When all the chips are down, and it looks like the sun is about to set on old Blighty for good, there's only one team to call to keep Britannia ruling the the Rifle Brigade! Acclaimed writer Garth Ennis unleashes his formidable command of both military history and violent absurdity to bring to life the most daring and insane band of commandos ever to hoist a Union Jack.
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Garth Ennis predominantly writes two very specific types of comic: war comics (War Stories, Battlefields, World of Tanks) and schoolboy-level humour/violent comics (the Kev books, Section Eight, Jimmy’s Bastards); Adventures in the Rifle Brigade combines the two!
In the first story, the Rifle Brigade stumble into a raid on a secret Nazi V2 rocket site; in the second (and final) story, they head to the Middle East to steal Hitler’s famous singular testicle that will grant them the power to win the war!
It’s intentionally extremely silly and over-the-top, and it gets to be a bit much at times, but I still thought the book was pretty decent - though one book is definitely enough!
The “characters” are determinedly underwritten. Most simply say one stereotypical thing only. Like Crumb (“Ey-oop!” - a Yorkshire thing), Geezer (“Yer aht of ordah!” - a London thing), Hank the Yank (“Gawd dammit!” - an American thing), while the Scottish Piper just plays his bagpipes (which of course induces profuse internal bleeding in the enemy).
I loved how Ennis wrote the squad leader, “Khyber” Darcy whose dialogue was always sparklingly raffish. This is an example - they’ve parachuted out of a plane and watched a bomb demolish a German building: “Trifle warm tonight! That’s what you get for playing with matches, Fritz! Terra firma coming up, you chaps! Keep an eye out for Brother Boche!” Nearly everything Khyber says is said with that kind of what-ho gusto which can’t have been easy for Ennis, so hats off for that.
“Doubtful” Milk though is a character that hasn’t aged well. He’s the effete member of the group and Ennis constantly uses him to do the long-outdated “queer fear” joke. Har har, he’s gay - isn’t that funny!? He’s GAY! That’s THE JOKE! He’s a man who wants to have sex with another man!!! HAHAHAHAHA… yeah. This comic came out in the mid-’00s and it wasn’t funny then, or ever really, and looks as dumb as it always was, but more so, in 2021.
And that’s the kind of humour that makes up most of this book: Viz/Andy Capp level. Which, if you don’t get that reference, just means a British crude, lewd paradox of childish adult humour. One Panzer Commander is a ladies’ man called Flaschmann (like George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman), while there’s an Indiana Jones parody called Maryland Smith (I did laugh when he accidentally whipped his own eye out!).
There’s a lot of tedious Carry On-esque sexual innuendo. The big-boobed SS lady is called Gasch, the Gestapo dickhead is called Wankshaft, and the fake Middle Eastern country they go to is Yemen with an “S” instead of a “Y” (though Ennis added a second “M” - I guess there is a line after all)! Some of it will hit or miss depending on the reader and that was the case for me as well.
The stories though aren’t that enthralling to read. The Rifle Brigade are never in “trouble” for long and get out of their scrapes as cartoonishly as they got into them. Still, the dialogue is aces, the scenes showing Khyber’s homelife were funny and the late great Carlos Ezquerra’s artwork is as strong as it ever was.
Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is a bit too OTT for its own good, and parts of it haven’t aged well, but it’s a fun outing with enough chuckles and imaginative nonsense in it to be worth checking out for Ennis fans. Particularly if you like his sober and meticulously-detailed war comics and want to see a different side of him!
The characters stand out as one of the funniest and colorful created by Ennis. As dirty as it is, this is my kind of humor. There are so many references to wankers that that the word almost loses its meaning. Bottom line, it's jolly good fun. Now, off you go. Be a good chap and read it yourself. It's quite short. Cheerio and toodle-pip!
The infamous Rifle Brigade is parachuted into action. Even though they aquire German uniforms, they are discovered, captured and sent to be interrogated by a big-bosomed maneater with a personal grudge. The competition between the Wehrmacht and the Gestapo is shown when the Nazis can't decide who is supposed to take care of the prisoners.
