STEEL COMMANDO - FULL METAL WARFARE...

Copyright REBELLION

Life is full of surprises.  I put off purchasing REBELLION's softcover collected edition of STEEL COMMANDO - FULL METAL WARFARE when I learned it was a digest-sized publication.  However, I eventually decided to take the plunge, and was pleasantly pleased to find on its arrival today that its reduced dimensions don't make it difficult to read in the slightest.

Containing strips from THUNDER, LION & Thunder (including 5 combined CAPTAIN HURRICANE & Steel Commando episodes), VALIANT & LION, plus a trio of tales (one in full colour) from Thunder Annuals 1972, '73 & '74, there's 37 stories in all for discerning collectors to add to their treasure-trove of comic strip classics.  Also reproduced are three covers from different publications which cover-starred ol' 'Ironsides' back in the '70s.

One thing that slightly irked me was the following message inside the book:  'This edition faithfully reproduces the original publication. It therefore may deal with race, class or gender in ways uncomfortable to contemporary readers.  (Okay so far, I suppose - but then...)  We apologise in advance for any offence given.'  Do you ever see or hear such 'apologies' attached to old movies about World War II - or any other topic?  Most sensible people usually know instinctively to regard such things in the context of their time and don't need to be patronised in this way.

If they had to have something, why not the following? 'These stories reflect the attitudes and language from the period in which they are set, and perhaps also the time in which they were written. They do not necessarily reflect modern-day attitudes or opinion.  We therefore trust that no offence will be taken.'  Don't you think that's just a good bit less toadying to those determined to take offence at anything and everything?  Even if they kept their own version, but changed the last line to 'We regret in advance any offence which might be taken', that would be an improvement.

Anyway, that niggle aside, this is an excellent publication that will be sure to delight those who thrilled to the exploits of the Steel Commando back when they were kids or teenagers.  Priced at £6.99, it's a little beauty.  Get your copy now!

BILLY'S BOOTS - COLLECTED EDITION Of FIRST YEAR'S STRIPS From SCORCHER...

Copyright REBELLION

Although I was never a football fan when I was younger (nor am I now), I still bought soccer-themed comics from time-to-time.  That's because, comics for girls aside*, the lure of a new weekly periodical was hard for me to resist.  (*Having said that, I may have bought the occasional ish of LADY PENELOPE as it also had strips suitable for boys.)  So I purchased the early issues of SHOOT!, SCORCHER, and SCORE.  I no longer recall just how long I continued with them (maybe a few weeks or months), but I was certainly in on the ground floor when they first hit the shelves of newsagents all across the nation.

One of the strips I really enjoyed was BILLY'S BOOTS (from Scorcher), and today I received REBELLION's excellent volume of the collected weekly episodes from the first year.  In full-colour as they were originally published, it's great fun to revisit the 1970s in my last six months of being a primary school pupil and my first four at secondary (with a generous eight weeks holidays in between the two periods).  Not that you'll be interested in my personal history, but it may prompt you to remember your own if you were around at the time.

When I first read Billy's Boots in the '70s, the impression I had was that 'DEAD-SHOT' KEEN had long departed this mortal vale, so I was surprised to see while browsing through the book that BILLY DANE actually meets him in a couple of the strips, Keen being very much alive, though retired.  I feel that I'd have remembered that, so it's possible I abandoned Scorcher before ever seeing that particular revelation.  Maybe once I immerse myself in these stories from yesteryear, hitherto dormant memories will resurface, and seemingly forgotten details will become crystal-clear once more - we'll see.

Anyway, if you were a fan of the schoolboy with the magic football boots, this handsome volume (priced at £19.99) is one you should definitely have on your bookshelf, ready to dip into at a moment's notice and thrill again to stories from your youth when you thought you'd be a child forever.  Didn't we all?!