Commando (comics)

Commando
Commando 4068 cover art by Ian Kennedy
Publication information
PublisherD. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
ScheduleFour issues every two weeks
FormatOngoing series
Genre
Publication dateJuly 1961 – present
No. of issues5,710 (as of December 2023)[1]
Collected editions
The Dirty DozenISBN 1-84442-307-7
True BritISBN 1-84442-121-X
ANZACs At WarISBN 1-84442-059-0
All Guns BlazingISBN 1-84442-284-4
Rumble in the JungleISBN 1-84442-002-7
Bandits at 12 O'ClockISBN 1-84732-128-3
D-Day - Fight or Die!ISBN 1-84732-372-3
Battle of Britain - Scramble!ISBN 1-84732-421-5
Rogue RaidersISBN 1-84732-791-5
Over the Top!ISBN 1-85375-913-9

Commando For Action and Adventure, formerly known as Commando War Stories in Pictures, and colloquially known as Commando Comics, is a British comic book magazine that primarily draws its themes and backdrops from the various incidents of the First and Second World Wars. It was first published in July 1961 and is still in print today. It is noted for its distinctive 7 × 5½ inch, 68 page format that became a standard for these kinds of stories. "Commando" has remained more popular than many other British war comics, because of its character based stories and detailed black and white artwork, with only the covers in colour.[2] It is considered by some to be one of the greatest war comics in history.[3]

The stories contain certain characteristic motifs; to mention a few – courage, cowardice, patriotism, dying for the sake of one's country, noble actions, and making a cup of refreshing tea while in the face of danger, enmity turning into friendship when the going gets tough, and so on. Apart from portraying these universal qualities, Commando Comics also show soldiers in national stereotypes, glorifying Allied soldiers, but showing soldiers as a mixture of good and evil.[4] There was usually no continuity between books; each book was a complete story with start and finish, though recently series (2 or 3 stories) of books following the same character have been published.

  1. ^ The British Comics Top-11 Longevity Chart! by Michael Carroll, 9 May 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference sundaypost.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Forgotten Wars was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Commando, Private Apache, No. 912, P.46, Nazi says "Ja, more British to kill", fellow soldier is shown thinking "This man is truly evil, how can he think like this?"