Commando Webbing

By John Freeman on June 7, 2008

DC Thomson’s official Commando website have just completed their first web version of a Commando comic. Wall of Death was originally published in July 1966 in Commando issue 221, written by Redbridge and illustrated by Cortez. The website has formatted the entire story into eleven chapters beginning here and each one links to the next.

Now that the story has been completed, the site has detailed the work that went into getting the 63 digest size pages into a web format. Writer Dan McGachey had to adapt the story into eleven segments with a recap at the beginning of each. The original art was scanned and adapted to the web comic format by artist Bryn Houghton who had to cover up original text boxes and speech balloons to create new ones in different positions as well as extending the artwork to take account of the square format used on the site. More details of their work can be found here.

Now that the first story has been completed, the site has begun a second web Commando. This time they have chosen They Flew By Night which was originally published in issue 516 from December 1970 and tells the story of RAF night bomber raids during the Second World War. The artist for this story is Commando veteran Gordon Livingstone, who was interviewed about his work on Commando in the BBC4 series Comics Britannia. This particular story was in the Carlton book Commando: All Guns Blazing meaning that owners of the book will be able to see the difference between the original and the web version as the Commando site continues to add chapters.

The web comic of Wall Of Death begins here, while the web comic of They Flew By Night begins here. The main page of the Commando website is here.

• Commando: All Guns Blazing, with an introduction by former Commando editor George Low, is available from Amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

About the Author
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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “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.

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Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers