Having read through Preacher and The Boys I went in expecting the level of gross social commentary that I know Garth Ennis for. This book does not have that. I could hardly recognize it as a Garth Ennis book. With that out of the way, Stringbags tells a well paced story of a trio of everymen that do some cool war stuff in planes. The art was fabulous except for the similarity of characters' looks made it difficult to tell them apart at first glance. ( )

Books read in 2021 #53- “The Stringbags” by Garth Ennius & PJ Holden. In the early days of WW2 the newly commissioned Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s main torpedo bomber was the Fairy Swordfish, an aircraft out of time. Already obsolete by the time it went into combat it was a on open cockpit biplane in an age of sleek fighters, Yet it flew into legend as “The Stringbag.” But legends are not made by machines, but by men. Garth Ennis, probably the best current writer of war comics, and artist PJ Holden pay homage to both men and machine by following the (mis)adventures of a single Stringbag crew across three of its most famous operations, the raid on the Italian fleet at Taranto, the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, and a suicidal attempt to stop the “channel dash” of three German battleships heading for their home port. Ennis & Holden deliver a well-researched and detailed military history delivered with heart, and above all respect. #books #review #2021reads #comics ( )

Garth Ennis solidifies his claim on being his generation's premier writer of World War II graphic novels with this historical fiction about a World War II British naval aircrew. The plane they fly is the Fairey Swordfish -- nicknamed the "Stringbag" -- a biplane torpedo bomber that was considered obsolete at the start of the war due to its single torpedo capacity, fabric covering, open cockpit, and slow speed but by war's end may have sunk more Axis ships and submarines by tonnage than any aircraft in the Allies' arsenal.

Archie, Ollie and Pops bounce from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic to the English Channel as they take part in the Battle of Taranto, the hunt for the Bismarck, and the Channel Dash. They bicker and joke and occasionally find themselves in a spot of trouble, but their focus stays on doing the job beating the Nazis and protecting Great Britain.

I especially appreciated Ennis reverential afterword explaining the choices he made in his fiction and the historical basis for the events portrayed. ( )