THIRD WORLD WAR arrives on January 9th

 

The next collection from the Treasury of British Comics will be Third World War, the series that ran in Crisis comic in the 1990s. Ahead of its time perhaps, but certainly relevant now, and it should appeal to a more politically engaged public than ever before. 

The book will be published on 9th January. Here's the PR and a preview of the first four pages...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills (w) Carlos Ezquerra, D'Israeli, Angela Kincaid (a) 
• RELEASE DATE: 9 January 2020
• PAPERBACK, 208 pages
• PRICE: £19.99 (UK) $24.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781087510
• DIAMOND: NOV191852

Using brand new scans of the original artwork supplied by the family of the late Carlos Ezquerra, this definitive collection of Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra’s groundbrreaking, highly-political comic book classic of global capitalism, rebellion and exploitation is collected in its entirety for the very first time!

‘Third World War’ is suffused with economic, political, and social issues, and deals with ever-moreprescient issues around capitalism and global politics. Ezquerra’s painted colour artwork is a highlight of his long and distinguished career. A truly anti-establishment graphic novel from the late 1980s, this is unlike anything else published by the Treasury of British Comics so far!

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

Remember that there will be a lot more classic reprints coming from The Treasury of British Comics in 2020 including this great bunch of books...

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

SUGAR JONES collection coming in Summer 2020

A browse on Amazon today revealed this new book to be published in August 2020. The Best of Sugar Jones will collect strips from the series that ran in Pink, a girls comic published by IPC from 1973 to 1980. 

Sugar Jones was written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Rafael Busóm. Like the other material in Pink it was aimed at older girls rather than the juvenile market of comics such as June or Bunty. As the book's description puts it:

"Sugar Jones is the charming twenty-something host of her own late night variety show, beloved by viewers up and down the nation. Only her assistant Susie knows her secret – Sugar is really a selfish, sour, scheming hag of 40, who’ll do anything to make a quick buck!"

An interesting addition to Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics, The Best of Sugar Jones is listed as a 224 page paperback and is available for pre-order from Amazon's site here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sugar-Jones-Pat-Mills/dp/1781087709


********************************************

Jinty's CONCRETE SURFER to be collected next summer

Glancing at the books section of Amazon earlier I noticed that June 2020 will see the publication of Concrete Surfer by Pat Mills and Christine Ellingham. This story first appeared in Jinty in 1978.

The description on Amazon reads:
Sent home to Britain after her parents fail to establish a new life in Australia, Jean Everidge is forced to rely on family charity, moving in with her Aunt, Uncle and cousin Carol, successful gymnast, beloved of teachers and pupils alike, and all round charming “top girl”. Jean has one solace left to her – skateboarding, surfing the concrete pavement, while forgetting all her troubles, and feel free.

But Jean’s freestyling talent soon attracts attention, and if there’s one thing Carol can’t stand, it’s being out of the spotlight. With the new skatepark freestyle contest coming up, just how far will Carol go to stay number one?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concrete-Surfer-Pat-Mills/dp/1781087636

Jenni Scott's excellent blog A Resource on Jinty, featured a post on the strip a while ago and you can read it at the following link, although it does contain spoilers so I didn't read the whole entry. The blog itself is well worth following though!
https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/concrete-surfer-1978/

It's good to know that Rebellion will be bringing us more classics from the girls' comics. Christine Ellingham is an artist who is new to me so it's good to discover her art 40 years on! These well-told tales and superb artwork deserve to be seen by a new generation, and the emotional punch of their storylines makes a nice balance to the action-orientated stories from the boys' comics of yesteryear. 

********************************************

'NEMESIS THE WARLOCK: THE EARLY HERESIES' HARDCOVER ANNOUNCED

UPDATE: This book sold out within hours of this news being posted. 

NEWS JUST IN:

Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's groundbreaking series for 2000 AD available now available in a new hardcover limited edition

Rebellion is pleased to announce the brand new, limited edition hardcover collection, Nemesis the Warlock: The Early Heresies.

Exclusive to the 2000 AD webshop and developed in conjunction with 2000 AD’s licensed publisher in France, Delirium, this hardcover edition of The Complete Nemesis the Warlock perfectly showcases the ground-breaking writing of Pat Mills and the stunning art by Kevin O’Neill, Jesus Redondo, and Bryan Talbot.

There are only 250 English language copies of this limited edition English-language hardcover edition. Larger than previous paperback editions at 210mm x 280mm, it also features a 16-page colour cover and Star Scan gallery.

