War at Sea Picture Library 1 Devil's Cargo

It's what doesn't happen in Devil's Cargo that makes this a terrific story. The SS Westland is a creaking old tanker worthy for the scrap heap - however the urgencies of war means she is needed. The same can be said for her crew.

Once the characters are established the action follows very closely. It is in the action sequences where Devil's Cargo excels and it's what doesn't happen that makes this pocket war comic shine.

On the way to joining a convoy the Westland gets attacked by a seaplane that strafes and bombs the ship. The seaplane is shot at but it gets away! Once in convoy surface raider cruiser appears and attacks. The convoy's sole escort, an aged destroyer, sacrifices itself allowing the convoy to save itself by dispersing. The destroyer pays the ultimate price and the other ships and the Westland escape albeit a bit worse for wear. Oh by the way the surface raider isn't sunk! As the damaged Westland limps its way towards its destination it is attacked by a surfaced U-Boat. To the credit of the Westland's crew they manage to land a hit on the submarine disabling its deck gun - but not before they take a beating. What? The U-Boat isn't sunk? That plane should have been shot down! That cruiser should have been sunk! The surfaced U-Boat is not rammed? I don't understand!

This is quite a tight little story.

Even though the guy with the floppy fringe does a bang up job of showing leadership he doesn't turn out to be the hero. In a nice twist that honour goes to the shifty looking down and out spiv. This is another one of those interesting stories where you really don't get to see the bad guys. This is one of those stories that has it all - great story, great action and great pictures.

There's a lot of ink in Devil's Cargo. It is an absolute pleasure.

Looks like a great place to have holiday. Why would you want to go somewhere where people are shooting at you?

Quite a contemporary look you've got going there Bert.

Love all that shading in this story.














He don't look half shifty don't he?

This is a great panel!!

The sea is a dark and mysterious place.

Ah! That's why he voluntered!! Who would have known?











A well placed AAAGH! from the Hun in the barge as well as an almost unheard of "look out!" from one of his comrades.

It should have been the guy with the floppy fringe up there. 

Air Ace Picture Library 248 The Missing Bombers

The Japanese are so reasonable in this story they could be confused for Germans. When Air Ace Picture Library 248 The Missing Bombers turns to the Japanese they're not getting ready to die for the Emperor, nor are they calling anybody a dog, nor do they get a lot of chances to let out a final AIEEEE! The lack of stereotyping is a little bit disturbing. In fact the Japanese are portrayed as an organised enemy who just happen to make the mistake of fighting against the Allies. The artwork also doesn't have that agro guy looking though his extra thick spectacles as you would expect in one of these comic books.

All the racism is a part of the story and not in the story - if you know what I mean.

At the centre of The Missing Bombers is Kenaka Cooper, a flying chappy, who has a Japanese mother and an English father. His posting to a Wellington squadron raises a few eyebrows as well as a few hackles. Not only are the allies hard up against it now they have to contend with having a traitor in their midst. Kenaka is of course no traitor.

I like seeing Wellington bombers in pocket war comics and I was a little disappointed not to see more of them. However for some reason there a lots and lots of panels with blokes just standing around  - this issue should win a prize for the most small crowd scenes seen in a war comic book. Needless to say the narrative device of getting the Wellingtons to fly through the secret canyon is just silly.

In its own way The Missing Bombers is a sensitive story as the men around Cooper have to come grips with his ethnicity.

Well if you look really closely only 3 of them are really flying. Two of them are sort of crashing and the last one is missing.

Three disjointed panels of action on the same page. I think the artist was standing a bit close to the ink fumes.

That almost sounds reasonable. Are you sure you're the bad guys?

It's a message from your wife. She says don't forget to go past the supermarket on the way home and pick up some bread and milk.

Who else knows about this?

So that's way he's shorter than everyone else!

Well say it out loud man! You're about to get in an aircraft with him.

Nice panel.

Hey! Why go over it when you can go through it.

Interesting perspective.

Why would you have to do that? Also that guy on the radio looks like he's just lost a bet.

Can I move if I surrender?

Check out the cool gun the Japanese marine is holding.



















I don't know if holding hands with another man would be considered manly back in 1963.

War Picture Library 136 Last Ditch

Last Ditch just hits all the wrong buttons. It means well but just doesn't translate well once it's made the long hard transition from 1962 to 2011. Let's start with the bad guys - not only are they hopeless, stupid, arrogant and lousy shots they also happen to be foreigners with either limited or poor English language skills.

The four good guys have a better time of it. One is a hopeless drunk. You know he's on the highway to redemption - so that means he won't be walking off page 64 at the end. His nemesis is the conservative unimaginative captain who has every opportunity to change his way of thinking and finally does so. There's the young go getter, who realises that in order to make things happen he has to go against authority, as embodied by his captain. Finally there's the sergeant who is good at hitting his Japanese opponents with the heavy end of his rifle/Bren gun/hand.

In Last Ditch the British escape, not surprisingly, from the clutches of the Japanese through a series of lucky scrapes in an old river boat. The interior of the river boat takes on Tardis like proportions anytime the Englishman find themselves below deck.

Despite these flaws it does have some clever charm in the blinding conservatism of Captain Winchester. Even though it hinders him from accepting that the Japanese have the capability to wage war on equal footing with Commonwealth troops it also allows him to 'do what's best' for the drunk and throw all the booze overboard.

