| Battle Picture Weekly | |
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Cover to first issue |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | IPC Magazines |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | War |
| Publication date | March 1975 – January 1988 |
| Number of issues | 673 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Gerry Finley-Day Pat Mills Tom Tully John Wagner |
| Artist(s) | Carlos Ezquerra Mike Western |
| Collected editions | |
| The Best of Battle: Volume 1 | ISBN 1848560257 |
| Darkie's Mob | ISBN 1848564422 |
| Johnny Red | ISBN 1848560338 |
Battle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle. Most stories were set in World War II, with some based on other conflicts.
A notable feature of the comic, suited to its era of circulation, was its letters page with readers sending in stories of their fathers' and grandfathers' exploits during World War I and World War II, often in an effort to win a nominal "star letter" prize. The comic at various times printed colour pinups of tanks, planes, ships, etc. in the centrefold or the back page (inner or outer).[1]
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In 1974, in response to the success of the D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd war comic Warlord, IPC hired freelance writers Pat Mills and John Wagner to develop a rival title. Mills and Wagner brought in fellow freelancer Gerry Finley-Day to help develop stories. When the title proved a success, Mills went on to create Action and 2000 AD, while Wagner was asked to revive Valiant. The attempts to breathe new life into Valiant were unsuccessful, and it was merged with Battle in October 1976.[2] For some time afterwards the merged comic was entitled Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant. Action also merged with Battle on 19 November 1977, the resulting comic being named Battle Action. In 1982 the comic was retitled again, to Battle.
The details are:
From 1983 through to 1986, the comic ran a series of stories relating to the Palitoy range of action figures, Action Force.
The Action Force characters initially guest-featured in a comic strip serial in Battle for four weeks in July 1983. The strip proved to be so popular that a further five promotional mini-comics were included free with every IPC publication in the weeks to follow. On 8 October 1983 Action Force joined the pages of Battle full-time and the comic was retitled Battle Action Force.
Eventually, in line with the increasing popularity of the toys, the focus of the comic moved towards Action Force (at the expense of some of the longer-running and more traditional wartime stories) and providing the back-stories to the action figures in circulation at the time.
During 1984 to 1985, Palitoy increasingly used the comic as a promotional publication, running competitions, mail-in offers and fan-club elements of the Action Force toy range through its pages. As Action Force itself transmuted to its G.I. Joe equivalent (see Action Force - Third generation), the comic took on the role of providing continuity with regard to the diverging storylines and characters. By the end of 1986, Palitoy had lost the Action Force licence to Marvel UK and the comic was again re-titled first as Battle (1986) and then Battle with Storm Force (1987) prior to its eventual merger with Eagle (1988).
Notable stories included:
Garth Ennis has stated that Battle was "one of my favourites as a kid and a big influence on my own work. I used to enjoy Darkie's Mob, Crazy Keller, Hellman, Cooley's Gun, the later Rat Pack stories, Death Squad, The Sarge... the list is endless" and he wrote a letter to the comic pointing out an error in tank identification.[4]
Some of the stories are being collected into trade paperbacks by Titan Books:
Charley's War has been reprinted in a collection of hardcover volumes by Titan. Then in 2010, they are also making more hardcover collections available including:
From April 1, 2009, Egmont UK (who now own the rights to Battle picture strips) in conjunction with W H Smith announced 4 special reprint collections from their stable, including a collection of Battle strips. This is expected to retail at £3.99. (The other collections are Roy of the Rovers, Misty and Buster).[5]
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