The adventures of legendary rubber-boned escapologist Janus Stark continue in the second volume – exclusively available from the Treasury of British Comics webshop!
Written by Tom Tully and drawn by Francisco Solano López, Jaime Brocal Remohí, Franc Fuentes Man, and Reg Bunn, this is the second in a series of specials from Rebellion bringing classic British heroes out of the archive and into the hands of fans new and old!
An escapologist in Victorian London, Stark appears to be a simple music hall act – but privately he uses his extraordinary abilities to battle crime and injustice! The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark ran in syndication until 1971 and was one of the few to survive Smash’s merger into Valiant in 1971.
Celebrate the legacy of the legendary comic that they tried to ban with the new Action 2020 Special!
Packed with the same blend of unbeatable characters and no-holds-barred action, Rebellion’s latest special is being brought to you by the best talents of today, including Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), Ram V (Batman, Paradiso) and Henry Flint (Judge Dredd)!
And if you buy direct from the Treasury of British Comics webshop, you’ll get a replica edition of the ‘banned’ issue of Action from 1976!
Some of the most popular strips from this most influential of comic books return in the all-new special: there’s killer shark action in Hookjaw by Keith Richardson and Dan Lish, juvenile delinquency in Kids Rule OK by Ram V and Henrick Stahlstrom, frontline German Panzer with Hellman of Hammer Force by Garth Ennis and Mike Dorey, merciless secret agent action with Dredger by Zina Hutton and Staz Johnson, and the brand new Hell Machine by Henry Flint and Jake Lynch.
Launched in 1976 by writer and editor Pat Mills, Action‘s blend of no-holds-barred action, unbridled anarchism, and violent riffs off popular films earned it immediate acclaim. The gritty tone and graphic gore of strips such as Hook Jaw, Hellman of Hammer Force, BlackJack, Death Game 1999, Kids Rule OK, Dredger, and Look Out For Lefty delighted readers but quickly attracted the attention of public moralists, with the comic branded “the seven-penny nightmare” by the press.
A campaign by the infamous Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association led to threats of a boycott of all publisher IPC’s titles by newsagent chains such as WH Smith and John Menzies. This in turn led to pressure from publisher IPC’s higher management and the 23 October issue was pulped.
When the title returned that November, the violence was heavily toned down. Sales of this neutered Action dropped dramatically and it was folded into stablemate Battle a year later. However, Action remains one of the most influential comic books in British history, leading to Mills creating 2000 AD and also inspire a generation of comic book readers and creators!
The first volume in a new collection of the groundbreaking The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire is out now!
Featuring stunning artwork taken from crisp scans of Don Lawrence original artwork, this first volume includes a touching introduction from Liam Sharp (Green Lantern), who – along with Judge Dredd artist Chris Weston – was mentored by Lawrence early in his career.
Co-created by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence, The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire has been named as a major influence by the likes of writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman), artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) and Brian Bolland (Judge Dredd), amongst many others. This special hardcover edition perfectly showcases the remarkable talent of Lawrence, who is rightfully regarded as one of the finest artists in British comics history.
Originally published in the anthology titles Ranger from the first issue in September 1965, and Look and Learn from June 1966 until April 1982, the series told the story of an alien empire on the planet Elekton that was heavily influenced by history, particularly Roman. Created by Mike Butterworth, who died in 1986, and artist Don Lawrence, who died in 2004, the series’ mix of political intrigue and Lawrence’s lush painted artwork won a host of fans worldwide, and proved to be highly influential, inspiring a generation of comic book creators with its depth and beauty.
Don, who started out as a comics creator in the Gower Street Studios in London, first working on Marvelman before moving on to Karl the Viking for Lion. Other artists who worked on the strip include Ron Embleton, Miguel Quesada, Philip Corke, Oliver Frey and Gerry Wood.
Although the strip has seen only limited English-language release it remains one of the most popular comic series in Holland and Germany, with over two million albums sold.
During the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill said that “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” – discover two stories from this pivotal moment in history in the latest collection from the Treasury of British Comics.
