mitchmen's war No 14 - The Batman No 2 - Bed Warming Duty

Image by Commando War Stories, re-captioned by Mitchell for mitchmen.

The men of this Regiment discover that they are all liable 

to be requisitioned by an Officer to serve as his batman! 

This is No 2 of my series casting aspersions on the antiquated custom

(one not confined to the British Army!) of officers having batmen (personal servants). 

See Batman No 1.

The bed-warmer idea is not mine but borrowed from a TV film I once saw about an Australian prison in the 1800's. The Prison Governor, played by Alec Guinness, summons a particularly hunky prisoner on a cold night and tells him to warm his bed before he himself gets in. Naturally the poor convict has to strip naked to perform this duty since his clothes are very dirty. When Guinness slips in beside him, the prisoner makes a hasty exit, still naked. 

The Original comic artwork I have adapted here comes from the Commando war comic No 1498, entitled 'Way of Honour'. I have only changed the words in this frame. In the original story it depicts a confrontation between Australian and British soldiers in a POW camp. The senior officer of the newly arrived Brits has caused great consternation amongst the Aussies by seeming to cosy up to the Camp Commandant.

This is an earlier image in the story showing the Brits arriving at the camp under escort.

It is not entirely devoid of gay innuendo if you have the same peculiar turn of mind as I do.

However I have included it mainly on account of the artwork. 

For me the depiction of the Australian Soldiers as grizzled hunks is very nice

 and I can visualise them as very manly protagonists in a gay-themed story.

This escaping prisoner is downright hunky with his cute, snub nose and dangling hair.

He looks very much like one of Etienne's hapless heroes, (also in Night Patrol) .

The device of swapping clothes with one of the enemy occurs quite often in these stories, 

but although it has a natural homoerotic frisson about it, it's rare to get an image as sexy as this.

It's afforded us by his dishevelled appearance and the plunging open neck of his jacket, which he is in the process of taking off. Unfortunately what lies beneath the jacket has been (somewhat unconvincingly) disguised and the disrobing is already over by the next frame.

This is the cover image. The British Officer in  the story is a judo expert and (by pure coincidence) so is the Camp Commandant. They met before the war due to their common sporting interest, hence the unexpectedly friendly behaviour in the Camp. Eventually the two men have to fight each other and the British Officer wins and redeems himself in the eyes of the other prisoners.

Go to Part 15 of this series (link pending)

For other imaginings in this series click on the 'War Comics' label below
or read all these War Comics articles from the Start