There’s no stopping the Commando Comics team right now. Not content with publishing the regular fortnightly sets, and the newly-released Commando Presents… Braddock Volume 2, now we’re being treated to three new “Commando Presents” collections. Here’s the intel…
Commando Presents… The D-Day Files: Operation Overlord
One of World War Two’s most famous operations, the D-Day landings took place on 6th June, 1944, as over 150,000 Allied troops landed at the beaches in Normandy, ready to liberate Europe and mark a crucial turning point in the Nazi’s defeat.
Commando Presents… The D-Day Files: Operation Overlord is a special 205-page collection, featuring four of the best Commando comics centred on Operation Overlord.
This new collection, available now from Amazon, includes Commandos No. 203, “Big Joe”, No. 511, “D-Day Drop”, No. 5234, “Dead by Dawn” and No. 5755, “D-Day Pilot”… a volume perfect for fans of British comics and military history.
Commando No. 203: Big Joe
Story: Chris Fitzsimmons Artist: Alfredo Sanchis Cortes Cover Artist: Lopez Espi
“Battling Barton,” British heavy-weight champ, became Sergean Joe Barton by the time D-Day dawned. No one got ahead of Joe when the great advance started. By boot, gun and rock-hard fist Joe smashed his way across Europe, searching for one cruel Nazi who’d once tricked and beaten him in the ring – S.S. Captain Kurt Kleiner. Joe didn’t rest until he faced him again with the gloves on, in a fight to the finish!
Commando No. 511: D-Day Drop
Story: Ken Gentry Artist: Victor de la Fuente Cover Artist: Fernando
Private Steve Shields was one guy who was really looking for a fight. Cheated of his opportunity to hammer German boxer Horst Hartmann into the canvas by the outbreak of war, Steve had been trailing the Nazi ever since. Now, deep behind enemy lines, he was squaring up to his old enemy – not with a gun, but with bare clenched fists.
Commando 5234: Dead by Dawn
Story: Bounds | Art: Gallindo | Cover: Gonzalez
Originally Commando No. 570 (1971)
Inspired by Operation Bodyguard, Pete Barton is tasked with a mission no man would want; to plant fake invasion plans on a dead British Commando. Only, when everything goes wrong, he’s pegged as everything from a coward to a spy to an actual German soldier!
It doesn’t matter to Pete: what really matters is that those fake plans get into Nazi hands – at any cost necessary!
Commando No. 5755: D-Day Pilot
Story: Ferg Handley | Art: Esteve Polls | Cover: Keith Burns
1944, D-Day. While the men valiantly stormed the Normandy beaches, above them RAF Tempests took the fight to the skies. Among them, was pilot Ryan Casey whose cocky attitude could put a lot of men in danger!
Commando Presents… The Dunkirk Diaries
One of Britain’s most inspiring and astounding triumphs, the Dunkirk Evacuation in May and June 1940, was not an admission of surrender, but a promise to return and liberate Europe. A feat no-one would believe possible, more than 338,000 men were evacuated by both the British Navy and a flotilla of civilians on small boats, transporting a whole army across the English Channel.
Commando Presents… The Dunkirk Diaries collects four of the best Commando comics featuring the infamous Dunkirk Evacuation as a 205-page collection.
• Commando Presents… The Dunkirk Diaries is available here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Commando No. 774: The Circus Went to War
Story: Eric Hebden | Art: Gordon Livingstone | Cover: Jordi Penalva
On a lone sortie over France, R.A.F. pilot Frank Selby ran into trouble in the shape of two marauding Messerschmitts. Soon he had to bail out – and fast! He landed safely, stood up, dusted himself off – and looked round to see a fully grown lion bounding towards him. This was the moment Frank got into the weirdest war anyone ever fought!
Commando No. 1913: Proved in Battle
Story: Mick Anglo | Art: Mick Anglo | Cover: Ian Kennedy
They were just another bunch of soldiers retreating towards Dunkirk as the Germans poured into France. For most, this was the first time they had seen any action. The question was – would they crack or would they be proved in battle?