This new collected of artwork by comics legend Ian Kennedy republishes two true stories of aviation heroism and derring-do – ‘Never Say Die’ and ‘Steel Bats’ – set during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Out on 15 April, Battle of Britain is available to pre-order in paperback, with a special limited hardcover edition available exclusively from the Treasury of British Comics webshop.
This is the second in the new War Picture Library series showcasing the finest combat comics illustrated by legendary and iconic artists.
A talented pilot who never loses his determination to defend his country against immense obstacles both technical and personal. A squadron undertakes heart-stopping missions to combat the intense night-time assaults of the Axis air force.
Set against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain comes an enthralling collection of aviation and heroism featuring daredevil pilots and the lengths they go to stop the German Luftwaffe attacking Britain.
Prepare your funny bones for the biggest and brightest humour comic in Britain – the Cor!! Buster Special is back!
A smash hit with kids, the Cor!! Buster Easter Special brings together two of Britain’s most beloved humour comics for 48 pages of belly laughs and silly japes from some of the best creators around!
Out on 8 April from all good newsagents and comic book stores, this bumper issue includes: Buster & Delbert by John Freeman & Lew Stringer; Kid Kong by Alec Worley & Hilary Barta; Faceache by Matt Smith & John Lucas; Gah! by Keith Richardson & Tom Paterson; Deadly Hedley by Paul Goodenough & Rositsa Vangelova; Ivor Lott & Tony Broke with Penny Less and Milly O’Naire by Ned Hartley & Mick Cassidy; Sweeny Toddler by Tom Paterson; Swines Of Anarchy by Lee Langford & Pye Parr; Daisy Jones’ Locker by Olivia Hicks, Sheli Paroline & Braden Lamb; Birdman & Chicken by Keith Richardson & Edward Whatley; Frankie Stein by Cavan Scott & Steve Mannion; Duck Turpin by Robin Etherington & David Follett; Creature Teacher by Lee Langford & Brett Parson; and Grimly Feendish by Ned Hartley & Tom Paterson.
With Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra’s Third World War being reprinted in its entirety for the first time, the Treasury of British comics has commissioned short essays from selected comics critics that examine different aspects of this seminal political series from the pages of Crisis.
In the third and final piece, Kelly Kanayama, looks at the strip’s satire of American evangelical Christianity, embodied in the character of Trisha…
Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra’s Third World War is
rightly hailed as a prescient satire of contemporary political and economic hegemonies,
with its focus on the damage that globalised capitalism can inflict upon vulnerable
populations. For me, though, what makes it really stand out is its recognition
of the role that politicised evangelical Christianity would play in these
dynamics, as embodied in the character of Trisha.
(I grew up evangelical, so am familiar with what that looks
like. The comic that Trisha whips out to prove that roleplaying games are
Satanic? I know that comic. I’ve been subjected to the messages of that comic.
I’m wondering, right now, whether it’s worth it to buy my own d10s so my
character in Scion can get a good roll for once.)
What makes Trisha so fascinating is her complete sincerity. As
Eve notes, Trisha joins Market Force out of a genuine desire to help people –
unlike, say, the swaggering, bellicose Garry, who mostly wants official
dispensation to grind a boot into some foreign faces. Trisha signs up in order
to provide for her ‘long-term unemployed’ parents under the Parent-Help Scheme,
which provides a weekly stipend plus a single disbursement to people whose
children volunteer.
Of course, it turns out that her parents aren’t the most
sympathetic characters. Trisha’s family fled South Africa after ‘the 1996
revolution’, which considering that she is white suggests that the revolution overturned
apartheid; it’s worth remembering that Third World War debuted two years
before apartheid was repealed in South Africa, and five years before the first
South African general election where the country’s black citizens were granted
full suffrage. When telling Eve about it, she says that her parents’ unemployment
was due to their inability to break away from their former privileged
lifestyles: ‘Dad just wasn’t cut out for the jobs they offered him. In South
Africa they had a swimming pool…stables…cocktails at six…they never had to lift
a finger’. They also had a black houseboy, whom they called ‘Sixpence’ – his
real name is not mentioned, presumably because Trish and her family never
bothered to learn it even though they ‘thought the world’ of him – and whom
they allowed to ‘stay in a shed at the bottom of the garden’ out of the
supposed goodness of their hearts.
