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

26 hopes and errors at Ypres, Verdun, and the Somme, left for America after the Armistice. He spent the intervening years as an itinerant sign-writer, drifting between New York and Montana, until he found his way back to Glasgow a year or two before I was born in 1933 (probably feeling that in a Depression he might as well be with his relatives). Second eldest of five boys, I had hardly found my way to the local cinema (where favourites included Hopalong Cassidy, Clyde Beatty, Flash Gordon and Jackie Cooper), whenwar was declaredwithGermany on September 3rd 1939. The three eldest (aged 5, 6 and 7) were sent off to safety in the Scottish Highlands, to avoid the bombing which a city like Glasgow anticipated— and received. This move was ironic, because as the war progressed, the North of Scotland became, among other scenic delights, a submarine base, aircraft rocket test range, and British Commando and American Special Forces (Darby’s Rangers) training area. Original gouache painting and published cover for issue 3 of Commando . Eric Hebden's working title 'A Guy Needs Guts' remained unchanged when the story went to print and was in perfect harmony with Barr's cover art, which owed much in influence to US pulp magazines and was in stark contrast to Fleetway's war comic covers.