Monday 26 October 2015

Return of The Red Devil.

Mother of Kazan!! great news .. Johnny Reds back and now has his own full colour comic ..this is long overdue as he's such a classic character - and Garth's excatly the right writer to continue the late Tom Tully's creation. Garth read the same stuff as I did growing up big fan of Battle Picture weekly still am really as stories were so well written and illustrated in most cases so this is most welcome news -I hope title is on-going or perhaps other characters that appeared in comic get the monthly treatment -I could imagine Garths take on Panzer G Man or The Sarge , maybe even Major Eazy -but here's another aerial classic that Garth bought back to life -following his spell in North Africa (according to these picture libary covers from the 60's Battler Britton had an ilustrious distinguishing carrer -he was all over the shop lol -although the way Ennis and artist Colin Wilson went about it struck me as credible as oppossed to far fetched) Just wish somebody made a video for another Ennis re-vamp Enemy Ace -beautifully illustrated by Chris Weston that too is a fantastic comic . I have to admit I liked Johnny Red and his Warlord counter part Cassidy and the Flying Tigers as they were in different locales to the standard air ace comic character-they made you aware of what was going on the Russian and Asian fronts at a very young age -these stories never shied away from the reality of the war writers and artists did the research ( -they weren't propaganda either-Johnny was very much a free spirit who lived to fly -but a fugitive too (hence not returning to R.A.F -& he wouldn't take shit from Stalin's boys neither -very much a rebel  but he did his bit against the Lufwaffe to protect his comrades ) I wonder what kind of McCarthyism he'd have to endure once he was back in Blighty post 1945...he did survive the War in original story run although it wasn't Tully writing those stories by then -the conclussion to Johnny's epic felt rushed perhaps that's a period in  the story Garth will explore in these new books. .. but 3 graphic novels of the original run of the story are out their to buy with incredible artwork provided by Joe Colquhoun with a fourth one on the way wih artwork provided by the late great John Cooper (who could draw Johnny with his eyes shut so he claimed)... more here -http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/JohnnyRed_Intro.html
There was a much more comprehensive site dedicated to Johnny and the Falcons by the guy who scanned  all the stories -not around anymore it seems -but that may mean that the whole run of  Johnny Red will be printed into hardback editions which is good news .. discovered this Russian serial whilst looking for stuff for this post- about The Night Witches which appeared in Garths Battlefields stories as well as  Johnny Red back in the 70's -this was made in 81-so it's from the time of Brezhnev we wouldn't of got to see this in the west - I imagine 'far more truth in this than Airwolf though lolhttps://youtu.be/MFK9wAOatGE?list=PLwGzY25TNHPCp3TFPpD69-FxUc6VrpPwy

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