Classic Johnny Red

Edition excerpt from Johnny Red - Volume 1 The Falcons (2027): This first volume begins a series of archival reprints of the original Johnny Red comic strip from the pages of Battle. "The Falcons are yours now, Johnny. Protect them from this madness that men bring upon each other.” It is 1941. Kicked out of the Royal Air Force for striking an officer, trainee pilot Johnny Redburn finds himself on a British merchant vessel, part of a supply convoy bound for the beleaguered USSR. When the Germans attack he takes to the skies in the ship’s sole fighter aircraft – and is very soon fighting for his life. Yet Johnny’s real struggle begins when he joins Russia’s Falcon Squadron, a fighter unit abandoned by its superiors, the pilots expected to sacrifice themselves against the Nazi invaders. So begins the legend of the Red Devil, as the young Englishman and his Russian comrades fling themselves against the foe in one dreadful battle after another: Leningrad, Murmansk, Stalingrad, each more terrible than the last. Assailed by both the German Air Force and the Soviet secret police, Johnny and the Falcons fly into peril alongside the Angels of Death, the all-woman night bomber squadron led by the beautiful Nina Petrova. As the carnage intensifies and casualties mount, Johnny Red must fight for the lives of his squadron – before the war devours them all. The first in a series collecting Johnny Red in its entirety, this volume presents the complete two-year run by original artist Joe Colquhoun (Charley’s War), written by co-creator Tom Tully (Roy of the Rovers): a British comics classic, quite simply the greatest aerial combat strip of all time.