Preview: ROY OF THE ROVERS - BEST OF THE 1950s

It's terrific news for older readers and true comic enthusiasts that Rebellion are delving into the 1950s for a new addition to their Treasury of British Comics books. Roy of the Rovers: Best of the 1950s goes right back to the very beginning for the character, reprinting his earliest stories from Tiger when it launched on Tuesday 7th September 1954! (Specifically the book covers issues dated week endings 11th September 1954 to 21st May 1955 and 20th August 1955 to 11th February 1956 inclusive so there's a lot of episodes here!)

The strips have been scanned from those old comics and remastered to the best quality for this new collection. Although some of the early Roy of the Rovers strips were reprinted in Hurricane in 1964 retitled as 'Hurry of the Hammers' this is the first time they've been reprinted faithfully, and Rebellion have done an excellent job. 

The back up features include Take a Tour Around Melchester Stadium from a 1950s Roy of the Rovers Annual (previously reprinted in Titan's Best of Roy of the Rovers in 2008) and other strips from the annuals of the period. 

This is a great collection that should please fans of the character old and new. Even non-sports fans should enjoy it because in those days Roy of the Rovers was drawn by Joe Colquhoun, later to find more fame as the artist of Charley's War. This book is a superb chance to see Joe's rare early work! 

Here's the PR for it, along with the strips from the first two issues of Tiger, from way back in 1954! 

• CREATIVE TEAM: Frank S. Pepper (w) Joe Colquhoun (a)
• RELEASE DATE: 25th July 2019
• HARDCOVER, 148 pages
• PRICE: £19.99 (UK)
• ISBN: 9781781087176

On September 11th 1954 a new weekly sports anthology comic called Tiger was launched in the UK. It’s lead strip, Roy of the Rovers – a story starring a young footballer called Roy Race who played for Melchester Rovers – quickly became a fan favourite. This incredible collection with never-before reprinted stories charts the early days of Roy’s association with Melchester Rovers, from the highs of signing for the club he supported as a boy to the lows of having his boots stolen before a big game! Experience the first decade of Melchester’s greatest soccer sensation in this glorious football action on and off the pitch!

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and UK comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

A classic ROY OF THE ROVERS collection is coming this summer!

Just time for a very quick post today... the latest Previews catalogue has revealed that Rebellion will be collecting the earliest Roy of the Rovers strips in a hardback volume coming in July.

Written by Frank Pepper and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, Roy of the Rovers: Best of the 1950s will be a hardback reprinting strips from Tiger. A very welcome addition to their Treasury of British Comics range!

More details will emerge in the weeks to come, but for now here's a cover preview and the basic info. Pre-order it from your local comic shop with the Item Code MAY193304.

The legend begins here! Celebrating 65 years of goals and glory, this first in a spectacular new luxury treasury series collects the very best stories from the first decade of Roy of the Rovers comics. An icon of British comics and sporting history is born, with his origin presented in glorious hardback for the first time! Remastered for a new generation in the over-sized Treasury of British Comics format. 

Item Code: MAY193304

SRP: £19.99

https://www.previewsworld.com/Article/228616-Roy-of-the-Rovers-Best-of-the-50s-HC

The Christmas TIGER AND JAG (1969)

Most adventure comics tended to avoid Christmas stories as they interfered with continuity or were an awkward fit for serials, but Tiger and Jag editor David Gregory was happy to accommodate the festivities (as did Barrie Tomlinson when he was promoted from sub-editor to editor in 1970). This cover by John Vernon was always a favourite of mine, as it managed to fit in Santa, Christmas decorations, presents, snow, a special festive logo, and still find time for the story. 

The Skid Solo story continued inside with more winter adventure. The scriptwriter was Fred Baker, a very busy and talented creator who also wrote Billy's Boots, Hot Shot Hamish,  and many other strips...

Roy of the Rovers and his team were also celebrating, with a slap-up feed. art by Yvonne Hutton...

Splash Gorton (name inspired by Flash Gordon, look inspired by Sixties hippies) was a strip about a swimmer, with art by Joe Colquhoun ten years before he'd draw Charley's War...

War and football were the two mainstays of British adventure weeklies and Tiger combined them into one strip with The Barbed Wire Eleven, about British P.O.W.s forming a football team. Art by Jim Bleach. 

The centre page strip was a delight. Football Family Robinson was always entertaining, and John Gillatt's artwork was fantastic. The strip was originally drawn by Joe Colquhoun, a hard act to follow, but John did a superb job.

An advert for that year's annuals, plus a notice about the impending change to decimal currency that would come into force 14 months later...

Nosey was Tiger and Jag's single humour strip. The art looks a lot like the work of Chas Sinclair but I'm not sure if it is his or not. (At that time he was freelancing for TV Comic on Basil Brush.)

Another snowy strip ending with a Christmas feed, Typhoon Tracy was drawn by Graham Allen, who had previously illustrated many humour pages for the Odhams comics. A skilled artist who could do both funnies and light adventure. 

