Heroes went forth to beat Germans

Ferg Handley

Young Ferg Handley is turning the pages of his favourite comic, eyes darting between pictures and story, imagination lost in a bloody war fought and won before he was born, brought vividly to life between the pages of his favourite Commando comic.

Inside titles such as Walk - or Die!, Hellfire Landing and Hun Bait lurked Nazis called Wolfgang and Herman, armed with Karabiner 98 Kurz machine guns yelling "Achtung!" and "Die British!" before a well placed bullet finished them off.

There'd be thrilling tales of high drama, risk, a few hand-grenade explosions and a bit of comic relief. Tommy might have shouted "Aaargh, I'm HIT" once or even twice but eventually he'd march home, victory ringing in his ears.

"The Second World War was part of my growing up," recalls Ferg. "I read these comics years after it had ended but at the same time my dad had served in Bomber Command in the Second World War, with more than 1000 hours flying time to his name.

"My parents and grandparents would speak about people having been evacuated during the war.

"They'd talk about rationing and how my mum queued for three hours and came back with a banana only for my uncle to take one look at it and announce he didn't want it.

"So the war, although in the past, wasn't really that far away."

Today the war is, of course, much further in the past. Ferg is 47, he might have been expected to have outgrown those days of war stories and be using his MA in politics, pushing his pen in a sterile office somewhere.

Instead he's still flicking through copies of Commando. The only difference is he's the one telling the stories.

As one of Commando's regular writers since 1996, Ferg has hundreds of tales of British derring-do to his credit.

But it's his most recent that is closest to home.

Divided Aces was published yesterday, a high-octane action tale inspired by the real-life drama in the skies above the Firth of Forth, 71 years ago.

It was 1939, RAF 603 Squadron - founded in 1925 as something of a hobby flying club for well-heeled city gents - had been embodied into the RAF and placed on a war footing for the first time in its history.

Its motto was the Doric "Gin ye Daur" (If You Dare), many of the pilots nicknamed their planes after their home city - names like Portobello, Auld Reekie and Corstorphine. The last thing they expected on October 16, 1939, was a German raid.

Nine German aircraft took Scottish air defence by surprise as they roared over the Forth towards the Royal Navy base at Rosyth.

Their audacious raid left three boats damaged - HMS Southampton and two cruisers, HMS Mohawk and HMS Edinburgh - 16 Royal Navy crew dead, 44 wounded.

Startled members of 603 Squadron were scrambled from their Turnhouse base. Likewise, 602 City of Glasgow Squadron were raised from Drem in East Lothian.

Eventually, they shot down two Heinkels into the Firth of Forth and a bomber off May Island - the first enemy aircraft to be shot down over Britain.

Ferg came across their remarkable - and often neglected - tale as he researched background for other Commando tales to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

"I'd read a book about the Battle of Britain and it gave me some ideas for Commando stories," recalls Ferg, of Willowbrae. "But all the action seemed to be set in the south of England.

"I knew there had to have been action further north, but there was not a lot of literature about it.

"Then I started to really look at it and I figured that there was definitely enough material for a story."

The facts from 1939 merged with a fictional story around a central character who - like Ferg - returns to Edinburgh after a spell away to rediscover the city of his youth.

"I was born in southern England," he explains. "We moved here when I was three so there was some stick about my English background.

"It was only after I returned here after living in London for 15 years that I started to appreciate what a wonderful and inspiring city it is."

Divided Aces is just the latest of around 300 Commando comic stories he's penned. When he's not tackling the Germans or the Japanese in Commando, he's Spider-Man - Ferg has been publisher Panini's sole writer for the superhero for the past three years and, for one story, brought the webbed one to Edinburgh. Once he created an X-Men story - plonking them in the depths of Dumfries.

Yet controlling the destiny of superheroes and battle-scarred soldiers was never his original career plan.

"I was doing an MA in politics but by the time my course was finishing I was pretty scunnered with it all," he recalls.

"I started to think about whether I might have a career in writing."

Those childhood days spent immersed in his comics flooded back.

"I knew there was this big underground scene, that comics like Dark Knight Returns and Watchman and V for Vendetta were adult stuff.

"I thought I'd like to do a graphic novel. The problem was how to do it."

He learned how to write in comic script form - a laborious process that involves writing everything from the cartoon characters' dialogue to descriptions of scenes for the artist.

With the Commando comics, comes a requirement too for fine historic detail and research. In Divided Aces, the attention to detail is meticulous.

"I went for the most familiar images, partly because it's easier to get references for the artist. I wanted to depict the beauty of Edinburgh, to suggest that it was so important to protect the city.

"Pretty much all of the landmarks I scripted made it into the artwork. Jose Maria Jorge, the artist, is Spanish and got so many small details in - like iron railings missing from a school playground, melted down for the war effort."

Divided Aces is one of four new adventures which marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and although Commando comics is heading for its own 50th anniversary next year, Ferg believes it will be around for years to come.

"Several factors account for the British fascination for the war," he says. "We were on the winning side, which makes it a popular slice of history. It's why there are so many films, dramas and books. Commando taps into all that."

Commando: Divided Aces is available now, 1.35. Additional reporting by Liam Rudden