First Issue: 8th March 1975
Last Issue: 23rd January 1988
Copyright: IPC Magazines
Six months prior to the arrival of ‘Battle Picture Weekly’, DC Thomson had launched their own war themed comic called ‘Warlord’. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of Warlord was not that it raised the standard for violence and violent language in comics which it surely did but it also led IPC to respond with their own war themed comic in March 1975.
The first Issue of Battle Picture Weekly comic was dated 8th March 1975 and came with a free gift of ‘Combat Stickers of World War 2′. In order to make a break from the staid traditional world of boys’ British comics at IPC, the editor, John Sanders, had took the decision to bring in freelancers from outside. The freelancers were Pat Mills and John Wagner. Battle Picture Weekly produced long time favourites such as D Day Dawson, The Flight of the Golden Hinde, Day of the Eagle and The Bootneck Boy.
Battle comic can be considered most famous, or even infamous depending on your viewpoint, for the story ‘Charley’s War’. ‘Charley’s War’ was the story of sixteen year old Charley Bourne who lied in order to join the army during the First World War. The story was written by the great Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoon of ‘Roy of the Rovers’ fame. Charley’s story was told through his letters home which were often badly spelled. Titan books have released two graphic novels reprinting the the critically acclaimed stories that originally appeared in Battle comic in the late 1970s.
