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“Battle Picture Weekly” recalled in special issue of “Journey Planet”

By downthetubes Guests on July 13, 2020

By Michael Carroll via Rusty Staples

Journey Planet Battle Picture Weekly Cover

45 years ago, the war comic Battle Picture Weekly crashed down into the British comics scene with such an impact that the aftershocks are still being felt today.

Now, in a special double-sized issue, the award-winning fanzine Journey Planet takes a look back at this fan-favourite — and sometimes controversial — comic, and presents all-new in-depth interviews and features with some of its top artists, writers and editors, as well as never-before-published artwork!

An unpublished Battle cover by Carlos Ezquerra deemed too violent for publication features as part of the Cartoon Museum's Comic Creators, the Famous and the Forgotten" exhibition — Journey Planet features an unpublished Battle cover by Carlos Ezquerra deemed too violent for publication, that featured as part of the Cartoon Museum’s Comic Creators, the Famous and the Forgotten” exhibition last year

Join Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy, John Wagner, Ian Kennedy, Alan Hebden, Mike Dorey and more — as well as a host of today’s comics creators including Maura McHugh and Garth Ennis — as they discuss the impact and legacy of Battle and its stories, from the sublime “Charley’s War” to the subversive “Hellman of Hammer Force“.

Guest editor Paul Trimble (perhaps better known as the organiser of the hugely successful and popular Enniskillen Comic Fest) joins by editors James Bacon, Chris Garcia, and Michael Carroll (AKA me), and special correspondents Pádraig Ó Méalóid and John Vaughan for this monster-sized special that, to be blunt, was a huge amount of work to compile — but the end result is, we feel, worth the struggle!

And it’s free, too! Yes, this awesome issue can be all yours for the low, low cost of absolutely nothing! Just visit the Journey Planet site and click “Download File.”

Here’s a special sneak preview of the first 41 pages of the Journey Planet Battle Picture Weekly special…

Journey Planet Battle Picture Weekly Montage

With special features on the hugely influential creators Joe Colquhoun and Mike Western, this issue of Journey Planet is a must for every Battle fan!

Journey Planet is a regularish fanzine that, unlike most, isn’t dedicated to one topic…

Past issues have covered Dan Dare, Judge Dredd, Irish Comics Fandom, Swamp Thing, Batman…

But it’s certainly not just comics. Journey Planet has looked at movies, books, science, social issues, creativity… just about any subject is possible: the only stipulation is that it must be something about which the contributors feels passionate!

Check out the website and see for yourself. And on the off-chance that you don’t find an issue that piques your interest, then maybe that’s the universe’s way of giving you the opportunity to create and contribute to an issue centred around something that you like: contact the editors and let them know!

Michael Carroll

Dublin-based Michael Carroll is the author of over 40 books, including the New Heroes series of Young Adult superhero novels and the #1 Amazon best-selling cult graphic novel Judge Dredd: Every Empire Falls.

He currently writes Proteus Vex and Judge Dredd for 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. Other works include Jennifer Blood for Dynamite Entertainment, and the Rico Dredd trilogy for Abaddon Books (for whom he has also created the acclaimed Judges series which explores the genesis of the world of Judge Dredd), and Razorjack for Titan Books (co-written with artist John Higgins).

Our thanks to Michael for permission to cross post this item from his Rusty Sraples site

• Buy Charley’s War collections from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)