This short anecdote is highly illuminating in terms of how
Trisha sees the world. While she may love marginalised people, it is a love
that clings to authoritarian power structures: the same structures that
marginalise said people in the first place. Thus it is virtuous that ‘Sixpence’
was given shelter, albeit in a form that excluded him from the very house he
maintained. And thus it is similarly virtuous to spread the predatory corporate
gospel of Multi-Foods, because they seek to promulgate a Western standard of
living that falls in line with the greater power structure that has dictated
Trisha’s life so far. As Eve puts it in her narration, ‘She thinks politicians
are appointed by God to rule over us and therefore to question authority is to
question God’ – a point emphasised by Trisha’s revelation that she initially joins
Market Force because of a ‘direct command from the Lord’. Obedience is paramount:
not just obedience to one’s chosen individual journey, but obedience to the
institutions, voices and structures seeking to dictate that journey.
The point of delving into all this is to say that we are in
Trisha’s world now. While there are of course numerous incredibly complex
factors surrounding the rise of Trump in America and the snarled mess of
whatever Brexit currently is in the UK, what underpins both these phenomena is a
collective belief in the powers that seek to keep the marginalised that way. No
matter how benevolent or generous the manifestation of such belief might be,
the fact remains that a lot of people – people with more melanin than you, or with
funny last names, or who eat foods you don’t – are going to bleed, and I wish
that were only a metaphor.
Not that this is entirely new. From about 2001 onwards, especially
after 9/11, global politics were dominated by such a mindset, in the sense that
the George W Bush presidential administration leaned heavily on the worldview
put forth by the same sort of neo-conservative evangelical Christianity
espoused by Trisha and, due to America’s international hegemony, much of the
world followed suit. However, given that America was and is a locus of global
militarism and corporatism, the unquestioning trust in authority required by this
brand of evangelicalism became inextricably entangled with initiatives in these
arenas as well. Which is how you get to a point where authority, or
authoritarianism, can act with impunity, because a power you can’t argue with
wills it.
What gives me hope is Trisha’s turning point late in Book 1,
where she faces a choice between knuckling under to the authority she has been
taught all her life to obey and defying that authority – and thankfully she
chooses the latter. The choice comes about when her unit is ordered to bring
some orphaned children to their commanding officer, ostensibly so they can be rehoused,
but actually so their bodies can be cannibalised for black market organs. When
Trisha finds out what happens to the children they’re meant to retrieve, she lies
to her commanding officer’s face, telling him that they didn’t find any
children, even though she spoke directly to at least one child.
Such a lie might seem like a small step, but as someone
who’s been bombarded with the messages of evangelicalism like Trisha has, I can
tell you that it constitutes rebellion, which is a major sin. Rebelliousness
was what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and therefore is
the reason we live in a world where bad things happen. To have a rebellious
spirit is to reject God. And to reject God is to question the highest
authority, or perhaps vice versa.
Trisha’s decision, therefore, signifies the possibility that the people who uphold the power structures that keep her going could expand their worldviews to fully acknowledge the flaws in said structures, even if it goes against everything they know. Let us believe that her real-life analogues are capable of following suit, and of opening the door to a less oppressive world.
Kelly Kanayama is a comics critic and scholar who was born and raised in Hawaii but now lives in Scotland. Her work has been published in the critical anthologies Working-Class Comic Book Heroes and Critical Chips Vol. 1 and 2, among others. Currently she is writing a book on the comics of Garth Ennis, to be published by Sequart.
Third World War is available now in paperback from all good book and comic book stores, online retailers, and the Treasury of British Comics webshop in paperback and limited hardcover editions.
All opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Rebellion, its owners, or its employees.
They’ve battled the greatest threat to the universe and now the story of The Vigilant comes to an end with an explosive grand finale this June!
The story of Rebellion’s super-team of classic British comic book characters, The Vigilant, will come to a reality-shattering conclusion in the pages of the Judge Dredd Megazine #421, on sale 17 June 2020.
After two spellbinding special issues, these home-grown superheroes – Dr. Sin, Blake Edmonds, Thunderbolt the Avenger, The Steel Commando, Dr. Sin, Pete’s Pocket Army, Death-Man, Yāo and The Leopard from Lime Street – leap forth once again from the Rebellion archive of more than a century of classic comics.
