Does anyone out there remember the "Commando" comics?

The reason I ask is, recently I was in the local library and what did I see but a volume entitled “The Dirty Dozen – The Best 12 Commando Comic Books Ever!”

The memories starting flooding back of these pocket sized pieces of action and adventure and how much fun they were to read. And before you ask, yes I did book it out.

For anybody who is not familiar with this particular piece of graphic literature (I’m sure nowadays it would be called a “graphic novel”, but it will always be a comic to me), the thing itself was about 5 or 6 inches in height, about 4 or 5 inches wide and about a ¼ of an inch thick. The reason for the rough estimate is I am not convinced that the collected volume is an accurate, in size anyway, of the original issues.

Another thing about the Commando comic was its striking covers. There was always at least one action picture on the front. The covers would have the word Commando and a graphic of a Royal Marine Commando dagger. It would then say something like War Stories in Pictures. It would feature a soldier or a number of soldiers in a pitched battle with an enemy, an aircraft dogfight, or some ship or submarine engaged in action, so you see, as a young boy, these kinds of things grabbed the attention. The back cover was also in colour and would feature a synopsis of the story, and on the side of the cover, a much larger version of the dagger would feature.

The stories themselves were, to best of my knowledge, all in black and white. I don’t remember any of the artwork being duff in anyway, but there must have been the odd thing that wasn’t up to scratch. Although, I am sure that the editors made sure that it was of the best quality that they could get. After all, they had an avid audience to please.

As I look through the collected volume, I see titles like “Aces Wild”, “Trouble Spot”, “Death Patrol”, “Battle Wagon” and “Man of Iron”. I mean, c’mon, that really grabs your attention, doesn’t it? These comics were also pocket money priced, so I could get one when the notion took me. That is to say, when the cover grabbed me by the throat and I wanted to see the heroics of the British Army (my dad and some of my uncles did their national service in the army), the Royal Air Force or the Royal Navy.

I’m not sure if the slightly politically incorrect references to German, Japanese and Italian nationals would be allowed now, and I cringe at the thought of some of the slang terms used, I am sure that these fictional remembrances of wars past would still enthral the youth of today, even with Xbox and PS3 computer generated imagery.

I just thought I would share that with you, now if you don’t mind, I am about to settle down to “Death Patrol”… lets see “The night sky over the central Mediterranean erupted into flaming death. The allied invasion of Scilly had begun – Codename Operation Husky”…. Ahhh… bliss.