It was one of the most influential comics in British history and the forebear of 2000 AD, and now the history of Battle Picture Weekly and Battle Action is available to order in a new archive collection!
Blazing Battle Action is the sixth in Hibernia acclaimed Comic Archive series, exploring comics history through interviews, articles and rare art.
The 76-page Blazing Battle Action contains a comprehensive history of the groundbreaking comic, written by author and former editor of 2000 AD, David Bishop. Originally serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine, this is the first time it has been collected in print.
Also included is David McDonald’s history of the hugely popular, and divisive, ‘Action Force’ stories that appeared in Battle, as well at its replacement ‘Storm Force’.
Along with rare art, collectors checklist and and overview of Rebellion’s new Battle Action comic, this is the ultimate Battle companion!
Perfect bound with full colour interior, this ia a limited print run – so secure your copy now!
The latest collection of one of Britain’s most enduring comic book heroes is now available to pre-order – reserve your copy of The Steel Claw: Reign Of The Brain now!
Out in November, the second collection of the sci-fi classic features two stories reprinted for the first time in paperback and exclusive hardcover editions.
Louis Crandell was but a lowly lab assistant with a prosthetic, steel hand until an experiment gone awry results in a horrific explosion. Surging with electric charge which bestows Crandell the power of invisibility with the exception of his steel hand, so commence a series of uncanny thrills!
This fetching collection includes writer Tom Tully’s first two stories, originally published in the comic Valiant between 1963 and 1964, with the stunning, realistic black and white art of Spanish comics’ legend Jesus Blasco!
The limited webshop exclusive edition comes with a brand new cover by comics legend Brian Bolland!
The brand new BATTLE ACTION special is out now from the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops!
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover Battle Action special lands in comic book stores in June in the UK and July in North America, and book stores in September.
Ennis is joined on this landmark hardcover, which captures the spirit and action of the groundbreaking and highly influential Battle and Action comics from the 1970s, by veteran artist Mike Dorey (Hellman of Hammer Force, Ro-Busters), artist John Higgins (Watchmen), colourist Sally Jane Hurst (Judge Dredd), Keith Burns, PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill and more!
This hardcover comes in standard edition with a cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi) while the webshop exclusive edition features a brand new Dredger cover by John Higgins.
Battle Picture Weekly was where the revolution in British comics began. Created in 1975 by writers and editors Pat Mills and John Wagner, it introduced new grittiness into comics with its cast of anti-heroes and misfits. Its bombast and energy sparked a sea-change in what comics could do, leading to Mills creation of the controversial Action and the globally influential 2000 AD.
The Battle Action Special celebrates the merging of this landmark title with its controversial stablemate, Action, a combination that took the two comics to even greater heights. Now, forty years after the original, some of the cream of British comics talent are bringing these classic characters back to life.
Artist Kevin O’Neill revisits Kids Rule O.K., the highly controversial strip by writer Tom Tully and artist Mike White that saw Action ripped from newsstands and pulped in 1976, then heavily censored for its all too brief return. Fresh from the end of his acclaimed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series with Alan Moore, O’Neill brings his visceral and intense style to this tale of kids gone wild in a post-apocalyptic landscape, while wryly commenting on the political storm that erupted during its original run.
Meanwhile, take to the skies with artist Keith Burns and colourist Jason Wordie, and witness the air duel of the century as ace fighter pilot Johnny Red faces off against Nazi airman Skreamer of the Stukas. Infamous German tank commander Hellman of Hammer Force bears down on American Major Jeb Rider of Glory Rider in Tunisia, drawn by the legendary Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters).
Blunt instrument of British Intelligence Dredger returns and doles out justice – of a kind – on the mean streets of 1980s London, courtesy of John Higgins, with co-colours by Sally Jane Hurst.
Take on the 100mph madness of Crazy Keller by Chris Burnham (Batman) and colours by Len O’Grady, before meeting Captain Nina Petrova, whose all-woman bomber squadron wreak havoc on the Eastern Front, with art by Patrick Goddard and colours by Jason Wordie. And roll out into Italy in the heat of 1944 with The Sarge as Ennis reunites with The Stringbags artist PJ Holden.
This brand new collection brings together the original story of Black Beth, first developed in the early 1970s by an unknown writer and Spanish artist Blas Gallego and appearing only once a decade later, alongside the modern revival by writer Alec Worley (Star Wars) and with stunning art from rising star DaNi (Coffin Bound).
