71-640: Battle Picture Weekly (at various times also known as Battle and Valiant , Battle Action , Battle Action Force , Battle and Battle with Storm Force ) was a British weekly boys ' war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with the new incarnation of Eagle after 644 issues. Most stories were set in World War II , with some based on other conflicts, while factual features also focused on warfare. Devised by Pat Mills and John Wagner in response to rival DC Thomson 's similarly themed Warlord ,
142-702: A Hurricane in support of the Red Air Force 's Falcon squadron on the Eastern Front, by Tully and his frequent Roy of the Rovers collaborator Joe Colquhoun . The series was a then-rare positive portrayal of Russian characters in a British comic of the time. " Joe Two Beans " followed a taciturn Native American fighting for the US in the Pacific War , while a rare crossover saw Major Eazy take command of
213-527: A 100-page special issue of Battle , again on the Treasury of British Comics imprint. Entitled Battle of Britain Special , it featured ten new stories by various writers and artists. Several characters from past issues of Battle were revived including "El Mestizo", written by Alan Hebden, and a "Rat Pack" story by Ennis. Other stories featured new characters and settings including War Child by Dan Abnett ,
284-487: A Japanese protagonist; however, the writer quickly drew tired of the strip and ended it swiftly before beginning work on his next project. Storrie's tenure on Battle Action was short-lived as he was reassigned and replaced by Nick Landau – who lasted little longer, quitting IPC after feeling he was being misled about being granted editorship of 2000 AD . January 1979 saw the debut of three new stories, as well as factual feature "True Life Heroes". " Glory Rider " focused on
355-401: A collection of Battle strips. Titan Comics subsequently licensed various titles from Egmont for reprint collections, beginning with The Best of Battle in 2009. Collections of "Charley's War", "Rat Pack", "Johnny Red", "Darkie's Mob" and two volumes of Ennis-curated Battle Classics followed. In November 2015, the character of Johnny Red was revived by Ennis and illustrator Keith Burns for
426-469: A coloured front cover. Inside there were short stories, with illustrations and often in a serial form. Some factual articles were included. They were published by DC Thomson and known as the "Big Five." Meanwhile, The Magnet and Gem continued to publish school stories, along with newcomers like Nelson Lee and spinoffs such as The Schoolboy's Own Library which reprinted earlier stories. Such papers, however, were continually losing circulation. During
497-466: A comic for the blind. When word did get out the decision was not popular with the IPC staffers, not least because as freelancers Mills and Wagner were paid better. However, Sanders stuck to his guns. The plan was the pair would set up an initial round of stories and edit the opening issues before handing over to a staff editor. However, slow progress meant the more experienced Dave Hunt was assigned to help. He
568-598: A comparatively long life was Chums , which started in 1892 and survived until 1941. It had stories about animals and sports as well as many about young people. In 1908 Chums sought to gain Baden Powell 's support, and create its own brand of Scouts supporting the Chums paper. Baden-Powell was committed by contract to support the Pearson periodical The Scout , and gave no support to Chums , which became derisive about
639-526: A freelance writer. In 1974 he was drafted in by Pat Mills to help develop characters for Battle Picture Weekly , launched the following year, for which he wrote Rat Pack , The Sarge , The Bootneck Boy , D-Day Dawson , Return of the Eagle , Sergeant Without Stripes , Cold Steele , Skreamer of the Stukas , Glory Rider , Cooley's Gun , Action Force , One-Eyed Jack and many others. He had
710-647: A letter of complaint about an episode of "Darkie's Mob", but replied that the content was based on a real-life incident and received no further censure. Instead the next change to Battle would come in October when the flagging Valiant was absorbed into the comic. Three strips were continued from the cancelled title from 23 October 1976 – two were war-themed, " Soldier Sharp: The Rat of the Rifles " and " The Black Crow ", while Wagner's Clint Eastwood -inspired Judge Dredd -prefiguring maverick cop One-Eyed Jack wasn't. Hunt
781-592: A new 8-part mini-series Johnny Red: Hurricane , published by Titan Comics . In 2016 Rebellion Developments purchased the rights owned by Egmont. Two years later in August 2018, they issued a new 3-part comic series Sniper Elite: Resistance by Keith Richardson and Patrick Goddard, a spin-off from the PS-4 game Sniper Elite . The story, set in German-occupied France in 1941, included an appearance by
