{"id":17266,"date":"2017-09-09T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=17266"},"modified":"2017-09-08T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T16:31:19","slug":"adventures-in-the-rifle-brigade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2017\/09\/09\/adventures-in-the-rifle-brigade-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in the Rifle Brigade"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Garth Ennis<\/strong>, Carlos Ezquerra<\/strong> & various (Image Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-63215-802-4<\/p>\n

Garth Ennis is a huge fan of the English and Scottish war comics he grew up reading. Films avidly consumed during a typical British childhood of my generation have also clearly left their mark. He grew up to become a writer with a distinct voice and two discrete senses of humour.<\/p>\n

The black sardonic ironies of Preacher<\/strong> and True Faith<\/strong> are not present in this compilation of the two Rifle Brigade miniseries he produced with veteran combat illustrator Carlos Ezquerra for Vertigo way back in 2001 and 2002.<\/p>\n

What you get here in this new-&-improved compilation collecting Adventures in the Rifle Brigade<\/strong> #1-3 and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: Operation Bollock<\/strong> #1-3 (also available as eBook editions) is the cruel, ultra-violent gross-out stuff that made Hitman<\/strong>, The Boys <\/strong>and A Train Called Love <\/strong>such guilty pleasures.<\/p>\n

If you were wondering, (Regimental) colours come courtesy of Patricia Mulvihill & Kevin Somers, Clem Robbins stencils in all them words and the book is aptly augmented by a spiffing cover gallery from Brian Bolland and Glenn Fabry\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

It’s the height of World War II. The Rifle Brigade<\/em> are Blighty’s top special ops combat unit, dealing death and destruction to the Hun wherever they can find them – and that’s pretty much everywhere. They’re also the worst congregation of deviants and psychopaths ever gathered under one roof, giving the creators the opportunity to lampoon every clich\u00c3\u00a9 you’ve ever seen in a war movie.<\/p>\n

The balloon goes up in ‘Once More Unto the Breach’<\/em> as the bombastic chaps parachute into Berlin during a shattering air raid, bluffing their way through the battered hordes of Boche only to be captured by the infamous SS\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Left to the tender mercies (Hah! It iss to Larff, Tommy!) of chief torturer Gerta Gasch<\/em> and SS overlord Hauptman Venkshaft<\/em>, the lads soon realise things are ‘Definitely Not Cricket’<\/em>. As yet unaware that there is division in the enemy ranks thanks to publicity-hungry Golden-boy of the Wehrmacht Oberst Otto Flasschmann<\/em> who claims the notorious Rifle Brigade are his<\/em><\/strong> prisoners, the embattled boys make plans\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Their captors’ dissent soon leads to an unmissable opportunity, outrageous chaos, confusion and carnage and the triumphant victory cry ‘Up Yours Fritz’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The excessive violence and vulgarity resumes in sordid sequel ‘Operation Bollock’<\/em> with the team sent ‘Back to Blighty’<\/em> before being promptly despatched to locate a missing artefact the Germans believe will regain lost initiative and finally win them the war.<\/p>\n

Said arcane item is Hitler’s long-missing testicle and the fanatical foe are closing in on it in the desolate desert kingdom of Semmen<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The hunt intensifies once British Empire boots are back on the ground in opulent Sidi Boomboom<\/em> where the local Sultan proves rather duplicitous and the hidden Hun devilishly keen on machine-gunning everyone. Also complicating the affair is a new rival for the baleful ball: treasure seeker Maryland Smith<\/em> is apparently after the thaumaturgical thingummy for the specific benefit of good ol’ Uncle Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The excursions all converge and hit a bad spot when an old enemy resurfaces with the testicle in hand. Amidst the confrontations and consequent slaughter that follows, the only choices are ‘Spit or Swallow’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A potent pastiche and superb send-up of the sub-genre (American war cinema has its own deliciously lampoonable idiosyncrasies!), the scripts, one-liners, and action sequences here are not simply hangers to drape an avalanche of bad taste jokes on. The spoof comes from a place of guilty love and is well up to Ennis & Ezquerra’s usual high standards, resulting in a marvellous marriage of our beloved saucy Carry On <\/strong>films and post-empire Battle of Britain<\/strong> movies, but whether it’s an enjoyable experience depends on what kind of humour you prefer.<\/p>\n

Definitely Not one for the easily offendable, politically po-faced or retired Colonels currently residing in the Home Counties\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2016 Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garth Ennis, Carlos Ezquerra & various (Image Comics) ISBN: 978-1-63215-802-4 Garth Ennis is a huge fan of the English and Scottish war comics he grew up reading. Films avidly consumed during a typical British childhood of my generation have also clearly left their mark. He grew up to become a writer with a distinct … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Adventures in the Rifle Brigade”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[125,105,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour","category-mature-reading","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4uu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}