new comic

 That's a bit of a tight fit. Too many cream buns and and they'll take you off the flying list.




I think "nicely" is a very apt term for this picture.






Look at the front of this Blenheim it looks like it's been designed by steam punks.


Nice panel layout .


Shouldn't that be "voxing"?





Nice layout.



Com'n skip - it's a enough to make a bloke paranoid.


Ahhh...the privileges of rank in the bath hut.


Damn fine tash and damn fine cravat.


Rules for Bad Guys # 276. Never ever say our "anythings" will stop the enemy. It's a sure fire way to make sure they don't.



A man on a mission!

If you went through life and everybody around you kept on getting killed - wouldn't you develop some sort of phobia? Bob Maxwell is that kind of a man. However he has an excuse - he's in the middle of a war.

To start off with his company gets wiped out. Then the counter attack fails...and this is just the beginning. Where ever he goes the places, the things and the people around him get shot-up, blown-up or machine gunned.

Even the favoured Lieutenant gets it - only he is replaced by a puffed up arrogant and ignorant artillery captain who is beautifully drawn as he is instantly unlikeable. Front Line is doing well as a story until all of a sudden there is an Old Chateau found intact, unravaged, fully furnished, and complete with all fixtures and fittings all in place. It looks like it's ready to list on realestate.com.au or feature in an episode of Location, Location, Location or have Joan Rivers rummage through it on How Did You Get So Rich?

Then there is the family legend that the chateau will fall when the last male heir dies. Then guess which Frenchman, of all the Frenchmen in the world, manages to crash land his Typhoon into the front yard and flatten the garden gnomes and tyre swans?

After this point there are no surprises - which is a bit of shame as I was just getting used to them.

The artwork is also not immune to a surprise or two. Some of the work is fluid but most of it is stiff. The cover has an unfinished quality to it - well at least to my untrained eyes. However the expression of the man with the sten gun does well to evoke a mixture of horror, angst and fear. Between the covers the artwork has its highs and lows as mentioned before - but the artist's invitation to dislike the artillery captain can only be immediately accepted.

Front Line is one of those pocket war comic stories that is mostly enjoyable.





















It might appear odd Sir, but this really is a regimental tradition and you being an officer and all should be used to this kind of thing.
























Boy that was lucky.

Not the worst war picture library ever written but it could win an award for being the most tedious.

There just isn't any emotional energy in this story as it just plods along going from one incident to the next. There's nothing wrong with the background to the story as desperate attacks and counterattacks follow each other and the narrative is never too far away in reminding the reader about the harsh cost of war in human lives. The main characters have all the right attributes for a good story; two of them are front line veterans, another is the tough but fair athletic military policeman and in a supporting role there is an immoral and treacherous coward.

All the fragments are there for a reasonable if not good story but they just don't come together. It would require some exceptional artwork to lift Break-Through to an acceptable level - but sadly it isn't there. However on a positive note the charging Tommy on the cover is ready defeat the Hun with a yell and blinding blaze of white webbing is pretty damn good.

The cover alone however cannot save Break-Through. This is one of those stories that makes it into the "er not the best" catergory. The more I read Break-Through the more I found myself turning each page in desperation waiting for something dramatic to happen. I think I uttered "AAAAGH!" out of absolute frustration more times than I would like to admit.


You're accused of eating all the cream buns...
This is supposed to be a tough detention camp. The man on the extreme left appears to be singing a song and the two on the extreme right are having a good old chat while checking out each other's thighs.
Another game of Risk! in progress.
Funny isn't it? They'll charge at enemy machine guns, run headlong at enemy tanks and fight in deadly hand to hand combat. But step on one sharp stone and all of a sudden its "ouch!"
His troops call him the Mexican.
If one of your comrades was killed by two escaping prisoners wouldn't you administer Rule 303? Or in the German's case Rule 7.92.
Why not now? Or in four days? Or how about a week from Thursday?
That would have to be the worst armoured car ever produced. With designs like that it just goes to show why the Germans lost the war.












Curiously the Man of Lamancha poster survived the inferno and is now available on eBay.

Englishmen shooting Englishmen? Sergeants shooting their own officers? Based on actual events (yeah right!) Seize-and Hold grabs and contains your attention through a well-constructed flashback storyline and some nice crisp artwork.

It all starts with a courtroom drama where Sergeant Curtis stands accused of murdering his own squad in order to save his own life. As evidence is given by each witness in turn the events of that fateful day are disclosed and the truth is eventually revealed. This is a tidy story as each witnesses' evidence builds on the details of the previous witness. There are even a few red herrings thrown in this Battle Picture Library - well as many that can swim around in 64 pages.

