Yet again, I have more to write about than I have time to write it.
This comic is about a Bastard.
It’s not that surprising when you look at who the writer was. John Wagner has created several other Bastards, Judge Dredd, Johnny Alpha and my personal favourite Harry Exton to name a few. All, in their own way, epitomes of Bastardry.
It’s established early on in the story that Darkie is not who he appears to be, (trust me on this, if you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t try to find out, just buy this book and go with it until the bitter end.) but his ability to keep this group of British Tommie’s alive whilst operating behind enemy lines is how he earns a grudging respect from his men.
Darkie appears out of nowhere just as a leaderless group of squaddies are about to be slaughtered by Japanese troops. His familiarity with the Burmese terrain and his insistence on taking the fight to the enemy drags the squaddies out of their despair and reforms them into an elite fighting unit, many faces are lost along the way and one or two are even gained, but inevitably, there’s only one way that this story can end. But it’s how we get there that’s the joy.
Darkie’s Mob act as a guerrilla strike team operating in enemy territory on their own terms, causing as much havoc and mayhem to the occupying Japanese forces as possible. Darkie clearly holds a personal vendetta against the Japs and makes no bones about the fact that he’s there to kill as many as he can, regardless of the cost. And that cost is often to himself. In one particularly memorable scene, Darkie is crucified on the roof of a Jap prison camp building and left to die in the blazing sun. Let’s not beat around the bush here, this is a very gruesome comic, in both the actions of the Japanese and in Darkie’s savage retribution which he takes as often as possible, always throwing himself head first into the slaughter and expecting the same of his men.
The thrust of the ongoing story of the book is the exploration of the characters, chiefly Captain Darkie and Private Shortland, who’s diary acts as narration for the strip. Through Shortland we see how the men’s attitude toward their dictatorial Captain changes as they begin to trust his judgement and come to realise that their lives are a secondary concern in the greater effort of the war. This of course is exactly what Darkie wants of them and it’s left to the reader to decide whether they have been deftly manipulated by Darkie or reached their own conclusions. But, like most strips published in British weekly anthologies, the overall story is told through a series of connected, shorter tales, in this book the stories are of varying lengths, each one recounting a particular mission, whether it be the freeing of prisoners from a POW camp, or the destruction of a bridge in use by the Japs. It’s interesting that some of the stories begin mid mission and throw us straight in to a fire fight, running along at break neck speed with bodies falling left and right, and not until several panels on do we learn the purpose of the battle. It keeps us as readers on our toes and as these were originally published just a few pages at a time, it gets the action going from the first panel.
All of the Darkie’s Mob strips were drawn by Mike Western. Western’s work is perfectly suited to black and white, it’s stark and brutal, but most importantly despite the uniforms you can tell the difference between the characters. As you can see from the images included in this post, his panels and layouts are irregular which adds a sense of chaos to the action scenes, but the broken borders pull the eye across the page with a mad energy, and it works, the combination of writing and art force you to read this strip at speed, which I’m sure was the intention, but I’d recommend you turn back now and then just to absorb Western’s incredible talent.
It’s worth mentioning that I don’t usually seek out WWII comics (I much prefer WWI aviation) but this strip kept me engrossed from start to finish. I expected a rip-roaring Boy’s Own adventure, but what I got was a much more bitter tale, one that doesn’t flinch away from playing it’s “Heroes” as flawed, severely flawed. If there was more I’d buy it, but this volume reprints the whole strip.
Mad Thinker Reads…………………
Strips Where They Don’t Like It Up ‘Em
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