Digging around in my past ... Comics

I have written before about my love of comics particularly in my youngster days but I never really gave up on them into my teens and beyond. The only change was the subject matter of the comics I would buy.

By my teens, it was war-based comics like Warlord and Battle Picture Weekly that caught my eye there first issues came out in 1974, and 1975 respectively. Another comic aimed at the teenage market was the Victor which was full of boys own adventure kind of stuff I enjoyed reading. I have always had a fascination with war of any description and in junior school drawn to the ladybird books like the Kings and Queen series or the great leaders series like Nelson or William the Conqueror because there was always a battle or war within the books.

Another source for me was second hand bookshops. Every Saturday has a kid Dad would stop off at Harding Tool shop on Mill Lane in Cardiff because they also sold second hand books. I would pester my Dad to buy me one of the Commando series of war books because the covers always looked exciting.

Of the three comics mentioned, here are my favourite characters

Jack (Union) Jackson was a Royal Marine Commando who was aboard a British ship sunk by the Japanese in 1943. He was the main character in the Warlord comic and ended up fighting with the U.S. Marines after they rescued him. Due to a misunderstanding; he accidentally signed enlistment papers and became a U.S. Marine himself!

In theory, Jack was simply waiting for Washington to realize their error and discharge him, but that didn't stop him seeing a considerable amount of action. He was always recognisable by the Union Jack on is helmet.

In the Battle comic Johnny Red was a British pilot who ends up fighting with the Russian. He was dishonourably discharged from the RAF for hitting superior officer but still wanting to do his bit in the war joins the Merchant Navy. On a convoy to the Russian port of Murmansk, enemy aircraft attacked his ship.

The ship was carrying a catapult-launched Hurricane plane and when the pilot is killed in the attack on the ship, he takes to the air to give air cover to the convoy. Low on fuel, he forces a landing on Russian soil, where he falls in with the abandoned and desperate Falcon Squadron.

One of my favourite characters in the Victor was Alf Tupper a working class bloke who could run. He joined an Athletics club where the posh university types regarded him as a “guttersnipe”.

His adventures would normally consist of saving someone on the way to a race or falling asleep on the train or bus, having to run to the track, and winning the race, he was always turning up late. The comic strip would nearly always end with Alf in a fish and chip shop or he would be walking along with of bag chips.

I have recently revisited my love of the war comics by purchasing some Christmas annuals for the aforementioned comics and using eBay tried to enquire the first editions of warlord and Battle comics. I was outbid and it would seem my fascination with my past has a price.