Spotlight: Massacre For Boys

Another selection of digital comics for you to check out here

Walking Wounded promotional art by David Frankum

First some history:

Massacre for Boys was launched in 1949 as a children’s newspaper. The publisher soon noticed that the readers weren’t even remotely interested in the text articles but were instead buying Massacre mainly for the backpage cartoon – Jimmy Baker, Animal Hatmaker. So, in 1951 the newspaper became a full-blown comic and thus was born a legend.

Cashing in on the popularity at the time of death and destruction, Massacre introduced what is probably its most famous strip. “The Walking Wounded” depicts the adventures of a small group of elite British commandos. Eternally set in 1942, the Wounded was at times highly controversial, in particular provoking the ire of anti-disabled campaigners for its positive depiction of the physically impaired.

Jimmy Baker comes up trumps again!(Later in the run the advent of “political correctness gone mad” was to prove just as serious a challenge, with well-meaning attempts to paint German soldiers in a good light leading some children to believe that the Nazis were actually really nice blokes.)

Other strips were numerous if not always quite so successful. The fictional footballer Bosher Le Fizz proved enduring as the mercurial hero of “Bosher’s Goals”, but when a similar formula was applied to Andrew Culle, World Indoor Lawn Bowls champion in the series “Mine’s Closest!” sales immediately halved.

The popularity of American superhero comics persuaded Massacre to launch “SuperBatSpiderGuy” in 1971, but various successful court cases put an end to his adventures some 4 days later. Undeterred, Massacre came back with “The Crusader” and they had another hit on their hands.

Mystery surrounds the “Holt Bros”, characters who were apparently featured in the pages of Massacre many times, but no trace of their adventures currently exists.

There has been much speculation that all the issues featuring the Holts were tracked down and obtained by a single collector, but the real explanation could be simply that they are a hoax and never existed at all except in the imagination of a Hustle-style confidence trickster.

All good things come to an end and eventually Massacre for Boys was so unpopular they couldn’t even give it away. The comic closed in 1983, its leading writers and artists confident that upstart rival 2001AD would snap them up. 23 years later they’re still waiting…

You can buy the digital comics here

Front_Cover

Massacre For Boys Action Special

You literally will not believe how amazing this comic is!

This “even more definitive than the last, definitive anthology” anthology features some absolutely action-packed action. Also there’s animal-hatmaking.

Strips include Walking Wounded: Eastern Front, The Crusader, Badland Rules, Jimmy Baker Animal Hatmaker, Holt Bros and Walking Wounded.

Words are basically failing me because I’ve read this baby and the adrenalin rush has impaired my ability to write marketing text!

By Chris Denton, Steven Denton, David Frankum, Bolt-01, Richmond Clements, John Caliber, Nikki Foxrobot, Owen Watts, Dee Cunniffe and Tim Twelves.

mfbic-cover

Massacre For Boys In Colour

The definitive Massacre for Boys anthology and, as the name suggests, not a shred of black and white.

We’ve got a brand  new, zombie-related, airborne adventure for the Walking Wounded, and following that it’s superhero-a-go-go as The Crusader takes on a bad boy serial killer.

Amazing supporting features include sci-fi western Badland Rules, Edwardian whimsy The Diogenes Club, animal hat-related shenanigans courtesy of Jimmy Baker, football thrills in Bosher’s Goals and yet more war action in a second Walking Wounded.

By Chris Denton, Steven Denton, Bolt-01, Richmond Clements, Matthew Hunt & Paul Harrison-Davies.

Death on the Rock

Walking Wounded: Death On The Rock

The Eagle-Award nominated series is back! 

When Adolf Hitler orders the invasion of Gibraltarshire things look bleak for the plucky but outnumbered defenders.

Luckily for the small British colony the Walking Wounded are in town and they will do anything it takes to keep the gateway to the Mediterranean out of the hands of the Third Reich.

And if even that does not prove enough, the Rock has a few tricks of her own…

This full length adventure has it all. Yes, that does include monkeys!

By Chris Denton, Steven Denton & Bolt-01.

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