George Low
Allen & Unwin 2009
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
Ah yes, the
Commando Comics – mainstay of kids’ reading in the 1960s. Simplistic plots,
great drawing, stereotype characters, and even sometimes a bit of historical
accuracy. I didn’t know they sometimes published stories with an Australian or
New Zealand orientation so I looked forward to reading these. I wasn’t
disappointed. ANZAC was technically the abbreviation for the Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps that fought at Gallipoli in the First World War and in
Greece and Crete in World War 2. It has become something of a general term for
any group of Aussies and Kiwis fighting alongside each other.
As well as
ANZAC stories from the two areas mentioned above, we have a rather nice story
of racial tolerance set in the early days of New Zealand’s white settlement and
the battles with the Maoris. The Australian aboriginals appear in the WW2
stories as well. Their role in the war in the far north of Australia is largely
untold and greatly underappreciated but they receive a fair treatment at the
hands of the story writers.
There are
unusual stories. One is about an Australian infiltrator in Borneo who has “gone
native” and started collecting heads from the Japanese soldiers to prove his
power to the headhunter tribe he leads. In another story we meet Willy “Wing
Heels” Taonea, a Maori soldier whose sprinting ability gets him and his fellow
soldiers out of trouble. Another story mentions an event in New Guinea on the
Kokoda Trail that is still controversial. A group of undertrained and
underequipped Australian militia broke and retreated before the advancing
Japanese. The Australian Commander-in-Chief who had no experience at all of the
conditions in New Guinea branded them cowards and it took a long time to live
down that reputation.
Most of the
characters are still stereotypes. Instead of Germans saying “Gott in Himmel”
and “Schweinhund” we now have Japanese saying “Ayeee” and “By Shinto”. Every story
seems to have a character called “Bluey” – a nickname for redheaded people. The
Australians are usually a bit rough and ready, always in trouble, but basically
good mates. Because the stories are set in different battle areas to the
British stories they have a different sort of feel to them. I found this quite
a change from the more traditional Commando story. I really enjoyed this
collection.
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