Garth Ennis and Keith Burns continue the final Johnny Red story, A Couple of Heroes: as Heroine of the Soviet Union Nina Petrova awaits her doom, she remembers her time as leader of the Angels of Death- when she and Johnny Redburn fell in love during the hellish battle of Stalingrad.
This issue also contains a stand-alone western adventure, El Mestizo, featuring a Civil War-era bounty hunter on the trail of a double agent whose loyalty cannot be assumed to belong to either army, in this action-packed thriller from Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Henry Flint (Hawk the Slayer).
Battle Action #4 is out on the 27th November – pre-order now to guarantee your copy!
In A Couple of Heroes part 3, Johnny Red must pilot the Flying Gun over the Arctic Ocean on a mission to stop the development of a strain of cholera as a weapon of mass murder. But with the conclusion of the war seemingly inevitable, Johnny cannot help but think about his missing partner, Nina Petrova, and what he needs to do to be reunited with her. Garth Ennis and Keith Burns ramp up the stakes in this final Johnny Red story.
And in the bonus feature, the star of Action – Hook Jaw, the great white shark, is back! Brought to you by Steve White and John McCrea, Hook Jaw must face off against a Killer Whale, as a nature documentary team and a group of shark conservationists get between them. Who will make it out alive?…
In A Couple of Heroes part 3, Johnny Red must pilot the Flying Gun over the Arctic Ocean on a mission to stop the development of a strain of cholera as a weapon of mass murder. But with the conclusion of the war seemingly inevitable, Johnny cannot help but think about his missing partner, Nina Petrova, and what he needs to do to be reunited with her. Garth Ennis and Keith Burns ramp up the stakes in this final Johnny Red story.
And in the bonus feature, the star of Action – Hook Jaw, the great white shark, is back! Brought to you by Steve White and John McCrea, Hook Jaw must face off against a Killer Whale, as a nature documentary team and a group of shark conservationists get between them. Who will make it out alive?…
Battle Action #3 is out on the 30th October – pre-order now to guarantee your copy!
Garth Ennis and Keith Burns’ final Johnny Red story continues, as Johnny reunites with the pilot who got him kicked out of the RAF at the very beginning of his aviation career. Now a high-ranking officer, he requests Johnny’s help on a dangerous mission, and failure will irrevocably determine the war’s outcome, and foreshadow how wars are fought throughout the 20th century.
This issue also features John Wagner and Dan Cornwell returning for another adventure featuring the crew of the HMS Nightshade, as Nightshade must protect a convoy from overwhelming Axis forces, but at what cost to themselves..
Garth Ennis and Keith Burns’ final Johnny Red story continues, as Johnny reunites with the pilot who got him kicked out of the RAF at the very beginning of his aviation career. Now a high-ranking officer, he requests Johnny’s help on a dangerous mission, and failure will irrevocably determine the war’s outcome, and foreshadow how wars are fought throughout the 20th century.
This issue also features John Wagner and Dan Cornwell returning for another adventure featuring the crew of the HMS Nightshade, as Nightshade must protect a convoy from overwhelming Axis forces, but at what cost to themselves..
Blazing Battle Action on each page! Garth Ennis and Keith Burns reunite for a 10-issue maxi-series which tells the final story of Johnny Red, aerial ace! Issue #1 is out now, featuring blistering Battle and astonishing Action!
Johnny Redburn’s battle against the German Luftwaffe continues into the final year of the Second World War – but Johnny’s long war has taken a toll on him, and his bravery now edges towards recklessness. Will he make through the last months of the war?
Then! In a guest feature, writer Brian K. Vaughan makes his Battle Action debut, joined by artist Chris Burnham for a shocking post-apocalyptic fable! In a hostile future London where Kids Rule, a young American boy runs for his life from a mob of xenophobic British Punks – but he has a secret weapon they aren’t expecting…
Celebrating 50 years of Battle in 2025, The Treasury of British Comics will be reprinting the entirety of Garth Ennis and Keith Burns’ epic Johnny Red saga – including Johnny’s final story, publishing later in 2024 within Battle Action Vol 3! Pre-orders are now available for the first part of this series oversized hardcovers, Johnny Red: The Hurricane.
