Garth Ennis and Brian K Vaughan are teaming up on a brand new series of Battle Action, launching this August from Rebellion/2000AD. A ten-issue magazine-sized monthly anthology will also see John Wagner, Torunn Grønbekk, Chris Burnham, Dan Abnett, Rob Williams, John Higgins, Henry Flint, John McCrea, Steve White, Keith Burns and Tom Foster.

This includes a brand new revival of the controversial series Kids Rule OK from Brian K Vaughan and Chris Burnham based on the original strip from the seventies weekly comic from IPC, Action, that saw questions asked in Parliament and the comic book cancelled in 1976, with copies pulled from the shelves in outrage. And the final, terminal story of WWII aerial ace Johnny Red by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns.

Battle Picture Weekly was created in 1975 by writers and editors Pat Mills and John Wagner, it introduced new grittiness into British comics with a cast of anti-heroes, misfits with a bombast and energy that sparked a sea-change in what comics could do, leading to Mills’ creation of the controversial Action and then 2000 AD. Which being science-fiction meant the could get away with a lot more, without anyone in government or the tabloid press noticing.