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Battlefields #4
Battlefields, Volume 4: Happy Valley
England, January 1942: young Australian Ken Harding arrives at his first operational squadron, keen to play his part in the aerial attack on Germany as the commander of a bomber crew. Losses have been high and life expectancy is low, but Ken remains undaunted - until he meets his crew, a foulmouthed, battle-hardened bunch with no time for new boys who can't stand the pace. Together they must take the war to the enemy over the most heavily-defended region of the Third Reich — the industrial heartland of the Ruhr, known to the men who face the flak and nightfighters as Happy Valley. A tale of aerial warfare at its toughest, by writer Garth Ennis, artist P.J. Holden and cover artist Garry Leach!
88 pages, Paperback
First published June 8, 2010
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About the author
Garth Ennis
2,621 books3,167 followersEnnis 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).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 31, 2011
Goddamn Ennis has a skill to craft a story with characters one cares about.
March 7, 2017
another well done war story by Garth. I'm impressed with this series to this point, and I'm not a big fan of war stories.
this volume stays in Europe and follows an Australian flight crew based in England. the characters are really well thought out, each with a unique trait that differentiates them from one another. the main crew are on their last crew missions when they're given a new pilot, fresh out of flight school.
the only thing about art I didn't like, which was no fault of the artist, was that each character looked the same while they were I the plane with their mask and goggles on. that made the ending a little hard to follow and I found myself going backwards a few times to pick up some of the little details.
this volume stays in Europe and follows an Australian flight crew based in England. the characters are really well thought out, each with a unique trait that differentiates them from one another. the main crew are on their last crew missions when they're given a new pilot, fresh out of flight school.
the only thing about art I didn't like, which was no fault of the artist, was that each character looked the same while they were I the plane with their mask and goggles on. that made the ending a little hard to follow and I found myself going backwards a few times to pick up some of the little details.
June 2, 2022
I have always been fascinated with WW2 (my grandfather served and was aboard a ship on D-Day, has a medal for it). Ennis does a great job with the atmosphere and lingo so you feel you are there. That being said, I really never cared about any of the characters of this volume, Harding and Masher being the biggest standouts and I only kind of cared what happened to them. The art was generally really well done and was accurate as far as I could tell but there were a couple big moments that just didn’t come across very clear from panel to panel. I would recommend this to any fan of war comics but wouldn’t suggest it as a starting point for anyone. It did just enough for me to pick up the next volume.
May 15, 2019
The losses sustained in the field of battle are rarely irreplaceble, though the inexperienced recruits are viewed as not only cannon fodder, but liabilities that can get their squads killed. Friendly fire is just as bad and, in the chaos of battle, it's sometimes inevitable.
Ken, the new Australian pilot, is rejected by his assigned squad, but orders are orders. Their first mission is successful in great part thanks to him, so they change their tune and he gains their trust. He dies saving the squad on their last mission together.
Ken, the new Australian pilot, is rejected by his assigned squad, but orders are orders. Their first mission is successful in great part thanks to him, so they change their tune and he gains their trust. He dies saving the squad on their last mission together.
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July 7, 2010ok, clearly I am a sucker for the pilot stories. But also I definitely prefer the tight plotting of this, compared to the episodic The Tankies that preceded it. Another lovely bunch of unique and sympathetic characters here, with the added twist that although the setting is the European war theatre (2nd world war, if that's not obvious from the cover art), the bomber crew is Australian.
How ridiculously sad am I that when they sing "Who'll go on ops in a Wimpey with me" I know they mean a Wellington?
How ridiculously sad am I that when they sing "Who'll go on ops in a Wimpey with me" I know they mean a Wellington?
June 30, 2010
The story of the Australian crew of a bomber serving in England during WWII. As always with Ennis's war stories, it has strong characters and a gritty view of war. It seems a little tighter and a little bit better put together than some of the other volumes in this series.
My one big criticism was with the art. It sometimes had a bit of a cartoony style, which didn't fit the subject matter.
My one big criticism was with the art. It sometimes had a bit of a cartoony style, which didn't fit the subject matter.
March 9, 2016
Like the previous books Volume 4 is based during WW 2, it’s about an Australia bomber squad based out of UK. A new pilot joins a veteran crew who only have 3 missions left to complete their tour. Loved the story and the ending was amazing. The dark art was superb, went great with the night mission theme. My only complaint was the difficulty to understand the Australian lingo.
November 1, 2016
More good Ennis war stuff, this time about the Australian Air Force bombing the Ruhr in late WWII. Despite my personal inability to connect emotionally to set pieces where people man battle stations in a war machine (such as a bomber or a submarine) without direct contact with an enemy, the drama works well.
September 23, 2011
WW II comixes are prone to the pathos, this one is no exception. However, it is nice to read. Young Australian pilot had to prove himself in front of his crew. He did in ultimate way.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews