Fifteen years after it was first announced, Bear Alley Books is bringing home The Phantom Patrol, the amazing time travel strip written by Willie Patterson, drawn by Gerry Embleton.
Only rarely seen since its original appearance in the weekly com Swift, Steve Holland planned to publish a collection of all 57 episodes of The Phantom Patrol back in 2009, but the project got mired down in licensing issues with then copyright owner Time Inc., then owners of IPC. The strip is now owned by Rebellion, who have licensed this collection.
Written by Willie Patterson, who’s best known for for his vital part in making Daily Express strip “Jeff Hawke” a success alongside that strip’s creator, Sydney Jordan, The Phantom Patrol was drawn by Gerry Embleton.
In the summer of 1941, Sergeant Joe Timm and his infantry patrol were trapped in the Greek hills a mile away from the sea and a hidden landing craft that would take them to safety. The Germans hold a vital pass ahead of them and escape seems impossible. German shells begin to drop around their heads, uncovering a cavern with a curious looking craft. Inside, Joe grabs a strange-looking apparatus and rejoins his men just as the Germans advance into their hiding place. Escaping through the cave system, they reach their landing craft only to face more danger as Stuka dive-bomber turns and screams down at them. As the men hit the deck, Joe accidentally pushes a switch on the apparatus.
The Stuka disappears. Instead, on the horizon, they see ancient galleys battling and Corporal Jock McLuckie realises the truth… it was they who had disappeared, transported back 3000 years. With a tank, a landing craft, a handful of guns and a captured Nazi, the British infantry unit find themselves in the midst of the Trojan Wars.
“The Phantom Patrol is a superb yarn of a kind that British comics did best,” Steve enthused back in 2009. “Fast-moving and wildly plotted, the story grows more complex as the patrol battles its way through Egypt and Private Paddy O’Connell finds himself adrift in time with a police trooper from the future. Flitting from past to future, will the Sarge and his men manage to escape back to now… and, given the situation they left behind, will they survive even if they do get back?”
The new The Phantom Patrol collection from Bear Alley Books features a wraparound cover Chris Weston, an introduction, plus a couple of biographical essays on Willie Patterson and Gerry Embleton, and the whole strip as it originally appeared in Swift, after Swift was reinvented as a boys’ paper rather than the boys’ and girls’ paper for little kids too old for Robin but not old enough for Eagle or Girl.
The strip was reprinted in Smash! as “The Ghost Patrol”, but not, possibly, in its entirety.
“You’ll be pleased… nay, astonished! to hear that, just fifteen years late, I will finally be publishing The Phantom Patrol,” Steve enthused on the Bear Alley blog earlier this week.
“Negotiations have been underway behind the scenes for this ‘secret project’ that I’ve mentioned a couple of times and I have been careful not to mention it until now. I’ve reached an agreement with Rebellion that won’t bankrupt me and we’re just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. This time it will definitely happen!
“It’s a terrific, twisty time-travel story, one of the lost gems that lurk in Rebellion’s archives,” he continues. “They’ve done a good job of rescuing some strips – as have Hibernia Comics and Book Palace – but I’m especially pleased that Bear Alley Books will finally be publishing The Phantom Patrol.
“Back when I started thinking about publishing some books, this was one of the first strips that came to mind as deserving to be rescued. I had been working for Look and Learn and helped negotiate the deal that led to the company buying up the old Fleetway nursery comics. It also meant that I had copies of a few thousand issues of the likes of Playhour, Jack & Jill, Teddy Bear, Robin and Swift cluttering up my office for a couple of years before I left and had to return them.
“For the first time I got to read the whole strip, having first encountered the story in various 2000AD reprints. I fell in love with the story… and I think you will, too.”
Stay tuned to the work of Bear Alley and a release date for the collection by following Steve’s blog, which is crammed with incredible articles about British comics and book publishing.
While we’re waiting for this book, you should head to Steve’s eBay store or AmazonUK (Affiliate Link), and grab a copy of his latest book, High Seas and High Adventures is a collection of three classic stories by Jeffery Farnol and H. Rider Haggard, brought to life by one of the finest of all comic strip artists: Jesus Blasco.
Originally published in the pages of Look and Learn, ‘Black Bartlemy’s Treasure’ and ‘Martin Conisby’s Revenge’ (based on Martin Conisby’s Vengeance) adapt two of Jeffery Farnol’s most famous books – a tale of vengeance and death that begins with Conisby a galley slave on a Spanish ship. He escapes to a British ship and heads back to England to take his revenge on Sir Richard Brandon, the man responsible for his years of slavery, only to rescue and fall in love with Lady Joan, his enemy’s daughter. Thus begins a tale that follows Conisby’s adventures on the high seas as he sails in search of Sir Richard aboard the ship of Adam Penfeather, who is looking for the treasure of pirate Black Bartlemy, left on an island with a treasure map hidden in a daggar the only clue.
The story (originally written as one epic book) continues through the pages of ‘Martin Coniby’s Revenge’, where his discovery of Sir Richard’s whereabouts leads him to rescue his enemy and takes him to an island where he is confronted by Lady Joan Brandon.
The third strip is another grueling tale of high adventure and vengeance as Thomas Wingfield sets off for the Indies, only to be wrecked at sea and rescued from certain death by his enemy. Escaping, Wingfield is washed up on the shores of a strange land and captured by its natives. He is saved from being sacrificed and taken to meet the emperor, Montezuma. The adventure that follows sees Wingfield marry into the royal household and face the encroachment of Spanish invaders led by Cortez. All the time, Wingfield still burns with the desire to avenge the death of his mother and kill the man responsible.
• Buy your copy of High Seas and High Adventures here via AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | EBay |
• Stay tuned to the work of Bear Alley by following Steve’s blog
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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