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Frequently Unasked Questions
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Who is Sgt. Mike Battle?
Sgt. Mike Battle (SMB) is heroic soldier created by me, Graham Pearce, who appears in his own comic SGT. MIKE BATTLE: THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO!
What is Patriot Comics?
Patriot Comics is fictional publisher of fictional comic SGT. MIKE BATTLE since 1916.
What is Pier-C Comics?
Pier-C Comics is the actual publisher of SGT. MIKE BATTLE: THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO!
What is the difference between the original SGT. MIKE BATTLE comic and the SGT. MIKE BATTLE: THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO!?
SGT. MIKE BATTLE is the fictional ongoing comic that has been published monthly by Patriot Comics since September 1916. Each issue of SMB was 6 pages in length until around #875 (July 1989) where it doubled to 12 pages. Pier-C Comics owns the rights to collect and reprint issues of SMB and they do so in their book SMB:GAH.
So Sgt. Mike Battle, the comic or character, hasn’t really been around since 1916?
Correct, the whole 80-year backstory is completely made up. It was done so I could tell stories from any era and use a character with a “history” behind him to use as a vehicle to explore whatever themes, fashions and trends he felt like dealing with. If I become bored with WW2 stories then I can base the next issue in the 1980s Cold War or any era I want. Using SMB:GAH as an anthology series allows for greater freedom and creates much more variety.
Why does Sgt. Mike Battle keep changing his “Stomper” nickname?
Because there is always a new and terrifying threat to America and democracy. Unlike modern comics, where the slightest change of the status quo results in a relaunch at #1, SMB has been strong enough to survive without senseless renumbering.
Where did the idea for Sgt. Mike Battle come from?
The first version of the character was created around 1994. I was big fan of Image comics, especially Savage Dragon, and after creating my own superhero universe, felt the need to go back and create my own Golden and Silver Age characters. I created a load of WW2 characters with stupid names like Captain Action, Sgt Triumph, The Gold Beret and Mike Battle. By early 2001, I had managed to get some work as a cartoonist with a national adult humour mag. I was getting bored with the repetitive “knob gags” and wanted to do something different. Around that time the film U-571 came out and sparked the old argument about how Hollywood always rewrites history so the Americans save the world. I decided to do a 6-page story about an indestructible American Soldier who wins WW2 seconds after landing on the Normandy beaches in 1944. I went looking through my archives of characters and designs hoping to find the right person to star in the strip. When I found the designs for Mike Battle, I knew I had the character. The story was originally titled Sgt. Mike Battle: Nazi Smasher, until a friend mis-heard me and called it Nazi Stomper, which sounded much better. It was only meant to be a one-off but I had so much fun doing it and had plenty more ideas for the character that I immediately followed it up with Kamikaze Stomper and the rest is history.
Don’t you ever get bored of doing the same character?
How could I get bored? I’ve got over 80 years worth of stories to tell (that’s about 1000 individual chapters) and if I had the time, I’d try and tell most of them. The beauty of the “history” is that I have the freedom to do any story I want. With the book being an anthology, I can get away with having one chapter with Battle hunting gangsters in 1920s Chicago and the other with Battle fighting SPUTNIK in Earth’s orbit in the late 1950s without connecting the two. If I was doing a standard episodic comic then I’d have to explain why Battle jumps from different periods in history and it would seem pretty contrived and forced. I can’t foresee a time when I’d ever get bored of the character because if I run out of ideas about the character, I can always use him as a vehicle to explore themes and concepts that interest me. In issue #4 he’s an excuse to draw my own version of the Action Force/GI JOE comics I grew up with. In #6 I use him to comment on the Image comics of the early 1990s. There’s always the option of retelling classic moments from history but with a unique Sgt. Mike Battle spin. I’ve got plans to try and do a complicated story with the various factions linked with the JFK assassination but with Battle thrown into the mix. I’ve got literally dozens of stories about Saddam and Weapons of Mass Destruction. I’ll never get bored of Sgt. Mike Battle, but I may end up having to “retire him” to focus on other projects.
Would you ever think about killing off Sgt Mike Battle?
Maybe oneday, but who's to say that he hasn't died a few times already over the years
Your comics are very political, but why haven't you dealt with the terrorist attacks on Sept 11th 2001?
Just because they haven't been “reprinted” in an issue of SMB:GAH, doesn't mean that the events were never dealt with. At some time in the future you will see the Sgt Mike Battle version of 9/11.
Where do you get your ideas from?
I have this thing called an “imagination” and I’m not scared to use it. I’ve always been a daydreamer and always think about the knock-on effects of certain events. What if this, this and this happened? Some would say that I spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing. I like to look at things with a different perspective. I’d be a great comedian, apart from the fact that I can’t tell jokes and I’m not funny. Most people think that I have a vivid imagination but I disagree. Everyone has the potential to think up things as equally unique and idiotic as the stuff that appears in my comics, it’s just that I’m just not embarrassed about using my imagination.
If they made a film of Sgt. Mike Battle, who would you want to play him?
There's an American Footballer-turned-Actor-turned TV presenter called Howie Long who is perfect. He's best known as Henchman Number 1 in Broken Arrow.