Preview: ‘Johnny Red: Hurricane’ — The First Volume Of The Complete Garth Ennis & Keith Burns’ Air Ace Saga

by Richard Bruton

A master of the war comic, an incredible talent of aviation art, and a classic British comics character — it all comes together in Johnny Red: Hurricane, the start of the Garth Ennis & Keith Burns saga.

Right now in 2025, we have Ennis and Burns telling what’s said to be the final Johnny Red story in the pages of the 10-issue Battle Action series. And it’s a damn fine series indeed. As you’d expect, Ennis’s love of war stories and his particular love of the character comes through strong, along with the obvious love of aviation that comes from the pen/brush of Burns.

But that’s only the latest of quite a few Johnny Red tales the pair have made over the last few years, documenting this Brit air ace fighting for the Soviet Union in WWII.

Which is where these new Treasury of British Comics collections come in, reprinting and collecting every one of the Ennis and Burns Johnny Red tales, starting right here with Hurricane.

Created by Tom Tully and Joe Colquhoun, Johnny Red was a brilliant 1970s war strip from Battle Weekly in the UK. In those long-running Battle stories, Johnny ‘Red’ Redburn is a disgraced Brit flyer who ends up a fighting for Russia, commanding the Falcon squadron of Soviet flyers in the worst and deadliest campaigns against Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front.

Ennis and Burns, both huge fans of the original, came to their own particular great take on Johnny with the obvious intention of sharing that love, creating something here that introduces the character for a modern audience and yet keeps everything that made Johnny Red a favourite.

Here, with the first of their Johnny Red tales, it’s done by the tried and tested route of having a modern-day framing story featuring a dot.com rich kid with a love of aviation buying an old Hurricane to restore it and to fly it. But in doing that, he gets a bigger story than he bargained for, all told by Rodimitz, one of Johnny’s few surviving Falcon squadron team. So, as is the way, it’s back into WWII Russia and an incredible tale of heroism, bravery, flying, and betrayal.

Here’s the Treasury PR for Hurricane…

‘Now: a rusting wreck of an aircraft is hauled from a German swamp. It holds the last terrible secret of the Second World War, when a pact between monsters threatened to doom the lives of millions.

‘Then: as Nazi forces stand poised to overrun the Soviet bastion of Stalingrad, British-born fighter ace Johnny “Red” Redburn leads Russia’s Falcon squadron in the dying city’s defense. But a nightmare conspiracy sees Redburn trapped deep behind enemy lines, along with his Falcon comrades- and his lover, the Night Witch Nina Petrova. The little band must fly and fight like demons to survive… and to save their country from a fate beyond imagining.

‘Written by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher) and drawn by Keith Burns (Battle Action, Out of the Blue), The Hurricane begins the Treasury of British Comics presentation of the complete adventures of Johnny Red.’

Yes, it might have a classic (maybe even clichéd) format of the modern-day framing sequence introducing the story of the past, but go with it, because once you’re into the brilliant tale of Johnny’s Falcon squadron and an all-too believable story of betrayal, it’s a true page-turner, packed with action, absolutely nailing the character and the war itself.

You can feel the love of both the character and war stories in general from both writer and artist here. Ennis’s longstanding, almost single-handed at times, determination to make the sort of great war stories that he grew up with, plus the obvious talents of Burns in both aviation artistry and comic creating just raise this up to the level of truly excellent stuff.

JOHNNY RED: THE HURRICANE – by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns.

Johnny Red created by Tom Tully and Joe Colquhoun
Published by The Treasury of British Comics on 15th January 2025