EXTRACTS: The Art of Commando (illustrators special) © 2019 The Book Palace (144 PAGES in Full edition)

17 Forbes editorship continued until 1989 when he took a well earned retirement and headed in the direction of the Carnousti golf course—a favoured meeting place for many of the Commando ‘Old Boys’. His replacement was George Low, who had commenced work on the title back in 1963 when he was a fresh faced sixteen-year-old straight out of school. The choice of a steady pair of hands at the tiller did not mean that the title was destined to tread water and under George Low’s editorship more new talent was added to the roster, including writers such as Ferg Handley and artists such as Keith Page and Janek Matysiak, while veteran Commando illustrator John Ridgway (John's debut Commando was 'Mustang Ace' published in 1971) introduced 3D software into his creation of cover art. The willingness to respond and interact with its audience of fans saw further manifestations as Calum Laird took over George Low’s mantle in 2007. Laird's tenure saw further initiatives with the introduction of credits for the creatives on the title page of each issue and the development of the Commando website and digital editions of the title available for immediate download. Although readership numbers were not as great as they had been in the first three decades of the title’s run, there was no decline in the output of eight titles a month, the slack being taken up by increasing the number