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#1732793340587852-557: A new IPC science fiction weekly. Ezquerra, still smarting from being overlooked for Judge Dredd, followed to work on Strontium Dog . He was replaced by Jim Storrie, and a fresh round of new features began in July 1978. "Operation Shark" returned, Hunt having never been pleased with the rushed conclusion ahead of the Valiant merger. Following the successful launch of 2000 AD Mills was free and returned to contribute " Samurai ", which featured
923-574: A penchant for creating honourable German heroes, including Fighter from the Sky , Panzer G-Man , Commando King , Sea Wolf , and perhaps the best known, Hellman of Hammer Force , which started out in Action and transferred to Battle after Action was merged into it. Other strips he wrote for Action include Green's Grudge War and Dredger . Finley-Day was one of the mainstays of early 2000 AD , writing Invasion! , Dan Dare , Fiends of
994-472: A process that Tomlinson wryly noted to many instances where the character appeared to be giving the V sign to readers. One of the pitfalls of a licensed comic were shown in 1985, when Palitoy licensed American giant Hasbro 's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line (a similar 3 3/4 downsizing of G.I. Joe ) and issued them under the Action Force brand. Not only did the strip suddenly have to integrate
1065-612: A pseudonym. July 1983 saw a four-week strip based on Palitoy 's Action Force toyline – based on 3 3/4" versions of the company's famous Action Man action figure. The strip was popular, and after a run of five free cover-mounted mini-comics, Battle was renamed Battle Action Force in October 1983. Three strips would be given over to the struggle of the multinational Action Force (consisting of infantry arm Z Force, special operations unit SAS Force, naval service Q-Force and space force Space Force) against terrorist Baron Ironblood and his endless, fanatical Red Shadows. The new arrival
1136-550: A reckless American tank commander, while " HMS Nightshade " by Wagner was an attempt to make a successful naval story, something he and Mills had found difficult. With John Cooper taking over "Johnny Red", Mills meanwhile worked with Colquhoun on a new strip, " Charley's War ". Mills wanted to do an anti-war strip and found the trenches of World War I a perfect backdrop. He researched the conflict extensively to avoid repeating mainstream histories, notably consulting huge archives of soldiers' letters home which left him greatly moved. Hunt
1207-487: A research budget that would allow him to interview veterans ahead of the planned World War II arc, wanting to get the same fresh view beyond mainstream history books. He was refused, and quit; to Mills' chagrin the World War II story was written along traditional lines by Scott Goodall . Richard Burton took over as editor in 1986, but was unable to halt the slide in sales. The title at least outlived Warlord , which
1278-527: A score of new Action Force personnel, but in the toyline terrorist organisation Cobra simply replaced the Red Shadows as the villains, leaving the comic with the unenviable task of providing a fictional transition. The same year, "Charley's War" also suffered upheaval. Having always envisioned the strip as a multi-generational epic that would follow Charley's descendants to the Troubles , Mills requested
1349-417: A slew of titles from 1969 to 1971, but few survived for long. There was also an archaic internal structure where the company's titles were divided into various departments – boy's adventure, humour, girls and so forth – which rarely exchanged staff between each other. Having left staff jobs at IPC's largest rival DC Thomson , Pat Mills and John Wagner began working as freelancers and submitting scripts for
1420-524: A stable of weekly anthologies that sold around a quarter of a million copies each. However, since being appointed Editorial Director, John Sanders became increasingly aware the market as a whole was shrinking, with television the main threat. He found many of his attempts frustrated by the structure of the company; many of the company's staff (including board members) had been with the company for decades since their days as Amalgamated Press and Fleetway Publications , and were strict traditionalists. IPC launched
