When Commando Gets Creepy: Ancient Nightmares.

 Hello and welcome to another post about British war comic Commando and the times it got all Weird War Tales.

 (Probably not that often but when you've racked up nearly 6000 issues,  eventually  you end up with enough material for a clutch of blog posts)

 So far we've covered ghosts, haunted artefacts, tanks with a mind of their own, lethal curses and that time a forest started eating people. (See previous posts for more details) 

 I was originally going to finish this series off with one last post but had a bit of a think and really, I would be better off splitting things up.  Makes it easier to write if nothing else. 

Commando 5589: Night of the Gorgons (2022)

1943 A fighter sweep over one of the Dodecanese Islands ends in a nightmare when the Spitfires return to base  and one of the pilots has, somehow, turned to stone. His friend decides to join a commando team investigating the island, expecting some sort of Nazi super weapon. What he finds is an awful lot of statues and a mysterious woman...

 You will be relieved to hear that yes, there is a mid-air fight between a winged Gorgon and a Spitfire. I think we can all agree that this is awesome. 

  The rest is also a good read that takes an out-there idea and runs with it. The way the commandos are gradually picked off is pure horror-film territory. The malevolent Melania Mandrapilias is a memorable villainess and makes a nice change from the usual Nazi brutes. 

Somebody on the editorial team must have liked her as well because, for what may be the first time ever, a Commando villain made a second appearance. 

Commando 5689: Dawn of the Gorgons (published 2023)

 

 A British carrier on the way to participate in the Suez operation runs into -  you guessed it, a deserted ship filled with really good statues. Soon commandos start dying horribly as a pissed off Gorgon gets revenge on the world.  

 What I like about both these stories is that they are set during military campaigns well outside the norm. The ill-fated Dodecanese operation for the first, the Suez crisis in the second. 

 (Hmm, I wonder if the writers deliberately picked operations that were massive failures. )

Also, commandos vs gorgons is a cool idea that somebody needs to make a film about.  Preferably not the Asylum because we all know how that's gonna go. 

I think I preferred the artwork for "Night.." but that's a minor quibble. "Dawn..." is a worthy sequel and I wouldn't mind seeing a third installment. 

Moving eastward and somewhere much, much colder and we get...

  

Commando 5729: Baba Yaga (Published 2024)

 After a Russian T-34 is destroyed by a King Tiger Ivan, the lone, injured survivor meets a beautiful woman. After some reluctance, she agrees to take him to the cabin in the forest where she lives with her sisters. In exchange for performing 3 tasks, they will heal him and then help him fight the Germans. 

  Initially alarmed by the cabin having a whole load of skulls on stakes outside, Ivan takes on the tasks, even if he can't quite understand the reasoning.  There's also something a little odd about the 3 sisters...

Another interesting issue. It's deliberately set up to follow the structure of old folk tales, especially Russian folklore. The 3 sisters, the 3 tasks, the way it all pays off at the end when our hero uses what he learned.  I also think Baba Yaga is aimed at an older readership, who are aware of the old myths about a forest dwelling witch and also why a King Tiger is a big deal.

So to sum up, 3 Commando issues that are worth checking out if you want your war stories with a healthy does of weird shit. 

I have maybe one more post to go so see you next time.

That's All Folks. 

Comics: Lady Spitfire (France 2012)

  I've been on a bit of a Euro Comics splurge lately and found a whole universe of stuff that I just didn't know was there.  It seems a bit weird that it's easier to find and read Japanese comics from the other side of the world than the stuff produced just over the Channel.

  In my wanderings through this new territory there's two things guaranteed to make me want to check out a title.

1. A beautiful woman brandishing a sword or gun.

2. WW2 fighters.

  And since I'm a sucker for anything that may have Spitfires in it, when I saw this series I was immediately sold. 

There are four volumes thus far. 

 Lady Spitfire 1- Daughter Of The Air

Aircraft-mad tomboy Lara Chevalier and her father escape the fall of France in "borrowed" fighters.

Tragically Chevalier senior doesn't make it to England and his grief-stricken daughter refuses to let her piloting skills be wasted ferrying fighters.

Then a timely bit of subterfuge lets Lara join the ranks of  Spitfire squadron 1B 

Now all she has to do is keep her secret and avoid being hacked out of the sky by a Messerschmitt. 

