As part of downthetubes’ celebration of DC Thomson’s Commando reaching issue 6000 as one of the batch of four titles released this week, Jeremy Briggs asked writer Ferg Handley about his work on issue 6001, “I Flew With Ramsey’s Raiders”…
In Spring 1945, the end of the war was in sight, but the Germans were still causing havoc. In a pocket of southern Norway, a heavily-guarded Luftwaffe base is targeting the North Sea shipping channels and gunning down RAF aircraft.
Captain Jimmy Ramsey and his crack team of raiders have been charged with a new mission to do what they do best – tear the base apart. But to do it, they’ll need to team up with an ace pilot you may have heard of… Sergeant Matt Braddock!
Welcome to the Commando crossovers to end crossovers as two mavericks collide. In the red corner, we have Captain Jimmy Ramsey and his ragtag group of rebels, and in the blue corner, we have Sergeant Matt Braddock – the RAF’s best and bravest bomber pilot, both series of which happen to be written by veteran writer Ferg Handley and illustrated by the magnificent Carlos Pino!
downthetubes: Commando regular Captain Jimmy Ramsey is your own creation while Flight Sergeant Matt Braddock is a long standing DCT Heritage character. Did the idea of a mash-up combining both in the one story come from you or from the editorial office?
Ferg Handley: In this case, it was a suggestion from the editor, Kate McAuliffe. She wanted a Raiders team-up or conflict with a heritage character or characters. Among the initial suggestions was Codename: Warlord or Kampfgruppe Falken. After discussion, we settled on Braddock instead, as I’m more familiar with the character.
Just to add, I suggested a few months prior to that, a series of team-ups involving all the recurring characters that I’ve written – the Raiders, the Renegades and the Marauders. It didn’t come to pass though, as it could well have got too complicated.
downthetubes: Jimmy Ramsey and Ramsey’s Raiders have been popular with readers, as evidenced by how often they appeared in Commando. Where did the idea come from in the first place and was he intended to be a returning character from the start?
Ferg: It was my first editor, George Low, who came up with the initial idea for a raiding team based on the original SAS. He pretty much wanted me to fly with it after that, so I came up with the characters, including Jimmy Ramsey. It was originally intended to be a mini-series, but I ended up writing a chronological series which took us up to the end of World War Two. There then followed some stories taking place post-war, such as in Korea. The final instalment had a definite ending to the series. But the Raiders were still popular, so the next editor Calum Laird allowed me to write more World War Two stories, which fill in some gaps in the team’s history. And since then, the Raiders have kept on raiding. In fact, I’ll be writing another of their adventures in a few weeks’ time.
downthetubes: You have been writing the Braddock issues of Commando – did you suggest the return of the character, or did the idea for you to write his stories come from the editorial office?
Ferg: It was a bit of both, really. Kate asked if I was interested in reviving any of the legacy characters, and provided me a list to choose from. I went straight for Braddock, as I like working class characters with a disdain for authority. Plus, my father was aircrew in Bomber Command during the war, so I’ve always loved aviation stories.
downthetubes: Braddock is one of the characters that DCT reprinted some of his early story paper adventures in novel form back in the 1950s and 1960s and reprinted some comic strip in Red Dagger in the 1980s, but until recently, little has been reprinted outside of the old weekly comics. How much background reading did you need to do to understand the character prior to writing your first Braddock story?
Ferg: I dug out a lot of research material. But the main thing was getting to grips with his character, which was easy to pin down. Apart from that, I’ve treated it as a reboot, and although some storylines may be vaguely familiar, I’ve tailored them to suit the Commando format and style.
Here’s a little secret – when I’m working on Braddock stories, I tell myself that the original stories told by the character George Bourne had been dramatised and may not have been truly accurate. A bit like how the Lord Of The Rings is based on the writings of various Hobbits, which may have omitted or altered some of the events that the books are based on. So when I’m writing Braddock, it’s more about making the stories adhere to real historical events. That’s why Commando 5919, “Braddock: The Flying Tigers” is so much different to the original stories published in The Rover and Victor.
downthetubes: Having already worked with the character of Matt Braddock, are there any other DCT heritage characters that you would like to resurrect for Commando that haven’t already appeared?
Ferg: The answer is – possibly. To be honest, I didn’t read Warlord back in the day. Although I was well into comics as a younger kid, by the time Warlord was in its prime I had gotten into other stuff, such as punk rock music.
However, “Jonah Jones” could be fun. By coincidence, my first ever Commando was Lucky Lenny, about a very unlucky soldier – and my original title was actually The Jonah, as I hadn’t heard of the old strip at that time. Also, strips like “Killer Kane”, “The Bonzo Express” and “I Don’t Want To Be A Corporal” could work, though as single-issue stories rather than series.
Commando 6001: I Flew With Ramsey’s Raiders is in newsagents and available as a digital edition on Thursday 8th October 2026
• Your full downthetubes guide to the “Commando Issue 6000” set is here
• Commando Comics are online at commandocomics.com | Commando Collection Sets on the DC Thomson Webshop | DC Thomson – Subscriptions | Commando Comics on AmazonUK | Commando Comics on Magzter | Follow Commando Comics on Facebook | X | YouTube |
• Ferg Handley was previously interviewed about his comics career on downthetubes in 2011 here
• While there have been many Commando Presents reprint books in recent years, the very first one in 2018 was Ramsey’s Raiders which reprinted in colour the first two Raiders issues as written by Ferg Handley. The downthetubes review of it is here
• Commando Presents… Ramsey’s Raiders: 1 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
The first full colour graphic novel from Commando comic. Commando’s original black and white pocket sized interior artwork has been revitalised with explosions of colour and re-sized to a graphic novel format. The book contains two issues of the classic comic series about a rag tag team of maverick soldiers operating behind enemy lines. ‘Ramsey’s Raiders’ – led by the roguish Captain James Ramsey, the Raiders are a motley bunch: two Scotsmen, an Englishman, a Welshman, an Irishman, and an Australian. They play by their own rules and are good at their job so the Germans have every reason to fear Ramsey’s Raiders! In ‘The Raiders Return!’ they’re back this time in German-held Sicily! When their jeeps are destroyed, they’ll show the Nazis that a captured German staff car can make an equally effective and deadly form of transport!
• Commando Presents… Ramsey’s Raiders: 2 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
A full colour graphic novel from Commando comic. Commando’s original black and white pocket sized interior artwork has been revitalised with explosions of colour and re-sized to a graphic novel format. The book contains two issues of the classic comic series about a rag tag team of maverick soldiers operating behind enemy lines.
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