Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly | |
---|---|
IPC Magazines | |
Schedule | Weekly |
Genre | |
Publication date | 8 March 1975 – 23 January 1988 |
No. of issues | 644 |
Creative team | |
Written by | ISBN 1-84856-025-7 |
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
Devised by Pat Mills and John Wagner in response to rival DC Thomson's similarly themed Warlord, 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.
Creation
By the 1970s,
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 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.[4][3] 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 was needed.[5]
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 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by DC Thomson or any other rival by launching a similar title of their own in response, even keeping an inventory of unpublished strips in various genres to speed up the process.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.[3]
Despite initial reluctance to work in 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 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.[3]
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 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
Publishing history
Battle Picture Weekly
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. "
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 the Bamboo Curtain" and "Flight of the Golden Hinde" were the two dropped, making way for "
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 was particularly envious of the title's war strip "
Battle and Valiant
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 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, "
D-Day Dawson finally met his end in the 22 January 1977 edition. The following week three new stories debut in the hundredth issue – "
Battle Action
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 was folded into Battle. "Hellman of Hammer Force" was a suitable addition, while secret agent
January 1979 saw the debut of three new stories, as well as factual feature "True Life Heroes". "
Battle
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 the 1980
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 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 a pseudonym.[8]
Battle Action Force
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
As a result of the Action Force arrival, 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, a process that Tomlinson wryly noted to many instances where the character appeared to be giving the V sign to readers.[8]
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 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 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.[8]
Richard Burton took over as editor in 1986, but was unable to halt the slide in sales. The title at least outlived Warlord, which 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 the comic.[8]
Battle with Storm Force
Their response was to replace Action Force with the similar anti-terrorist organisation called
Legacy
Titan Comics
The rights to the original material in Battle were among the IPC Youth Group properties consolidated into the resurrected
Rebellion Developments
In 2016 Rebellion Developments purchased the rights owned by Egmont.[12][13] 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 the Rat Pack.[14] "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 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, a story produced in association with the charity War Child.[15] 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.[16]
Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of Battle Action, with each issue featuring two complete stories.
Stories
Titles
- Battle Picture Weekly (8 March 1975 [issue #1] – 16 October 1976 [issue #85])[17]
- Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant (23 October 1976 [issue #86] – 1 October 1977 [issue #135])[17]
- Battle Picture Weekly (8 October 1977 [issue #136] – 11 November 1977 [issue #141])[17]
- Battle-Action (19 November 1977 [issue #142] – 1 July 1978 [issue #175])[17]
- Battle Action (8 July 1978 [issue #176] – 4 October 1980 [issue #283])[17]
- Battle Action (11 October 1980 [issue #284] – 25 July 1981 [issue #325])[17]
- Battle (1 August 1981 [issue #326] – 1 October 1983 [issue #439])[17]
- Battle Action Force (8 October 1983 [issue #440] – 29 November 1986 [issue #604])[17]
- Battle (6 December 1986 [issue #605] – 17 January 1987 [issue #611])[17]
- Battle Storm Force (24 January 1987 [issue #612] – 23 January 1988 [issue #664])[17]
Spin-offs
- Battle Picture Weekly Summer Special (4 editions, 1975 to 1978)[18]
- Battle Picture Weekly Annual (7 editions, 1976 to 1982)[18]
- Battle Holiday Special (7 editions, 1980 to 1983 and 1987 to 1989)[18]
- Battle Annual (3 editions, 1983 to 1984 and 1988)[18]
- Battle Action Force Holiday Special (3 editions, 1984 to 1986)[18]
- Battle Action Force Annual (3 editions, 1985 to 1987)[18]
- Battle with Storm Force Annual (1 edition, 1989)[18]
Collected editions
Title | ISBN | Publisher | Release date | Contents |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Best of Battle: Volume 1 | 1848560257 | Titan Books
