From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warlord was a Comic book published weekly in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s.

First published in 1974 by D.C. Thomson, it was dedicated to World War II stories and was a popular boys' comic. The comic included several stories per issue, the main story being about a character called Lord Peter Flint (in the strip entitled Codename: Warlord), a World War II James Bond.

At the end of 1978 another comic, Bullet had been merged into it. It ran for 12 years (627 issues) until 1986, when it was incorporated into the long-running Victor comic. For the next four years after the comic's demise, the publishers produced summer specials, ending in 1990.

The Warlord 1979 Summer Special featuring character Union Jack Jackson on the cover.

Other characters and stories included the popular Union Jack Jackson, Spider Wells, Bomber Braddock and Wingless Wonder. Features included True Life War Story and articles on weaponry called Weapons In Action. After Bullet was added to the comic, it featured that publication's main story Fireball - a secret agent who was Lord Peter Flint's nephew.

Often the comic would include free gifts and toys and offered membership to an 'exclusive' club for a small fee.

The magazine was published in a time before political sensitivity known as Political Correctness (PC), and quite patriotic in content. Before the addition of the Bullet comic, Warlord had been specifically geared towards stories and articles about World War II. Much of the language used in the stories was modern, and terms given used to describe the enemy reflected commonly used descriptions. Being patriotic, the 'good guys' always won in the end, and both Germans and Japanese were frequently stereotyped.

Warlord included many stories and characters set mainly in World War II and later conflicts like Korea. Though most of them featured heroes from Allied nations such as Britain and the US, there were some series which took the German point of view.

They included:

• Union Jack Jackson: a British Royal Marine serving with the Americans.

• Code-Name Warlord: Lord Peter Flint is the James Bond-like secret agent whose missions take him to various areas of conflict, including Nazi Germany itself. The storyline borrowed from "The Scarlet Pimpernel" the idea of a seemingly upper class fopp actually being the daring wartime agent. Stories would generally start off in Britain with Lord Peter Flint, who hadn't signed up to fight, being accused of cowardice before secretly going off on a mission then returning home. There was a recurring cast of enemies representing various aspects of the Third Reich such as the Gestapo and the SS.

• Killer Kane: Squadron Leader Kane of the RAF during and after the Battle of Britain.

• Kampfgruppe Falken: Major Heinz Falken leads a Dirty Dozen-like group of German soldiers from military penal battalions.

• Wolverine: French-Canadian Sergeant Revelle leads a mixed crew of Allied soldiers in a M10 Wolverine tank.

• Iron Annie: the adventures of Kurt Stahlmann of the Luftwaffe and his JU52 transport plane during World War II.

• Kelly's Choppers: Lieutenant Jack Kelly, a USAF helicopter pilot in Korea.

• The Best of Enemies: During the Korean War, British Sergeant Tom Wilson forms a bitter alliance with Muller, a German with whom he has old scores to settle.

• DC Thomson home page
• Website dedicated to British comics and publications