Commando Webbing: New Interview With Editor Calum Laird

By John Freeman on October 2, 2009 • ( 1 )

Mike Eriksson of the war digest site Where Eagles Dare has put up a new interview with Commando editor Calum Laird in which Calum updates readers on his first two years as Commanding Officer of Britain’s last traditional war comic.

When asked about sales figures for the title, Calum says, “Commando doesn’t sell as well as it did, that’s for sure, but we are still viable. No one in publishing is feeling too secure at the moment, but Commando hasn’t lost any sales in the recent downturn and we hope to grow our sales on the far side of the recession.”

He goes on to offer readers a say in their reprint strategy, “Commando will be 50 years old in 2011. Amongst other things we plan to re-issue some stories from the very early days and I’d invite any readers to email me with titles or numbers at editor@commandomag.com they have any that they’d really like to see again. We don’t have time to look for ‘a story that came out in the late 70s which had a safecracker turned Commando who saved Tobruk with a banana sandwich…’ so names or numbers only please.”

Of course if anyone knows of a Commando where a former safecracker saves Tobruk with a banana sandwich then please tell us the issue number as we would like to read it!

The full interview is available on the Where Eagles Dare website along with an impressive list of other Commando related interviews.

The downthetubes interview with Calum Laird is here.

The official Commando website is here.

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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