|
Title: 1970's British comic strip Johnny Red... British pilot with the VVS Post by: Troy Smith on October 23, 2012, 03:52:50 AM Hi
this one is a bit of light relief, but I unless your a 40 something Brit, you probably won't have run across this one. there was a 1970's Britsh comic called Battle, and from 1977 to the mid 80s it ran. I read it back then, and it is of minor interest in that whilst being written at the height of the Cold War for British children it gave a sympathetic view of the Soviet people, [commisars are reviled] and their sacrifices in the GPW. Quote Johnny Red begins with the nineteen-year-old?s short temper causing him to strike a superior officer and be discharged from the RAF. Stealing a Hurricane from a merchant navy vessel off the coast of Murmansk, Redburn arrives in Russia and falls in with Falcon Squadron, a forgotten band of airmen waiting to die for the Motherland. Johnny helps the Falcons re-establish themselves as a fighting force as they take on the might of the German Luftwaffe, but he is now a wanted man, and fears that the Russian Commanders will discover his secret? Don't get me wrong, it's certainly not high end literature, in fact a lot is downright preposterous and as silly as any comic..like the opposing sides talking on the radio during combat and the heroic Englishman.. but this and some Airfix models was the start of my interest in the VVS though... there is a very good site dedicated to this, http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/ but if you have some spare time there are scans of the entire comic strip up here by year. http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/?cat=3 here's a panel... (http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/1977/089.jpg) cheers T Title: Re: 1970's British comic strip Johnny Red... British pilot with the VVS Post by: learstang on October 23, 2012, 04:43:41 AM Interesting stuff, Troy, thank you for posting! You certainly wouldn't have seen any kind of comic in the U.S. at that time that was sympathetic to the Soviet war effort. The war started on 6/6/44, and was won by America, single-handedly (Okay, the Brit's helped a little). On another note, Johnny is obviously flying a P-40, and the aeroplane he ran into in his unintentional taran is a MiG-3, but what on Earth is that thing flying in the upper right corner - it looks a little like a Yak-52!
Regards, Jason Title: Re: 1970's British comic strip Johnny Red... British pilot with the VVS Post by: Troy Smith on October 23, 2012, 05:22:55 AM but what on Earth is that thing flying in the upper right corner - it looks a little like a Yak-52! It's a 'Lagg'... I presume supposed to be a La-5F, from what I read earlier in the strip.[might be an Su-2 tho] When I ran across this a few years back I thought the VVS stuff was quite well drawn, but looking again it's not so hot. But, you can find SB-2, I-16, I-153, Yak-1, 'Lagg', Pe-8, Il-2, Su-2 and I'm sure more. When "the Falcons" get sent to Stalingrad they meet women flying Chiaka's. I did read a load a few years ago, and it does get really silly later on, but I'd not seen it in 30 years. I didn't buy Battle, but read the occasional copy. The guy who does this site did one on 'Action' which was pretty controversial in it's day. http://www.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/?page_id=2 cheers T |