1491-597: A story produced in association with the charity War Child . In June 2022, Rebellion published a hardcover Battle Action Special with new stories featuring characters from both comics, written by Ennis and with various artists. Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of Battle Action , with each issue featuring two complete stories. In 2024, ten issues were announced for that year. British boys%27 magazines Magazines intended for boys fall into one of three classifications. These are comics which tell
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#17327933405871562-509: A technical nature, instead of all fiction. Some short stories and a serial were included, but it was largely well-illustrated articles about modern inventions. Several new boys' comics were started in the 1950s, Tiger and Eagle being long-lasting. The characters in the strip of these two comics were mainly human, unlike those in The Beano and The Dandy . The Eagle had strips such as Dan Dare and PC 49 drawn without distortion. By
1633-458: A violent end, and was replaced by " The Sarge ", a similarly gritty collaboration between Finley-Day and Western, from the 25 June 1977 issue. Meanwhile, Action had returned from its six-week 1976 sabbatical heavily sanitised under the direct supervision of Sanders, himself under strict orders from IPC's board. The resulting bowdlerised version rapidly lost sales, and in November 1977 Action
1704-495: The Airfix Modeller's Club page, hosted by club president and comedian Dick Emery . The manufacturer paid a £100 a week for the page, a sum which Hunt recalled paid for around half of the scripts in the issue. D-Day Dawson finally met his end in the 22 January 1977 edition. The following week three new stories debut in the hundredth issue – " Johnny Red " followed pilot Johnny "Red" Reburn, who seized an opportunity to fly
1775-613: The Bentley -driving British officer was instantly popular with readers. Three months later IPC changed printers and Battle was forced to switch from web offset to letterpress . Another popular new arrival was " The Team That Went To War " by writer Tom Tully and artist Mike Western , which featured football team Barchester United enlisting – and getting butchered – en masse in 1940. IPC meanwhile had launched Mills' brainchild Action to strong sales and critical reaction. The comic's increased level of violence and nihilism spurred Hunt on; he
1846-565: The Boy Scouts . In 1909 however it became the official journal for the British Boy Scouts , a break-away group from Baden Powell's Scout movement. As the youth market established itself as an important part of the publishing industry, demand was perceived to exist for fiction which featured boys themselves in a leading role. This demand was to be met by stories about the public schools, a world where adults could be relegated to
1917-516: The web offset printing method to give the comic a clean, detailed look. Mills meanwhile insisted on the use of machine lettering for the strips, a trademark of DC Thomson, as he felt it was superior to the hand lettering available from the time. The only thing they were refused revolved around the free gift cover-mounted on the first issue – a set of transfers depicting military emblems, Mills and Wagner had requested it include German insignia. IPC's competitions editor Peter Lewis, responsible for sourcing
1988-519: The 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of " Rogue Trooper ". He began his career at D.C. Thomson & Co. , before becoming the editor of IPC Media 's girls' title Tammy in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as Ella on Easy Street and The Camp on Candy Island . Tammy's stories were full of cruelty and adversity, based on research showing that girls wanted stories that made them cry. Finley-Day rose to become deputy managing editor of IPC's girls' comics department, but quit to become
2059-544: The 1980 NUJ strike – and to keep profitability the title was forced to use reprints, beginning with "Darkie's Mob" in March 1981. Tomlinson and Magee also broke away from the all-war approach and commissioned works from other genres – " The Fists of Jimmy Chang " cashed in on the Bruce Lee -instigated martial arts craze, " Truck Turpin " was based to the boom in interest in trucking and CB radio , while " The Hunters S.I.6 "
2130-532: The Bamboo Curtain" and "Flight of the Golden Hinde" were the two dropped, making way for " Coward's Brand on Bradley " and " The Fortrose Falcon "; the latter was the first Battle Picture Library strip to not entirely revolve around World War II. However, the new arrivals were based on Mills and Wagner ideas bumped from the launch issue, and neither lasted long. Another thing thrown up by the research
