Many of you will know that I spent a lot of time in 2013 travelling the world to meet veterans of the X-Craft for my book The Real X-Men. I had planned to call the book ‘The X-Men’ but a friend - Simon Marshall - suggested adding ‘Real’ to the title. It was a great suggestion. These were real men - mainly teenagers - doing the most extraordinary job imaginable. I still stand in awe of their achievements. Looking at the numbers, I also see that it was also my best selling book.
Another of my friends, Suresh, who is a graphic artist in India, has sent me this set of plates detailing the remarkable exploits in Singapore harbour of James ‘Mick’ Magennis VC from an old war comic dating back to 1974. I was eleven at the time, and almost certainly read it when it came out.
They’re so good I thought you’d enjoy them too. Much maligned and derided then and now as sub-literate, these comics were models of tight - even taut - writing - and were more often than not insanely accurate to the historic reality of events. Contrary to myth they didn’t glorify war, despite some archaic verbal ejaculations and their tradition of referring to the Japanese enemy as ‘Nips’, but served to communicate it perfectly. This is as good as they get. Enjoy!
I’ll upload the last six pages in another post.
The Real X-Men, good book too. Many of us started out on comic books such as Commando Comics, those little magazines ignited the fire. Now we buy and read veritable tomes from some of the best historians. For example A War of Empires which I was recommending to someone at the recent WHWFV.
Absolutely lovely, I still hold on to my commando comics. Memsahib understands :)