It pains me to write this one but yeah. It was just ok.
Really like most of Garth Ennis' stuff, but this one just didn't do anything for me. I knew I was about to read something about war and something funny. Already know Ennis is a master on writing about war stuff and military in general, and his comedy moments are top notch at times (see Preacher).
But this one is just bland and kinda boring at times. It's still funny and has its moments but it's not interesting to read. Had absolutely no interest to read what happens next or care for anything and what was supposed to be funny, well.. wasn't.
The artwork is ok, it's the cartoony style you'd read on UK/FR weekly newspapers and it was right to the point as to blend with the story and its theme.
The characters weren't interesting at all. And the main story was boring and with no pay off.
A band of brothers if you will, trying to go all spec'ops on Germany against Hitler and whatnot having adventures and missions and shit and that's about it.
Too many repetitive jokes that weren't funny, except the one about Doubtful and Darcy that was, and the only one that I remember after ending this book. SO yeah...!
Garth Ennis é famoso pelo seu gosto pela II Guerra Mundial. Para a Dynamite comics está a assinar a série Battlefields, com um trabalho exemplar de caracterização de época, e revisitou o personagem da BD clássica britânica Battler Britton. Para a DC criou duas séries das Adventures in the Rifle Brigade. Se os trabalhos para a Dynamite primam pela correcção histórica e dramatismo, as séries da DC caracterizam-se por um humor desbragado e exagerado, tipicamente britânico, que satiriza comics de guerra clássicos. À minha mente vêem títulos como Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos, Sargent Rock ou o britânico Battler Britton como alguns dos comics clássicos satirizados nesta série.
A Rifle Brigade que dá o título à série é um exemplo distorcido dos personagens teatralizados dos comics de combate. É composta por elementos depravadamente bizarros, um oficial de comando que crê firmemente que os Estados Unidos são uma colónia britânica, um subalterno homosexual apaixonado pelo seu comandante que tenta por várias vezes simular a morte imimente para tentar convencer o comandante a realizar actos sexuais, soldados que incluem um gigântico inglês, um londrino de fala incompreensível e um americano apaixonado por bombas, e a cereja em cima do bolo, o criado escocês do oficial cuja arma mortífera é a sua gaita de foles. As suas aventuras estão na fronteira entre o absurdo e o surreal, em sátira absoluta ao género.
The Adventures of the Rifle Brigade reminds me of a cross between Marvel's Sergeant Fury's and DC's Sergeant Rock's World War II adventures mixed with Indiana Jones. The two exploits in the book involve an unplanned excursion into Berlin and a Middle East adventure that has homage to Indiana Jones with adventurer Maryland's weapon and biplane adventures. If you do not mind silliness, rude humour, or twisted facts mixed in your WWII adventures, you are likely to enjoy The Adventures of the Rifle Brigade.
Markedly different than 'Battlefields', but still entertaining. Combining a toodle-pip rah-rah commander, a not-so-closeted second in command (in the finest of British traditions), three literally one-note soldiers (each of which only utters (repeatedly) a single line throughout the adventures), and an ancient bagpiper who is the most interesting character of them all; steeped in language most foul and joyously contemptuous of stereotypes.
Amusing send-up of commando comics and war films. The adventures are over the top and the humor tends toward the adolescent. Probably best read in small doses (an issue per sitting, rather than the whole collection).
La brigata fucileri è un colpo scelto, composto di professionisti della guerra poco sani di mente, che si gettano a capofitto nelle situazioni più improbabili. Questo (primo?) volume li vede alle prese con la ricerca di un testicolo di Hitler. C'è l'Ennis dissacrante di sempre, meno grandguignolesco che in the boys. La produzione è umoristica e si popola di volute macchiette, che nonostante tutto non appesantiscono troppo la narrazione. Insomma: divertente. Forse, ma è quello il suo obiettivo, poco più che divertente.
