Battle Picture Weekly (at various times also known as Battle and Valiant, Battle Action, Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force) was a British weekly boys' war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with the new incarnation of Eagle after 644 issues. Most stories were set in World War II, with some based on other conflicts, while factual features also focused on warfare.

Devised by Pat Mills and John Wagner in response to rival DC Thomson's similarly themed Warlord, the title was an instant success. Many of the stories printed in the comic have since received critical acclaim and been published in collected editions, notably "Charley's War". Since 2016 Rebellion Developments have owned the majority of Battle Picture Weeklys characters and material, and have published revival publications.

Creation

By the 1970s, IPC Magazines were one of the largest comics publishers in Britain, their portfolio centred around a stable of weekly anthologies that sold around a quarter of a million copies each. However, since being appointed Editorial Director, John Sanders became increasingly aware the market as a whole was shrinking, with television the main threat. He found many of his attempts frustrated by the structure of the company; many of the company's staff (including board members) had been with the company for decades since their days as Amalgamated Press and Fleetway Publications, and were strict traditionalists. IPC launched a slew of titles from 1969 to 1971, but few survived for long.

There was also an archaic internal structure where the company's titles were divided into various departments – boy's adventure, humour, girls and so forth – which rarely exchanged staff between each other. Having left staff jobs at IPC's largest rival DC Thomson, Pat Mills and John Wagner began working as freelancers and submitting scripts for the London company's girls comics. Their work for the likes of Tammy, Jinty and Princess Tina featured a degree of social realism and freshness that stood out to Sanders, who looked for an opportunity to work with the pair further.

An opportunity to recruit Mills and Wagner came in 1974, when DC Thomson launched Warlord. While war comics had been a staple of British boys' titles since the fifties – both as features in anthologies and as a staple of picture library titles like Commando and War Picture Library – Warlord was the first ongoing weekly to centre on the genre entirely. The variety was instead provided by the stories being spread between different theatres and services; the result was a smash hit. IPC had a firm policy of responding to any new hit by DC Thomson or any other rival by launching a similar title of their own in response, even keeping an inventory of unpublished strips in various genres to speed up the process. However, Sanders wanted a different approach for IPC's answer to Warlord, turning to Mills and Wagner. The unexpected merger saw three stories – "Operation Shark", "The Unknown Soldier" and "Yellow Jack" – cut short to make space.

Battle (1980–1983)

In July 1980 the comic underwent a significant redesign, with a new logo (with Action disappearing from the title, which was now simply Battle) and – for the first time – a front cover strip (typically rotated between "Johnny Red" and "Charley's War"), as well as switching to hand lettering. Another change was the appearance of creator credits, fruit of Mills and others' lobbying of Sanders to reverse IPC policy. However, sales continued to dip – not helped by the 1980 NUJ strike – and to keep profitability the title was forced to use reprints, beginning with "Darkie's Mob" in March 1981. Tomlinson and Magee also broke away from the all-war approach and commissioned works from other genres – "The Fists of Jimmy Chang" cashed in on the Bruce Lee-instigated martial arts craze, "Truck Turpin" was based to the boom in interest in trucking and CB radio, while "The Hunters S.I.6" was effectively an unlicensed version of ITV hit The Professionals.

The editorial team were met with a quandary when war broke out in the Falkland Islands in 1982, causing a groundswell in British patriotism and increased interest in warfare. After some debate, the editorial team decided not to refer to the conflict until it was concluded. After the end of hostilities Wagner's "Fight for the Falklands" began. The writer would later admit a degree of embarrassment at the story, confessing he had got caught up in the jingoistic mood of the time and followed the initial government accounts of the fighting too closely. He was similarly unhappy with science fiction-tinged "Invasion 1984!", which he co-wrote with Alan Grant; the pair were so prolific at the time that Sanders insisted they use a pseudonym. From 1 April 2009, Egmont UK in conjunction with W H Smith announced 4 special reprint collections from their stable, including a collection of Battle strips.

Titan Comics subsequently licensed various titles from Egmont for reprint collections, beginning with The Best of Battle in 2009. Collections of "Charley's War", "Rat Pack", "Johnny Red", "Darkie's Mob" and two volumes of Ennis-curated Battle Classics followed. In November 2015, the character of Johnny Red was revived by Ennis and illustrator Keith Burns for a new 8-part mini-series Johnny Red: Hurricane, published by Titan Comics.

Rebellion Developments

In 2016 Rebellion Developments purchased the rights owned by Egmont. Two years later in August 2018, they issued a new 3-part comic series Sniper Elite: Resistance by Keith Richardson and Patrick Goddard, a spin-off from the PS-4 game Sniper Elite. The story, set in German-occupied France in 1941, included an appearance by the Rat Pack. "Darkie's Mob" and "Charley's War" had previously been reprinted under license in Judge Dredd Megazine from 2003 onwards, while "Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe" was collected in a supplement given away with Judge Dredd Megazine #397. Rebellion also reprinted stories under their Treasury of British Comics imprint, including "El Mestizo", "Invasion 1984!", "Major Eazy vs. Rat Pack", "The Sarge" and "Clash of the Guards".

In September 2020, Rebellion released a 100-page special issue of Battle, again on the Treasury of British Comics imprint. Entitled Battle of Britain Special, it featured ten new stories by various writers and artists. Several characters from past issues of Battle were revived including "El Mestizo", written by Alan Hebden, and a "Rat Pack" story by Ennis. Other stories featured new characters and settings including War Child by Dan Abnett, a story produced in association with the charity War Child. In June 2022, Rebellion published a hardcover Battle Action Special with new stories featuring characters from both comics, written by Ennis and with various artists.

Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of Battle Action, with each issue featuring two stories. In 2024, ten issues were announced for 2024 to 2025, containing ten episodes of a new "Johnny Red" story and also a complete story in each issue.

Stories

Titles

  • Battle Picture Weekly (8 March 1975 [issue #1] – 16 October 1976 [issue #85])
  • Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant (23 October 1976 [issue #86] – 1 October 1977 [issue #135])
  • Battle Holiday Special (7 editions, 1980 to 1983 and 1987 to 1989)