Super Spies, a Golden Gun and a deadly feud in the new Commando comics

Commando No 4947 – The Experts

Here’s the intel on the latest issues of DC Thomson’s Commando war comic (Issues 4947-4950), on sale now in all good newsagents, hidden behind the counter at WHSmith Blackpool (no, really – just in case you were looking) and from various digital platforms.

Happy Birthday, Carlos Pino

Happy Birthday, Carlos Pino

This batch of Commandos includes “The Experts” drawn by Spanish artist Carlos Pino, who celebrated his 76th birthday this week. Our best wishes to a creator whose credits not only include Commando but 2000AD, Battle, TV21 and many more… Thank you for all your work!

Commando No 4947 – The Experts
Story: Ferg Handley
Art: Carlos Pino
Cover: Carlos Pino

Lieutenant Doug MacKay was a non-nonsense agent of the Special Operations Executive — used to doing things by the book.

When tasked with uncovering vital intelligence plans from a Nazi safe deep behind enemy lines, the unyielding operator did not expect to be paired with Private Alex Drake, a former criminal but an expert safecracker.

Drake was under no illusion that if ever it looked like they might be captured, his SOE mentor would rather kill him in case he cracked under interrogation. It was an uneasy alliance, to say the least.

Commando No 4948 – The Golden Gun

Commando No 4948 – The Golden Gun
Originally Commando 249 (February 1967), re-issued as Commando No 903 (January 1975)
Story: Newark
Art: Alonso
Cover: Ken Barr

A real hero’s gun.

A Colt .45, the long barrel gleaming with gold plate, cunningly engraved. The butt of ivory, the whole weapon as perfectly balanced as a bird and on a hair trigger.

Many a time cowboy film star Brad Landon had got himself out of a movie tight corner with a lightning draw and the bang-bang of a blank from the Golden Colt. But now he was Lieutenant Brad Landon, British army, and in the thick of the Dunkirk retreat. The draw had to be faster, and the golden gun was spitting real lead instead of blanks…

“Unusual, almost fabled objects such as our eponymous handgun have been a Commando staple throughout the decades,” notes Scott Montgomery. “They are a good device for propelling a plot forward and also, as you’ll see here, a handy way to geographically move the story along too — from a rear guard action at the beaches of Dunkirk to the arid deserts of North Africa.

“The late Ken Barr’s rendering of the Golden Gun itself is wonderfully lurid and dramatic too. It’s almost as if this book was tailor-made for the gold Collection itself.”

Commando No 4949 – Flying Feud
Commando No 4949 – Flying Feud
Story: George Low
Art: Jaume Forns
Cover: Ian Kennedy

As a tail gunner on an Avro Lancaster bomber, Sergeant Lex Duffield was used to danger in the sky.

However, more even danger soon appeared in the unlikely form of a fellow Lanc rear gunner — the reckless and short-tempered Sergeant Tommy Deakin — and inevitably they clashed.

Fate soon intervened and they faced a threat neither could possibly have imagined — and they would just have to work together to survive.

Commando No 4950 – Master Spy
Commando No 4950 – Master Spy
Originally Commando No 2489 (July 1991)
Story: Alan Hemus
Art: Rezzonico
Cover: Ian Kennedy

A good spy never gets caught. He tries to become so much part of the enemy set-up that he’s never even suspected…until it’s too late. And, even then, the best of the breed always have an escape route — even although it’s back into the lion’s den!

“I’ve always maintained,” says Scott, that espionage is fairly difficult to tackle successfully in comics because, as a genre, it tends to involve lone characters telling us what is going on in their heads via lengthy thought balloons.

“However, author Alan Hemus takes advantage of our 63-page format to give us an excellent set-up and back story for our hero, Georg Hofmann. We get a chance to see what motivates him to risk his life as he works under deep cover amongst an insidious enemy.

“‘Master Spy’ has a great script and art, all perfectly topped off by Ian Kennedy’s stunning cover.”

[divider]

• Commando Collections: Our Checklist

Don’t Miss Out on our Exclusive Commando Subscription Offer!

Don’t forget downthetubes has an exclusive discount on a subscription to Commando comic, simply by ordering through the DC Thomson Online Shop using our special discount code. Follow this dedicated link to DC Thomson’s Commando subscription page

If you follow the link above, the discount is automatically applied – you do NOT need to enter the old DTT “COMDT” promotional code. Ignore the discount field on the check out page, too. (More information on our dedicated Commando Subscription Offer Page)
Commando Digital Editions



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