Curtis's war turns into one huge guilt trip when he discovers, Lieutenant Welch, his new platoon leader, is the younger brother of the respected but ultimately psychotic and now very dead Captain Welch. Why the guilt trip? Because Curtis blew Captain Welch away in what could be best described as a battlefield gangland shooting, that is to say up close and personal. Curtis of course has no choice but to pull the trigger as the nutso captain was about to embark on a prisoner killing spree. It's not the morality of the situation that worries Curtis. Even though Captain Welch running around shouting "Kill Kill" and then delivering on that promise to the unarmed prisoners is more shocking than concerning. What really worries Curtis is that he and the rest of his men stand a good chance of being captured and then getting the same treatment from the enemy. So hence the reason for gunning down Lieutenant Welch's older brother.

In trying to absolve his guilt, Curtis becomes obsessed with making sure the younger Welch survives the war. This leads to the incident where Curtis stands accused of deliberately placing his squad in harm's way for his own survival.

A pocket war comic worth getting a hold of, if not just for the cover of the paratrooper with the grenade firmly in his grasp, pin clenched between his teeth and gritty determinism in his eyes. Also worth getting to see a British officer being a murderous swine - behaviour that is usually only attributed to the Hun.

For those who take an interest the inarticulate cry Seize-and Hold has quite a number. Among the many interpretations there are AAAGH, AIEEE..., AHGHH!, AAGH!, UGGGH!, and an AAAHHH...




 Everybody deserves a friend.
It was another Thursday evening game night and as usual Barney would always take forever during his turn of Axis and Allies








 That's one really ugly dude in the foreground.
...and I think I got him - but I wasn't sure. So I fired again.
 Caution - Loonie English officer on the loose.












German army experiments in supine levitation are moderately successful.











I just want to make sure that I got them!











You know...despite the death and destruction and explosions and having most of my platoon killed right around me this war thing just isn't doing it for me anymore. 


And a mighty fine AHGHH---.












A strange little panel.
















Dead guys in a field and a short AAGH!
Kiss me you fool. You know you want to and you know I want you too.











What a guy! If I had one like that I'd have it out too.

Could this be the worst Air Ace Picture Library ever written? But don’t let me just shoot down Dogfight Dixon and the Traitor Pilot in flames. Allow the story to do it for you.

The story goes something like this…

Dogfight Dixon and his chums are having a jolly good time shooting down Huns, dashing around in their Sopwith Camels and looking rather splendid in their flying leathers. Then one day a damn natty Frenchy turns up with his Spad and starts telling the lads how much better it all is in the French Air Service.

Dogfight accepts a challenge from the Frenchman to see who has the better mount. However during the challenge Dogfight discovers a flight of Gothas making their way towards London. He then runs into a spot of bother while pursuing the enemy flight. Running low on fuel and lost in the sea mist Dogfight is forced to land on an island where there is a secret German radio base. Fortunately for Dogfight the keys are left in the door of the secure petrol store and he is able to make good his escape.

On his return Dogfight and his good chum Bumps Bradshaw take off in a DH4 to bomb the secret radio station not twenty minutes flying time from their own airbase. They are ambushed by a flight of enemy aircraft led by the crack killer German ace Baron Von Schroefer. Was it a trap? But how did the Germans know? Is there a traitor in the allied camp and who could it possibly be? STOP!!!!

Aaagh!! How could 58 pages be so bad? The writing, story line, characterisation as well as most of the artwork are just plain terrible. Great to see a story with biplanes but when one of the key characteristics of the Gotha is missed (it had a gap in it’s own fuselage allowing the rear gunner to engage enemy aircraft in what is usually a blind spot for all other aircraft of the period) it is disappointing.

On the plus side it is World War One story, with Camels, Spads, Gothas, Albatrosses and a DH4. And the cover artwork is outstanding.

But the bad far outweighs the good. There’s an old chateau (within walking distance of the squadron that Dogfight hasn’t really noticed before) where the French pilot’s uncle lives, The uncle wears a smoking jacket and keeps a vicious, but obedient, guard dog. The uncle also likes to keep carrier pigeons and declare his loyalty to the Fatherland with his nephew. Oh my goodness! The Frenchman is the traitor after all! There’s more but it’s all too dashing, square jawed and floppy fringed painful to go on.

I bet you Henri sounds like John Cleese doing an impersonation of a French speaking person.