Battle (and war comics) from 70s-80s that hold up? And fun?

[Hawkmumbler]

I really should read Johnny red at some point, everything about it sings as something I'd vibe with.

[73north]

This is highly recommended , from Treasury of British Comics

released 27th March 2024

There has never before been an anti-hero like Hellman of Hammer Force in British comics!

From the invasion of Poland in 1939 through to the fall of Berlin in 1945, Hellman of Hammer Force saw action on many fronts, and this collection contains all the hard-hitting war stories told through the eyes of Hellman which were published in Battle from 1977 through to 1978.

This ground-breaking series of thrilling combat is written by Gerry Finley-Day (Rogue Trooper) and drawn by Mike Dorey (Ro-Busters) and Patrick Wright (Day of the Eagle).

Stories include:
Hellman on the Russian Front
The Early Adventures

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I'm reading the Charley's War Volumes 1 - 4 collection at the moment and 200 pages in I'm finding it to be a fantastic if brutal work, and will definitely be buying the rest of it when I can afford to. On the money side of things the first collection is only a fiver in Forbidden Planet at the moment (the Shaftsbury Avenue store and online, at least) and when I was in there yesterday they said they'll all but certainly get later volumes again as Titan seem to have some sort of deal with them where they offload unsold copies of their titles really cheaply, and it's also where I got Johnny Red for £2 or £3.

[hellscrape]

I bought Charley's War when it was OOP for stupid prices for volume 2; volume 3 was also tricky to find in the States. It seems there's a new print run out as of recently and prices have dropped to normal. The point is, very much worth getting the whole run, at whatever cost!

[Jim_Campbell]

It seems there's a new print run out as of recently and prices have dropped to normal.

The most recent three-book set from Rebellion isn't just a reprint — most of the art has been re-scanned or re-touched from the best available sources, and the repro team have worked absolute wonders on many pages, in terms of improving the clarity and level of detail.

Because the new volumes took pages from (I think) three* different sources, there was a mis-match between lettering styles in a lot of the early episodes, so Rebellion asked me if I could replace the original mechanical lettering on some episodes with something a little closer to the hand-lettered pages (mainly by John Aldrich). Pat Mills said he was happy with the results, and he's never slow to let people know if that's not the case... which I take as a huge compliment.

*I think the book was assembled from a well-regarded French edition, which had had the lettering removed completely (so the translated text could be dropped over the top), the Titan edition (for which the mechanical lettering was largely, but not entirely, re-lettered by Aldrich) and, when nothing else was available, from the original printed comics.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

It seems there's a new print run out as of recently and prices have dropped to normal.

The most recent three-book set from Rebellion isn't just a reprint — most of the art has been re-scanned or re-touched from the best available sources, and the repro team have worked absolute wonders on many pages, in terms of improving the clarity and level of detail.

Because the new volumes took pages from (I think) three* different sources, there was a mis-match between lettering styles in a lot of the early episodes, so Rebellion asked me if I could replace the original mechanical lettering on some episodes with something a little closer to the hand-lettered pages (mainly by John Aldrich). Pat Mills said he was happy with the results, and he's never slow to let people know if that's not the case... which I take as a huge compliment.

*I think the book was assembled from a well-regarded French edition, which had had the lettering removed completely (so the translated text could be dropped over the top), the Titan edition (for which the mechanical lettering was largely, but not entirely, re-lettered by Aldrich) and, when nothing else was available, from the original printed comics.

Thanks for that Jim, after finishing the first book yesterday I realised I didn't want to wait until FO potentially has another sale with them in, so picked up the second volume of the Rebellion collection, and am looking forward to it even more now thanks to the above!

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah I had a full set of the Titan hardcover but the improved reproduction and addition of colour in places meant I switched up to the new editions.

[Hawkmumbler]

I was oohhing and aahhing about if I should trade in my Titan HCs for the improved Rebellion editions and all this buzz (and the hard graft of Jim and co.) is pushing me in that direction...
Maybe come next shelf purge I can push myself to make the change, but for now they stay.

[Max Headroom]

After hearing such good things about 'Charley's War', I decided to take the plunge and order the three volume set from Amazon. Although war stories are not really my thing, I am looking forward to reading what I hope will be another Pat Mills classic.

[Tjm86]

It's a stone cold classic and quite possibly the best stuff to come out of Battle.  The effort Mills put into the scripting is crystal clear.  Colquhoun's artwork is unparalleled.  What's not to love.

As for editions.  Well, leaving aside the omission of the poppy on the one volume, the Titan books are quite possible the best in terms of format but the fact that the artwork has been retouched and colour pages are included makes it hard to ignore the new Rebellion edition.  Now if they had done those as hardbacks I'd have been in like a shot.

I've picked up brodart covers for the set and they take pride of place on the shelves.  All that is missing really is a good quality box set cover.  Then again, for a set that size it would probably need a couple (like the Fantagraphics Peanuts set, 2 books per box for a collection of 26 books ...)

[73north]

I wish Rebellion would reprint Panzer G Man
which was superb ( art by Jim Watson ) with Hold Hill 109