Danger! Danger! My heaven, and with great blobs of both thunder and lightning, is nowhere safe from wakery’s advance?
It has turned out that the now more than 60 years old Commando strip has decided to move away from chauvinism.
What? Disappear the thought! They might as well get rid of machine guns and Spitfires.
It seems that schoolboys will no longer be able to read war magazines where Tommies with their lantern jaws urge despicable ‘Huns’ to ‘eat lead’ or ‘Fritz’ to ‘take that’.
Nor will guys — let’s face it, girls don’t read this stuff — gaily over frames of devilish “Japs” while yelling “Banzai!” call. or die with ‘Aiiiieeee!’ on their lips.
According to Calum Laird, a former Commando editor, and the holder of a PhD in “representations of conflict and character in British war comics,” the magazine instead goes less gung-ho and presents “more nuanced and compassionate depictions of wartime life.” ‘.
Looks like schoolboys won’t be able to read war magazines with lantern-jawed Tommies urging despicable ‘Huns’ to ‘eat lead’ or ‘Fritz’ to ‘take that’
While it’s clearly the most iconic war magazine, Commando certainly wasn’t the first
Guy Walters grew up collecting the Commando magazines and says it is essential that their essence is not lost
As an example of the shift, Dr. Laird a Commando comic he wrote in 2020, Stan’s War, in which a Polish soldier is exiled from Britain at the end of the war. Laird says it was the aftermath of Brexit that inspired him to write it.
“In Fife, where I am, a lot of people are of Polish descent,” he says. “I was well aware that after Brexit we had Polish friends who moved back. This was a time of polarized debate about immigration. Comics offer the opportunity to examine these issues in a more nuanced way.’
In other examples, Commando produced a series of VE Day stories that told from a German soldier’s point of view, as well as stories about the differences between German conscripts and their fascist brothers in arms.
“It just shows how things change,” Dr. Laird says.
Judging by these words, it feels like Commando comics are going to become mouthpieces for some type of arch-liberal Remoaner politics, rather than good old-fashioned war stories that were — or were, it seems — simple celebrations of heroism, sane patriotism, and a fight between goodies. and baddies.
Men of my generation – I’m 50 – grew up with these magazines, which also include War Picture Library, Victor and Valiant. Most had a world of evil Germans, heroic Brits, lippy Aussies, brave Yanks, dastardly Japs and treacherous French.
Many will be surprised that the comics are still going on, let alone going strong. Though Commando’s publisher DC Thomson won’t disclose the magazine’s run, a few years ago it claimed that the comic sold an average of about 9,600 copies every two weeks, which would represent a readership of about 50,000.
While it is clearly the most iconic war magazine, Commando was certainly not the first. In fact, it was launched by DC Thomson to take on the successful War Picture Library, which was produced by their main rival, IPC.
Its first editor was Charles ‘Chick’ Checkley, who had served in the RAF during the war. His deputy, Ian Forbes, was with the Royal Corps of Signals, meaning both men had war experience. Checkley and Forbes realized that the best way to deal with the rival was to make the stories both realistic and with accurate period detail.
Commando is now 61 years old and it’s clear that today’s comics can’t stay the same as when they were born. But those who love these magazines must act as custodians to ensure that the spirit is not lost
Guys – let’s face it, girls don’t read this stuff – won’t be able to merrily stare over frames of devilish ‘Japs’ as they say ‘Banzai!’ call. or die with ‘Aiiiieeee!’ on their lips
The formula worked, and in its heyday in the 1970s, Commando would sell a whopping 750,000 copies in one month alone.
It’s true that some of that old-fashioned stereotyping doesn’t fit well in a contemporary context. People like Boches, Jerries, Squareheads and Fritz are not terms that are talked about these days.
But it must be remembered that they are at least historically accurate, and were the words British and American combatants used at the time.
Where I think Dr. Laird might be dishonest – though I bow to his PhD in all of this – is in suggesting that the Commando comics lacked nuance. I still have all the war magazines I collected in school in the 1980s, and when I look through them these days, I realize that the stories were often much more subtle than I remember.
Take, for example, 1969 issue – A Special Kind Of Courage – published in 1986, which deals with the question of whether a decorated British officer is in fact a coward. A similar theme is present in 1977’s song – The Fight Against Fear – which is about a soldier named Sam Snade who is far from a hackneyed brave Brit.
It’s this relative sophistication that made Commando superior to rival publications – its heroes often have flaws.
Occasionally, a soldier’s worst enemy is an inner demon, such as sibling rivalry born of a brother with a higher death rate during the Battle of Britain; or a lack of self-esteem caused by a pushy father who was a World War I hero; or maybe sheer fear.
Nevertheless, at the end of their personal odyssey, these men find personal salvation from the horrors of war. The final frame of each comic inevitably features our hero making amends with his former rival and finding inner peace.
On the way, of course, many Germans and Japanese are killed. A lot.
But for all the violence, it feels almost harmless compared to the graphics of many modern computer games like Call Of Duty.
It is worth appreciating that Commando and its ilk are truly works of art. Many of the covers and stories were drawn by legendary illustrators such as Gordon Livingstone, Ian Kennedy, and Ken Barr, all of whom paid meticulous attention to detail to ensure no war buffs could write vain correction letters to DC Thomson.
With stories spanning around 120 frames, each comic takes an artist from four weeks to six months to produce. The artist must not only immerse himself in military details, but also follow the script of the writer to the letter.
While the formula isn’t set in stone, there are some strict guidelines. Stories based on the hunt for a secret Nazi weapon are excluded because they are too cliché. Women are almost never featured, in part because the women who fought in World War II didn’t see the intense level of combat it took to create a gripping comic.
The quality and sophistication of the plots, characters, and illustrations will have many Commando enthusiasts trying to collect all 5,558 issues of the magazine.
That’s an expensive affair, and early ones can change hands well into the four digits. The most expensive example currently on eBay is number 5 – Hellfire Landing – published in 1961, for which the seller is asking £1,484.
One of the most recent releases has a classic Commando title: Hard To Kill! – but the setting, in the Malaysian emergency of the 1950s, is not the main commando background of WWII. The comic has indeed set stories during the Vietnam War, the Roman invasion of Britain, and the Spanish Civil War in recent years.
Commando is now 61 years old and it’s clear that today’s comics can’t stay the same as when they were born. But those who love these magazines must act as custodians to ensure that the spirit is not lost.
It’s unlikely Commando will ever deal with today’s issues of, say, sexuality and gender, but you never know. Mind you, a Commando comic set during the culture wars could turn out to be the bloodiest of them all.