2010-01-16
On this page we will mention news and things of interest to the old boys club. Contact us if you have something to share with us.
From the vaults II
2010-01-16 / Titan Books Ltd are set to release two titles - "Johnny Red - Falconīs First Flight" (128 pages) on February 28 and "Darkieīs Mob" (160 pages) on April 23.
From the vaults
2010-01-16 / Prion Books are set to release three new titles, all on April 1 - "Wings of Death" (six adventures from Air Ace Picture Library), "Hit the Dirt" (six adventures from Battle Picture Library) and "No Surrender!" (six adventures from War Picture Library). 400 pages x 3 = 1200 pages of nostalgia. Steve Holland has been involved in these titles.
40 years of excellence
2009-12-30 / In a heads up from Commando headqurters we can exclusively reveal that january will kick off with this issue (4261), a re-print of Commando 453 (1970), celebrating the fact that cover artist Ian Kennedy has now put in 40 years of sterling service. A worthy celebration.
Amazing bit of news for fans of great cover art
2009-12-13 / Well, the Q&A section on this site payed off bigtime today since one of the major mysteries regarding the identity of one of the most beloved cover artists ever in this field has been revealed by Ben Kamphuis. The artist in question is from Spain and his name is Chacopino. Evidently, there is another artist with the same name out there as well but you can see who has done what. We still want more information. This is big!
Commando competition
2009-12-13 / If you go to the Commando homepage there is a competition in which you can win all the existing Commando collections from Carlton (six as we speak) going right now. Things like this are popping up over there so you might want to check in regularly for updates.
The Battle Rages On
2009-12-11 / Commando has a special offer to those who take out a subscription from the 4 current issues (4251-4254). Hereīs the word from the Commando headquarters...
Collectors may like to get hold of these issues as we are running a subscriptions offer that offers a gift of five archive issues to anyone taking out a subscription to Commando. Two packs are offered, one from the 70s one from the 80s. The only problem is…which to choose! The batch of Commandos following these will go on sale one day early, the 30th of December.
Classic war comics makes comeback in Norway
2009-12-02 / This is amazing, truly amazing! 19 years after the last classic war comic in Norway, publisher Egmont has just released a brand new title called Kamp og Kommando (issue 1 in october, issue 2 in november). Each volume sports 260 pages of action packed nostalgia, straight out of the Commando catalogue. These comics used to be published in Norway with the title Kamp so we are talking re-runs, but the packaging is truly amazing. This means that Commando-adventures are now being published in Finland, India and now Norway, all nicely packaged for the general public in these countries. Funnily enough, all three countries have opted for thicker variations, pocket books if you like. Still, this is a major development in Scandinavia. Lets hope it has an audience willing to support it, now that somebody has had the guts to do this.
More Battlefield titles
2009-12-01 / More releases in the Battlefield series from US publishers Dynamite Entertainment is coming out as we speak. First, the brand new Battlefield-collection, "Tankies", about a british tank crew battling it out i Normandy, has landed. This title, along with "Night Witches" and "Dear Billy" is also available in a 200 page hardcover edition now. Seen above is the first issue of "Happy Valley", and this will surely come out in a Battlefield-collection as well next year. The stories are all penned by Garth Ellis, who famously brought back Battler Britton in 2007.
Royal Air Force highlights Commando book
2009-11-20 / RAF News published an interview with Commando editor Calum Laird this week as they highlight the excellent "Battle of Britain - Scramble!" book, and among the interesting bits and bobs that popped up this time around is the fact that the circulation is about 70.000 copies a month these days and that Top Gearīs James Fay is also a proud member of the old boys club (since he loves Commando). There is also a Commando competition over at RAF News to check out right now, although you must be a serving or retired member to particiapate.
2009-11-06 / A new book on UK war comics has arrived, "When the comics went to war" (Mainstream Publishing) by Adam Riches ("with Tim Parker and Robert Frankland"). It was released in the UK on October 19 and avid collectors has got 256 pages of trivia to take in here. The book basically tells the story about the british war comics scene through the ages but for obvious reasons a large chunk of it still deals exclusively with the second world war inspired comics. However, the pocket book libraries are not really in focus here, but rather titles like Action and Battle. Thereīs not one single picture of a Commando in sight. A chapter on the last surviving title at the end could have been a good idea methinks. Nice book though.
Commando/Airfix assault
2009-11-06 / This is brilliant! Commando has just launched an attack alongside classic plastic models manufacturer Airfix. This ad appears on page 2 in the recent batch of issues (4239-4242) and it looks like a winner to me. Dads with a soft spot for the classic Airfix plastic soldiers will doubtless see a nice opportunity to get "Junior" a nice christmas gift - the kind that keeps on giving, and at the same time satisfy the old nostalgia urge. This ad gave me the inspiration to check out the Airfix homepage and it seems that the company is up and running again (last I heard, they were in deep trouble), and a quick look around made my day. It would seem that they have re-released a whole bunch of my childhood soldiers, both the 1:72 and the 1:32 scales. Now, thereīs good news for the Old boys club right there! I have to say that I love the Commando/Airfix collaboration. What a splendid idea!
OLD NEWS