With an introduction by Mills with afterword by O’Neill, this volume includes the stories Terror Tube (2000 AD Prog 167), Killer Watt (2000 AD Prog 178) and Nemesis the Warlock books 1-4 (The World of Termight (2000 AD Progs 238-240, 243-244), The Alien Alliance (2000 AD Prog 246-257) , The World of Nemesis (2000 AD Progs 335-349), and The Gothic Empire (2000 AD Prog  387-406)), plus The Sword Sinister (2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1981) and The Secret Life of the Blitzspear (2000 AD Annual 1983).

Nemesis the Warlock is one of 2000 AD’s most popular characters, an alien freedom fighter battling against the xenophobic genocide perpetrated by Torquemada, the diabolically evil leader of a human race that has retreated into vast caverns beneath the surface of the Earth, now renamed Termight. Intent on purging all alien life from the galaxy and punishing ‘deviants’, Torquemada’s sinister motto – “Be pure! Be vigilant! Behave!” is one of the most recognisable slogans in comics and the strip, thanks to Mills’ mind-blowing inventiveness and O’Neill’s incredible art, continues to have a huge influence on comics even to this day.

The popularity of girls' comics

Admittedly I haven't posted about girls' comics very often here. Not because of any irrational dislike of them but because I haven't read that many. As a boy growing up in the 1960s it just didn't occur to me to read comics for girls, and as I didn't have a sister we never had such comics in the house. Later on, I guess I assumed the stories were just based around romance and ballet and wouldn't have any appeal. 

It was Pat Mills who piqued my curiosity as he's often championed girls' comics (and of course he created Misty for IPC 41 years ago). Going on Pat's recommendation I bought the first two years of Tammy and the second year of Misty from eBay sellers, along with a few copies of various other titles such as Diana and Bunty. Pat was right. The stories in girls' comics often have more of an emotional punch, whereas boys' comics tended to be more about punch-ups. Subsequently the stories in comics such as Tammy and Misty engage the reader more with the character, rather than the conflict. The differences aren't always that simple of course but that's it in a nutshell. 

Obviously Pat and his fellow editors of those classic girls' comics knew what they were doing as sales were often higher than the boys' weeklies. It's tragic that the market has been lost, but Rebellion hope to try and reignite it this summer with a new Tammy and Jinty Special on 27th June!

I still haven't read many of the girls' comics I bought but I'll get around to it. (I have loads of other unread comics and books to get through.) 

Anyway, my main reason for this post is to let you know that Pat Mills is currently writing about girls' comics on his blog, and as he knows his stuff it's worth a look:
https://www.millsverse.com/girlscomics1/

Pat's blog is worth visiting any day of course. With over 40 years experience in comics his insights into his craft, and the industry, are essential reading. Don't forget to buy his books too! Read 'Em and Weep, a fictional story closely satirising the UK comics industry is brilliant. Two books at present, and unmissable!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodnight-John-boy-Read-Em-Weep/dp/099566126X

To find out more about girls' comics, Jenni Scott's blog is definitely a place to go:

https://jintycomic.wordpress.com

Thoughts on Charley's War

I hated war comic strips when I was a kid in the 1960s and early '70s. So much so that I'd skip strips such as Captain Hurricane in Valiant and Paddy Payne in Lion and would avoid comics such as Victor and Hornet as they seemed to feature so many stories of armed conflict. Commando? Not a chance.

Why did I dislike them so much? Perhaps it was because unlike most people of my age, I didn't grow up hearing anecdotes about life in the military. In World War 2 my dad had failed his medical due to ill health, so he couldn't enlist, and my grandad was in the A.R.P. (During WW1 my grandad had worked on farms and the railway.) However, my family and their friends had often talked about the nightly horrors of the bombing raids. Therefore I knew that real war wasn't a jolly adventure as depicted in Captain Hurricane and I think I resented war comics for not being more honest.

Perhaps it was also because my parents let me watch the evening news and I often read the Daily Mirror where it was clearly evident that war (then raging in Viet Nam) was a grim affair. Admittedly I was well into sci-fi comics and superheroes, so perhaps war strips were too grounded for me, but it wasn't just that. It was the gung-ho attitude that really put me off. 

When Battle Picture Weekly came along in 1975 I was 16, so I was "growing out of kids' comics" as I considered them. I had the first issue because it was a first issue, read it quickly, stored it away in my collection, then didn't bother again. What changed things was years later noticing Charley's War on the cover on the latest issue whilst browsing the comic racks in a newsagents. The issue dated 12th July 1980 (shown below). I recognised the artist as being that of the guy who'd drawn Football Family Robinson for Jag and Kid Chameleon for Cor!! so I bought the comic out of curiosity.