Written by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher) and drawn by Keith Burns (Battle Action), Hurricane is the first volume of The Treasury of British Comics presentation of the complete adventure of Johnny Red. It follows ace aerial assassin Johnny ‘Red’ Redburn, and the battle-hardened pilots of Russia’s Falcon Squadron. As he leads the squadron through the Battle of Stalingrad, he must defend the city from waves of Nazi Messerschmitts… but Johnny and his fellow pilots become trapped behind enemy lines where they must survive one of the most terrible battles of the whole war.
However, their war is about to become far worse when they uncover a devastating secret that puts them in the sights of not just the Nazis – but their own side as well!
Get ready for action! Garth Ennis, Brian K Vaughan, John Wagner, Torunn Gronbekk and more head up the powerhouse creative team for the new Battle Action series – coming this summer!
Launching in August, the new ten-issue series will bring readers death-defying heroics and incredible action, delivered by a crack team of top comics creators, including a brand new revival of the controversial series ‘Kids Rule OK’ from Brian K Vaughan (Saga) and Chris Burnham (Batman), and the final story of WWII aerial ace ‘Johnny Red’ by Garth Ennis (The Boys) and Keith Burns (Out of the Blue)!
Combining stories and characters from 1970s classic comics Battle and Action, Ennis said Battle Action will deliver all the thrills that earned the original comics their hard-bitten, action-packed reputations…
“This time we’ve got more stories,” he said, “more brilliant writers and artists – some from last time, some new – and more of an emphasis on Action, with half the ten stories featuring its characters.”
Ennis and Burns will be joined on Battle Action by an all-star lineup of creators including John Wagner (Judge Dredd), Torunn Grønbekk (Thor), Dan Abnett (Warhammer), Rob Williams (Suicide Squad), John Higgins (Watchmen), Henry Flint (Judge Dredd), John McCrea (Hitman), Steve White (Rogue Trooper) and Tom Foster (Judge Dredd).
‘Kids Rule OK’ was the controversial and violent story that led to an issue of Action being pulled from shelves in 1976, now Vaughan and Burnham revisit this landmark series with a story set in a hostile future London where a young American boy runs for his life from a mob of xenophobic British Punks – but he has a secret weapon they aren’t expecting…
“Getting Brian on ‘Kids Rule OK’ is a particular coup,” says Ennis. “I personally think he’s the best writer to get into the business in the last thirty years, and his love of British comics gives this a nice sense of things coming full circle. I secured his involvement at great personal cost, namely a cheeseburger. I think it may have cost Rebellion a bit more.”
One of the most beloved characters in British comics history, Johnny Red is a fighter pilot in World War II who fights the Nazi invaders of Russia. But this new story will cover a moment in his history which has never been seen before: the final days of World War II. Ennis reveals: “‘A Couple Of Heroes’ sees Johnny and the Falcons battling the retreating Germans at the beginning of 1945. The war has a way to go yet, but for Johnny it can’t end too soon – his friends are nearly all dead, the woman he loves is missing in action, he’s not far off approaching burnout. But a figure from the very beginnings of the strip reappears with an offer of work, one that sees our hero flung back into the maelstrom on the deadliest mission of his life…”
Alongside Johnny and returning heroes ‘Nina Petrova’, ‘Major Eazy’, ‘HMS Nightshade’, ‘Dredger’ and ‘Hellman of Hammer Force’, the series will expand to welcome in new takes on several other classic comics characters and stories – including killer shark ‘Hookjaw’, former-enslaved-man-turned-outlaw ‘El Mestizo’, and violent future sports series ‘Death Game’ – making Battle Action the most furiously action-packed comic on the stands!
The ten-issue series in magazine format kicks off in August with Battle Action #1, which will be available through all good comic book stores through Diamond Distribution.
You can also pre-order the series through the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webstores – including an incredible bundle deal, with each issue delivered straight to your door every month!
Five comics for just £5 – that a truly heroic price for five comic book specials featuring some of the greatest heroes of all time!
From new superpowered escapades of classic British comic book legends The Steel Claw and The Spider, to crime capers featuring John Steel and Sexton Blake, from stirring stories from conflicts old and new to the exploits of mega-criminals, there’s something for everyone with this amazing comics bundle.
Featuring the work of Charlie Higson (The Fast Show), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher), Alan Grant (Judge Dredd), Luis Bermejo (Vampirella) and many more, this is a bargain comic bundle that you don’t want to miss!
