Battle Picture Weekly #1

08 Mar 1975; Cover price 6p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Cover by UNKNOWN.

Free combat stickers.

Contents:

.2 Battle Picture Weekly Blasts into Action! Introduction text.

.3 D-Day Dawson Beach-Head! w: Gerry Finley-Day (uncredited); a: Geoff Campion (uncredited).

.6 Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe UNTITLED [Mass Escape from a Stalag Luft] w: Pat Mills & John Wagner (uncredited); a: Paulo Ongaro (uncredited).

.9 Boys at War The Headfirst Hero text feature by W. Harrington (uncredited); illustrated by Mike Western (uncredited).

10 The Flight of the Golden Hinde UNTITLED [Strange Vessel of the Past] w: S. Conforth (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN.

14 Battle Honours Brew-Up at El Alamein w: UNKNOWN; a: Zaccara (uncredited).

16 Day of the Eagle UNTITLED [Meet Mike Nelson] w: Eric Hebden (uncredited); a: Pat Wright (uncredited).

19 This Week's Great Gift! text feature (uncredited).

20 The Bootneck Boy UNTITLED [Marine Recruiting Hut] w: Ian MacDonald (uncredited); a: Giralt (uncredited).

23 The Rat Pack UNTITLED [Maximum Security Wing] w: Gerry Finley-Day (uncredited); a: Carlos Ezquerra (uncredited).

29 The Terror Behind the Bamboo Curtain UNTITLED [Bridge Must be Finished by Monsoon] w: Charles Herring (uncredited); a: Giancarlo Alessandrini (uncredited).

32 This Amazing War! German Secret Weapons Fact feature by Eric Hebden (uncredited); illustrated by Ian Gibson (uncredited).

Giant cover illustrations of free gifts are an odd conceit. Are they there in case someone picking up the title can't tell there is something provided alongside the item they have purchased, or are they there to torment people many years later, when the gift in question has long since disappeared? Whatever the reason, it brings to mind the much older D.C. Thomson first issues which so prominently displayed their wares.

Battle Picture Weekly even partially aligns itself with the pocket books with a title which brings to mind Battle Picture Library, which had been published since 1961, but doesn't overtly signal such a link in any way. The markets being slightly different, and with such variety in the weekly, there isn't a great shock in this quiet distancing.

D-Day Dawson, for all the platitudes lauded on the strip over the years, isn't initially inspiring. A throwback logo doesn't help - even the first panel gives off the gung-ho, boys own adventure feel which was outdated even in 1975. Things improve through the duration of the story, though once Dawson is shot and placed upon a landing craft there is an odd sense of events not being taken entirely seriously. A wound which will kill Dawson eventually, yet a giving him a year of life with which to ruminate on events, should have more serious implications.

A shell destroys the landing craft, so he uses this stroke of bad luck as a means to rejoin the fight. Only a brief amount of time having passed, so after (presumably) having received some rudimentary surgery to stabilise his condition, he decides that grabbing navy explosives and heading back onto the beach is a good idea. There is no mention of keeping the gaping wound in his chest clean, he doesn't quickly stash any painkillers in a pocket, nor does he have any time to change clothes to conceal his wound.

What he does is charge a German strongpoint with the explosives, destroying it.

It is clear that the notion of a (legitimately) fearless soldier holds some special appeal, but the handling of the injury is sloppy and rushed. Had there been a return to Britain for the wounded Sergeant, before working his way back to the front lines on learning of the deaths of his squad, there would have been added psychological motivation. Even getting him back to one of the ships for a few days would have allowed for the extent of his injuries to be clarified.

Not the great yarn it is often seen as, but merely an above-average one.

A much fresher logo for Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe signals a different type of strip. The opening break-out from a stalag luft certainly doesn't feel like run of the mill military exploits, especially when the body count begins rising. Lofty is the only one of his group to escape the clutches of waiting Germans, and he makes his way to an airfield where there is aircraft which will get him safely home.

But this isn't that story.

Taking out ace pilot Major Ranke, who was also on his way to the airfield, Lofty assumes his identity and takes his place with the one-o-nine squadron. Nabbing himself a plane, Lofty takes to the skies, quickly becoming tangled in ongoing combat between a Wellington and a Focke-Wulf, before limping back to the airfield he had just left. Welcomed as Ranke, Lofty decides to stick around so he can fight the German air force from within.

Passing yourself off as a German pilot isn't just about a solid grasp of the language, but idiosyncrasies, slang, personal history and knowledge of cultural phenomenons local to a specific region. It isn't explained how he can so convincingly step into the shoes of a decorated officer without any preparation or reference material, but there's enough eventful moments to keep young readers from questioning the logistics.

The Headfirst Hero is the story of John Cooper, who joined the French Foreign Legion at only fifteen. Despite being on the brief side his story is one which has lasting interest, and there's a solid argument that the inclusion of such material really solidified the title in the early issues. Balancing the fiction with history allowed the stories to be placed in context by astute readers, and highlighted events which spurred the writers on.

History was nowhere more evident than in The Flight of the Golden Hinde, in which Sir Francis Drake's vessel is called upon to defend British interests once more. Or, at the least, a replica is, created as a test to see if the British Navy could replicate Drake's achievements. There's an appealing ridiculousness to the story which carries it above the other strips, and despite qualms about how effective such a ship would be in open conflict with a 1940s vessel, the premise is presented with the right amount of self-awareness.