|
June 2009 | [clarification needed] |
Rat Pack: Guns, Guts & Glory (Volume 1) | 1848560354 | Titan Books
|
September 2010 | Material from Battle 8 March 1975 to 7 August 1976 |
Major Eazy: Heart of Iron (Volume 1) | 1848564414 | Titan Books
|
November 2010 | Material from Battle 10 January to 27 March 1976 |
Johnny Red: Falcons' First Flight | 1848560338 | Titan Books
|
November 2010 | [clarification needed] |
Darkie's Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie | 1848564422 | Titan Books
|
April 2011 | Material from Battle 14 August 1976 to 18 June 1977 |
Johnny Red Volume 2: Red Devil Rising | 1848560346 | Titan Books
|
June 2012 | [clarification needed] |
Johnny Red Volume 3: Angels over Stalingrad | 1848564384 | Titan Books
|
February 2013 | [clarification needed] |
Garth Ennis Presents: Battle Classics | 1781167419 | Titan Books
|
January 2014 | Material from Battle 14 October to 23 December 1978 and 6 January 1979 to[clarification needed] |
Garth Ennis Presents: Battle Classics Volume 2 | 1782767940 | Titan Books
|
August 2016 | Material from Battle 29 December 1979 to 19 September 1981 |
Johnny Red Volume 4: The Flying Gun | 1848564449 | Titan Books
|
September 2016 | [clarification needed] |
Charley's War Volume 1 – Boy Soldier | 9781781086193 | Rebellion Developments | 18 April 2018 | Material from Battle 6 January 1979 to 25 October 1980 |
Charley's War Volume 2 – Brothers in Arms | 9781781086209 | Rebellion Developments | 17 May 2018 | Material from Battle 1 November 1980 to 10 July 1982 |
Charley's War Volume 3 – Remembrance | 9781781086216 | Rebellion Developments | 14 June 2018 | Material from Battle 2 October 1982 to 26 January 1983 |
El Mestizo | 9781781086575 | Rebellion Developments | 15 November 2018 | Material from Battle 4 June to 17 September 1977 |
Invasion 1984! | 9781781086759 | Rebellion Developments | 2 May 2019 | Material from Battle 26 March to 31 December 1983 |
Major Eazy vs. Rat Pack | 9781781088555 | Rebellion Developments | 30 September 2020 | Material from Battle 29 January to 23 April 1977 |
Death Squad | 9781781087688 | Rebellion Developments | 4 November 2020 | Material from Battle 12 July 1980 to 4 June 1981 and Battle Annual 1982 |
Major Eazy Volume One: The Italian Campaign | 9781781089811 | Rebellion Developments | 4 March 2021 | Material from Battle 10 January 1976 to 22 January 1977 |
The Sarge Vol. 1 | 9781786186331 | Rebellion Developments | 12 May 2022 | Material from Battle 25 June 1977 to 18 March 1978 |
Clash of the Guards | 9781781086216 | Rebellion Developments | 26 July 2023 | Material from Battle 26 September 1981 to 20 February 1982 |
References
- ISBN 9781781089842.
- ISBN 9781853862878.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bishop, David (26 August 2003). "Battling Battle Action Part 1 – None But The Brave". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 209. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ Stock, Karl (20 March 2019). "A Quiet Revolution". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 406. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ Jewell, Stephen (17 January 2017). "The Sevenpenny Nightmare!". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 379. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ a b c d e Bishop, David (23 September 2003). "Battling Battle Action Part 2 – They Were Expendable". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 210. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ a b Bishop, David (21 October 2003). "Battling Battle Action Part 3 – The Killing Fields". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 211. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bishop, David (18 November 2003). "Battling Battle Action Part 4 – Apocalypse Now". Judge Dredd Megazine. No. 212. Rebellion Developments.
- ^ "Fleetway".
- ^ Loveday, Samantha (24 March 2009). "Egmont bringing back mag classics". Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ^ Arrant, Chris (23 October 2015). "GARTH ENNIS Goes Back To War In JOHNNY RED". Newsarama. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ "The Return of the IPC Youth Group". 11 September 2019.
- ^ "Rebellion Buys Fleetway Archive – Roy Of The Rovers, Oink, Tammy, Battle, Whizzer And Chips And More". bleedingcool.com. 25 August 2016.
- ^ "Sniper Elite: Resistance". 21 February 2019.
- ^ "Preview: 'Battle of Britain Special' Brings Back a Classic Title with All-New Comics and More – COMICON". 12 September 2020.
- ^ Down the Tubes (retrieved 15 June 2022)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Branding: Battle Picture Weekly by Michael Carroll, 2 June 2019, at michaelowencarroll.wordpress.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Holland, Steve (2002). The Fleetway Companion. Rotherham: CJ & Publication.
External links
- Battle Picture Weekly at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle Action at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle (1982) at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle Action Force at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle (1987) at the Grand Comics Database
- Battle Storm Force at the Grand Comics Database