There'll be another Christmas comic tomorrow! Visit the blog again to unwrap it!

Thoughts on Charley's War

I hated war comic strips when I was a kid in the 1960s and early '70s. So much so that I'd skip strips such as Captain Hurricane in Valiant and Paddy Payne in Lion and would avoid comics such as Victor and Hornet as they seemed to feature so many stories of armed conflict. Commando? Not a chance.

Why did I dislike them so much? Perhaps it was because unlike most people of my age, I didn't grow up hearing anecdotes about life in the military. In World War 2 my dad had failed his medical due to ill health, so he couldn't enlist, and my grandad was in the A.R.P. (During WW1 my grandad had worked on farms and the railway.) However, my family and their friends had often talked about the nightly horrors of the bombing raids. Therefore I knew that real war wasn't a jolly adventure as depicted in Captain Hurricane and I think I resented war comics for not being more honest.

Perhaps it was also because my parents let me watch the evening news and I often read the Daily Mirror where it was clearly evident that war (then raging in Viet Nam) was a grim affair. Admittedly I was well into sci-fi comics and superheroes, so perhaps war strips were too grounded for me, but it wasn't just that. It was the gung-ho attitude that really put me off. 

When Battle Picture Weekly came along in 1975 I was 16, so I was "growing out of kids' comics" as I considered them. I had the first issue because it was a first issue, read it quickly, stored it away in my collection, then didn't bother again. What changed things was years later noticing Charley's War on the cover on the latest issue whilst browsing the comic racks in a newsagents. The issue dated 12th July 1980 (shown below). I recognised the artist as being that of the guy who'd drawn Football Family Robinson for Jag and Kid Chameleon for Cor!! so I bought the comic out of curiosity.

My perceptions of war comics changed immediately. Charley's War didn't glorify war as so many of its predecessors had. Here was an anti-war strip, right in the heart of a boys' war comic! It felt radical, it felt real, and I was hooked! The other strips had some merit too, but the only reason I started buying Battle was for Charley's War, which I'd cut out and save. The writer was Pat Mills, and the artist was Joe Colquhoun.

I know now of course that I'd done the early issues of Battle Picture Weekly a disservice by ignoring them. The comic was superb, part of an important new direction for UK comics, and didn't pull its punches. I've since collected the first five years of the comic so I can enjoy the tightly-written and grittily illustrated stories at my leisure.

All that is a long preamble to give another promotion to Rebellion's superb Charley's War books, but, heck, it's my blog so I'll waffle if I want to. Plus, as we reach the 100th anniversary of the WW1 armistice I wanted to put my thoughts about war comics out there. War has always appalled me, and I still dislike the unrealistic types of war comics, but Charley's War is the antithesis of that and an essential read!

In Charley's War, we see the story from the perspective of a young lad, Charley Bourne, who enlists with the optimism to serve his country in the Great War. His naivety is soon shaken by the harshness of his environment, and the tragedies and hardships that he encounters. Unlike many war comics that had officers as the main hero, Charley Bourne is a tommy, a working class hero.

Although the depictions of warfare are well researched and realistic, some artistic license had to be employed because one soldier could not possibly experience all that befalls Charley throughout the saga. In that respect, Charley Bourne represents the everyman. In other situations that would be too far removed for a soldier in the trenches the story shifts to depict the stories of Charley's brother Wilf, or the French deserter, Blue. 

I consider Charley's War to be the greatest war story in comics. Perhaps the greatest adventure story in any British comic. The three books published by Rebellion collect the entire saga which runs to almost 1,000 pages in total. To me, it's the best work of Pat and Joe's long careers. They clearly both felt very passionate about the subject matter and they succeeded in treating it with respect for ordinary soldiers caught up in the conflict, and a contempt for those that put them through it.

At the moment, Rebellion are doing a special offer of all three books for £39.99. A good deal considering that each book is over 300 pages. Go to the publisher's website here:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/B0001

The motto "Lest We Forget" is used in remembrance ceremonies but, sadly, politicians did forget, or didn't care, and there have been multiple conflicts since. Books like Charley's War are essential reading for all ages as a reminder that war is not to be taken lightly.

All artwork in this post is Copyright © Rebellion Publishing Limited.

Preview: Charley's War Volume 3

Charged with emotion, the conclusion to Charley's War, possibly the greatest British adventure strip of all time is coming next month when Rebellion publish the final volume in their definitive collection of the anti-war strip.

Charley's War: The Definitive Collection Volume 3: Remembrance gathers together the final chapters of the story set in World War One, written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Joe Colquhoun at the top of their game. A 370 page blockbuster of a book, digitally remastered to bring you sharp reproduction. An unmissable collection from The Treasury of British Comics. 

