Just a few weeks after I wrote about the 'True Brit' collection, I walked into a bookstore and staring me in the face was a stack of Commando comics. But the format was wrong, I noted. These seemed larger. Picking up one, I saw that these were indeed a far cry from the Commando comics of yore. A closer look revealed that these were printed on higher quality paper as well. In keeping with the earlier Commando series, these had colour covers, with black & white illustrations inside. Priced at Rs.60, this is the latest offering from Euro Books to hit the market has 24 titles on offer. Instead of picking up a single, you might want to pick up the '3 in 1' compilations, which are available at Rs.150 each. I couldn't help myself as I picked up five compilations! Having read 'True Brit' some time back, I've become truly hooked again.
There is, however, one major goof-up that I spotted: one of the stories was not complete. In the 'Journey to Freedom' compilation, the last story 'Battle Shield' is incomplete… or at least I think it is. Unlike every other Commando story that I've read, this one seems to end in failure. Perhaps it’s a satire, which I very much doubt. If its supposed to be a story in two parts, then it'd have made sense to put them both in one compilation. Or, from a marketing/sales perspective, another compilation with the second part would have made readers buy that one as well. But that's not the case. There's no second part.
The other thing that bothered me was the quality of the stories themselves. I don't know about other readers, but I felt they weren't as good as the older ones. While the majority of the stories dealt with WWII, there were a couple that were stories of brave tribes (like the afore mentioned Battle Shield). Perhaps Euro Books could select better stories next time. After all, the name 'Commando' hardly brings feathers and war paint to mind. But, all in all, I must say that I'm pleased to see Commando books back in the market.
The New Commando Comics
Rediscovering the Commando comic
About 20 years ago, when WWII was the worst thing the world had seen, like millions of kids around me, I was fascinated by it. Back then, you could be interested in war without taking sides, and no one would arrest you, or point fingers at you. Being too young to read my grandfather's collection of WWII books (and he was an avid reader of the subject), I turned to the only other alternative: Commando comics.
Being odd-sized, they stood out on any shelf; their covers were reminiscent of war movie posters; and they told stories of heroes. And that they claimed to be actual stories from WWII (don't know how far this is true) made them irresistible to a 7 year old.
Not having seen them for over a decade, I grew out of the habit of collecting them, and recently, was pleasantly surprised to come across a copy of one of the Commando collections - True Brit. Needless to say, I bought it immediately. As I started reading it, I rediscovered the simplicity that comics once had. Good and Bad were clear - no characters like Batman who had shades of grey; the Hero was not fighting any internal moral conflict; and no one had any superpowers - just regular people with extraordinary courage.
Sure, there's some degree of stereotyping involved - such as the Nazis always being the bad guys (all the good ones always turned at the end) and all the Allies were gentlemen Officers, but at the end of it all, it preached courage, patriotism, and instilled in the reader a certain degree of respect for these traits. The major difference, it occurred to me, was that these comics didn't give the reader any excuse to behave otherwise themselves. For instance, one can say that Superman can afford to be brave because he's superhuman and Batman can afford to take a stand against crime because he's a millionaire with amazing gadgets . In addition to this, they operate out of imaginary cities like Metropolis and Gotham City, where there are super-villains… all in all, they give the reader a clear way to not get involved in the story, or identify with it. Whatever other values they hint at, the likes of Superman and Batman stop being role models for readers above the age of six.
This is perhaps the main differentiator between comics like Commando and the Justice League variety. I wonder if there'll be a time again when comics will just revolve around regular people.
