Great comic book series (somewhat) related to the Battle of the Atlantic

Agiel7 · 03-03-09, 03:32 AM

There's a great bunch of comics written by Garth Ennis of "Preacher," and "The Boys" reminiscent of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun's "Charley's War" in terms of the amount of research put into it called "War Story." Among which include two stories related to the Battle of the Atlantic.

The first is called "Nightingale," which is about a British destroyer serving as a convoy escort through the Artic Circle. A battle with a German U-boat also ensues, and its cool to see the other side of the hunt. Its drawn by David Lloyd, who is probably best known for doing the art of Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta."

The second, while not related to U-boats, is about the exploits of a Spitfire flyer turned CAMship pilot. Whats a CAMship you ask? Well, with the U-boats doing a number to the British Empire's navy, there was a dangerous shortage of escort carriers in the Atlantic in order to defend against Luftwaffe torpedo bombers. So, the Brits come up with, in the words of Garth Ennis, "...a very British solution..." (i.e. bootstrapped) to the problem. This involved attaching a rocket catapult to the bow of a cargo ship that could launch a Hawker Hurricane in the event that torpedo bombers were detected. Unfortunately, the one fatal flaw to this idea was that while they had a way to launch the plane, the plane sure as hell couldn't come back the way it came. So the lucky bugger had a choice of either heading for the nearest mainland airstrip (this being the middle of the Artic Circle convoy run, this usually wasn't an option) or bailing near the convoy and pray that he gets picked up before he and his emergency dinghy gets run over by one of the convoy ships or freeze to death.

Bunch of other great stories in this series as well. My favorite by far is called "Condors," which tells the story of a shot-down German Luftwaffe fighter pilot, an English socialist, an Irish Republican turned fascist, and a Spanish freedom fighter who find themselves taking cover in the same shell crater and tell their stories of where they came from and why they fight while the Spanish Civi War rages around them. This was probably the first time I've cried from reading a comic book since "Persepolis."

TarJak · 03-03-09, 05:10 AM

Cool any links to where you can read more?

Anyone remember Battle and Battle Action comics from the 70's and 80's? IIRC there was a couple of series in them about the Atlantic but they never seemed to grab much attention: http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/Nightshade_Intro.html HMS Nightshade was about a corvette in the atlantic.

There was also Johnny Red who was a CAM ship pilot: http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/JohnnyRed_Intro.html

Fun stuff from what I remember.

Sailor Steve · 03-03-09, 12:59 PM

I'm a comic collector and a Garth Ennis fan (Preacher is still one of the best out there) but I've not had time to collect The Boys.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agiel7

The second, while not related to U-boats, is about the exploits of a Spitfire flyer turned CAMship pilot. Whats a CAMship you ask?

Thanks to Iambecomelife there are CAM ships in the game now. You've not seen one?

Agiel7 · 03-03-09, 01:14 PM

[quote=TarJak]Cool any links to where you can read more?

Anyone remember Battle and Battle Action comics from the 70's and 80's? quote]

Actually, I had a British friend who's uncle collected those comics as well as some early issues of 2000AD (though unfortunately, not early enough to be worth magnificent sums of cash) when he was a teen. He lent those to us and that was how I got into the work of my favorite comic writer, Pat Mills.

03-03-09, 03:32 AM	#1
Agiel7 Gunner Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 97 Downloads: 16 Uploads: 0	Great comic book series (somewhat) related to the Battle of the Atlantic There's a great bunch of comics written by Garth Ennis of "Preacher," and "The Boys" reminiscent of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun's "Charley's War" in terms of the amount of research put into it called "War Story." Among which include two stories related to the Battle of the Atlantic. The first is called "Nightingale," which is about a British destroyer serving as a convoy escort through the Artic Circle. A battle with a German U-boat also ensues, and its cool to see the other side of the hunt. Its drawn by David Lloyd, who is probably best known for doing the art of Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta." The second, while not related to U-boats, is about the exploits of a Spitfire flyer turned CAMship pilot. Whats a CAMship you ask? Well, with the U-boats doing a number to the British Empire's navy, there was a dangerous shortage of escort carriers in the Atlantic in order to defend against Luftwaffe torpedo bombers. So, the Brits come up with, in the words of Garth Ennis, "...a very British solution..." (i.e. bootstrapped) to the problem. This involved attaching a rocket catapult to the bow of a cargo ship that could launch a Hawker Hurricane in the event that torpedo bombers were detected. Unfortunately, the one fatal flaw to this idea was that while they had a way to launch the plane, the plane sure as hell couldn't come back the way it came. So the lucky bugger had a choice of either heading for the nearest mainland airstrip (this being the middle of the Artic Circle convoy run, this usually wasn't an option) or bailing near the convoy and pray that he gets picked up before he and his emergency dinghy gets run over by one of the convoy ships or freeze to death. Bunch of other great stories in this series as well. My favorite by far is called "Condors," which tells the story of a shot-down German Luftwaffe fighter pilot, an English socialist, an Irish Republican turned fascist, and a Spanish freedom fighter who find themselves taking cover in the same shell crater and tell their stories of where they came from and why they fight while the Spanish Civi War rages around them. This was probably the first time I've cried from reading a comic book since "Persepolis."

03-03-09, 05:10 AM	#2
TarJak Fleet Admiral Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 17,052 Downloads: 150 Uploads: 8	Cool any links to where you can read more? Anyone remember Battle and Battle Action comics from the 70's and 80's? IIRC there was a couple of series in them about the Atlantic but they never seemed to grab much attention: http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/Nightshade_Intro.html HMS Nightshade was about a corvette in the atlantic. There was also Johnny Red who was a CAM ship pilot: http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/JohnnyRed_Intro.html Fun stuff from what I remember.

03-03-09, 01:14 PM	#4
Agiel7 Gunner Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 97 Downloads: 16 Uploads: 0	[quote=TarJak]Cool any links to where you can read more? Anyone remember Battle and Battle Action comics from the 70's and 80's? quote] Actually, I had a British friend who's uncle collected those comics as well as some early issues of 2000AD (though unfortunately, not early enough to be worth magnificent sums of cash) when he was a teen. He lent those to us and that was how I got into the work of my favorite comic writer, Pat Mills.