Here's the details and a few preview pages...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills, (w) Joe Colquhoun (a) John Aldrich, Mike Peters, Peter Knight (l)
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 14th June 2018
• PAPERBACK, 370 pages
• PRICE: £19.99 (UK) $26.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086216
• DIAMOND: APR181718


After killing former comrades as part of a firing squad, Charley has joined the Stretcher Bearers in an attempt to save lives rather than take them. But he soon fi nds himself back behind a rifl e reunited with ‘The Scholar’ as his new offi cer, while an entrenched group of German soldiers engage them in a sniper stand-off! Meanwhile Charley’s younger brother Wilf has his own struggles in the skies, as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps. Charley’s adventures take him through the fi nal months of the War in Europe to the cold land of Russia, under the orders of his unjust superiors and their corrupt interests… This final volume concludes Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s anti-war epic, a monument to the power of comics.

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Preview: Charley's War, The Definitive Collection Volume 2

The next book in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line will be the second volume of Charley's War: The Definitive Collection. Hot on the heels of Vol.1 which was released last week, Volume 2 will be published on May 17th.

Volume 2, subtitled Brothers In Arms, will be another chunky softback of over 330 pages, reprinting the classic WW1 story by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun. This edition covers the stories from Battle Action from late 1980 to mid 1982. The horrors of the war continue, and this time we're given the story of a deserter, the British mutiny, and Charlie's encounters with the sadistic British officer Captain Snell. 

When these stories first appeared in Battle-Action, the comic was sadly past its best, but Charley's War was a true gem. Indeed, it would even have stood head and shoulders above the contents of any comic, such was the high standard of the creative team. Pat Mills' dedicated research into the subject matter, combined with his skills of writing a gripping adventure story, made the strip unmissable, and Joe Colquhoun's powerful, detailed, and emotive artwork was the perfect match. 

Back in the day, I was buying Battle-Action solely for Charley's War, and would carefully cut out those pages in order to staple each story arc together into makeshift books. Now that we have these Definitive Collections, better printed than the original comics, I'll be replacing my yellowing old pages with these handsome books.

In short, not to be missed! Here's a preview of the first chapter in Volume 2...

CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills, (w) Joe Colquhoun (a) John Aldrich, Mike Peters, Peter Knight (l)
REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
RELEASE DATE: 17th May 2018
PAPERBACK, 320 pages
PRICE: £19.99 (UK) TBC (US)
ISBN: 9781781086209
DIAMOND: TBC

Injured in The Battle of the Somme, Charley returns to wartime London and meets a deserter from the French Foreign Legion, Blue, who tells of his brutal experiences of the Battle of Verdun. All too soon Charley returns to the front line at Ypres where the threat from the German army is matched only by the inhumanity of his superiors! In the face of suffering and injustice, seeds of mutiny begin to grow among the ranks… This second volume of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s masterpiece continues to tell the story of an ordinary soldier’s experiences in World War One, including the vibrant re-mastered colour pages from the original comic. Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

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. 

The New Year COR!! (1973)

If my settings are right, this post should go live around midnight so a Happy New Year for 2018... and for 1973 in this case! Here are a few examples from the New Year edition of Cor!! which introduced The Goodies as a new strip, based on the very popular TV show of the time.

The cover art is by Joe Colquhoun, proving that he was as adept at humour as he was for adventure strips. Amongst many other strips, Joe was the original artist on Roy of the Rovers in the 1950s, drew the adventures of fighter ace Paddy Payne in the 1960s, and the gritty anti-war strip Charley's War in the 1970s/80s.

He'd used his lighter touch on strips such as Cap'n Codsmouth and Football Family Robinson for Jag so was ideal to draw The Goodies strip for Cor!!

Cor!! was mainly a humour comic, with an occasional light adventure strip. One of the funnies was Whacky, a boy fated to find himself in situations that led to him being whacked on the backside. (It was the 1970s.) The sadistic teacher in this strip gets his just desserts, but it really does read like a very peculiar strip to modern sensibilities with "Sir" obsessed with whacking the boy for no other reason than the teacher obviously gets a kick out of it! Art by Mike Lacey...

5 Minute Wanda was another new strip that began in that issue. Some IPC humour characters were based on a very flimsy premise. In this case, a girl who gets bored after five minutes. Art by Graham Allen...

Jasper the Grasper had started out as a very short lived series in Wham! in the 1960s, drawn by Ken Reid. This revived series for Cor!! was drawn by Trevor Metcalfe. That's still Ken's old logo though.

Donovan's Dad was originally by Terry Bave but this one is drawn by Les Barton (who'd been the original artist on I-Spy for Sparky). I don't know if this was a fill-in or whether Les was the permanent replacement, but it's a very nice page. 

Eddie - He's Always Bored was so similar to 5 Minute Wanda that I'm surprised both characters appeared in the same comic. Both strips even had the same artist in Graham Allen. It was always good to see Graham's work though, as he'd been one of the regulars on the Odhams comics and the first artist on The Nervs for Smash!

Most of these strips are now ©Rebellion Publishing. I think Jasper the Grasper may be still owned by Time Inc. though (as it originated in Wham!) and The Goodies are presumably still owned by... The Goodies!