Disney owns your dreams.

The Spitfire in the foreground looks like Disney's version of Tigger. Surely just a coincidence. If, however, the Disney Corporation doesn't deem it to be a random event there could be danger  ahead. The consequences are too frightening to contemplate, but let's attempt the unthinkable anyway. 
If Spitfires are Tiggers then they no longer belong to Supermarine they belong to Disney. Tiger tanks will no longer be allowed to be referred to as such, as Tiger is too close to Tigger. It wouldn't be long, as a brand protection strategy, that Tiger tanks would no longer belong to Henschel they would belong to Disney. After that it wouldn't take long for the corporate copyright lawyers realise that there is no copyright on World War Two...soon after that World War Two will belong to Disney.

Spitfires are not very good

It is a well known fact that the Spitfire was not very good at staying above water. Yet this fact and many others have been kept from us. It was a hopeless subaqueous  deathtrap that made it more dangerous to the men who were forced to fly it than to the enemy.  The Germans had a popular and taunting nickname for the Spitfire and regularly called them Das Flugzeug, das nicht schwimmen kann. Soggy Spitfire pilots who were rescued by the enemy from their sinking planes were often taunted by their captors with these cruel words. Yet this is not taught in history books.
Don't let the lies continue. The truth is out there if you are brave enough to look for it.

Air Ace Picture Library 46 No Survivors

Grim. It's not often the 3 main characters in a pocket war comic don't make it to the back page alive. War is usually a lark, a punt, an adventure. Not this time. Three chums all set out to join up, one joins the RAF, another the RN and the other is rejected for military service so he becomes a teacher.
To ruin the story for you the Spitfire pilot is the last one to go. His thirst for revenge is his ultimate undoing. I can't help but feeling if this story was written a few years later all of them would have survived, but not this time. I wonder if there was any difficulty in getting this story line to print? Also the title is missing an exclamation mark!
A great story with no lucky coincidences or outrageous good luck.

Ever Wanted to Own a Spitfire?

As many as 140 Second World War Spitfire fighter planes — three to four times the number of airworthy models known to exist — are believed to be buried in near-pristine condition in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

A British-Burma partnership says it will begin digging them up by the end of the month.
The go-ahead for excavation came earlier this week when the Burmese government signed an agreement with British aviation enthusiast David J. Cundall and his local partner. Cundall, a farmer and businessman, earlier this year announced he had located 20 of the planes...http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/10/18/burma-british-spitfires-buried.html

Air Ace Picture Library 470 Double Image

Spanning both world wars, Double Image is the classic pocket war comic story of parental disgrace reaching across generations. John Carter is wrongly accused (and very wrongly accused I must add) of being a coward. As he is dead at the time of the accusation he is denied the opportunity to defend himself. He is dead as a result of attacking a Zeppelin during a raid over England. The direct cause of his death is from a pistol flung at him and hitting him in the head. Usually pistols are used to fire bullets - but in this instance the pistol was thrown as the weapon of last choice - as all other options failed in dissuading John Carter in pressing home his attack. The flung gun becomes the very obvious link to later in the story.

Anyway Carter's accuser survives the mission, destroys the Zeppelin (or so he thinks) and ends up commanding a squadron in WW2 where, you guessed it, the son of John Carter turns up.

Look we all know where this Air Ace Picture Library story is going. As stupid as it sounds this one actually works out OK. There are several reasons why Double Image escapes from being just plain horrible. To start with your expectations aren't set very high from the beginning. Next, more than a third of the action is set during the First World War. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it's all in the artwork. Look at the panel below with the officer calling in the Zeppelin raid or the one with the spitfire pilots scrambling to their aircraft. These panels are beautifully drawn and it is their animation, detail and style that get this story off the ground.

You can see why he is an admiral.

You keep your hands on your own butt. By the way good work on the facial hair, Herr Oberleutnant.

The only way to provide advance warning - with a nice mug of tea and a cucumber sandwich.

I really like this panel. Must be the flying goggles and the scarf.

Let's put things in context here. Von Zarnoff is standing a Zeppelin...

Sticks and stones may break my bones...oh and guns thrown at my head.

That's not a nice thing to say.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

Besides being a great panel...makes you think why didn't he begin a career as a brick layer so he wouldn't have to put up with the cross generational embarrassment?

Another day at the office.

Zum timz zey speak English, ozzer timz zey zro in foreign verds.

So that explains everything...

Air Ace Picture Library 349 Duel Over Malta

Why does Battler Britton brings out the best and worst in pocket war comics?

First the best. Duel Over Malta is really well drawn. This is one of those stories where the sky is full of aircraft. There are Stukas, Hamdens, Blenheims, Spitfires, Junker 88s, Me 109s, Beaufighters, Macchi 202s and Junkers 52 Trimotors. With all those aircraft there's plenty of action. Even the storyline itself is reasonable. Set during the siege of Malta the scene is set for Battler to blast some Jerries out of the sky. Battler and his squadron are assigned to fly in badly needed Spitfires and pilots to defend the embattled island. From the moment they take off from the pitching aircraft carrier to the landing on the bomb crater pocketed airfield Battler is in the thick of it. The moment he lands his aircraft it is immediately seconded by the local fighter hero, Squadron Leader Naylor, who uses the Spitfire for its designed purpose.

A cooperative and friendly rivalry develops between Naylor and Britton as they maintain the good fight against almost overwhelming odds.

So what's the worst? Battler has to go on and do something that's impossible. To most this might appear to be his most enduring quality - but not only does he bend and stretch the very laws of physics his actions are somewhat gratuitous to the plot, robbing an otherwise good story of some extra panels and pages.

There's a point in this story where everything seems to be going OK and then Battler has to pull the "Hang on - while I save the war moment". Again an endearing quality to some but not to me.

Another game of Risk in progress. While the man at the desk is clearly a German and the two guys before him are tram conductors - why does the guy in the background look British?

Rarely mentioned or pictured in pocket war comics here is a unique appearance of these two famous degenerates.

Now that does sound like trouble!

Battler looks a lot like Mr Bean.

Excellent! By that rate we should all be dead in a week and half.

Now that's an understatement.

Good mini Aagh! from the Ace of Spades.

  

What is wrong with these people? They manage to speak English most of the other times.

Air Ace Picture Library Comic Book Advertising

Just what does FROG stand for? Well when I was  growing up we thought these kits were the new kids on the block. They were new and looked better than either the standard Arifix or Revell kits.

For some reason my school cronies and I believed that FROG where made in France and it wasn't until many years later that I learnt that FROG stands for "Flies Right Off the Ground." The company originally made flying aircraft models and hence the name.

A little digging around on the internet and I've discovered that the company predates my adventures into plastic model kit making by 40 years. There's more about information about the firm and the model kits at this website http://www.frogpenguin.com/ Sadly it hasn't been updated in a number of years. However it is still well worth a look.

This particular scan is from the inside front cover of Air Ace Picture Library 483 One Moment of Glory, published January 1970.