Johnny Red - The Hurricane

[Barrington Boots]

This has been out a while but I've only just picked it up. I'm re-reading some old 1986 Battle Action Force stuff at the moment and whilst that period isn't peak Johnny Red, it prompted me to go out and seek more.

Great artwork from Keith Burns - the aerial scenes are superb and the grounded stuff portrays and grimy, bloody, desperate existence. The story is a little bit of a stretch, but as perfectly researched as you'd expect from a Garth Ennis WWII tale and containing the well written dialogue, pathos and violence you'd expect along with it.

What really shone through for me though was the love for the original that practically radiates off the story. Nina, Yakob, Rudi and the like are lovingly potrayed and the ending - which these characters never got in the original run - did leave me a bit misty eyed. I'm not sure how this would work for someone less familiar with the strip, but for someone who grew up with it, pure magic.

[JohnW]

Agreed on all points.

Burns draws magnificent aircraft – no two ways about it. His faces and figures aren't so realistic or dynamic, but that doesn't bother me. (Although how his version of Yakob is expected to fit inside a cockpit I don't know.)
The plot is far-fetched,  but then the plots of the original stories were usually no great shakes either. Tom Tully had a limited repertoire of plot ingredients that he mixed and reused shamelessly. If you read Battle for more than, say, a year and a half, you'd see the same stories coming round again.
(Johnny goes blind/loses his memory. Johnny is shot down behind German lines. Johnny falls foul of commissar/commanding officer. Johnny gets bigger more lethal aeroplane to play with for a bit. Add Nina or von Jurgen as suits.)

I'd say more, except we don't have spoiler tags anymore. If this is indeed to be reprinted in the Meg, I'll have at it then.

... the ending - which these characters never got in the original run - did leave me a bit misty eyed.

But I'll say this much – the response to Iverson's invitation at the end is what did it for me.
[spoiler] "I have seen it fly." [/spoiler]
The old man could be speaking for all of us.

[Barrington Boots]

Perfectly put sir. It's a beautiful ending.

And you're right about the original plots being recycled and mainly cobblers. I've really enjoyed Ennis' take on Johnny so far though - both this, and the stuff in the Battle one-off with von Jurgen... I'd love to read more of it.

[broodblik]

Yes, I also enjoyed the whole series and I believe we will get another great one-shot in the upcoming Battle Action mini-series. Bonus is that Keith Burns will continue his great work.

[Proudhuff]

Forbidden Planet sale page!



Johnny Red: Volume 1
Sale
Author: Garth Ennis
Artist: Keith Burns
Published by: Titan Comics
£5.00 Was £16.91 RRP £17.99

[Tjm86]

Would have to say to anyone that has not yet read this and is not a meg subscriber, this is highly recommended.

Picked the series up when it first came out along with the variant covers.  Something I don't often do, in all honesty (other than for tooth).  Some absolute corkers from Ezquerra, Ian Kennedy and McMahon.

[JohnW]

Now that it's all been reprinted in the Meg, I can safely voice an opinion.

The art is freakin' gorgeous. As I said above, Burns might not be so hot at people, but his planes – either at rest or in motion – are things of wonder. This is one of those comics I'd have bought even if I didn't speak English, just so I could look at Keith Burns drawing aircraft.
The script? Garth Ennis gives us thrills, jokes, fan-service aplenty, and a most effective emotional punch. This is what the mature Ennis does these days. More power to him.
But then there's the thing that goes clunk.
In this story – for me anyway – it's Popovich the teenage mechanic. I mean, what's the point of him? He gives Johnny his big intro and that's it. He's an incomplete narrative device instead of a character. He goes nowhere.
I couldn't shake the feeling that Ennis originally planned for Popovich to be the old-man narrator but had to change his mind and give the role to Rodimitz.
Then I thought the kid would get tied up in the big secret mission somehow. I mean, we see him lurking by the hangar door while big secret plans are being laid. But no. Back into purposelessness he drops.
Why this bothers me more than the too-big-to-swallow Nazi/Soviet summit I just can't say. Maybe it's because implausible plots have always been intrinsic to this kind of tight-and-fast story, but trailing loose ends are more noticeable.
Garth Ennis: always readable, never perfect.

Still, to give Ennis his due, Rodimitz's, 'I have seen it fly,' gets me right here.
Cramming that much grandeur and sentiment into one small speech bubble is no mean feat.

[Barrington Boots]

Can't disagree with any of this. The kid appears to be obviously set up to be either the narrator, or significant somehow, and then doesn't do anything.

I think we touched on this before, but I'm a huge fan of this story. I'll comment on Colins thread about Johnny Red about this when I get a chance to gush, but Tom Tully's scripts are a bit shonky when read critically as an adult, but the characters and sheer power of the action - and the fantastic artwork (and probably nostalgia too) still makes it a thrilling read, so the daftness of plot doesn't really bother me.

One of the reasons I think this is so good is because Garth Ennis obviously loves Johnny Red so this is written from the perspective of a fan to have all the stuff that makes a great story. Tough action, dogfights, johnny being stoic, Von Jurgen being the noble baddie, Yakob, Vorishkin and Nina, it's all there. The artwork is just amazing especially for the aerial battles.

That ending though is just beautiful. A proper ending for Johnny and Nina, and that last line of Rodimitz is wonderful.

[Tjm86]

One of the reasons I think this is so good is because Garth Ennis obviously loves Johnny Red so this is written from the perspective of a fan to have all the stuff that makes a great story. Tough action, dogfights, johnny being stoic, Von Jurgen being the noble baddie, Yakob, Vorishkin and Nina, it's all there. The artwork is just amazing especially for the aerial battles.

This is the second outing for me as I picked up the series including its variant covers when it first came out.  Some great work by Ian Kennedy, Carlos Ezquerra and Mike McMahon, as well as Burns' covers.

On the flaws in the tale, aye, it's hard to argue with these imperfections.  His love for the genre and for Battle in particular do come through in this and a lot of the other work he has done of late.  The Battle / Action mini-series Rebellion has just finished is a cracking read, the Johnny Red tale is one of the highlights though.  If you've not read it yet then I would highly recommend it.

Ennis' maturity is definitely a strength compared to some of his earlier Tooth and Preacher stuff.  I would say his run on Hellblazer is probably the closest I've come to something comparable to his War Story strips.  The ones he did for Vertigo were spectacular.  What they all seem to show is that freed from the constraints of the sensibilities of the comic industry circa 40 odd years ago, there is incredible mileage in a more honest approach to war stories.

When you think about it, Charley's War is probably the closest they came to the sort of honesty that is needed.  It captures the nuances, the complexity, the brutality and the discrimination that existed at the time.  Mills got away with it by researching the hell out of it and skirting around issues at times whilst making sure they couldn't be completely ignored.  Plus an amazing artistic talent to bring his vision to life.

Ennis doesn't need to worry about those problems so much now.  There's far more recognition of these issues for a start, plus an appetite for this type of tale.  There's certainly no shortage of talent either.  Plus the work caters to a far broader audience.  This is no longer a "children's" genre which helps.

BTW - if you've not yet had a chance, I'd also recommend "Stringbags" which he did with PJ Holden.  A cracking book and well worth a look at the fliers of the Fairey Swordfish!  The other one I would recommend is "American Eagles" which is illustrated by our own Coleby.  It looks at the Tuskegee Airmen but also at the wider issue of race relations in the states.