the use of typeset lettering instead of hand lettering, although I suspect that was a misguided attempt to make Battle feel less juvenile than its predecessors.

Battle enjoyed a good long run of well over 600 issues, lasting until January 1988. It lost some of its edge in later years, except for the standout strip Charley's War of course (which debuted in 1979) but 13 years is an impressive run for any comic.

The rights to Battle are now with Egmont and Titan Books have published several volumes reprinting strips from the comic, including Charley's War, Johnny Red, Rat Pack, Darkie's Mob, and more. There's also The Best of Battle which reprints a selection of strips. Well worth checking out.