A second slice of true-life bravery, though by presenting Brew-Up at El Alamein as a strip, with excellent art, there is more immediacy to proceedings. The first issue feels slightly skewed in favour of strips, to the detriment of value-for-money. It is enjoyable to lose oneself in well-written text pieces amongst the more obvious contents, and by skimping on these it doesn't take long to rush through the issue. It isn't a problem which comedy titles suffer from, but adventure titles should feel as if they are packed with content.

Day of the Eagle, and Mike Nelson (Mystery Science Theater 3000 baggage is now hanging over that name) is caught in the midst of a Mission: Impossible-style operation to obtain German documents. He escapes, causing the maximum amount of damage in his retreat, and delivers the pilfered information to his superior in the S.O.E., where the title of the story finally comes into play. Operation Eagle is given the go-ahead.

Mike seems a little too eager to go kill someone. Anyone. He isn't fussy. The image of him stroking his chin in anticipation of being set loose to end the life of an unknowing individual gives the impression he is fitting Colonel Forster up for a pine box. Who is this madman, this psychopathic killer in our midst? Well... Mike is, unfortunately, our hero, and we are meant to like him. Which is something of a problem.

He's informed that from now on he'll only be known as Eagle (presumably to stop people asking how the Bots are) and given a FG 42, the German S.S. Paratroopers rifle. Of course he has to try it out, riddling a handy dummy with ammunition as Forster had wisely removed himself from the vicinity. When a boffin gives him a special lightweight tripod for use as a machine gun, Mike is delighted: "For maximum killing power, eh?"

We only know he's the hero because his job is to kill Hitler.

Which makes everything alright.

A full page is given over to explaining the history of badges given away as stickers, which only highlights how much more fun would have been had if Battle Picture Weekly had splashed out on actual patches for the launch. The badges chosen were all from Allies, so seeing kids running around with proper sew-on patches would have heightened interest in the title, as well as fostering an association with actual military branches.

Danny Budd is The Bootneck Boy, dismissed from a Marine recruiting hut by an unimpressed Marine Sergeant. We're given some back-story, and get to see that his life is already difficult before he gets jumped by three youths in a street-fight. Thankfully this is witnessed by the officer who told him he was too scrawny to enlist, and admiring Danny's ability to defend himself offers him a chance to fulfill his dream.

While it contains less action than elsewhere, The Bootneck Boy is an important strip in setting tone - it isn't a leap to see that this would eventually lead to Charley's War. Seeing small moments in Budd's liife before events propel him into combat allows for a sympathy which is entirely lacking in Day of the Eagle, and prevents the strip from being about (essentially) going out to murder people.

Rat Pack is a bargain-basement Dirty Dozen, with four inmates released from Wessex Military Prison by Taggart in what looks suspiciously like an unauthorised mission. Floodlights and prison sirens mark their escape in a jeep, but when they get to a barn to hide the jeep discover military police awaiting their arrival. Turk immediately attempts to kill Taggart (and not for the last time), before being slapped away.

Taggart tells his men - Kabul 'The Turk' Hasan, Ronald Weasel, Ian 'Scarface' Rogan, and Matthew Dancer - that they are to train to become a special commando unit, striking at dangerous targets behind enemy lines. The prison break was their first test, and they now need to take out Big Karl, a sixteen inch, long range German gun sited on the French coast. It is pointed out that their mission could be a suicidal attack, which proves prophetic - informed wind-speed is too strong to parachute into combat, Taggart kicks them out of the plane anyway. Right into the path of a German patrol.

As troops are mobilised Taggart has a moment of self-doubt, but readers shouldn't. This is an accomplished and entertaining opening, even if inspiration for the story is so blatant. Characterisation of the leads is strong, and danger is perceptible throughout. A great deal of the kudos goes to Carlos Ezquerra, whose confident artwork breathes life into events, and manages to make each of the main cast easily identifiable even in group shots.

The Terror Behind the Bamboo Curtain focuses on the lives of men interned at a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and who are being forced to construct a bridge before a monsoon arrives. The Japanese villains are drawn to resemble buck-toothed, short-sighted stereotypes seen in cartoons of the forties, and has little in common with actual appearances of officers. We get our first taste of what is to come when a prisoner is sent through 'the bamboo curtain' - a forest of bamboo laden with traps. Blake, a tough can-do British soldier, goads Camp Commander Sado into sending him into the bamboo forest.

There are more offensive stereotypes in The Bamboo Curtain than in the rest of Battle Picture Weekly combined, and it hurts the strip's credibility. If visual depictions are so biased, then we can't trust anything in the strip to contain nuance: British officers are square-jawed heroes who play by the rules, while foreigners are unattractive, cowardly, and willing to engage in all sorts of ungentlemanly conduct. A poor way to round off an otherwise strong collection of strips.

A final treat remains in the form of This Amazing War! which explains the Krummerlauf, a wind cannon, and a belt-buckle pistol. A really interesting selection, which contains facts which are beyond simple dates and names, and allows for intriguing illustrations. Did someone actually get their hands on one of those belt-buckles, or was it cribbed from a photograph? I would like to believe that a collector of militaria lent the item to editorial for the feature, but know that it is highly unlikely.

A rough jewel of a comic, with defining elements already in place.