The Battle of Britain Special - BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY

[Barrington Boots]

I ordered the fancy cover from the webshop and got the other one, which was disappointing but not enough to do more than make a passive-aggressive comment here about it.

I've recently been re-reading a whole load of musty old Battles from my younger days and I was surprised how brutal it was - not in terms of gore as on the whole things were pretty bloodless but in terms of the huge bodycount in almost every issue - as well as how the strips could be both dark, humorous and mainly lacking in the jingoism the uninitiated might expect from a war comic. The stuff in the special I found a bit more nuanced but I think decrying any of it as 'woke' is a bit shocking tbh: If you can't read a story about child soldiers in a comic without wondering if it's a bit objectionable then I'm not sure where we go from here really.

I thought this was a pretty little anthology overall, highlights being Ennis on Rat Pack, the glorious Ezquerra's reprint, Destroyer and the Bearmacht. I'd read the latter every week if it always ended with a bear wearing a nazi cap eating a blokes foot. The Lofty story I found borderline incomprehensible sadly but I loved the guy saying "You'll be safe as houses with me" and then getting killed mere panels later.

[Richard]

I'm reading this slowly because I want it to last. Anyway I've just read Alan Grant's story (I'm not reading them in order), and I think it's the best story he's written in ages. That artist is superb too.

[Proudhuff]

I'm reading this slowly because I want it to last.

That's okay they were all written slowly 

[Richard]

Lol!

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I must admit this one didnt do a whole lot for me. Was never a Battle reader, and while I do have a small stack of them- including #1-3 which were entertaining- I'm of the mind that basically the only thing of real note that came from it was Charley's War... which was missing from this one. I'm just not one for war comics, which is kind of why I started with 2000AD in the first place.

All that said, i appreciated getting it as part of the specials bundle, and i liked Dan Abnett's War Child. Anything that makes comic readers start frothing about "wokeness" is alright by me. If the rest if it had been similarly antiwar, I'd be frothing myself- for a regular monthly version. Too much though was exactly what I expected. Did like the bear story though. Cant beat a man-eating bear.

SBT

[maryanddavid]

I really enjoyed this, a good chunky read, with the feel of old Battle and yet reading contemporary. As for the woke comment, its a bit of damned if you do etc, was Charleys War woke?

One of the real highlights of this and other specials is walking into the newsagents and picking up a new comic with new content.
 Rebellion are doing these special now for two(?!) years in newsagents, it probably would have been easier to just release these into comic shops. It hopefully means there is a market out there for comics outside the narrow confines for the comic shop and that these specials become some form of a regular publication and continue with the new content.

[Professor Bear]

Anything that makes comic readers start frothing about "wokeness" is alright by me.

To be fair, the complaints seem to be that it isn't woke enough because of the capitalist opportunism of stories like Sniper Elite negating War Child's message.

[Barrington Boots]

In that case roll on Snowflake Picture Weekly please! But keep the nazi-eating bear story in it.

Tbh Man-eating Bear Picture Weekly would also work for me, and would likely satisfy anyone who thinks woke is a derogative term into the bargain.

[Funt Solo]

I don't like the newspeak woke - like if I say I'm woke, I'm too up myself, and if someone else says I'm woke it's usually followed by snowflake and other shit like that. It's just too loaded a word.

Words are fun, though: I liked that when Prince Harry said "it's vital that we reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity" he got called out for taking sides in the US election. The only way you can tell he's taking sides is if you admit that your side likes "hate speech, misinformation and online negativity".

Oh, wait - wrong thread...

Yay - man-eating bears are great!

[Professor Bear]

Hard to seriously use "woke" to describe oneself when cons use the term derogatorily and lefties use it ironically.  Tbh it's a vaguely confusing term as I'm not sure I've ever seen it used convincingly.

[Tiplodocus]

While I enjoyed that, it was definitely missing something. The tone seemed all over the place (not necessarily a bad thing in an anthology) and I was expecting more in the way of stories with  beginning, middle and end and less fact stuff (but again, that makes it closer to what I recall of Battle).

Rat Pack, War Child and seeing vintage Ezquerra and Kennedy again were the highlights for me.

[dweezil2]

Can't say I was ever a big fan of Battle back in the day, although I did use to read my mates copy back on occasion.
As for this special though, I can't describe it as anything other than a success.
A nice mix of stories and art styles and the aircraft factoids took me back to those halcyon days of comics.

I'd certainly be up for an annual release of a Battle special.

[Richard]

Pat Mills could write a new episode of Charley's War for it. Who should be the artist?

[Jim_Campbell]

Pat Mills could write a new episode of Charley's War for it. Who should be the artist?

Patrick Goddard. No contest.

[Bolt-01]

Yeah - Patrick certainly has the artistic quality to deliver.