Product Description

By the time it was launched in 1961, "Battle Picture Library" already had two stablemates at Fleetway Publications - "War Picture Library" and "Air Ace Picture Library". To avoid any conflicts with its sister magazines, Battle concentrated solely on stories based on land, although the authors and artists had plenty of scope when deciding on settings for their tales of action and adventure.Stories such as "Fort Blood" or "The Fire-Eater" pit our fighting men against their bitter enemies in the heat and dust of the desert while "The Flame and the Fury" or "The Island of Guilt" see them slogging their way through the intense tropical humidity of the darkest jungles."The Let 'Em Have It" collection features some of the finest stories ever to appear in the "Battle Picture Library" series, providing hours of entertainment for fans of fighting yarns whether they be revisiting the classic comic book series they remember from their youth, or whether they are going into Battle for the first time!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19374 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 776 pages

About the Author
Steve Holland is the author of over 1,000 articles and a dozen books relating to comics and pulp culture, including The Trials of Hank Janson, nominated for the Silver Dagger Award by the Crime Writers Association. His latest book, The War Libraries Index charts the extraordinary history of Fleetway;s war picture libraries.

Customer Reviews

Full On War Comics From the 60's!
This, the latest in what promises to be an ongoing series of reprints of the best of the Fleetway war pocket libraries, is in many ways the most successfully realized yet.

Editor Steve Holland has picked a particularly fine bunch of stories, with scripts by a team of writers and editors who in most cases had direct experience of the conflict they were writing about. The stories are just as gripping and engaging some forty plus years on as they were when the were first published and again as with the previous collection the heroes and protagonists are frequently men trying to come to terms with their own personal demons as much as they are fighting the enemy.

These are stories therefore with real resonance which coupled with some really superb and atmospheric artwork plunges the reader right into the seat of the action.

The stories themselves are by and large from the first three years of the comics run spanning 1961 - 1963 and again, there are no credits published, which is a pity, however I'll reprise a list of the contents with the appropriate name checks:

Fort Blood - Battle No.22 - Art:Jose Ortiz - Script:Unknown

Killer At Large - Battle No.7 - Art:Jose Bielsa - Script:Donne Avenell

The Fire Eaters - Battle No.96 - Art:Gino D'Antonio - Script:H.K. Bulmer

No Higher Stakes - Battle No.89 - Art:Jorge Macabich - Script:E.C. Tubb

Ten Seconds to Zero - Battle No.38 - Art:Jose Ortiz - Script:Unknown

The Flame and the Fury - Battle No.33 - Art:Aurelio Bevla - Script:Unknown

Death and Glory - Battle No.27 - Art: Gino D'Antonio - Script:Unknown

The Island of Guilt - Battle No.4 - Art:Renzo Calegari - Script:Donne Avenell

The Quick and the Dead - Battle No.14 - Art:Vittorio Cossio - Script:L.S. Dofort

The Trouble Shooters - Battle No.18 - Art:Aurelio Bevla - Script:Donne Avenell

LCI 159 - Battle No.16 - Art:Septimus Scott - Script:A. Carney Allen

Shoot First - Battle No.24 - Art:Jose Bielsa - Script: Donne Avenell

As with previous collections the interior artwork has been shot from the comics themselves, the original artwork having been frustratingly destroyed in the early nineties, although it should be noted that the covers themselves were not incinerated and the reproductions on the cover and endpapers are really superb and look far superior to their initial incarnations.

I'm very pleased to see that the reproduction of the interior artwork is pretty much as good as the original comics, unlike previous volumes in the series there is virtually no line drop out or infills and the result bearing in mind the limitations of reproducing from newsprint is very pleasing indeed.

One point of concern is (and it's not the first time this has happened with these collections) is that one page has been printed twice essentially knocking out one page of story - the offending page in question is 439 from the story "Death and Glory", which has the contents of page 449 in it's stead. More of an irritant I suppose as the missing page can be surmised, but it would be good if the bar on the proof reading could be raised a bit higher next time around.

But all in all a really excellent volume, makes you hungry for more!

Fix bayonets!
Another brilliant collection from the Battle Picture Library. A must for anyone interested in the comic book war stories from yesteryear!

Buy it now!