In a world of swords and sorcery, the evil tyrant Rassau discovers that he is destined to be killed by a fearsome warrior called Beth. Together with his men, Rassau seeks Beth out, destroying her village and killing all held dear to her. With the aid of a former warrior – the blind Quido – Beth becomes a skilled fighter and sworn enemy of all that is evil! She will not rest until her people are avenged!
This brilliantly resurrected series mixes the best of sword-and-sorcery comics in the vein of Conan and Red Sonja, with a fresh perspective and stunning artwork!
Out now, the collection is available in both paperback and a webshop exclusive hardcover, featuring art from the original Black Beth story by Blas Gallego.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book – so it’s time to meet NINA PETROVA AND THE ANGELS OF DEATH!
Written by Garth Ennis with art by Patrick Goddard, colours by Jason Wordie, and letters by Rob Steen, this story brings to centre stage characters that have long deserved their own strip!
Night after night Captain Nina Petrova and her fellow pilots and gunners take to the air, raining death and destruction on the German invaders. In the freezing Russian skies they fight for their Motherland, risking fiery doom in their flimsy PO-2 biplanes. Their enemy has a nickname for them: The Angels of Death.
Before Judges Anderson and Hershey, before Purity Brown and Venus Bluegenes, there was Nina Petrova, one of the very first action heroines in modern British comics. The medium was pretty strictly segregated at the time; Misty, Bunty and Jinty were intended for girls: Battle, Action and 2000 AD for boys. When they did show up in male comics, female characters tended to scream a lot and get rescued, then disappear offshot while the men got on with the important business of killing. When Nina first appeared (in the Johnny Red strip published in the 22 July 1978 issue of Battle Action), she made it clear that she had no need of rescue by Squadron-Leader Redburn. In fact, she decked him.
Russia’s women aviators were one more aspect of the Great Patriotic War that writer Tom Tully chose to highlight in Johnny Red. Soviet women served in many combat roles throughout the conflict, with air crew flying both fighters and conventional bombers for their nation’s air force, but Nina and her Angels represented a very specific unit: the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. Tully fictionalized them as the 7th Women’s Air Reconnaissance Regiment, who soon became a regular fixture in the strip, flying multiple missions alongside their comrades in Falcon Squadron.
Johnny and Nina got on a lot better, too, once they got over their little misunderstanding. The Germans referred to the real life 588th as Nacht Hexen – “Night Witches”, for the tactic they developed of cutting their PO-2s’ engines and gliding out of the darkness to make surprise attacks. Yet the obsolete little biplanes were no war-winners; artists Joe Colquhoun and John Cooper gave them better armament than their real life equivalents, and even equipped them with radios, something the actual Night Witches would have been very grateful for.
All the same, Tom Tully did readers a great service when he introduced the Angels of Death. In 1978, no one was in any rush to tell British kids about the Soviets’ overwhelming contribution to the Nazis’ downfall, still less about the heroism of the nation’s women. Such was the brilliance of Johnny Red, and the many and varied details of Russia’s war that it revealed. Nina herself was last seen in the 15th August 1981 issue of Battle (not long after Action was dropped, in fact), having decided to stay in the benighted city of Leningrad and help its people in their struggle against the invader. Perhaps one day we’ll find out what happened next.
For now, Nina Petrova and the Angels of Death at last presents the characters in their own strip, with its own title; after forty years, Nina and her squadron are no longer supporting characters. They are the stars of the show, and not before time.
The Battle Action Special, out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book!
One of the brand new stories inside – written by Garth Ennis with art by Kevin O’Neill and letters by Rob Steen – picks up the story of KIDS RULE O.K., one of the most controversial stories British comics has ever produced.
Set in 1986, a deadly plague born of atmospheric pollution kills every human being over the age of twenty. The survivors begin a gruesome Lord of the Flies-style existence, with the streets of London overrun by savage youth gangs determined to wipe each other out.
Of all the possible culprits behind the demise of Action, this strip – and the famous Carlos Ezquerra cover that it inspired – seems to occupy the number one spot for many commentators. Created by Chris Lowder and Mike White, it certainly never lacks for brutal and uncompromising violence.
Indeed, an unused two-page ending, discovered by Martin Barker during research for his superb Action: the Story of a Violent Comic, goes to extreme lengths to emasculate Kids Rule O.K. In a frankly emetic conclusion, the suddenly reasonable lead characters stop trying to bludgeon and gut one another, put down their weapons, and are last seen wishing each other well with farming projects and “social work”.
Whether it caused the crisis or was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, Kids Rule O.K. retains a certain mystique among Action readers to this day. So does the famous story of publisher John Sanders having a copy of the comic torn up in his face by the BBC’s Frank Bough, live on air.
