August 2010 magazines - Combat & CommandoMilgeek airsoft and military hobby news

I have tired of airsoft specific magazines and only buy them very rarely now (there has to be a very good item in them to persuade me to spend my money these days) and I find that as far as military kit goes I get just as much good info from magazines like 'Combat & Survival'.

Aside from the equipment reviews this magazine does a really good job in covering British military operations and exercises. It covers a lot of the hard work the lads and lasses do in places like Afghanistan that we never hear on the mainstream news media (because of the inherent anti-war stance of media groups like the BBC and Sky News). Additionally this magazine has a very solemn and respectful summary of the sad losses our forces endure while on operations.

Aside from British military operations 'Combat & Survival' has regular features on foreign armies and their deployments and it was due to this that I bought this months copy as it has a very nice spread on a large scale German Army exercises. The excellent photos are fantastic reference material fro the German Army airsoft loadout I am currently creating.

All in all this is a very good value magazine at just £3.75 (I notice that some of the glossy airsoft magazine are approching the £5 mark now).

Finally, while I was searching the news stand I came across a little gem which took me right back to my childhood - a 'Commando' comic!

I guess these are what kids would call 'graphic novels' these days, but we called them comics and it was great to see that this great British institution is still going strong. In fact some of the stories appear to be reprinted every so often so you can still read some of the original titles.

This months selection of 'Commando' comics (they are released four at a time) are tributes to the recent VJ Day celebrations (if that is the right word) and all four of this months comics feature stories about the campaign in the Far East against the Japanese.

Of course there is something a little 'non-PC' about the story lines and they still have stereotypical Japanese soldiers being beaten to speech bubbles feature slogans approaching 'take that, Tojo' and the like. But for those of us who fondly remember classic British comic characters like Captain Hurricane this is a bit of innocent comic violence that bears no resemblance to real war - and I think even as kids we knew this.

What was surprising is these little comics are now £1.35 each! (I seem to remember paying just a Shilling - 5 new pence - when I was a kid! LOL)

Links:

> 'Combat & Survival' web site (now includes digital editions).

> 'Commando' magazine web site (has some very nice computer wallpapers as well as online editions of the comic)