"This is Battle at its best" - Garth Ennis
All-out, all-action, no mercy - this new
Death Squad collection brings together the brutal classic story from the groundbreaking and hugely influential Battle comic!
Featuring gritty art from Eric Bradbury and Carlos Ezquerra,
Death Squad follows the deadliest band of fighters on the Eastern Front - a band of German soldiers trying to survive in one of the deadliest theatres of warfare in human history.
During World War Two the Eastern Front was Hell on Earth - German Punishment Battalions were thrown into the thick of the conflict where they were expected to fight well and die hard. In these harshest of conditions only the strongest warriors survived.
Enter the Death Squad - Grandad, Swede, Licker, Gus and Frankie. Alone they were failures and outcasts, but together they were one of the most formidable combat units the Russians ever faced!
This uncompromising series is emblematic of
Battle's groundbreaking no-nonsense approach to storytelling, with writer
Alan Hebden pulling no punches in the depiction of brutal fighting on the Eastern Front.
This book collects the
Death Squad stories published in
Battle Action from 12 July 1980 - 4 June 1981, as well as the Battle Annual 1982.
Bradbury, Eric: - Eric Bradbury began his comic career at Knockout, working on such humour strips as Blossom and Our Ernie. He moved onto the adventure western, Lucky Logan, sharing art chores with Mike Western (Bradbury would go on to ink Western's pencils on The Leopard from Lime Street). High profile work on Mytek the Mighty (Valiant & Vulcan), the House of Dolmann (Valiant), Von Hoffman's Invasion (Jet!), Death Squad (Battle), Hook Jaw (Action) and Doomlord (The Eagle) followed. Bradbury has been described as an 'unsung hero' of 2000 AD, having contributed to many popular strips in the long-running sci-fi comic. His credits in the 'Galaxy's Greatest comic' include Rogue Trooper, Tharg the Mighty, Invasion and The Mean Arena.
Ezquerra, Carlos: - Carlos Ezquerra was the co-creator of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Rat Pack, Major Eazy and many other fan-favourite characters, he designed the classic original Dredd costume as well as visually conceptualising Mega-City One. In addition to these credits he also illustrated A.B.C. Warriors, Judge Anderson, Tharg the Mighty, and Cursed Earth Koburn amongst many other stories. Outside of the 'Galaxy's Greatest Comic', Ezquerra illustrated the first Third World War episodes in Crisis magazine, and became a regular collaborator with Garth Ennis, working on Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, Bloody Mary, Just a Pilgrim, Condors, The Magnificent Kevin and two special Preacher episodes. He died in 2018 but his profound influence on the world of comic art cannot be overstated.
Hebden, Alan: - Alan Hebden scripted a number of comics in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including strips for Battle such as The Rat Pack with artists Carlos Ezquerra, Massimo Belardinelli and Eric Bradbury, Major Eazy with Carlos Ezquerra, War Dog and Fighting Mann with Cam Kennedy and both Death Squad and Crazy Keller with Eric Bradbury. For Starlord he wrote Mind Wars which featured the art of Jesus Redondo, and he scripted the majority of Planet of the Damned (it's opening having been scripted by Pat Mills). His prolific work for 2000 AD included Meltdown Man and the sequel to Harlem Heroes with Massimo Bellardinelli. He also scripted Death Planet which featured the first female lead in a 2000 AD strip. Alan is still working in the industry today, writing various war stories for DC Thomson's Commando and is also currently working on a violent, sexy novel that follows a blood-soaked trail of retribution, from the India of the Raj on the eve of WW1 to England and Italy at the start of the Swinging Sixties.
