Cover of the Week Air Ace Picture Library 284 Traitor Unmasked

Fanciful and fraudulent come to mind when contemplating the cover of Air Ace Picture Library 284 Traitor Unmasked. However I am letting my limited knowledge of aerial combat and the capabilities of WW2 aircraft colour my judgement.

The action is no doubt top notch. It would have to be for a Lysander sporting landing gear mounted guns and rockets to bring down an enemy fighter aircraft. Don't get me wrong I like the colours, particularly the use of reds and yellows. It's also nice to see that the allied plane has seen better days.

The funky title font is also somewhat endearing. There's also that lovely (if not slightly risqué) sub-head that's been spared the ignominy of appearing as a flash cut-out.

Whilst I have no complaints about the composition - indeed if I were a young lad back in 1966 the cover is exciting enough that I would have handed my hard earned 1'- in a thrice. It is the very idea behind this cover that drags it down in the rankings. Lysander lovers the world over will no doubt disagree me. 6/10.

Cover of the Week. Battle Picture Library 317 Gilroy Was Here!

Something's going wrong. The sergeant appears none too pleased that that Tommy behind has managed to blow himself up and that the other trooper seems somewhat disinterested. Oh I get it...they're pulling mines up! It's just that some are better at it than others. Despite the intent I don't think this cover delivers. However who can say? Battle Picture Library 317 Gilroy Was Here might be an absolute cracker of a story.

The more I look at Battle Picture Libraries I form the opinion that Fleetway were trying to create a publication with more of an 'edge' to compete against Commando.

For those not familiar with it the pen marks on the front are GST 55. In other words the price including the Goods and Services Tax (of 10%) is 55 cents. When the GST was introduced in Australia a number of second hand book dealers and thrift store owners believed they had to label everything with a boldly placed GST price label or suffer the wrath of the federal government. The marks of that misplaced paranoia live on to this very day.

If this cover was in a perfect state I would have given it a score of 5/10 - however as it looks like it has stood on a mine to end up up in my collection it deserves 6/10.