My perceptions of war comics changed immediately. Charley's War didn't glorify war as so many of its predecessors had. Here was an anti-war strip, right in the heart of a boys' war comic! It felt radical, it felt real, and I was hooked! The other strips had some merit too, but the only reason I started buying Battle was for Charley's War, which I'd cut out and save. The writer was Pat Mills, and the artist was Joe Colquhoun.

I know now of course that I'd done the early issues of Battle Picture Weekly a disservice by ignoring them. The comic was superb, part of an important new direction for UK comics, and didn't pull its punches. I've since collected the first five years of the comic so I can enjoy the tightly-written and grittily illustrated stories at my leisure.

All that is a long preamble to give another promotion to Rebellion's superb Charley's War books, but, heck, it's my blog so I'll waffle if I want to. Plus, as we reach the 100th anniversary of the WW1 armistice I wanted to put my thoughts about war comics out there. War has always appalled me, and I still dislike the unrealistic types of war comics, but Charley's War is the antithesis of that and an essential read!

In Charley's War, we see the story from the perspective of a young lad, Charley Bourne, who enlists with the optimism to serve his country in the Great War. His naivety is soon shaken by the harshness of his environment, and the tragedies and hardships that he encounters. Unlike many war comics that had officers as the main hero, Charley Bourne is a tommy, a working class hero.

Although the depictions of warfare are well researched and realistic, some artistic license had to be employed because one soldier could not possibly experience all that befalls Charley throughout the saga. In that respect, Charley Bourne represents the everyman. In other situations that would be too far removed for a soldier in the trenches the story shifts to depict the stories of Charley's brother Wilf, or the French deserter, Blue. 

I consider Charley's War to be the greatest war story in comics. Perhaps the greatest adventure story in any British comic. The three books published by Rebellion collect the entire saga which runs to almost 1,000 pages in total. To me, it's the best work of Pat and Joe's long careers. They clearly both felt very passionate about the subject matter and they succeeded in treating it with respect for ordinary soldiers caught up in the conflict, and a contempt for those that put them through it.

At the moment, Rebellion are doing a special offer of all three books for £39.99. A good deal considering that each book is over 300 pages. Go to the publisher's website here:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/B0001

The motto "Lest We Forget" is used in remembrance ceremonies but, sadly, politicians did forget, or didn't care, and there have been multiple conflicts since. Books like Charley's War are essential reading for all ages as a reminder that war is not to be taken lightly.

All artwork in this post is Copyright © Rebellion Publishing Limited.

Marshal Law vinyl figure - limited edition!

Created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill in 1987, hero-hunter Marshal Law made a big impression in comics right away. Now, the character has been unleashed as a detailed vinyl figure limited collectors' item from Ubox Industries, available to order today!

My thanks to Kevin for sending me the above photo of the figure. You can find out more about this collectable item, and order one for yourself, at the Ubox website here:
http://store.unboxindustries.info/product/marshal-law-vinyl-figure

Preview: Charley's War Volume 3

Charged with emotion, the conclusion to Charley's War, possibly the greatest British adventure strip of all time is coming next month when Rebellion publish the final volume in their definitive collection of the anti-war strip.

Charley's War: The Definitive Collection Volume 3: Remembrance gathers together the final chapters of the story set in World War One, written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Joe Colquhoun at the top of their game. A 370 page blockbuster of a book, digitally remastered to bring you sharp reproduction. An unmissable collection from The Treasury of British Comics. 

Here's the details and a few preview pages...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills, (w) Joe Colquhoun (a) John Aldrich, Mike Peters, Peter Knight (l)
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 14th June 2018
• PAPERBACK, 370 pages
• PRICE: £19.99 (UK) $26.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086216
• DIAMOND: APR181718


After killing former comrades as part of a firing squad, Charley has joined the Stretcher Bearers in an attempt to save lives rather than take them. But he soon fi nds himself back behind a rifl e reunited with ‘The Scholar’ as his new offi cer, while an entrenched group of German soldiers engage them in a sniper stand-off! Meanwhile Charley’s younger brother Wilf has his own struggles in the skies, as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps. Charley’s adventures take him through the fi nal months of the War in Europe to the cold land of Russia, under the orders of his unjust superiors and their corrupt interests… This final volume concludes Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s anti-war epic, a monument to the power of comics.