2201-573: The Channel Islands begin resistance efforts against the German occupation forces), " Yellow Jack " (about a greedy British soldier who fought like a demon for the chance to loot) and " The Unknown Soldier " (about an amnesiac Tommy unaware he's marked for death). Despite the public campaign that forced Action out of circulation in the autumn, Battle Picture Weekly remained relatively untouched despite its violence. Hunt would recall receiving
Battle Picture Weekly - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-540: The Eagle" introduced Special Operations Executive agent Mike Nelson, whose first mission was to kill Adolf Hitler . " The Flight of the Golden Hinde " concerned an obsessive captain trying to complete a voyage in a replica of the Golden Hind during wartime and "The Terror Behind the Bamboo Curtain" was set in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in occupied Burma , which Hunt recalled was constantly rewritten by Mills and Wagner in an attempt to get it right.. The title
2343-408: The Eastern Front , and a couple of early episodes of Judge Dredd , and became their specialist in future war stories, first with The V.C.s , and then his most enduring character, Rogue Trooper , which still features occasionally, written by other writers — although Finley-Day returned to the character for a one-off story in 2010. He also wrote Blackhawk for Tornado , and several strips for
2414-468: The Falklands " began. The writer would later admit a degree of embarrassment at the story, confessing he had got caught up in the jingoistic mood of the time and followed the initial government accounts of the fighting too closely. He was similarly unhappy with science fiction-tinged " Invasion 1984! ", which he co-wrote with Alan Grant ; the pair were so prolific at the time that Sanders insisted they use
2485-500: The London company's girls comics . Their work for the likes of Tammy , Jinty and Princess Tina featured a degree of social realism and freshness that stood out to Sanders, who looked for an opportunity to work with the pair further. Mills interviewed for IPC's vacant position of Managing Editor, but his forthright criticism of the company's failings went down poorly with the board, but reaffirmed Sanders' belief that fresh blood
2556-551: The Rat Pack to service. In July 1980 the comic underwent a significant redesign, with a new logo (with Action disappearing from the title, which was now simply Battle ) and – for the first time – a front cover strip (typically rotated between "Johnny Red" and "Charley's War"), as well as switching to hand lettering. Another change was the appearance of creator credits, fruit of Mills and others' lobbying of Sanders to reverse IPC policy. However, sales continued to dip – not helped by
2627-568: The Rat Pack. "Darkie's Mob" and "Charley's War" were subsequently reprinted in Judge Dredd Megazine , while "Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe" was collected in a supplement given away with Judge Dredd Megazine #397. Rebellion also reprinted stories under their Treasury of British Comics imprint, including "El Mestizo", "Invasion 1984!", "Major Eazy vs. Rat Pack", "The Sarge" and "Clash of the Guards". In September 2020, Rebellion released
2698-481: The Rat Pack. Mills and Wagner meanwhile were working on new science fiction title 2000 AD . Hunt was wary of the pair poaching Ezquerra, and had Alan Hebden create the American Civil War -set " El Mestizo " specifically to keep the artist on Battle . As it was, Ezquerra was overlooked for "Judge Dredd" in favour of Mike McMahon , a snub he took with considerable umbrage. "Darkie's Mob" meanwhile came to
2769-548: The United Kingdom as imports from North America. Cartoon-strip novels for adults were also introduced. By the end of the 20th century, many of these magazines had become collectors' items. From being worthless paper, copies became highly desirable with high prices attached to them. Gerry Finley-Day Gerry Finley-Day (born 1947, in Broughty Ferry, Dundee ) is a Scottish comics writer , prolific from
2840-420: The background and where youths could be presented as having a degree of independence not possible elsewhere. The publisher who took the lead in this period was Trapp Holmes with magazines such as Smiles , Funny Cuts and Vanguard . This last paper was a short lived paper, published from 1907 to 1909 and was a pioneer of the school stories genre. Amalgamated Press soon entered the market in started to two of
2911-402: The comic. Their response was to replace Action Force with the similar anti-terrorist organisation called Storm Force . To make up the budget shortfall, "Johnny Red" was switched to reprints; by May 1987 Battle contained four reprints – noticeably stretched out of proportion to fit a change in page size – from seven features, new material consisted of just two "Storm Force" strips" – the latter