Also I find the cover mesmerising. Perhaps it's that early 60s paint palette? In particular have a look at the light shine on that helmet - just perfect!

So there you have it, War Picture Library 136 Last Ditch - plenty of flaws, predictable ending, outrageously racist with plentiful gratuitous action. Some would say almost the perfect pocket war comic!

Could you stop them?

The officers' mess looks like the place to be.

I bet you desert head has been waiting his entire military career to say that.

Even the good guys get blown up every now and again. Aaagh! indeed!!

What are the odds? The Japanese, despite outnumbering the British about 5 to 1 and having the element of total surprise, lose this one.

The Japanese Sam I Am buys one.

No let him stay...we could use a fit dripping wet native boy for something around here.

A Japanese anything with no bottom in it isn't going to be any good to anybody.

There's a lot of unusual things going on on page 34 of Last Ditch. First the head only drawing of Chindwin Charlie delivering his confession. Second not only is the Sergeant's arm casually draped outside the panel, his burly elbow reaches into the panel below.

I'd have more credibility if I didn't look like a nonce.

We're better off without that demon booze.

Battle Picture Library 122 Hold Until Relieved

At first I thought I had pulled a dud one from my collection for reviewing - but by page six I was hooked and loving the gritty inky artwork, style and and story.

The story centres around a sergeant on trial for abandoning his post and the efforts of his men to clear his name. There's a lot of ruin and destruction in this story and vehicles are rare - I think there may be just one in there somewhere. Besides being good at pouring ink onto the page the artist also uses the handy trick of drawing officers' uniforms intentionally large. Which for some reason makes the commissioned classes appear untrustworthy. I don't understand the psychology behind it but it works. I particularly liked the panels set around the ruined old mill wheel house - it's ugly stuff for an at times ugly story.

As mentioned before I thought I had picked up a dud as at first I didn't like the drawing style - but the further I got into the story the deeper the ink got into my veins. As always in reading a pocket war comic my mind races forward with expectations of "how is this going to end". Will it run true the stereotypical formula war comic ending or will something else happen? Thankfully Hold Until Relieved manages to end close off on a less than usual note.

Still it has all the elements that make up a formula story- the squad loyal to the sergeant, the one dissenter who hates him, the voice-of-reason-corporal who reminds one and all "he's saved your skin a number of times" and of course the stupid replacement officer who doesn't listen to the sergeant.

I get the feeling that someone who may have been in or near a battle or had access to someone who had may have written Hold Until Relieved.

So for a war comic that doesn't have any tanks or planes in it - this is very good. Hold Until Relieved is gritty and dirty and only a little bit cheesy. The best part about this Battle Picture Library story is the way the ink has been poured into each page and panel.

I was hooked by the time I got to page 6.

I just the love the dirty, gritty, inky style

Inky as bro.

Now there's a better than average cheesy line "...Irish abuse...in the company of a mills grenade!"

Wow! A Donner und Ugh! and an AAGH!

Not a bad decision just bitter.

Excellent final panel.

War Picture Library 107 Death Took No Side

Quality! Quality from cover to cover. Quality story, quality artwork - everything about Death Took No Side is superb. Let's start with the main character Private Frank Kendrick. He is the supreme loner. He comes from a broken home and cares for nobody but himself. Even the very mention of family sends him either into a rage or into fits of derision. Until of course he befriends Corporal Jock. Jock also comes broken home except of course he is different - he doesn't hate the world. Just as Frank is starting to feel good about himself, despite being bombed and shot at - Jock is killed in a counterattack intended to make time for the besieged garrison at Tobruk. The attack and Jock's death become pointless as Tobruk had already fallen by the time the counterattack was ordered. Frank then deserts with the intention of either dying alone or not giving up his life for anybody or any cause.

Frank stumbles across an Australian lost in the desert and together they are forced into some harsh choices in order to survive. Frank falls ill and is nursed back to health by his new antipodean friend. Frank isn't very good at keeping friendships (the Australian is killed in vicious hand to hand combat) and he finds himself alone again.

Circumstance then presents Frank with a choice. He can run away again or face a very uncertain future (or that should that be almost certain future) and try and stop the enemy - by manning an anti-tank gun by himself. And that's the last we see of him watching a German tank getting closer. I am a fan of any pocket war comic brave enough to finish a story without a neatly resolved ending.

This is a great story that could have been ruined in so many places. Surely there was an editor somewhere begging for a pair of smiling ghosts looking over Frank as he prepares to take on the enemy single handily. But there isn't and that's what makes this story so fantastic. Also the quality of the artwork is pretty darn good displaying a wonderful and masterful mix of shading, clean lines, white space, detail, animation and composition. The artist even manages to insert a small moment of whimsy among the military clutter and human wreckage in the shape of a small lizard sunning before a destroyed allied tank.

This is a terrific War Picture Library to look out for as it delivers from cover to end.

Yaaah! is like Aaagh! except it's the sound you make when you're stickin' it to the other guy.

What a great bit of ink work! I love it!! There's so much going on in this one panel.

I don't understand. All the good guys are heroes aren't they?

I've had it so tough that getting shot at by Nazis and shouted at by NCO's is a paradise.

What work!

Never has a destroyed Grant (or should that be a Lee) been so lovingly drawn.
















This is desperate stuff.

Bloody Australians and their disregard for class.

Time to man up Frank and drink that cup of cement.

Never too late to sing "I did it my way..."