Battler Britton Returns

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 05 Apr 2006, 14:26

The rumours are true, WildStorm ARE reviving Battler Britton.

A 5 part series begins in July, script by Garth Ennis and art by New Zealand's Colin Wilson (who did a fantastic job on the recent Sleeper prequel "Point Blank").

I couldn't think of a better team for this book!

Info here:

http://www.downthetubes.net/news_archiv ... ml#battler[/b]

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 05 Apr 2006, 14:39

There's also a very interesting item on that same site about the demise of the fanzine "Eagle Flies Again". Apparently part of the reason it's folding is because "the Dan Dare Corporation, the copyright holders of Dan Dare, (said) that all future Dan Dare/Eagle related publications must be licensed".

Interesting times.

Lew

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 05 Apr 2006, 14:47

Hmmm - interesting times indeed, Lew.

I think something similar happened recently with Egmont and a Misty fanzine.

I recently revisited all of the great Shadow websites that used to exist 3 or 4 years ago (posting PDFs of the original pulp stories, scans of George Rosen's beautiful cover art, links to dealers, etc) only to find that Conde Nast/Advance Magazines had ordered all of the interesting content to be removed....

steelclaw · Post by **steelclaw** » 05 Apr 2006, 21:28

I think it's a bit odd that they are reviving Battler Britton.
Do many people remember who this is?
I don't and I'm quite old.
Why don't they revive someone we all know?

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 05 Apr 2006, 23:27

I don't think it's [i]that [/i]odd, mate.

I'm a huge fan of The Spider and The Steel Claw (and I've got a complete run of Stupendous Super library editions to prove it) but Battler Britton was the man!

Those Air Ace Picture Library adventures drawn by Coton and Kennedy in the 60s are some of the best-illustrated material Fleetway ever put out.

Maybe it's just me but I don't think Battler is [i]that[/i] obscure - he was still appearing in Fleetway war digests in the early 80s!

As for why DC/WildStorm are reviving Battler - I'm willing to bet that it's because Garth Ennis is a huge fan of the old Fleetway war comics, so he's probably a big fan of the character.

His recent series for Vertigo - War Stories and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (both worth picking up, the former is dead serious, the latter rather less so) were directly inspired by Fleetway's Battle and DC Thomson's Commando.

Of course having launched into that vigorous defence of Wing Commander Britton, if you were to ask me which character I'd like to see revived [i]next [/i]in their own series, I'm voting for Louis Crandell, hands down.

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 05 Apr 2006, 23:29

Ooops - looks like my attempt to add italics has failed miserably!

Ah, well....

steelclaw · Post by **steelclaw** » 06 Apr 2006, 00:04

Yeah OK mate,
Should be good though, maybe I was a bit hasty.
I will be buying it.

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 06 Apr 2006, 15:27

Gotta love those italics!

Joe McDonald · Post by **Joe McDonald** » 06 Apr 2006, 15:54

Actually, just checked back at Down the Tubes and John Freeman has updated his news piece with loads more info (about the new Battler book) from Garth Ennis and Colin Wilson, all very interesting:

http://www.downthetubes.net/news_archiv ... ml#battler

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