Lady Spitifre 2 - Der Henker

 A German Ace in a red-nosed BF109 has been ruthlessly picking off RAF squadron leaders. 

Lara and tortured ace "The Spirit" must put aside their differences to deal with Der Henker

(The Executioner) because the future of 1B squadron is at stake. 

 Lady Spitfire 3 - One For All And All For Her

A new pilot with an attitude problem may bring Lara's tenure with 1B to an end and cause the whole squadron a world of hurt in the process.    

But before Lara Chevalier goes back to the civilian ranks, she has a plan for one last,daring mission. 

Lady Spitfire 4- Desert Air Force

Newly arrived in the Western Desert just as things are looking critical, Lara is sent on a bombing mission

that ends in disaster. The injured and stranded Mademoiselle Chevalier has to face the Germans, the desert and her own personal demons. 

 

Little Lara never wanted to be
a nurse when she grew up.

 There were women fighter pilots in WW2 but as far as I know only in the Russian airforce.  The British had a corps of women pilots who did good and valuable work delivering aircraft but it took a lot of arguing before the Air Transport Auxiliary ladies were allowed to pilot anything more warlike than a Tiger Moth.

  Bearing this in mind I was initially curious as to how the creative team would get Lara into the cockpit of a Spitfire.
 Thankfully any worries I might have about a lipstick wearing, glamourgirl Mary-Sue were entirely unjustified.

   Lara Chevalier's transformation into an RAF officer is a bit of a stretch but still within the grand tradition of Mulan, Hannah Snell and Polly Oliver 

 It also helps that the artist puts some effort into making our heroine look like a hero.  (See below.)

"Charlie" reporting for duty.

Alright, so Lara is treated like somebody special by the rest of the squadron but hey, she is the star of the comic after all and by and large remains likeable even with her faults.
  There's a nice relationship with scarred ace "The Spirit" who is interesting enough that he could have carried a series on his own. In true comic tradition, the two butt heads several times before getting used to each other and turning into an effective team.

  Not everybody warms to the idea of a female fighter pilot, especially a female pilot who take zero shit from anybody
. In volume 3 one new arrival goes out of his way to be a complete dick and things rapidly get ugly.
 ( Mind you Johnny Red had one of his own side try to kill him every three months or so. Just saying. )

 The storylines are relatively simple and maybe a little old-fashioned in the vein of the old-school WW2 fighter stories. Personally I was happy with that.  while I don't want to see war glorified  I also don't need to see the genre deconstructed, given a dark makeover and all the characters turned into unlikable arseholes.

 I think what I'm trying to say is that Lady Spitfire might not be the most realistic war comic you' ever see but it never gets too silly.  There's also plenty of action to keep things moving along past the plotholes.

This seems like a good point to bring up something that I really did like.  The artwork.

Maza's work is decent enough on the ground but when the comic gets into the air  things go up by several notches. The guy draws a fantastic Spitfire and his dogfights are well worth seeing.  See below for some examples.

Lara meets a wanker.

The Spirit. Scarred outside and inside too.  

  Fun fact: The Hurricane had an unprotected fuel tank right in front of the pilot. The result was a lot of badly burned pilots.  

  As I said above, when it comes to the dogfights Maza brings his A Game. 

 

Der Henker on the hunt.

Lara duels an Emil

   To sum up; If you enjoyed Garth Ennis's aviation work in War Stories, Battlefields and Battler Britton 
and can cope with the central premise then you might enjoy Lady Spitfire.

  Personally I plan to keep an eye out for a possible Volume 5.  Having Lara Chevalier on the Eastern front seems like the logical progression after all.

I'll leave you with one final bit of dogfighting action.  

 

That's all folks. 

I Build Spitfires - Part 2

 I like internet shopping. I like being able to flick through webpages rather than traipse from shop to shop in the hope that they have what I'm looking for.  Twenty minutes sat in comfy chair, with a packet of doughnuts to hand, compared to several hours outside, struggling with public transport, dodgy weather and aching feet.
 Score one for the 21st century and modern technology.

 But in one regard real-world shopping scores over web commerce. That's when you wander into a shop with money in your pocket and see what catches your eye.  Which leads me neatly into what I picked up the last time I stuck my nose into Waterlooville Models (Actually in Portsmouth. Don't ask.)

 AZ MODELS JOY PACK: SPITFIRE 1B, SPITFIRE IIB, SPITFIRE VB, SPITFIRE VI

I Build Spitfires.