Pretty good Ennis, having all the hallmarks of his over the top bullet-blood-and-bollocks insanity. The only slight negative is that there aren't nearly Nazi antagonists facing the venerable Rifle Bruagde as over the top and demented as the men of the Rifle Brigade itself. Garth could have done something more than a generic publicity hound war hero or an ugly Gestapo official. The final show off with a bunch of giant German killing machines is good, but it's very brief and they're all rather devoid of personality, so it's a little less exciting than it could be too.
Take one part Garth Ennis war comic (which is what I was hoping to get) and two parts puerile, homophobic, rape-jokey Garth Ennis comics, and you get this.
The art's fine, but the jokes are one-note, and the premise of the second story is beyond ridiculous. Even for Ennis.
I guess I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to experience the "hilarity" of war.
Karkeajännityksen Kiväärikomppania, osa #1. Kuvaa sisältöä aika hyvin, iso osa viehätyksestä on yli vedetty sotasatiiri, musta huumori ja käännös jota suunnitellessa lienevät kustantajienkin suupielet ylöspäin kääntyneet. Garth Ennis käsikirjoittajana (Preacher, Hellblazer) pääsi yllättämään. Kiitos tästäkin!
If you like Garth Ennis' sense of humor, you'll like this. If not, you might be offended. Or you might just think it's dumb. But you'd be wrong. The quest for Hitler's missing bollock really is a pretty funny story.
Una divertida e irreverente sátira de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, con el habitual lenguaje soez, extrema violencia y elenco de personajes desquiciados habituales de Garth Ennis. No es que te vaya a cambiar la vida, pero te reirás un buen rato.
Adventures in the Rifle Brigade combines two of Garth Ennis’ passions: war and lowbrow humor. It’s about a ragtag commando unit of Brits (plus an American and Scotsman) bumbling through crazy missions. In the first story, they go behind enemy lines on a secret operation that’s so secret even they don’t know what it is. The second one sees them in the Middle East on a quest to retrieve Hitler’s missing testicle that presumably contains occult powers. I laughed out loud several times while reading this book. Yeah, it’s not high art and full of national stereotypes and gross-out jokes, but I was entertained.
Ambientada en la Segunda Guerra Mundial relata las aventuras de una tropa de élite que se dedica a cumplir misiones secretas que nadie más, en su sano juicio, sería capaz de realizar. Pero, ¿qué importa si los tienes a ellos, no?
Bajo el mando del Capitán Hugo Darcy, este grupo tan particular se enfrentará a la Gestapo, a una dominatrix nazi y hasta a un homenaje/parodia de Indiana Jones. Con viajes desde Alemania hasta África la dupla de Carlos Ezquerra en los dibujos y con guiones llenos de humor ácido y escenas violentas responsabilidad de Garth Ennis tenemos dos historias que se leen rápido y cuyo fin solamente es entretener.
The dedication is to all the UK WWII comic books of the 1970s and 1980s and this takes the genre apart with humour, exposing all the prejudices and stereotypes of the era. Yorkshiremen only say “Ey Oop”, Cockney, Glaswegian, upper-class stereotypes all talk in stereotypical style as well. The Marvel WWII comics of the 60s and 70s also come under the microscope. Lots of double-entendres add to the humour. The plots are incidental
It's a lot of silly fun and well worth a look. Writing and artwork are very good if not explicit.
This collection was a blast. An Ennis nod to the books he grew up reading, the stories are as over-the-top as to be expected. The satirical take on all members of the English-speaking Allied forces felt a bit shallow at first, but they came to make sense in the story world. A fun ride, especially if you enjoy stories from The War.
Suurta nyrjähtänyttä hupia Esquerran kauniilla piirroksella. Pikkasen kuitenkin suomennoksen myötä katosi se viimeinen isku mikä sarjassa oli kun sen alkuperäisellä kielellä luin.
Fiel a su estilo, Ennis repasa a británicos y alemanes en una negra sátira a los manoseados tópicos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Sin sorpresas, pero efectivo.