Battle Picture Weekly - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-518: The costs of the Action Force material it both allowed a steady stream of work and effectively halved the production costs of Battle at a time when the British comic industry as a whole was suffering declining sales. Palitoy also provided money for several circulation-boosting Action Force themed free gifts, the most remarkable of which was a bagged figure. As a result of the Action Force arrival,
3053-440: The genre, Mills and Wagner took the offer. One of their key aims was to provide a more working class makeup to the characters, something they felt was sorely lacking in other boys' comics. With a tight lead-in of between 6 and 8 weeks the pair started assembling the new title. To keep friction with other staff to a minimum the pair were placed in an office in the girls' department, and told any staffers who asked they were working on
3124-468: The items and a decorated World War II veteran, threatened to resign if they were included; the pair backed down, and Wagner later admitted they had been insensitive. Despite the meticulous approach of Mills and Wagner, the first issue of Battle Picture Weekly met its launch date, appearing on 2 March 1975. It contained eight initial stories. " D-Day Dawson " featured a British soldier with an inoperable bullet lodged near his heart; according to Finley-Day,
3195-488: The middle of the 1960s, the taste of the youth of Britain was changing. Television had, for many, displaced reading. The improvement of public libraries also hastened the end of some magazines. As various publications stopped publication, they were sometimes merged with one of the remaining magazines. By 1970 most of the publications with text had been replaced by new weeklies of the strip cartoon type. Previously, this type of boys' magazine had largely only been available in
3266-512: The most famous boys' papers, The Gem and The Magnet . The main writer for both was Charles Hamilton who was to be an important figure in schools fiction until his death in 1961. In between the two world wars there appeared in Britain a number of weekly magazines or papers aimed at boys between the ages of 8 and 16. Their price was 2d (two pence) and they were consequently known as the "tuppenny bloods". They were printed on newsprint , with
3337-405: The price and quality of fiction was the same, many of these storypapers also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls (also known as "penny bloods" or "blood and thunders" in their early days). Few of these publications lasted more than a few years. Some did last; The Boy's Own Paper was published from 1879 to 1967 and The Boys' Friend from 1895 to 1927. Another magazine with
3408-401: The rest of the comic was reduced to just four other strips – "Johnny Red", "Charley's War" (which had undergone a 10-week hiatus in 1982 while Colquhoun recovered from a heart attack), "The Hunters S.I.6" and the reprint slot. The latter was running "Major Eazy"; as a result of Sanders declaring a no-smoking policy across all IPC publications, Eazy's cheroot had to be whited out of every frame,
3479-446: The same period, comics publications like Amalgamated Press ' Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips , along with DC Thomson 's The Dandy and The Beano , started to appear. One boys' magazine that did not conform to the above formats was Modern Wonder , published by Odhams . It had a comparatively short life, starting in 1937 and closing down in 1941. It differed from the other magazines by mainly having factual articles of
3550-468: The stories being spread between different theatres and services; the result was a smash hit. IPC had a firm policy of responding to any new hit by DC Thomson or any other rival by launching a similar title of their own in response, even keeping an inventory of unpublished strips in various genres to speed up the process. However, Sanders wanted a different approach for IPC's answer to Warlord , turning to Mills and Wagner. Despite initial reluctance to work in
3621-578: The story by means of strip cartoons; story papers which have several short stories; and pulp magazines which have a single, but complete, novella in them. The latter were not for the younger child and were often detective or western in content and were generally greater in cost. Several titles were published monthly whereas the other two categories were more frequent. In 1828 in London , and in 1829 in Boston , an encyclopedia for boys by William Clarke