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Preview: Charley's War, The Definitive Collection Volume 2

The next book in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line will be the second volume of Charley's War: The Definitive Collection. Hot on the heels of Vol.1 which was released last week, Volume 2 will be published on May 17th.

Volume 2, subtitled Brothers In Arms, will be another chunky softback of over 330 pages, reprinting the classic WW1 story by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun. This edition covers the stories from Battle Action from late 1980 to mid 1982. The horrors of the war continue, and this time we're given the story of a deserter, the British mutiny, and Charlie's encounters with the sadistic British officer Captain Snell. 

When these stories first appeared in Battle-Action, the comic was sadly past its best, but Charley's War was a true gem. Indeed, it would even have stood head and shoulders above the contents of any comic, such was the high standard of the creative team. Pat Mills' dedicated research into the subject matter, combined with his skills of writing a gripping adventure story, made the strip unmissable, and Joe Colquhoun's powerful, detailed, and emotive artwork was the perfect match. 

Back in the day, I was buying Battle-Action solely for Charley's War, and would carefully cut out those pages in order to staple each story arc together into makeshift books. Now that we have these Definitive Collections, better printed than the original comics, I'll be replacing my yellowing old pages with these handsome books.

In short, not to be missed! Here's a preview of the first chapter in Volume 2...

CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills, (w) Joe Colquhoun (a) John Aldrich, Mike Peters, Peter Knight (l)
REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
RELEASE DATE: 17th May 2018
PAPERBACK, 320 pages
PRICE: £19.99 (UK) TBC (US)
ISBN: 9781781086209
DIAMOND: TBC

Injured in The Battle of the Somme, Charley returns to wartime London and meets a deserter from the French Foreign Legion, Blue, who tells of his brutal experiences of the Battle of Verdun. All too soon Charley returns to the front line at Ypres where the threat from the German army is matched only by the inhumanity of his superiors! In the face of suffering and injustice, seeds of mutiny begin to grow among the ranks… This second volume of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s masterpiece continues to tell the story of an ordinary soldier’s experiences in World War One, including the vibrant re-mastered colour pages from the original comic. Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

ABC Warriors hardback coming next month

March 22nd will see the publication of ABC Warriors: The Mek Files 04, a glorious hardback collection continuing the series written by Pat Mills will stunning digitally painted artwork by Clint Langley. I always think Mills and Langley's work is one of the highlights of 2000AD so it's good to see these stories collected. Here's the info from Rebellion, along with a preview of the first few pages...

• CREATIVE TEAM: Pat Mills (w) Clint Langley (a) Simon Bowland
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 22nd March 2018
• HARDCOVER
• PRICE: £25 (UK) $35.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086230
• DIAMOND: JAN181850


Continuing the legendary A.B.C. Warriors definitive collection series! Travelling across Mars to recruit their latest companion, the battle-scarred A.B.C. Warriors reminisce about their part in the Volgan War - a vicious conflict fought for oil on Earth. As the droids Hammerstein, Mongrol, Joe Pineapples, Deadlock and Blackblood all relate their memories of the war, old mysteries are revealed and ancient grudges are rekindled! This collects the first two parts of The Volgan War, Pat Mills and Clint Langley's brain-boggling A.B.C. Warriors epic!

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

More Nemesis from Hachette

I mentioned back in October how the first three books of Nemesis the Warlock had been collected into one volume for the 2000AD Ultimate Collection. Well, they've just published another hefty volume, this time collecting books four to six!

With scripts by Pat Mills, this one starts out with some great Kevin O'Neill art before Bryan Talbot takes over for a long run. To me, Kev will always be the definitive Nemesis artist, but Bryan produces some fantastic pages here too. 

This hardback book takes us from 1984 to 1986 so there's a lot of material here. It's on sale in newsagents and comic shops now, for £9.99
http://www.2000adcollection.com

Read 'Em and Weep - Book two!

Goodnight, John-Boy, he second prose novel in the series Read 'Em and Weep, is now available to buy as an e-book, and will shortly be available in print too. Written by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill, the books are set in a fictionalised British comics industry of the past, with some sharply witty parallels and laugh-out loud moments. 

I thoroughly recommend them! 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodnight-John-boy-Read-Weep-Book-ebook/dp/B078FG5D4F

Charley's War re-collected in 2018

One of the greatest British comic strips of all time, Charley's War, by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun, is to be reprinted again in three chunky books next year. Previously collected by Titan Books, the rights are now with Rebellion who will be representing the stories in brand new Definitive Editions, and presenting the full colour pages in colour as they were originally in Battle Picture Weekly. (The Titan books reprinted them in monochrome.) 