Writer Simon Furman (Transformers), artist Simon Coleby (Judge Dredd), colourist Len O’Grady (Jaegir), and letterer Simon Bowland (The Boys) reunite for this explosive climax to The Vigilant saga – Nightcomer Beth Rogan has had a vague vision that one of the team will betray his or her comrades, and that’ll allow the evil Doktor Von Hoffman to usher in a Hell on Earth. Can Dr Sin’s crew stop the demon Mazoul’s terrifying Blood Rapture from becoming a reality?
Readers will once again get the chance to enjoy the return of these iconic British characters as they face their deadliest threat – one that may destroy them for good!
This issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine will also come bagged with a 64-page graphic novel featuring stories from the original incarnations of these legendary comic book heroes, giving readers fascinating context to The Vigilant’s final mission!
The complete story of The Vigilant, featuring work by Simon Furman, Simon Coleby, DaNi, Henrik Sahlstrom, Warwick Fraser-Combe, Staz Johnson, Will Sliney, and Jake Lynch, will be collected in a 128-page paperback graphic novel this September.
Editor Keith Richardson said: “It has been an honour to usher in the new era of exciting stories featuring some of the greatest adventure characters in British comics, created by the best of British talent. Stay Vigilant!”
Now, Rebellion is pleased to offer three logo design tees inspired by T-shirts released in the late 1980s to tie into this seminal comics series, including Ezquerra’s first Crisis cover, the logo to rapacious corporate giant Multi Foods, and the ‘Official Government Hooligan’ design. Recreated by the graphics team at Rebellion Publishing, these T-shirts are a slice of nostalgia that’s never been more contemporary!
It horrified prudes and censors alike – but the ground-breaking Action is back!
Celebrate the legacy of the comic they tried to ban with the new Action 2020 special, packed with the same blend of unbeatable characters and no-holds-barred action – all brought to you by the best talents of today, including Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), Ram V (Batman, Paradiso) and Henry Flint (Judge Dredd)!
Featuring the killer shark Hookjaw by Dan Lish, juvenile delinquency in Kids Rule OK by Ram V and Henrick Stahlstrom, frontline German Panzer with Hellman of Hammer Force by Garth Ennis and Mike Dorey, merciless secret agent action with Dredger by Zina Hutton, and the brand new Hell Machine by Henry Flint.
This edition, exclusive to the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, comes bagged with a reproduction of the ‘banned’ issue of Action from 23 October 1976!
Launched in 1976 by Pat Mills, Action‘s blend of no-holds-barred action, unbridled anarchism, and violent riffs off popular films earned it immediate acclaim. The gritty tone and graphic gore of strips such as Hook Jaw, Hellman of Hammer Force, BlackJack, Death Game 1999, Kids Rule OK, Dredger, and Look Out For Lefty delighted readers but quickly attracted the attention of public moralists, with the comic branded “the seven-penny nightmare” by the press.
A campaign by the infamous Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association led to threats of a boycott of all publisher IPC’s titles by newsagent chains such as WH Smith and John Menzies. This in turn led to pressure from publisher IPC’s higher management and the 23 October issue was pulped.
When the title returned that November, the violence was heavily toned down. Sales of this neutured Action dropped dramatically and it was folded into stablemate Battle a year later.
However, Action remains one of the most influential comic books in British history, leading to Mills creating 2000 AD and also inspire a generation of comic book readers and creators!
Hugo Pratt is one of the greatest comics artists of all time and the first collection of his forgotten war stories from the 1950s is out this week.
Here, restored and presented in a stunning new edition, is Battle Stations – a tale of stark terror and war at sea that first appeared in War Picture Library in 1963. It follows three survivors of a Nazi naval attack as they seek their revenge on a deadly U-Boat – no matter the cost.
Brutal, bloody and grimly heroic, Battle Stations could only be the work of the maestro himself, and marks the beginning of the Treasury of British Comics’ mission to return Pratt’s magnificent UK work to print.
Originally published in War at Sea Picture Library #34 in June 1963, Battle Stations is now presented in a beautifully-designed hardcover at larger-than-originally-published size.