Commando No. 5335: Durand’s Dunkirk
Story: Andrew Knighton | Art: Morhain & Defeo | Cover: Keith Burns
Tank Commander Regis Durand and his crew are the very embodiment of the French’s fighting spirit — at least, he thinks so!
At odds with his men about France’s hopes for success, Durand’s chance meeting with errant British privates Dodge and Hutton fuels his rage and determination to beat the Nazis. But fighting alongside Belgian Sergeant Willems makes Durand confront some deep truths, helping him find the real meaning of ‘fighting spirit’ before France is overcome by irrepressible blitzkrieg tactics.
Preserving the lives of himself and other honourable men to one day free France is all that keeps Durand from blindly pursuing victory and certain death.
A story interwoven with Dodger’s Dunkirk, Morhain and Defeo’s interior art is wonderfully complemented by Keith Burns’ interconnecting cover.
Commando No. 5337: Dodger’s Dunkirk
Story: Andrew Knighton | Art: Morhain & Defeo | Cover: Keith Burns
“We ain’t gonna be beaten. It’s just a few setbacks, is all.”
Private Tom ‘Dodger’ Dodge and his mate Ed Hutton arrive in France full of hope, only to swiftly find themselves being told to retreat. Absconding from his unit in defiance of those orders, Dodge soon runs into a French Tank Commander, Regis Durand, with the same fighting spirit as him!
Refusing to fall back even in dire straits, a party of Belgians lead by Sergeant Willem convince Tom to return to his unit, learning the hard way what it means to run and fight another day.
Told in parallel to Durand’s Dunkirk, these individual stories are connected by far more than Morhain and Defeo’s detailed interiors and Keith Burns’ stunning twin covers.
Discussing the two interlinked stories, writer Andrew Knighton has previously revealed he created Dodger to represent a particular attitude towards courage and fighting spirit.
“Holding strong in the face of danger takes a certain stubborn willpower, something that’s a necessity in war,” he notes on his official blog, also discussing the wider tragedy of the Dunkirk retreat. “Without the courage to hold your ground despite terrible odds and others’ fears, many battles would have been lost.
“But that stubbornness can go too far. Great military disasters have been born from an unwillingness to compromise, to back off, to accept the limits of what can be achieved and so to salvage something of value from a loss.”
• Commando Presents… The Dunkirk Diaries is available here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Commando Presents… The Gurkha Files
Kafar hunu bhanda marnu ramro – “It is better to die than be a coward.” is the motto of the Gurkhas who fought with the Allies. This collection of four classic Commando issues honours those brave warriors with tales of their valour and unquestionable heroism, focusing on the prowess of these daring fighting men.
Renowned for their bravery and bold fighting, the Gurkhas fought in both World Wars and were an integral part of the Allied victory. Commando, “The Home of Heroes”, has featured these proud warriors in numerous stories over the decades.
Commando Presents… The Gurkha Files collects four of the very best, selecting vintage issues from the 1960s and ‘70s, as well as more modern adventures from the ‘90s and beyond.
Featuring art from celebrated comic legends Ian Kennedy, Phil Gascoine, Manuel Benet, and Gordon C Livingstone, with gritty stories from veterans like Alan Hemus and Major Eric Hebden who reel you into the action in style.
• Commando Presents… The Gurkha Files is available here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
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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, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
This Week’s UK Graphic Novel Releases – 31st August 2026 
Deluxe Doctor Who Comic Collections in the works from Panini 
Chris Weston’s new “James Bond” collection cover revealed 
Bomber Braddock Blasts Back Into Action!
From what I can deduce, these 3 books are not produced by D.C. Thomson per se like the new Braddock Bomber collection which is an official release from D.C. Thomson. The 3 books are produced by ‘PublishDrive’ where someone takes the digital files and Amazon prints on demand. This has happened before with the Commando Presents the Sci-Fi Files and the Fear Files, only previously available as digital editions. So are they legit, and does D.C. Thomson know about these?