More information over on the Boys Adventure Comics blog that broke this welcome news:
https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/charleys-war-re-collected-in-3-new.html

Nemesis the Warlock back in print

The fifth and latest book in the partwork series 2000AD The Ultimate Collection is Nemesis the Warlock Volume One, by Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, and Jesus Redondo. It was a joy to find a copy in my corner shop today and I plonked down my £9.99 for this splendid hardback without hesitation. 

These early Nemesis the Warlock stories have been a firm favourite of mine since their debut in the 1980s, and Kev O'Neill has been one of my favourite artists since then too. I already have the stories in softback, but I couldn't resist this fine hardback. The only drawback is the page size is a bit smaller than its original publication in 2000AD, but the pin-sharp reproduction makes everything clear so that's not a problem.

Nemesis the Warlock was the most bizarre and fascinating series to appear in 2000AD back in the early 1980s. Set in an oppressive future where the dictatorial, bigoted sadist Torquemada rules over the Terran empire, opposed by freedom fighter (or terrorist if you prefer) Nemesis, an alien. Yep, we're asked to root for the aliens and despise the humans, - and it works. That's just a brief summary, and it's more complex than that, especially as the series develops, but Nemesis the Warlock is an incredible story that well deserves a place on anyone's bookshelf. 

With Pat Mills as the writer, you can't really go wrong, and coupled with Kevin O'Neill's darkly comic, spiky artwork, it's a winning combination. Kev was always a big fan of Ken Reid, and you can see some influences here, even though Kevin has a distinctive style of his own, and he takes that black comedy into even more twisted and glorious directions.

This new collection reprints the first three series of Nemesis the Warlock, plus the early strips that introduced the characters. In case you didn't know, series two is drawn by Jesus Redondo. It's quite a departure from Kev's work, but Redondo is a top class illustrator in his own right so it's worth including here.

Nemesis the Warlock Volume One also includes an article on the series as a back up feature, complete with full colour reproductions of Nemesis' cover appearances on 2000AD. It would have been nice to have seen these covers reproduced one to a page instead of small size, but the reproduction is clear enough.

If you've never read these first Nemesis the Warlock stories, treat yourself to a copy of this book. You should find it in WH Smith, newsagents, and comics speciality shops, or you can subscribe to the partworks here:
http://www.2000adcollection.com

Review: Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!

Back in 1978, Leo Baxendale's autobiography A Very Funny Business was published. It was the first behind-the-scenes account of British comics that I'd read, and it was a complete eye-opener for me. Leo's accounts of creating his characters was the main thrust of the book of course, but his recollections of how the business was often mismanaged and how creatives were sometimes poorly treated was a revelation. It prepared me well for what to expect when I embarked on my own comics career a few years later.

Now, Pat Mills has written his own story of his life in comics; Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! is, like Leo's book, a sharp insight into the world of British comics and should be required reading for anyone venturing into the arena. Anyone who's met Pat knows he doesn't pull his punches and his book reflects that. I admire his courage for revealing this warts and all picture of the UK industry while he's still working in the business as it's something most of us would shy away from doing for fear of losing our work in reprisal. It could be argued that "you don't bite the hand that feeds" but sometimes biting one's tongue isn't ideal either. This is an important book that serves as a realistic counterpoint to the rose-tinted nostalgic view of 1970s British comics. 

Pat's story begins at the dawn of his comics career, when he and John Wagner were working in a garden shed, trying to earn a decent living by cranking out scripts at a fast rate for the likes of Cor!! It moves on to reveal in depth Pat's creation of Action and 2000AD and his co-creation of Battle, Misty, and more, and the conflicts with management that took place. "The suits" have often held back the potential of comics in Britain so it's good to see such a key figure as Pat Mills pointing to examples of where things went wrong. 

The mid-1970s was a pivotal time for British comics and Pat's creativity cannot be underestimated. The old style comics such as Lion were dying, new comics that followed the same tired formula such as Jet barely survived for six months. I dread to think what would have happened without the passion and creativity of Pat Mills and others at that time to shake up the industry. 

Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! is a very compelling read, and a well written account of the industry from the 1970s up to the present day. In reviews such as this the word "essential reading" is often overused hyperbole but in this case it fits the bill perfectly. 

The book is available in digital and print form, as well as a recently released audio book version.