Preview: ‘Steel Commando: No Time To Lose’ Is Funny Stuff For The First ‘Monster Fun’ Collection

World War II robot hero, Steel Commando, travels across past, present, and future to defeat the forces of evil on an epic time-travel adventure, with a fair number of laughs along the way, in the first of the new Monster Fun graphic novel range…

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Rebellion’s Monster Fun comic has been out a while now, as featured by our good selves here at Comicon, and it’s now time to launch a line of graphic novels for children collecting together material from the comic.

Coming out on 17th July, (yes, last week – was busy, busy, busy!) we have two of the longer serials from Monster Fun, Steel CommandoandThe Leopard From Lime Street…

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Both titles are modern reworkings of classic strips, with Steel Commando first appearing in British comics in 1970, a light-hearted and silly thing created by Frank S. Pepper and Alex Henderson that has, shall we say, not aged well – with its outdated attitudes, representations, and depictions worthy of a note warning of such in a recent Rebellion collection and something I made mention of here in a preview of a collection of the ’70s material

There’s none of that here in Ned Hartley and Dan Boultwood’s version, brought together from the monthly Monster Fun comics, instead we get something wonderfully funny, moving apace to tell a fantastical tale of past, present, and future as Steel Commando and the gang do their best to beat the forces of evil.

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It’s one I did love when it appeared right from the start in Monster Fun, saying this of issue 1’s episode…

‘Possibly my favourite thing in this one, with Hartley and Boultwood updating and perfecting Steel Commando, one of those slightly iffy characters of the past that had a habit of leaning hard into racial stereotypes and the whole gung-ho language of the ’70s (you have to remember that we were still only three decades post WWII at that time.) But full credit to Hartley and Boultwood for taking the character, managing to keep the background intact, keep the WWII setting, and still give us some fabulous gaggery.

‘It’s absolutely packed with so many great artistic touches from Boultwood, art that’s completely different from the original certainly but art that always remembers that Steel Commando is a strip where ridiculous is the rule… this being my favourite moment in a strip packed with moments…

‘Yep, it’s all in the ‘SPANG!’ and the ‘Ouch.’ And obviously, while we’re giving credit to Boultwood for so much of the physical comedy gags, take a moment to appreciate Leila Jess’ lettering as well, adding so much to the art and the comedy.’

Yep, there’s a load of great work going on in Steel Commando, giving a slightly dodgy Brit Comics character a modern updating, laying on the laughs, piling on the adventure, and giving us plenty of really gorgeous looking artwork, reformatted and really given room to breath on the page in this collection.

STEEL COMMANDO: NO TIME TO LOSE – by Ned Hartley and Dan Boultwood, letters by Leila Jess

Published by Rebellion and The Treasury of British Comics on 17 July 2024

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Now, preview time, although bear in mind that the double-pages here are me screenshotting and patching together from a review PDF – so it’s my fault they look a bit wonky, in the actual book they’ll be glorious!