WWII and the golden age of British War comics (2025)

Soldiers of Oxfordshire explores the fascinating history of war comics via the colourful archives of War Picture Library and Battle Picture Weekly

Britain has a long history of publishing comics, stretching back over 130 years. Amidst this multi-faceted story, it is conflict in its various guises, that has proved a comic book staple.

Indeed, for people of a certain age who grew up devouring comics in the 1960s and 1970s, it was the Second World War that dominated the narrative.

For nearly two decades it seemed that young British boys were re-fighting the Germans and the Japanese via comic strip staples such as Commando, Warlord, Battle Picture Weekly, War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, and many others.

This was also the heyday of the Airfix kit and Action Man, both of which helped feed into the general fascination with all things military, until the arrival of comics and characters like Judge Dredd, Darth Vader (who still looked very much like a a Nazi villain) and Love and Rockets finally turned young minds back towards the possibilities of conflict in future dystopias and universes.

Into Battle: The Art of British War Comics examines the war comic’s heyday via original artwork – much of it on public display for the first time – to tell the story of war comics decade by decade.

A partnership with Rebellion Publishing, who bought the rights to Battle comic in 2016 and still publishes special editions of classics such as 2000AD, Roy of the Rovers and Battle Action, the exhibition draws on their extensive archives and features spectacular covers and action-packed panels from War Picture Library and Battle Picture Weekly.

The former, first launched in 1958, was the first of many digest-sized ‘pocket library’ page turners (its main competitor was Commando comic, which began publishing in 1961 and is still going strong today) featuring just one story from World War Two, often based on real dates, places and settings.

Edition no 1 was called Fight Back to Dunkirk and set the tone for a mass of pocket money-priced tales, often written by ex-World War Two veterans who explored themes of loyalty, honour, comradeship, bravery and cowardice – set in the various theatres of war – from the British home front to the jungles of South East Asia.

The comic ran to over 2,000 titles before eventually ceasing publication in late 1984.

Alongside original cover colour artwork from War Picture Library created by legendary comic book artists like Jordi Penalva (Bulldog Breed, 1965), Giorgio de Gaspari (Spy 13, 1959) and Graham Cotton (Gun Duel, 1967) the exhibition also features extensive artwork and strips from the popular weekly comic that grew out of War Picture Library, Battle Picture Weekly.

Published by IPC magazines and launched in 1975 as a multi-story comic to compete with D.C Thomson’s wartime boys’ adventure comic Warlord, it introduced readers to World War Two comic book characters like D-Day Dawson, Major Eazy and Johhny Red as well as the popular Charley’s War.

One of the most lauded war comic strips of all time, Charley’s War departed from the World War Two comic book obsession to depict the real-time exploits of a young working-class lad, Charley Bourne, and his life and experiences in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War.

On display are original 1983 Charley’s War panels written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, who together stripped the story of archetypal comic book heroics to present a gritty yet richly illustrated narrative that became a staple in Battle Picture Weekly and its successor Battle Action from January 1979 to October 1986.

Unlike many of its contemporaries, the strip took an anti-war stance that for some makes it as much a part of the popular representation of the First World War as the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Black Adder or All Quiet of the Western Front. Comic books with a wartime theme may have passed their zenith, but they make for a fascinating window into the minds and reading habits of kids in the sixties and seventies.

Into Battle: The Art of British War Comics is at Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum until April 30 2024.

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