Seven new adventures featuring some of the most popular British superheroes are featured in this 64 page giant, including The Steel Claw by Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) and Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), The Spider by Rob Williams and John McCrea, Mytek the Mighty by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Johnny Future by Tom Raney (Uncanny X-Men), House of Dolman by Simon Furman and Chris Weston, Thunderbolt by Helen O’Hara and Valentina Pinti, and Cursitor Doom by Maura McHugh and Andreas Butzbach.
Battle of Britain: 2020 Special
Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher) and Keith Burns (Johnny Red) send the Rat Pack on one more mission while Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and PJ Holden (Judge Dredd) follow a warship into battle and Alan Grant (Batman) and Davide Fabbri (Operation Overlord) tell the story of a heroic soldier.The action isn’t just confined to the Battle of Britain, Alan Hebden unearths another El Mestizo tale, and Alex De Campi’s (Archie Vs Predator) tale focuses on American soldiers in Vietnam, drawn by Glenn Fabry (Hellblazer).
John Steel Thriller Picture Library Special
Sharper than Bond, cooler than The Saint – the indefatigable British spy John Steel is back! The John Steel Files collects two Steel stories golden age of spy fiction, featuring stunning art from legendary artist Luis Bermejo (Creepy, Vampirella). Re-presented for a modern audience, these never-before-reprinted comics have been coloured by breakout colourist Pippa Bowland (2000 AD) and features a brand new cover by V. V. Glass (The Last Witch).
The Return of Sexton Blake
As brilliant as Sherlock Holmes, as daring as James Bond, he was the Jack Reacher of his day and now Sexton Blake is back! Written by Chris Lowder (Dan Dare, Judge Dredd) and illustrated by Mike Dorey (Hellman of Hammer Force), presented here for the very first time in its full glory is the last Sexton Blake comic strip, then the adventure detective is back in action as George Mann (Doctor Who) and Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who) bring us the first new Sexton Blake comic in decades!
Evil Genius 2 Official Companion Magazine
Calling all evil geniuses! The hotly anticipated lair-building strategy management game Evil Genius 2 – World Domination is coming to your computer screen AND the comic book page! This 48-page special magazine features interviews with the creative team behind the game, character profiles of all the new playable characters and a rundown of the new special features It will also includes brand new comic book stories featuring the Evil Genius characters, their put-upon henchmen, and their downtrodden minions! Written by Kate Heartfield (The Magician’s Workshop) and Karl Stock (Future Shocks), and drawn by Patrick Goddard (Sniper Elite) and Staz Johnson (Spider-Man), the brand new comic book stories explore the world of this critically-acclaimed game!
Rebellion’s Battle imprint is to bring the stories of the beaches of Normandy in 1944 to the direct comics market with Operation: Overlord #1.
The international best-selling graphic novel series by writers Michael Le Galli and Bruna Falba and artist Davide Fabbri, translated into English for the first time, is being published in a four-issue mini-series for comic book stores from this May.
Issue one, focusing on American forces fighting around the French town of Saint-Mere-Eglise, will hit comic book stores on 29th May. It will be available for stores to order from the April Previews magazine from Diamond Distribution.
The acclaimed bandee desinee series tells four extraordinary tales of heroism set during the Normandy landings on D-Day, June 6th 1944. Each 48-page issue is a stand-alone story, set in separate locations such as Saint-Mere-Eglise, Merville, and of course Omaha Beach.
The largest amphibious landing in history, Operation: Overlord – popularly known as ‘D-Day’ – saw American, British, Canadian, and Free French forces storm four separate beaches on the north French coast as the opening gambit in the Allied invasion of Europe.
The whole series has been drawn by Davide Fabbri, an artist well known for his Star Wars comics for Dark Horse and, more recently, his Hellblazer run at DC Comics.
Series editor Oliver Pickles said: “I am really looking forward to bringing Operation: Overlord to an Anglophone audience for the first time – the series has been hugely popular in France, with each book focusing on a different event of the D-Day landings, for instance there is a whole 48 page issue dedicated to the Omaha Beach assault by Easy Company.
“Being able to publish such an acclaimed series for the direct market, and especially under the imprint of Battle, is a fantastic opportunity to bring new stories and new comics to a much wider audience.”
Operation: Overlord #1 will be on sale on 29th May from comic book stores, retailing at £4.99/$6.99
