Comics UK

Heads up for those who have more than a passing interest in Battle's legacy. Recently, David Bishop has compiled his article series "Blazing Battle Action", which was published in Judge Dredd Megazine issues 210-213 during 2003, into an e-book. Sadly, the book doesn't include the original art that e...

Hi, Comicmix, my feelings on this kind of illustration as regards true stories was mixed. As previously posted, I felt that Victor was a master of this type. Battle, I felt, was seemingly levered into a show of this demonstration: surely they weren't threatened with Victor's ongoing form of historic...

For Battle-Action's 200th edition, an additional series complemented not only the usual quota of seven strips but also occupied the colour centre pages, demoting "Crazy Keller" for a few months. "True-Life Heroes" depicted personal accounts of honour and valour during both world wars. Several series...

H.M.S. Nightshade reunited John Wagner and Mike Western, a story of Geordie Dunn who narrated to his grandson about his young naval exploits aboard Nightshade. While lacking the edge of their previous collaboration "Darkie's Mob", Nightshade conveyed a tone that was not too dissimilar to its contemp...

At the moment, I feel somewhat in an enviable position. While I read "Charley's War" from the beginning until around 1981, I have little or no memory of how the series played out. Therefore, essentially, I'm now reading the whole series for the first time in a weekly format. Of course, I'm not readi...

Cheers for that, Col. Now I have something of interest to research. That's what I like about this site... there's always someone, somewhere with either an answer or an inkling at least

I paid Phil Gascoine a disservice on my last post as regards "The Sarge". On reading Battle's 204th issue, I made a mental note that Phil had toned down the caricature-like features of certain characters. A niggling suspicion then prompted to me to reach for and flick through issue 203 where upon I ...

For my sins, I associated Phil's work mainly with girl's comics and, therefore, I confess to surprise that not only had he gained limited success in the states but also contributed regularly to Marvel UK.

Battle's celebrations for its 200th issue were unexpectedly placed on ice for a week. An anticipated 30/12/78 cover dated issue failed to materialize. A union dispute sprang immediately to mind and yet several titles from IPC's stable occupied the newsagent's shelf over the Christmas period of 1978:...

Cheers, Lew. The book is still in stock and has been ordered.

Courtesy of Lew and his reference to Hurricane and Tiger, I have been able to research Sergeant Rock - Special Air Service with more fortune than previous. The Sergeant began life as "Paratrooper" in Hurricane's cover dated issue of 04/07/64 as a narrator, a device to introduce war stories from, pre...

Thanks for that, Lew. I couldn't get this information from anywhere else. Maybe, I just didn't look hard enough. Anyway, cheers.

On the inside cover of Battle Annual 1979, published and released around the Autumn of 1978, the list of contents read like an old school boy's reunion for Battle - practically reviving the weekly's debut cast: "Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe", "Flight of the Golden Hinde", "D-Day Dawson", "The Bootneck ...

During the first six years of its history, Battle had the luxury to forsake the necessity for free gifts that were primarily designed to boost a title's readership. Apart from the customary "giveaways" in its initial three issues, Battle's next free gift appeared in early 1981. Even the pre-ban "Act...

A while ago, after reading the first 100 issues of Battle, I compiled and posted a couple of charts: firstly, artists with the most pages of printed art (excluding covers and illustrated features); secondly, series with the most number of episodes. These are printed below to save on searching. Giral...