A somewhat late review, proving definitively that Justin Marriott is publishing issues of his magazines faster than I can read them!

The latest (fifth) issue of Battling Britons swerves slightly from its usual laser focus on war stories to take a look at spy stories of the Seventies. Behind a fine Dredger cover by Bill Cunningham, we have the usual introductory matter from Justin, including updates to previous issues, interviews with fans of war yarns (Andy Yates of the Commando Swapmeets facebook page is the subject this time) and reports of swapmeets and conventions before we get to the meat of the issue.

For me, the issue kicks off nicely with a look at the work of Pat Wright, whose work graced Commando, The Crunch and Battle during the '70s. His distinctive, thin line photo-realistic style will be well-remembered by readers of those comics on strips like 'Hitler Lives' and 'Return of the Eagle'. Rob Williams is interviewed about his current appearance in Rebellion's limited series Battle Action where he's writing 'Major Eazy' and 'Death Squad' for issues 3 and 4 respectively.

Yaroslav Horak is the subject of the first spy-related feature, Horak being the artist on the Daily Express's  James Bond strip for many years as well as war strips for comics. The cover star comes in for a solid study in Justin's overview of Dredger, as does Mike Nelson  in Paul Trimble's detailed account of the stories featuring Battle's wartime spy, The Eagle. Pete Clark, former editor of Warlord and Bullet has some interesting insights into how Warlord attracted many excellent international artists and some of the odder habits of writers on Bullet.


There's always room for something a little quirkier in Battling Britons and a feature on some of the odder spies to appear in DC Thomson's boys' titles reminds us that for every Peter Flint there was a Spy in the Suitcase or Volts of Vengeance. If that doesn't float your boat, how about a look at how bagpipes have been depicted in comics?

Reviews of aerial comics, comics relating to the Irish War of Independence, and spy comics (as you might expect), mingle with takes on Kev O'Neill's horror comics and Alex Nino's Bishop Fortune. I think its a safe bet to say that there will be something for everyone in the latest issue.

Battling Britons #5
Justin Marriott. ISBN 979-839313191-3, June 2023, 155pp, £6.99. Available via Amazon.

Battling Britons reaches its third issue and is still finding new ways to study the history and content of British war comics. This issue looks at the war in the air as it played out in the pages of the likes of Battle Picture Weekly, Warlord, and the Air Ace and other picture libraries, although it is not solely Spits and Fokkers for the magazine's 100+ pages.

To pick a few favourites out of the twenty or so vari-length features we have Paul Trimble's 'Battle in the Sky' which literally translates his look at air war strips in Battle Picture Weekly into a title; Paul is also the subject of an interview looking at his comic collecting and favourite strips.

James Bacon looks back over the aerial combat comics of Garth Ennis, which makes this an interesting companion piece to the Battle Action special that has just appeared, where Ennis revives Johnny Red and his companion, Nina Petrova. Justin Marriott (editor of BB) also takes a look back, but this time at the artwork contributed by Solano Lopez to the Air Ace Picture Library. Jim O'Brien interviews Commando artist Janek Matysiak, who has switched from traditional art to digital; and Steve Myall looks at aircraft carriers and how they have been depicted.

There is plenty more. I learned, for instance, of a Patreon project to support The Will Production, who produce Ukrainian comics for all tastes, from fantasy to anthropomorphic hamsters. I was also amazed at how many comics Justin had discovered that involved characters ingesting large amounts of drugs.

Battling Britons v2 no3
Justin Marriott ISBN 978-842096775-1, June 2022, £5.50. Available via Amazon.

Justin Marriott is unstoppable. In his opening remarks, he says that Battling Britons has "reached enough of an audience for it to be here for the foreseeable future," and promises a third issue in May ("aerial combat") and a fourth in September (a "future war"special). And here's me still thinking about how to get BAM! off the ground for its first issue!

If you were one the "enough" of an audience for the first issue, you will know the drill. The magazine is a mix of columns, reviews, and adds a couple of interviews to the mix. With a line-up of nine writers/reviewers, there's a clamor of different voices, which makes the reviews and features, even on similar subjects, individual as well as entertaining, such as Paul Trimble's look at Battle stories set in Burma and Justin's reviews of pocketbooks set in the same theatre of war.

