Al Murray Co-Writes 63-Page D-Day Story for Commando 6000

Al Murray’s first comic-book story runs to 63 pages. It sits inside Commando 6000 and sends a Dunkirk veteran back to France in a glider. He wrote it with historian James Holland; Esteve Polls supplied the interior art and Keith Burns the cover. The oddity is already good enough for the pub: the Pub Landlord has a writing credit in Britain’s longest-serving war comic. The release date, meanwhile, has become the bit most likely to start an argument beside the newspaper shelf.

By River Leanox

A 63-page first job

Chortle reports that Sweet Revenge is Murray’s first comic-book story and that he co-wrote it with Holland. Holland is his fellow host on the military-history podcast We Have Ways Of Making You Talk. The story follows the first Allied troops landing in Normandy on D-Day in June 1944. Its central figure is Private Regan, a veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation who climbs into a glider and returns to France. That is enough plot for our purposes; nobody came here for me to point at Normandy with a pool cue.

DC Thomson, Commando’s publisher, gives the title a brisk description on its official brand page:

“Britain’s longest-serving war comic, Commando Comics have been in print since 1961, printing four stories of action and adventure every two weeks!”

The publisher also describes Commando’s stories as self-contained and 63 pages long, with black-and-white interior artwork. Murray and Holland wrote the complete 63-page narrative, including the story itself. Polls draws the story while Burns handles that cover. This division of labour is worth spelling out because the easy headline, mine included, puts the famous comic first. Four people made the object; only one regularly performs beside a pint glass.

I couldn’t verify a contributor fee, print run, sales target or current standalone price for the issue from the publisher pages available at filing time. The verified figures are issue 6,000, a 63-page story and four releases in each fortnightly batch.

When is Commando 6000 out?

DC Thomson’s current publication calendar lists issues 5999-6002. They have an on-sale date of 8 October 2026 and a dispatch date of 1 October 2026. Commando 6000 is therefore scheduled to reach subscribers before its stated shop date, provided the live publisher calendar is the authority being followed.

That timing conflicts with Chortle’s report, published on 12 September, which described the story as “Published on Monday”. Monday was left without a numerical date in the sentence. DC Thomson’s own calendar places the relevant four-issue run in October. So 8 October is the release date I would use before making a trip to the newsagent. Waving a comedy-news tab at the teenager on the till rarely summons stock from Dundee.

The calendar says the 5999-6002 batch is dispatched on 1 October and goes on sale on 8 October. The official Commando homepage directs buyers towards single-issue bundles and provides a stockist finder, although I couldn’t obtain a verified price for this particular batch. With no tickets, refunds or replacement performances to untangle, the sensible advice is to check the publisher’s shop or a local stockist once October arrives.

The surrounding publishing rhythm explains why a milestone can look oddly quiet from the outside. DC Thomson says Commando has appeared since 1961 and publishes four stories every two weeks. Issue 6,000 travels inside a numbered group, accompanied by the usual parcel and none of the arena countdown, dry ice or streaming-company guff about a cultural moment. The excitement still has to fit beside three other covers in the same parcel.

The podcast went into print

Murray and Holland already work together as the hosts of We Have Ways Of Making You Talk, which gives this commission a practical route into existence. Two established collaborators with specialist Second World War knowledge were asked to turn that work into a comic script. Commando 6000 reads to me as a change of format for an existing partnership, complete with the same research interests and, presumably, a biscuit tin that has heard more about armoured divisions than most university seminars.

Murray’s history work also predates this story. Chortle records his 2013 memoir Watching War Films With My Dad. It also lists the narrative histories Command: How The Allies Learned To Win The Second World War and Arnhem: Black Tuesday: The Classic World War II Battle Told As Never Before. The comic commission extends that shelf rather neatly. It also gives the specialist material a different reader and a more severe test of economy: dialogue, captions, panels, 63 pages, finished.

Murray’s comedy and history work led directly to the Commando commission, bringing his experience with both subjects to the project.

The credits remain the telling back-of-house detail. Murray and Holland share the writing, Polls illustrates the story, and Burns creates the cover. Calling it simply an Al Murray comic would lose most of the people who had to get the thing onto paper. It would also miss the reason the crossover is credible: the history work, podcast partnership and publisher commission were already connected before a celebrity name reached the headline.

Murray’s official site describes All You Need Is Guv as a 2026/27 tour, so the stage job continues alongside the history work. The fee hasn’t been published in the material I could verify, which leaves the relative money in those two lanes unknown. On the comic side, the published details are a named writing credit, a finished 63-page story and a release schedule with one loose screw still rolling around the floor.

Sources

The principal report is Chortle’s Al Murray story. Primary publisher material comes from the Commando website, DC Thomson’s Commando brand page and its publication calendar. Murray’s current live work is listed on his official tour site.

For now, the firmest date attached to Commando 6000 is 8 October 2026. If a copy appears earlier, the first person worth asking will be the newsagent, who will probably be trying to remember which shelf still takes a 63-page war comic.