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#17327933405873692-414: The strip's title was chosen due to prominent coverage of D-Day 's 30th anniversary in 1974. " Rat Pack " featured a group of four convict soldiers given suicide missions, which Finley-Day acknowledged was heavily influenced by film The Dirty Dozen ; art was provided by Spaniard Carlos Ezquerra , initially on a part-time basis while he worked through commitments to DC Thomson. " The Bootneck Boy " featured
3763-577: The title caused by the availability of Wagner, who had quit as editor of Valiant in frustration over the resistance he found to his radical changes. His contribution was the brutal " Darkie's Mob ", featuring a rogue unit behind Japanese lines in Burma led by the fearsome Captain Joe Darkie. The strip was one of four new stories in the 14 August 1976 edition, which featured a cover by Don Lawrence . The other debutants were " Operation Shark " (young boys in
3834-452: The title was an instant success. Many of the stories printed in the comic have since received critical acclaim and been published in collected editions, notably " Charley's War ". Since 2016 Rebellion Developments have owned the majority of Battle Picture Weekly' s characters and material, and have published revival publications. By the 1970s, IPC Magazines were one of the largest comics publishers in Britain, their portfolio centred around
3905-614: The travails of an aspiring Royal Marine ; it was again written by Finley-Day, who based the protagonist's attitude on that of Alf Tupper from DC Thomson's " The Tough of the Track " story in Victor . " Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe " featured a bilingual Allied pilot mistaken for a German counterpart and working to sabotage the Luftwaffe from within. The Day of the Jackal -influenced "Day of
3976-714: Was The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine , first published in September 1832. The first successful serial publication aimed at boys alone, and one of the most influential, was Samuel Beeton 's weekly Boy's Own Magazine , published from 1855 to 1890. Between 1855 and 1920, over a dozen weekly serials by various publishers were created with the copycat title Boys' Own . Other story papers begun midcentury included Every Boy's Magazine in 1862, edited by Edmund Routledge , in 1862 and Boys of England in 1866. Numerous competitors quickly followed, including Boy’s Leisure Hour , Boys Standard , Young Men of Great Britain , etc. As
4047-766: Was a loyal reader of Battle , and won a £2 prize in the 20 January 1979 edition after writing in to point out an error in tank identification in " Crazy Keller ". He would later credit Mills, Wagner and Battle in general a major influence on his own writing. The rights to the original material in Battle were among the IPC Youth Group properties consolidated into the resurrected Fleetway Publications and sold to Persimmon BPCC Publishing on 6 July 1987, and were later purchased by Egmont Publishing . From 1 April 2009, Egmont UK in conjunction with W H Smith announced 4 special reprint collections from their stable, including
4118-445: Was a mixed blessing for the creators; Mills disliked the idea of appealing to younger readers, while others hated the silliness; John Cooper would describe the helmeted Ironblood as "having a bucket on his head – like Ned Kelly gone mad". Tomlinson meanwhile recalled each page of "Action Force" required approval from the manufacturer, complicating the production process. However it did bring an increase in sales, and as Palitoy underwrote
4189-412: Was a strong seller from the start, and with the setup done Mills and Wagner moved on, the former to begin work on all-new boys' comic Action and the latter to work as editor on the flagging Valiant . The contents of the comic saw their first shake-up in May 1975, decided by the standard IPC research of requesting readers write in ranking the stories and dropping the least popular. "The Terror Behind
4260-604: Was cancelled in September 1986, but October saw the end of "Charley's War", the strip's popularity having nosedived after Mills' departure and encountering further problems as Colquhoun's health declined. A hammer blow to Battle 's hopes came in 1987, when Hasbro bought Palitoy. While they planned to continue the toyline, Hasbro had established a highly successful relationship with Marvel UK to promote their Transformers figures, and switched their backing as soon as possible. This not only greatly reduced Battle' s profit margins but also left Burton and Tomlinson scrambling to fill half
4331-469: Was effectively an unlicensed version of ITV hit The Professionals . The editorial team were met with a quandary when war broke out in the Falkland Islands in 1982, causing a groundswell in British patriotism and increased interest in warfare. After some debate, the editorial team decided not to refer to the conflict until it was concluded. After the end of hostilities Wagner's " Fight for