Perhaps Action’s writers and artists were always going to go too far; perhaps the paper was doomed from the start. Perhaps the controversy that surrounds it has, for many, actually outlasted memories of the characters and strips. What is certain is that if only for a short while, Action’s flame burned very brightly. Martin Barker gave it as good a eulogy as any comic has ever received: “… for what Action did, in its brief life, let it be fondly remembered.”
What follows in the pages of the new Battle Action Special is most definitely fiction … or is it?
The Battle Action Special, out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book – so don your goggles and prepare for some desperate tank fighting as we meet HELLMAN OF HAMMER FORCE and GLORY RIDER!
This brand new story – written by Garth Ennis with art by Mike Dorey and letters by Rob Steen – brings together two tank commanders on opposing side of World War Two!
Created by Gerry Finley-Day and Mike Dorey, Major Kurt Hellman commands Hammer Force, a German tank unit in action almost everywhere the Reich sends its troops during the Second World War: Poland, France and the Low Countries, Greece, North Africa, Tunisia, and finally the graveyard of the Panzers, Russia.
Hellman struggles to fight as clean a war as he can, refusing orders to commit atrocities, frequently coming into conflict with his Nazi masters as a result. But as the conflict grinds on and the war becomes total, the simple notion of survival becomes the only imperative. In its own way Action’s most subversive strip, Hellman seemed almost guaranteed to offend a number of readers’ grandfathers- whose actual experiences not thirty years previously might well have left them ill-disposed to a German lead character in a children’s comic.
To this end, Hellman himself was made as decent and upstanding as possible, frequently going out of his way to take prisoners, even at severe risk to his own life. This led to a number of odd contrivances that thankfully became rarer as the strip progressed; indeed, once Hellman found himself on the Russian Front, facing the vengeful Soviet war machine, the story at last came into its own. Powerful art by Mike Dorey and Pat Wright illustrated one of Finley-Day’s darkest tales, a witch’s cauldron of civilian massacres, death camps, and the final, dreadful Battle of Berlin.
As an American armoured regiment fights its way across Africa and Western Europe, Sergeant Steve Hilts realises that commanding officer “Jeb” Rider is concerned only with his own advancement – determined to live up to the reputation of his Civil War ancestor at all costs. But Hilts is alone in this understanding, and as young American tank crews smash themselves against the German Panzers, he starts to doubt if any of his comrades will survive their commander’s lust for glory.
Created by Gerry Finley-Day and Geoff Campion, Glory Rider was a nice idea that lasted longer than it should have. Essentially represented a weekly gimmick: the cowardly Rider is about to be disgraced, only to escape once more and grab the glory into the bargain, usually at the expense of his men’s lives (and witnessed by the frustrated Hilts). The ending of the story does, however, shift magnificently into high gear, as the increasingly insane Rider makes it all the way to Berlin. Carlos Cruz took over from Geoff Campion after just a few issues, and drew the strip for the rest of its eight month run.
So don’t pull your punches – get the Battle Action Special, out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book! Written by Garth Ennis with art by John Higgins, co-colours by Sally Jane Hurst, and letters by Rob Steen – today we take our first foray into strips from Action with the brutal secret agent Dredger!
Very much a man of his time – a time lucky to have survived the man – Dredger works for the government, tackling threats foreign, domestic, military, criminal or just plain deranged (which anyone having a pop at this guy has to be to begin with). Few if any of his assailants survive the experience.
Created by Pat Mills, Gerry Finley-Day and artist Horacio Altuna, with little in the way of a past and not much to say for himself, Dredger usually gets on with the killing and relies on his partner, Breed, to do any talking necessary. Actually, scratch that – Breed’s dead too.
Dirty Harry meets The Ipcress File by way of The Sweeny, this was Action’s take on the tough guy loner tendency that was so prevalent in 1970s fiction. Dredger was initially employed by the shadowy D.I.6, with the more refined Breed acting as his foil; the move to Battle saw Breed blown up by a car bomb and Dredger recruited by S.I.S., whose roots were in Britain’s military rather than the intelligence services.
Although Dredger himself became marginally chattier and the strip’s violence slightly less sanguinary, the action itself was no less intense. John Cooper’s arrival as regular artist made the Battle Action incarnation of Dredger a highly enjoyable read.
So don’t pull your punches – get the Battle Action Special, out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book! Written by Garth Ennis, with art by Chris Burnham, colours by Len O’Grady and letters by Rob Steen, it’s time to meet Captain “Crazy” Keller!
