WAR DOG is a 16-part serial that debuted in the December 29,
1979 issue of the British weekly war comic BATTLE ACTION and ran for several
months on into 1980. The art on the first five of the three-page episodes is by
Mike Western. Cam Kennedy is responsible for the art on the rest of the serial,
which was written by Alan Hebden. This is an absolutely outstanding World War
II yarn featuring a protagonist who never says a word, and we’re never really
privy to his thoughts. I’m talking, of course, about Kazan, the massive German
Shepherd, who, as this story opens, is a guard dog at a Luftwaffe base in
Russia.
Kazan winds up in the hands of some Russian partisans, and that’s just the
start of a journey that finds him taking part in an Arctic convoy, getting in
trouble in England, barely escaping a bureacracy that wants him dead, serving
masters in several different armies, surviving a plane crash in the Libyan
desert, being pursued by a madman who wants to kill him, and finally
encountering an unexpected destiny. I’m used to plot twists in Hebden’s
scripts, but they come so fast in this story that it’s almost dizzying. And
just when you think Hebden’s going to push things so far over the top that you
have to say, “Oh, come on!”, darned if he doesn’t make it all come together and
make perfect sense.
I really enjoyed this one. It’s a great story with epic scope and a very
likable protagonist, and the artwork by Western and Kennedy is richly detailed
and top-notch all the way through. Garth Ennis has reprinted this in the second
volume of his BATTLE CLASSICS series, and I give it a high recommendation. Also
in that second volume is FIGHTING MANN, a Vietnam-set serial also by Hebden and
Kennedy, and I’ll probably be reading that one soon. A year ago I knew about
COMMANDO but was unaware of the wealth of great material in the other British
war comics. I’m having a fine time reading them.
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