War Story #5 (2003), story page 49 by Kennedy

"The Reivers" by Garth Ennis. Vertigo. Cover date January 2003.

Synopsis: During World War II a Special Air Service commander takes his unit on a mission in the North African desert that dares too much.

I've wanted to add art from this series for a while. The stories and art are excellent and the European part of the collection needs work. Although published by Vertigo, the series really is British. Most stories center on UK servicemen fighting in the war. The artists moreover hail from the British comic industry -- Gary Erskine, Carlos Ezquerra, Dave Gibbons, John Higgins, Cam Kennedy, David Lloyd and Chris Weston. Ezquerra and Kennedy are not new to the genre. They did British war comics in the '60s and '70s. Ezquerra also co-created the British character Major Eazy, loosely based on Oddball played by Donald Sutherland in "Kelly's Heroes."

Although Garth Ennis is best known for Preacher, Hellblazer, and The Boys, his passion is telling sequential stories about lesser known military events of the war. Growing up he was an avid reader of British war comics. He credits the Battle title as a major influence on his writing. In addition to numerous comics and graphic novels about the war, he resurrected the Battle Action title with new stories of Johnny Red, HMS Nightshade and Major Eazy. His World War II books have been published by a wide array of publishers--whomever he can get to publish them--including under the US Naval Institute's graphic novel imprint Dead Reckoning.

Historical note: "Who dares wins" is the motto of the UK Special Air Service (SAS) and usually credited to its founder, British officer David Stirling. He created the SAS in 1941 as a commando unit to operate behind enemy lines during the North African campaign. They worked closely with Long Range Desert Groups, which were founded a year earlier for deep penetration, covert reconnaissance patrols and intelligence missions.

Footnote about the book's title: Ennis wrote eight "War Story" books for Vertigo. The cover and indicia agree on the title until the last two issues, "The Reivers" and "J for Jenny," where the indicia, but not the covers, switch to "War Stories." That also becomes the title of the Vertigo and Avatar trade paperbacks as well as Ennis's followup series with Avatar.