The Stringbags

Starred review from February 24, 2020
Ennis again achieves what his best WWII comics, such as Johnny Red: The Hurricane and Night Witches, have done: illuminate a little-known corner of that sprawling conflict and highlight the humanity of those involved in pulse-pounding battles. Ennis showcases Britain’s obsolete and widely mocked Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers (called Stringbags for their ability to carry just about anything), whose durability and slow speed proved advantageous in three real-life battles. Inventing a fictional three-man crew with something to prove as his through line, Ennis takes the chummy and smart-assed trio of Archie, Ollie, and Pops from Britain’s surprise assault on the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940 (whose stunning success inspired the Japanese plan for Pearl Harbor) to the desperate mission to sink Hitler’s seemingly unkillable warship Bismarck, and a last-minute assault with little fighter cover on the German Navy’s Channel Dash op. Each battle featuring this “small, peculiar force with a reputation for doing the impossible” is drawn in dynamic and detailed page layouts by Holden (the Judge Dredd series) that pair wide explosion-pocked action panels with tight inserts of pop-eyed characters. While realistic about the costs of war, Ennis still imbues his heroes with a hard-to-resist jaunty humor (“spot of aviation, then?”). A real corker of a war comic, this expertly balances research, amusement, and stirring emotion.

April 17, 2020

Although considered obsolete by 1940, the Fairey Swordfish--biplane torpedo bombers nicknamed Stringbags--still played a role in the Royal Navy's battle against the Axis powers. Crewmates Archie, Pops, and Ollie are considered lazy, incompetent cowards by their commanding officers until distinguishing themselves in an operation targeting the Italian Fleet in the Mediterranean. Their triumphant return to England after the battle is marred by the Blitz and cut short when they're ordered to join an attack against the Bismarck, an enormous floating fortress bristling with cannons. Ennis (Sara) clearly admires these pilots, but resists romanticizing them; they bicker and banter, fly off course and get lost, and at one point accidentally attack a Royal Navy ship. By highlighting their flaws, Ennis makes their bravery seem even more incredible and offers a reminder that the war was won by normal people willing to make enormous sacrifices in the name of freedom, especially as the crew's quarreling is supplanted by somber reflection in the final chapter, which finds them preparing to battle German ships in the English Channel. VERDICT An epic tribute to little-known heroes, featuring frenzied depictions of midair combat by Holden (Judge Dredd: Every Empire Falls).--Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

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