Best of the bunch, in no particular order: an interview with collector John Hampton-Guest about his love of Commando; Jim O'Brien interviews Ron Tiner about working for Battle; James Bacon on European and US war comics — I'll happily read about the likes of George Evans and George Pratt all day; Bacon also writes about 'V For Vengeance', the old Wizard series so utterly dark it could still haunt your nightmares; an interview with Keith Richardson and Oliver Pickes about the Treasury of British Comics programme in which possible reprints of Rick Random, Robot Archie and Maroc the Mighty are mentioned; Gary Dodds praises Charley's War; and Jim O'Brien (again) looks back at Marvel UK's Fury and Forces in Combat. Finally, in the looking forward rather than looking back department, Garth Ennis talks about the upcoming Battle Action Special.

With 138 packed pages (44 more than last issue), this will keep you busy for some time.

Battling Britons, ed. Justin Marriott.
Justin Marriott ISBN ‎ 979-878210086-5, 138pp, £6.50. Available via Amazon.

Spinning off from a book of reviews published by Justin Marriott earlier this year, Battling Britons was intended to be a slim digest publication that suffered from what you might call "enthusiasm expansion", which causes project to expand and burst through all the planned boundaries.

What we have  to hand is a 96-page magazine with further issues already on the horizon (Justin is planning issues for February and June 2022). This debut issue has 21 features, many of them brief, with some of the most interesting (or just plain entertaining) being Jim O'Brien's look at the "—Or Die!" motif in pocket library titles, a review of Cam Kennedy's contribution to war strips and a look back at True War; Justin Marriott's look back at historical adventure strips, at some of the more eccentric strips to have appeared in the UK, Suicide Squads, and at elephants as weapons of war; Paul Trimble's review of Titan's Johnny Red reboot; Steve Myall's interview with Brent Towns; plus a ton of quickfire reviews.

The whole thing is entertainingly written, heavily illustrated and I'm amazed that Justin can put this package together for a fiver, half the price I would expect, even for a black & white publication. This is well worth the price.

Battling Britons vol.2 no.1
Justin Marriott ISBN ‎ 979-845271775-1, 96pp, £5.00. Available via Amazon.

Justin Marriott has built himself a publishing empire, with Paperback Fanatic, Men of Violence, Hot Lead and The Sleazy Reader as a backbone to a range of one-shots like last year's Pulp Apocalypse. I take my hat off to him.

His latest publication is Battling Britons, a 162-page collection of reviews by various hands of various war-themed strips published in British comics. The earliest date from the early Sixties (issues of War Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library) and the latest from only a few years ago (an issue of Commando). His introduction reveals that Justin was an irregular reader of comics, but rediscovered them while compiling reviews for another book, Paperbacks at War. Planning to include a handful of comics, he bought some back numbers of pocket libraries, only to re-discover their quality. Thus the seeds for Battling Britons were sown.

The volume looks at strips from the pages of War and Battle picture libraries, Commando, Battle Picture Weekly, Victor, Warlord, Valiant, Eagle, and elsewhere. It begins with a whistlestop history of war comics in the UK before it reaches the meat of the book: over 200 reviews across 140 pages. The strips are listed in alphabetical order, which helps randomize them, so a 1964 Air Ace Picture Library is followed by stories from Battle Picture Weekly, War Picture Library, Commando and Warlord.

The reviews are written by a handful of contributors: Marriott himself, Steve Myall, Jim O'Brien and James Reasoner, with introduction and afterword by Paul Trimble and Gary Martin Dobbs respectively. It's a book that's best dipped into, so let's dip in... Justin isn't keen on 'Beware the Cat', a 1978 issue of Commando involving an astrologer targetted by Hitler because he didn't predict an assassination attempt... 'Johnny Red' gets five grenades (that's the star system) for its gritty storylines and likeable hero... 'Nazi Nightmare' (another Commando) is described as "A souped-up version of the famous thriller The Boys From Brazil"... 'Cope's Crusaders' (from Wizard, 1975) are a group of Brits caught unarmed on a Greek island, holed up in a castle that they defend using ancient weapons... 'Winged Vengeance (Spike, 1983) features a good Luftwaffe pilot, but doesn't impress Jim O'Brien as he begins opposing his own side... 'Cadman' gets four well-deserved grenades, a backstabbing, self-serving weasel who tries to avoid danger at every turn...

You get the picture. There are one or two surprising omissions ('Darkie's Mob' and 'The Sarge' being two instances) but thanks to these descriptive and entertaining reviews, I now want to find and read almost every one of these unlikely yarns. You will, too.

Battling Britons, edited by Justin Marriott
Justin Marriot, 6 April 2021, 162pp, £8.00. Available from Amazon.