Today saw something of a historic event. To commemorate the Battle Of Britain 40 Spitfires and Hurricanes flew over the South of England. A glorious sight.
 Well, I'm assuming so, because I managed to miss it.

Bugger.

So, in partial tribute, I thought I'd share some more of my hamfisted modelling attempts.

You see, I quite like making model Spitfires.

From the back, left hand corner: Mk 1 (early production), Mk1A, Mk V (Clipped wings), Mk V(Tropical filter), Mk VII (High altitude),

 Mk IX, MkXVI (Late production with cut-down fuselage), Mk XIX (PR), FR22, Seafire47 (The end of the Spitfire line)

There's about 25 different marks of Spitfire so I have a fair way to go yet. 

 Yes, that is a stack of lads mags under the kitchen table. 

Single male living alone. 

Deal with it. 

Sometimes I don't wash up immediately after a meal either. 

Looks pretty good so far, doesn't it? Time to shatter that illusion, because now you're going to get a closer look at some of my favourites. 

If you take modelmaking seriously, stop reading now - this won't be pretty.  

The PR XIX in Swedish markings. Such a great colour scheme, how could I resist?

Fun fact: The RAF hung on to the PR Spitfire well into the 1950s because even the first generation of jets had trouble intercepting them. 

Note to self: dust models at some point. 

 An FR22 in the snazzy post-war colours.  

The Seafire 47 with the contra-rotating propellors.

No they aren't supposed to look like that.

Neither is the paint job. 

I told you I wasn't very good...

By this point the Seafire had almost no parts in common with the original Spitfire and was twice the weight.

Still an elegant aircraft though. You can understand why people get misty-eyed about Spits. 

Here's a Mark 1 and the FR47 side by side for comparison. 

Finally, my most recent kit.

 The MK XVI - which started off as a MK IX fitted with the Packard Merlin.

Later on Supermarine added some modifications, most noticeably the cut-down rear fuselage and Mustang style canopy.  

I'm still quite pleased with this kit although it must be said, I made a few minor errors.

Trying to clean a paint-spattered canopy with white spirit for instance. 

(Tip: Don't do this... ever !)

And I have no idea what I did to the wings but they ended up looking like I put them on upside down. 

They aren't supposed to curve down like that! 

Never mind. I knew from day one that I'm never going to win any contests doing this and when it comes down to it, making model Spitfires keeps me occupied and out of mischief.

Now does anybody know where I can get a decent 1:72 scale Mk VIII?  Aussie markings for preference.

That's all folks.  

David Isby - The Decisive Duel:Spitfire vs 109

  There are plenty of books about Reginald Mitchell's iconic Spitfire and several about the equally legendary BF109. This is the first I know of that covers the history of both.

  The Spitfire and BF109 will always be remembered for their battles in the summer of 1940 but there is a little more to the tale than that. 

 After a brief history of the companies and people involved, David Isby chronicles the race between the British and Germans to get their new fighter into service, a race which the Germans won.  He then moves onto the repeated clashes between the two: Dunkirk, the Battle Of Britain, the near-suicidal "Ramrod" missions over France, then campaigns in Malta, The Western Desert, Italy, Normandy and finally the last days of the war when Spitfires roamed freely over Germany itself.

  There's even a brief chapter on the Spitfire's career under the Soviet banner.
  "Decisive Duel" also covers the  ongoing attempts by  Supermarine and Messerscmitt to get more and more performance out of their warplanes and ever more aircraft coming out of the factory. A race the Germans eventually lost.

 There's two things I require from a non-fiction book. "Is it interesting?" and  "Does it tell me something I did not know?"  This book manages both.
 David Isby tells an intriguing story that blends together combat, enginering, political manouvering and the odd personal vendetta. As to the "Something I did not know" - plenty of that.
  For instance, I didn't know that Messerschmitt were getting a big chunk of their labour force from the SS.
Yes, that means exactly what you think it does.
  There's also some eye-opening stuff as to how badly the Germans were let down by their aircraft industry and their leaders.

 I woke up one morning and decided that I needed a decent book about Spitfires. With this book I not only got a decent book about Spitfires but a decent book about the BF109 and the fascinating story of how the Luftwaffe was slowly, bloodily, worn down into defeat. 

 It's not cheap and at 575 pages it's not  what you'd call light but "Decisive Duel" is well-worth a read.