Specialized Expedition Bicycle

The other day, our friend Tony, Jumilla, left us this message in the guestbook:

Hello Ian, first of all wish you you and your family a very Merry Christmas. Second, tell the Kings that I've autoregalado this year. This is a helluva aviation comic, similar to that of "Enemy Ace", is called "Battle Britton" and is Norma Editorial. I pass the link;

www.normaeditorial.com/blogusa/

artwork and script are pretty good. As you very well said "in this aviation there is very little published in the field of comics and movies, with what I think, to come up with something new and interesting, well worth sharing with people fond of the subject. Best regards from Jumilla (Murcia).

Well I ran out to see if they had it in a store specializing in comics I know, and I found it. That's what I've read and very well. I had thought of writing about it and tell a little of their plot, but in the end I decided that is best that you discover yourself. Just let me say that is a collection of five booklets have been published previously for the Anglo market. The only but can be put, is that it is short hehehe ...

These below are the respective covers. Just put the 2, 3, 4 and 5, as the other is used on the cover. GARRY LEACH works.





HERE you can see the original artwork for the cover GARRY LEACH number 4, put up for sale and sold for 650 Pounds Sterling.







Here it is the full text of the presentation by Garth Ennis :

A SHORT HISTORY OF BATTLE BRITTON

The Yankees are lucky that it is not finished.

Americans tend to care best in its history that the British and the comic book industry is no exception. Editions Stock, masterpieces, hardcover and others, who lovingly reproduced thousands of pages of classic American comics, they are available and are kept in the catalog for the enjoyment of future generations. But what about us Brits?

Well, part of 2000 AD material published in collections. The incomparable Charley's War has finally reedirado, thank God. Apart from this, you can try your luck on e-bay, because apart from the odd TPB or republication cheap magazine format, decades of wonderful ate Britons remain in the limbo of the publishers.

One of the hundreds of characters lost due to this was the fighter pilot of WW2 Robert Hereward Britton, known both to his friends as among his enemies as "Battler." First appeared in 1956 (at number 361 of the weekly anthology Sun ), created by writer Mike Butterworth and artist Geoff Campion. The stories were so simple and straightforward as the character: our hero thrown Messerschmitts knocked down half a dozen, was shot down, poking at the Boches on land with the same abandon in the air, and managed to escape to the perfidious Albion in time for the dinner. And that continued doing for the next ten years in various publications, and under different creative teams.

By the mid-sixties, Battler found a new home on the hit Air Ace Picture Library. Picture Libraries There were several , small jewelry A5, 60 pages in black and white, that any British comic book reader for over thirty years remember. (My first encounter with Battler was titles War and Battle , which reprinted his appearances on Air Ace ). With no credit to report on the authorship, determine who wrote what is quite difficult, although it is known that Syd Bounds scripts for several stories. Identify the artists is a little easier.

Francisco Solano López Great Battler drew during his days in Air Ace. So did Hugo Pratt, Victor Hugo Arias, Luis Bermejo, and many more. A young Carlos Pino was responsible for some of the later stories.

Best of all, in my opinion, were the British artists Ian Kennedy and Graham Coton. Nobody drew airplanes, Kennedy, no one captured the frantic chaos of air combat and blazing the way in which Coton did.
stories that illustrated these men-the best, if anything, seemed have made a bit tougher. Gave off a certain darkness, a willingness to recognize the butcher's bill that carries any war. Battler's comrades could die suddenly, randomly, seemingly without meaning. Men could be pushed to its outer limits and beyond. Battler remained the same, though perhaps only smile where once would have laughed, and a cold calculation replaced his brazen bravado. Could get tired, or bored with things, not wasting the lives of his men by throwing against insurmountable obstacles. But he was always restless. Battler Britton always finished the job.

My favorite among these stories is "False Glory" (Ace # 406 Air ). Under the command of a squadron of attack that carried out operations against convoys of transport are sometimes lethal Battler is assigned to a young, stubborn and selfish driver, Rupert Harding, who seems to profit from the reputation of his father's hero. When the two are shot down on the icy North Sea, Harding, convinced that neither will survive that night Battler reveals that his father won the Victoria Cross by deception, to take credit for the actions of a man dead. The two survivors, and Battler now understands better the tormented young man's personality. Harding is injured after an incredible feat of heroism, and when you visit Battler in the hospital and presented with a citation to be awarded the VC, the circle is closed. "Break it, sir," said Harding.
"This settles the accounts of my family. Do you understand?" Battler
and understand.

What you have now is in his hands, according to my calculations, the first comic-new Battler Britton is performed in more than 30 years and I am proud to participate in a project to recover this character after a forced retirement so long. It is a pleasure to work with Colin Wilson, whose dramatic drawings contribute so heavily to get "the old Battler" take flight again. Maybe, just maybe, if enough of you you climb on board, we could raise enough interest in a collection of adventures for Battler Air Ace, with these wonderful stories, and those fabulous pictures.

would be a damn shame to let it rot like that.

- Garth Ennis, in February 2006

(Thanks to David Roach, Andrew Sumner and Vic Whittle for their help in investigating the first appearances of Battler.)

below
This is a double page spread inside





original edition: Battle BRITTON 1-5 USA / DC Comics 2007

Authors:
Writer: Garth Ennis
Drawing: Colin Wilson
Ink: Colin Wilson
Color: Jeromy Cox
Size: 17x26
Format: Paperback Book, 120 pp. Color
Editorial: NORMA Editorial - September 2008
ISBN: 978-84-9847-666-8


Web NORMA Editorial
http://www.normaeditorial.com/
http: / / www.normaeditorial.com/blogusa/

The drawings and the "ink" comics are COLIN WILSON. You can visit her blog or Web. In the Web, you can see part of the work of this artist. Also in black and white feathers for this work of Battler Britton.
Blog: Web
http://wilco4400.blogspot.com/: http://members.optushome.com.au/jacoco/

This link below is from a beautiful private collection of original covers Battler Britton publication of the 50's.

http://hem.bredband.net/b103656/battler.htm