2000 AD Online Forum

This one snuck up out of nowhere, but it looks bloody fantastic:

Commando: The Dirty Dozen

'Achtung!', 'Gott in Himmel!', 'Donner und Blitzen!'

For the generations of men whose obsession with military history was triggered by reading war comics in their youth, here at last, is Commando's ultimate collection of Second World War stories. The Dirty Dozen showcases the best of the best - and 25 per cent bigger than the originals, so old guys can read the strips without their glasses! Chosen by current editor George Low, the brilliantly drawn stories in this classic collection range from backs-to-the-wall heroics at Dunkirk and Battle of Britain dogfights, through desert warfare in North Africa and daring commando raids behind enemy lines, to tough battles across Europe from D-Day to VE Day. For everyone whose comic-book battle lust has ever been stirred by Nazi cries of 'Die! Englischer schweinhund', The Dirty Dozen will transport them right back into fictional combat situations they'd forgotten were so much fun. Aaarrghh!

Forgot to throw in the Amazon link, but if you search for it in "Books" you should find it.

?10.49, 750-odd pages & due out at the beginning of November. Definitely worth a look!

Aiiiiiiii!

I'll be having that off Santa then (unless it's real cheap)

- pj

Make sure you get a new pair of glasses, Grandpa!

(the Commando chaps obviously feel they know their audience :-) )

Alan and Hans unite against the bad apple fascist germans who are the real the enemy.

Got mine on pre-order! But it will have far to travel, as I am off on my travels again! This year, I will mainly be seeing penguins!

Anybody ever notice an abundance of minor characters going by the name Snake? I can think of at three different strips that had someone called Snake (Harlem Heroes, Cursed Earth Koburn, Sinister Dexter)

AIEEE! BANZAI! LEBENSRAUM!

This looks brilliant fun. Anyone know anything about the artists?

(Aside: George Low is a terribly nice man...)

- Trout

Just in time for my father's birthday.

Grand.

I bet they don't have the one with the gypsey air-ace and his cursed pack of playing cards... burned into my brain that one is....

Huzzah. I heard there's a best of Bunty out too. Essential reading.

No Starblazer?

And for the benefit of the lazy:

Link: Sneaky linkage!

Sven Hassel Commando anyone?

gott in himmel, you Englanders fight like madmen

Out tomorrow.

...and available immediately at Amazon now. I won't be able to get a copy until next month, so could anyone who picks this up post some impressions here?

Surely that 'Aaarrghh!' should be an 'Aieeeee!'

Much more in keeping, frankly.

'Aaarrghh!' - Krauts, 'Aieeeee!' - Nips

"You lousy squareheads - you've killed the bravest guy in the British army."

I've not worked my way through it yet (well there is 770-odd pages of it) but it's great.  The introduction could have been longer, and I think it was a missed opportunity to not have more background / history or details of at least some artists and writers involved over the years.  That aside, it's ace!  The artist on Mustang Patrol looks suspiciously like John Ridgeway.  Any ideas who did the art on The Ship-Busters? - it's very nice.

For those that are interested, the run-down of stories is as follows:
Inland Navy
Riley's Rifle
Aces Wild
Trouble Spot
Mustang Patrol
Death Patrol
The Ship-Busters
Battle Wagon
Three...Two...One...Zero
March of the Monsters
Man of Iron
Glider Ace

For other Commando books (with more text), check the link.

Link: Donner und blitzen!

No credits on the stories? That's a bit off...

I ordered this at the start of the thread and it arrived last week - damn super saver delivery!

First impression - don't drop it on me foot! No resale on eBay for this guy unless you can convince someone to pay ?10 post - must be four inches thick.

The stories are good but by no strech of the imagination the best. The selection is from a narrow band of between 400-900 out of over 4000. They also pain themselves to include every branch of the services, so  a dull delivery driver story is included.

Some of the art is amazing, but as was pointed out earlier there are no artist credits. If this does well hopefully further volumes will follow - including some of the Ian Kennedy's I fondly remember. 'Bombs on Target' anyone?

I wish they'd collect up some Battle / War/ Lion Picture Library books too.
 they had art by Victor De La Fuente (wanna know how inspired Cam K?)
and Gino D'Antonio ( Mick McMahon's favourite artist),
amongst others.
And beautiful painted covers by Penalva and Biffignandi....
sigh...

now this is a cover...

They put the title all over the bayonette which is the whole subject of the story!

Theyre great ! Is there a website with these on them?

I really like the "colour picture against white background" thing

"I really like the "colour picture against white background" thing"

A classic example!

Hey Johnny,
 there's a great selection at Book Palace's website...
here...

Link: The Book Palace's British Titles

Downthetubes.net are reporting that a 2nd volume, titled Commando: True Brit, is being released in october. It would be wonderful to think that this could be a yearly event. The first volume really was marvelous, even if there are better stories that could have been chosen!

Alan!

wow,great site mc1juve! thanks

again..what a deadly site!

Aaiiieeeee!!  Mad mental crazy site.  Thanks for that.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for another dose of Commando - would be nice if they put some history and story credits in this one!

trying not to start a new thread but bought this down under for my long journey back and its another great book.

my dad had a mate who gave me a three foot stack of the commando books when i was younger. took me bloody weeks to  plough  through them.
  Dont read aloud in the dentists with your mum "die englander schwein!" got a clip round the ear for that if i remember for 'swearing'

  I saw this in the comic shop and started sniggering when i saw the "Gott in Himmel !! "donner  un blitzen" "Achtung"  "Shwienhund!"  "Die Engisher pig dog" stuff on the back cover.  I still dont know what many of them mean to this day .I never even read Commando books much.

 Your icon has changed for some reason.

my icon has vanished cos i in my stella induced wisdom decided to try and get the colour version i originally sent.it didnt work.i,ve mailed wake to try again with a new hellboy(in colour)

'if it aint broke...'

These have become a regular Christmas present for me know.

Obviously some of the stories are better than others but I've been amazed at how gripping some of the action set pieces can be. There's a firefight in the woods in the one with the gypsy cursed rifle that, despite having no explicit death or gore is still pretty tense.

I've been watching Comics Britannica about Commando tonight; What I want to know is, who are the Commando readers today? It looks from the covers, the format and the blurb on their web site that it's pretty much the same as it ever was in most respects, yet nearly every other comic has died out despite having far more shelf presence, advertising, colour, humour, gifts and tie-ins and freedom to change with the times. It also doesn't have recurring characters. I had assumed that it was probably reprints of old strips though I'm informed by the web site that they still produce 4 new issues a month on top of selling reprints.

When it was launched there were still grenades and Lugers lying round and everyone's dad stories to tell of their experiences on the battlefield. There surely can't be that many kids into the specifics of these old wars can there? Similarly, I can't imagine it's still loyally subscribed to by middle-aged to old men. Surely today's war films have raised the bar? Is it just still with is by being incredibly cheap to produce, is it propped up by sales in war-torn countries or does it have something to say about succeeding by remaining totally unchanged?

I'd be interested to know who buys Commando too. My local Smiths is always well stocked but I've never seen anyone else buying it.

Reading the Commando books takes me back to when I would go to my Grandad's house and he would have a stockpile of them waiting for me to read.
I always had to read the Army ones first.
The RAF & Naval one didn't really appeal to me that much but I would read them in the end.

As to who reads them now satchmo, the best thing to do is for you to set up an OP in Smiths and stay there for a few weeks recording all the comings and goings and then report back here with your findings.