Created by Alan Hebden and Eric Bradbury, Keller has a finger in every black market pie in the European Theatre of Operations. His urge to make a dishonest buck takes him to the very heart of the action, running rings around Germans and Americans alike- with the aid of his long-suffering assistant Corporal “Aerial” Arkin, and their extremely distinctive and heavily armed jeep, Scoot 4 (a replacement for the late, lamented Scoot 3). Yet never let it be said that Keller doesn’t do his bit for the war effort, as the German army often finds out to its cost.
Crazy Keller was Alan Hebden’s second go at an archetype he first tackled with the better-remembered Major Eazy, the slightly unbalanced but effective roguish loner, who fights the war his own way at his own pace. But where Eazy was an anachronism, a very obviously American character inspired by the ‘60s & ‘70s films of Clint Eastwood and James Coburn, but shoehorned into the British army anyway, Keller was a Yank from the get-go (his cinematic roots most likely being Donald Sutherland’s performances in MASH and Kelly’s Heroes). He is therefore arguably more successful, at least in narrative – not commercial terms.
The strip got by on a nice combination of charm, humour and extreme violence, as with style and verve Keller brought his considerable resources to bear on his opponents (including not just the small arsenal carried aboard Scoot, but the massive firepower of US Army artillery and airstrikes, never more than a radio request away). Along the way Hebden provided a nice portrayal of the US Army’s wartime progress, from Italy to the “friendly invasion” of wartime Britain, from the Normandy beachhead to the fighting in southern France, and the eventual assault on Germany itself- with the far-from-beaten foe emerging from the Ardennes forests in suitably sinister style, just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.
There was a good running joke about Keller’s jeep, too, with our hero’s sense of humour failing him as soon as anyone asked what happened to Scoots 1 & 2- this was never actually explained, but the question always provoked the Captain’s ire. Another Hebden predilection, the simmering conflict between the regular German army and their fanatical SS counterparts, gets an airing here (see also Death Squad and The General Dies At Dawn).
Really, there is a great deal to enjoy in this often overlooked classic, particularly with Eric Bradbury’s wonderfully detailed artwork gracing every episode. Crazy Keller lasted from the summer of 1978 to autumn of the following year- longer than most, and all the better for it.
Join Crazy Keller in the pages of the Battle Action Special – out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
Featuring seven brand new stories written by Garth Ennis – the mind behind The Boys, Preacher, and war comics such as The Stringbags and Sara – the 96-page hardcover anthology captures the spirit and action of the merger of the groundbreaking Battle and Action comics in the 1970s.
Behind the cover by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin) and Dylan Teague (Madi), Ennis is joined by artists Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters), John Higgins (Watchmen), Keith Burns (Ladybird Expert series), PJ Holden (The Stringbags), Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd), Chris Burnham (Batman) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O’Neill.
As we approach D-Day, we shall introduce you to the legendary Battle Action characters who are back in action for this landmark book! Written by Garth Ennis with art by PJ Holden and letters by Rob Steen, today we stand to attention as we meet The Sarge!
Created by Gerry Finley-Day and Mike Western, veteran British sergeant Jim Masters leads his ten-strong infantry section from one end of the Second World War to the other: the Battle of France, the Western Desert, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy.
On the way he tries his best to keep as many of them alive as possible, matching two wars’ worth of experience against the German army’s apparently effortless lethality. Men come and go, replacements fill the gaps, and the long slog up the dusty trail continues. The peculiar mixture of individuals that makes up the section gels under Masters’ leadership, turning the little unit into an effective combat force – but no one is safe when the bullets start flying. Together they stand, yet together they die, too.
If there is a third string to Finley-Day’s bow it must surely be heart, and never was this displayed more strongly than in The Sarge. The sheer likeability of the section’s personalities – Sid, Beet, Lover, Bates, Pete and the rest – is testament to the writer’s expert command of character, with Mike Western’s unmistakable line setting them all in stone (the creative team’s portrayal of Masters himself, leavening warmth and humour with occasional but very necessary brutality, is simply superb).
Their work laid the groundwork for the strip to continue past their tenure, with a follow-up by Scott Goodall and Phil Gascoigne that took the section from Normandy to the German homeland. One of the comic’s longest lasting strips at just over three and a half years, The Sarge must surely vie with Rogue Trooper from 2000 AD for the title of Gerry Finley-Day’s finest hour.
Join The Sarge as he leads his men into battle in the pages of the Battle Action Special – out on 8 June from all good comic book stores and the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, and from September from all good book stores and major online retailers.