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#17327933405874402-479: Was folded into Battle . "Hellman of Hammer Force" was a suitable addition, while secret agent Dredger was reassigned to military intelligence. However, "Spinball" – a watered down version of Action' s Rollerball -inspired " Death Game 1999 " – was unconvincingly reworked into "Spinball Wars". The new arrivals meant the long-running "The Bootneck Boy" was among those to make way. Further change came when MacManus left his post of assistant editor to set up Starlord ,
4473-550: Was frequently updated and reprinted through the end of the century. With the growth of education in the later part of the 19th century ( universal education started in England in 1871), demand was growing for reading material aimed at the juvenile market. The first known edition of what would later become known as a "story paper" had been the unsuccessful monthly Young Gentleman's Magazine , published in 1777 and discontinued after six editions. The first story paper to make an impact
4544-406: Was highly impressed, and swore to keep the strip in the comic "whether the readers like it or not". However, the comic's most significant editorial change to date came in September 1979, when Hunt was moved over to work on new title Tornado as part of a reshuffle that saw Barrie Tomlinson appointed as group editor. Hunt's place was taken by Terry Magee, who responded to falling sales by returning
4615-419: Was needed. An opportunity to recruit Mills and Wagner came in 1974, when DC Thomson launched Warlord . While war comics had been a staple of British boys' titles since the fifties – both as features in anthologies and as a staple of picture library titles like Commando and War Picture Library – Warlord was the first ongoing weekly to centre on the genre entirely. The variety was instead provided by
4686-564: Was not in favour of diluting Battle 's all-war content; nevertheless the merger considerably boosted the comic's sales. The other new arrival was Valiant' s long-running flagship character Captain Hurricane ; however his action-comedy would have fit badly with the rest of the comic, and he was instead assigned as host of the letters page. The unexpected merger saw three stories – "Operation Shark", "The Unknown Soldier" and "Yellow Jack" – cut short to make space. Battle and Valiant also received
4757-572: Was not popular and was reduced to a single strip, but the replacement for the dropped episode was another reprint. An attempt to find a new source of funding by producing a licensed strip based on Acamas' X-Changers toyline was little help, as neither the toys nor the strip were popular. In Tomlinson's words "the end was inevitable", and in January 1988 the title was merged into Eagle , which it bequeathed "Storm Force" and reprints of "Johnny Red" and "Charley's War". Preacher creator Garth Ennis
4828-437: Was one of the more flexible staffers however and largely tried to curb the pair's perfectionism rather than resisting their ideas. Other important figures in the creation of what would become Battle Picture Weekly were writer Gerry Finley-Day (who Mills and Wagner had worked with on girls' comics); sub-editor Steve MacManus ; Eric Hebden, a military veteran who served as technical advisor; and art director Doug Church, who used
4899-428: Was particularly envious of the title's war strip " Hellman of Hammer Force ", launching " Fighter from the Sky " (with a German paratrooper as the protagonist) in response, as well as the experimental " Hold Hill 109 ", featuring a unit of thirteen Desert Rats whittled down over the course of a defensive action. More whimsical was " Rattling Rommel ", which centred on a sentient scout car . August 1976 saw an overhaul of
4970-504: Was published, titled The Boy's Own Book: A Complete Encyclopedia of all the Diversions, Athletic, Scientific, and Recreative, of Boyhood and Youth . According to sports historian Robert William Henderson, "It was a tremendous contrast to the juvenile books of the period, which emphasized piety, morals and instruction of mind and soul; it must have been received with whoops of delight by the youngsters of both countries." The encyclopedia
5041-437: Was that while Battle attempted to split stories between land, sea and air forces, readers far preferred those about the army to the rest. It wasn't until January 1976 that Battle found another enduring character in the form of Major Eazy – a laconic cheroot-smoking soldier modelled on Britt, James Coburn 's character in classic Western film The Magnificent Seven . Drawn by Ezquerra and written by Alan Hebden (son of Eric),
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