Commando

This month sees another issue of Commando comic hitting the racks with a script by me, following on from my debut story back in July (more details on that one right here)!

Number #5273 of D.C. Thomson’s  Commando is “J-For-Judas”, classic war comic stuff in the best tradition of this series (if I say so myself) – featuring daring RAF pilots, devious Nazis, prisoner-of-war camps and bomber raids!

(For those of you unfamiliar with Commando, it’s one of Britain’s longest-running comics, celebrating it’s 58th birthday this year. Four issues are published every two weeks in a ‘digest’ format featuring a single, complete 63-page story. Commando is largely known as a throwback to the Boys-Own adventure comics, packed with wartime drama in the tradition of movies like The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare or 633 Squadron.)

The cover for this issue comes from Ian Kennedy, the man rightly considered to be the top Commando artist, with interior pages ably drawn by Jaume Forns.

This story features an RAF Wellington bomber as a key element, and I got inspiration from two places – the first was a 1977 COMMANDO story called O-For-Orange (also about a Wellington) and an striking image I’d seen in a reference book of a captured “Wimpey” wearing enemy colours…

For more about “J-For-Judas“, follow this link or go Here to visit the official Commando website.

A writing career is not a static thing; it takes investment and constant commitment to keep it alive and thriving – and for me, as someone in my second decade of scribing, a big part of that is finding new (and sometimes old) things to keep me excited and engaged about the daily gig of being an author and scriptwriter.

Every writer I know has a long bucket list of cool stuff they’d love to do, and I’ve been fortunate enough to cross off a lot of stuff on my list – but there’s still things I haven’t got to yet – and one that’s eluded me for a long while was “Write A Comic Book“.

But no longer! On the 11th of July, issue #5245 of Commando, the long-running war comic from Scottish publishers D.C. Thomson, hits the stands, and in it is my 1st ever comic book story…

“Edge of the Sky” is a hi-octane 1980’s thriller tale of Cold War and Hot Jets, centered around the crew of the incredible SR-71 Blackbird spy-plane – and the Russian interceptor pilots out to take them down!

That stunning cover is painted by my good friend Neil Roberts (who was instrumental in getting me this commission, cheers mate!) and interior art is drawn by Paolo Ongaro…

It’s no secret that I’m a huge aviation nerd, so getting this opportunity to write about one of the most amazing aircraft in flying history was great!

For those of you unfamiliar with Commando, it’s one of Britain’s longest-running comics, celebrating it’s 58th birthday this year. Four issues are published every two weeks in a ‘digest’ format featuring a single, complete 63-page story. Commando is largely known as a throwback to the Boys-Own adventure comics, packed with wartime drama in the tradition of movies like The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare or 633 Squadron. It’s all two-fisted, fast-paced stuff, and I had a blast getting into it!

Much of Commando‘s content is set in World War II, but in later years the comic has covered other conflicts, from the Roman era through the Gulf War and even some ventures into science-fiction. My first story comes straight from my deep and abiding love for fast jets and military aviation – but this is just my first story for the series, and I can promise more to come in WW2 settings – more on that in the months ahead…

For more about “Edge of the Sky“, follow this link or go Here to visit the official Commando website.