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It’s been a good few months since my last crack at writing for Commando, publisher D.C. Thompson’s long-running war comic series, but today a new quartet of titles hits the stands and issue #5463 features “Target Tomcat”, a fast-paced 80’s aviation drama that is my unabashed love letter to the Grumman F-14.
Adversary pilots Shane Whitman and Ghazi Khadem will stop at nothing to achieve air superiority over the other — proving once and for all who the best top gun flyer is! What started out as an arrogant competition between rivals has turned into a quest for revenge and neither will stop until the other is dead. But with both men piloting the iconic F-14 Tomcat swing-wing, this is a duel that only the swiftest will survive…
A fantastic cover there from Keith Burns (who also did the honours for one of my previous Commando stories), “Target Tomcat” also features great interior art from Vicente Alcazar; as for the storyline, I was inspired by the thought of a “What If…?” scenario
In the 1980’s, the only two nations flying the swing-wing F-14 air superiority fighter were the USA and Iran, once former allies turned bitter adversaries. In the real world, their jets never faced off in the air – but my story pits Cat vs. Cat in the skies of the Middle East.
One of the things I love about writing for Commando is getting to indulge my inner aviation geek – and “Target Tomcat” allows me to feel the need for speed a little! I first encountered the iconic F-14 in the late 70’s as a kid when my dad and I built a certain Airfix kit…
…and of course the movie Top Gun cemented my enthusiasm for this big jet, but it was a good few years before I actually got to see one for real at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.
Writing this story was great fun – my thanks to Kate McAuliffe and the editorial team for helping me knock it into good shape – and I plan to be back with another new Commando tale featuring some more iconic fast jets in the coming months!
For those of you unfamiliar with Commando, it’s one of Britain’s longest-running comics, first published in 1961, and it celebrates it’s 60th anniversary this year! Four issues are published every two weeks in a ‘digest’ format, each featuring a single, complete 63-page story – two all-new tales and two reprints. Commando carries on the tradition of two-fisted, action-packed adventure comics, with wartime dramas in the tradition of movies like Where Eagles Dare or 633 Squadron.
For more details of “Target Tomcat”, follow this link or go here to visit the official Commando website. You can also check out details of the other Commando stories I’ve written at this link.
