Onwards Falcons!

September 2, 2006 11:45 AM

Johnny Red was a story appearing in Battle and Battle Action magazine back in the late 70's and early 80's. Telling the story of a young British fighter pilot serving with the Falcons; a Russian squadron in World War II; Johnny Red was remarkable for it's time (in the midst of the Cold War) giving a positive image of Soviet Russian heroism in the fight against Nazi Germany. Scans of almost every issue are contained within - enjoy!
posted by longbaugh (12 comments total)

The main site, Captain Hurricane's Best of Battle also features many more strips that appeared over the many years the comic ran, Garth Ennis himself has stated that Battle and Battle Action were the reasons he got into comics - particularly "The General Dies At Dawn".

I promise I will post about something other than comics once I have finished reading through every issue and savouring the fantastic artwork of Joe Colquhoun.
posted by longbaugh at 11:46 AM on September 2, 2006

See also this.

I particularly like Joe Two Beans, "a mysterious Red Indian who wasn't sure whether he should be fighting this white mans war."

Carry on, longbaugh.
posted by IndigoJones at 12:01 PM on September 2, 2006

Cool - Battle and Warlord were a big part of my childhood too - got them every tuesday and wednesday right after school. Remember 'Union Jack Jackson', about the Brit fighting with the marines? Or 'Big Willi', about an honourable German tank commander?
Oh yeah (having looked at the links now): Charley's War, and Fighting Mann - superior artwork in that one, the same artist went on to draw for a great story about a big rig trucker in the US - I remember being bitterly disappointed when that artist left and was replaced by somebody inferior.
Thanks for the memories
posted by Flashman at 12:53 PM on September 2, 2006

Damn, that's addictive... just keep clicking the page for the next exciting adventure... but I finally managed to bail out! Thanks, comrade longbaugh!

Minor cavils: How do all the Russians know English? Or did Johnny manage to pick up a working knowledge of Russian in the back alleys of Liverpool? And do Liverpudlians actually say "ruddy well" and "blimey"? And I don't think even in the wilds around Murmansk Russian soldiers wore huge flea-bitten beards...
posted by languagehat at 1:01 PM on September 2, 2006

Wow, here is the artist, Cam Kennedy
posted by Flashman at 1:02 PM on September 2, 2006

And a scan of 'Fighting Mann'
posted by Flashman at 1:09 PM on September 2, 2006

John Cooper, the artist of Johnny Red, recently made a return to British comics, illustating a story in Prog 1494 of 2000ad.

<smug>I, um, wrote it. </smug>
posted by Artw at 1:35 PM on September 2, 2006

Wow - top stuff. This is a really, really good post. I like the fact that, in spite of the positive portrayal of the Russians, there are various bits of cultural superiority that creep in - like the moment when he lands the Hurricane. "The design is too advanced" - yeah right, canvas-covered rib structure monoplane too advanced in 1941/2.... anyway, minor quibbles. More of this kind of post please!
posted by greycap at 3:42 PM on September 2, 2006

That was simply wonderful, talk about action-packed. Thanks for posting this.
posted by marxchivist at 4:15 PM on September 2, 2006

Seriously addictive, when I cannot make my deliverables on tuesday my customers will curse you, comrade Longbaugh.
posted by Iron Rat at 6:41 PM on September 2, 2006

Good stuff, used to get Battle every week when I was a kid, can anyone remember the name of the story with the evil German stuka pilot and the kid who wants revenge but gets sent down the mines by his swine of a headmaster?
'The Sarge' was also a classic.

Does anyone know whether there was a creative link between Yakob in Johnny Red and Wulf Sternhammer in Strontium dog in 2000ad?
posted by biffa at 5:52 AM on September 4, 2006

I mentioned this on the 2000ad chatr and someone actually went to the bother of asking John Wagner, and got the following reply:

'Not that I know of"

So there you go.
posted by Artw at 8:24 AM on September 12, 2006