Biggles od velbloudích stíhaček (Biggles of the Camel fighters) is a comic strip adaptation in the Czech language of the stories in The Camels are Coming. The comic strip was written by Václav Šorel and drawn by Jiří Petráček and first published in the "ABC" Magazine over 14 issues between 1990 and 1992. It was later reprinted in Velka kniha komiksu II (The Great Book of Comics 2) in 2002 and Zlatá kniha komiksů: Václav Šorel (The Golden Book of Comics: Václav Šorel) in 2011.[1][2]
Synopsis[]
Unlike the original Johns work, several stories in Camels are carried in one continuous narrative over 38 pages of drawings. The story starts off with Biggles being shot down and crashlanding. He is rushed to hospital and while there, he narrates some of his experiences to a nurse. Some of the regular characters from the original work are featured but there are also many non-canonical ones. The pages carry headers which give an idea of which story is being narrated:
- Pages 1-2: Biggles od velbloudích stíhaček (Biggles of the Camel fighters)
- Pages 3-9: Biggles přichazi na frontu (Biggles comes to the front)
- Pages 10-17: Biggles a Donevillská jitrnice (Biggles and the Dunville Balloon)
- Pages 18-23: Biggles a toulavý kostel (Biggles and the Wandering Church)
- Pages 24-32: Biggles a bílé pírko (Biggles and the White Feather)
- Pages 33-36: Biggles a Baron von Graff (Biggles and Baron von Graff)
- Pages 37-38: Biggles a záhadný velbloud (Biggles and the Mysterious Camel)
Plot summary[]
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
Pages 1-2: Biggles od velbloudích stíhaček (Biggles of the Camel fighters)[]
These are the scene setting pages. Biggles crashlands and is rushed to hospital. Nurse Marsh tells the orderlies to bring him straight to the operating theatre. Professor Tenningstone operates on him and then moves him to a ward and orders Nurse Marsh to stay with him. Biggles in a delirious state keeps muttering that he needs to report to Major Mullen....
Pages 3-9: Biggles přichazi na frontu (Biggles comes to the front)[]
This section contains some of the plot elements of The White Fokker. We see Biggles report to 68 Sqn (it's 68 not 266 here). He is fresh out from training. Major Mullen is outside waiting for the return of the evening patrol led by "Maloney". Then they see a white German fighter -- it is not refered to as a Fokker here and it is drawn as an Albatros. It shoots down Norman and strafes the airfield.
Here they don't hatch an elaborate plan to catch the white fighter. Biggles runs over to a Camel. The mechanic warns that the engine is not working properly, but for Biggles, it will have to do. Biggles takes off and goes after the white fighter. He catches up and engages. The white Albatros starts descending with smoke streaming. Biggles wants to land to take him prisoner but then realises he has crossed the lines. He banks steeply to turn but his wing hits the ground and he crashes.
Some French soldiers comes forward and take Biggles prisoner. They don't believe that he is British--he is not in flying kit and has no papers. Eventually a French officer calls Mullen and Raymond and Biggles is released.
Mullen reprimands Biggles--he had told him to wait in his office. At the same time he congratulates him. Mullen buys drinks all round and wants to hear Biggles' account of the combat.
But Biggles doesn't get the chance because the phone rings and Mullen receives orders to destroy the Duneville balloon.
Pages 10-17: Biggles a Donevillská jitrnice (Biggles and the Dunville Balloon)[]
In the hospital, the nurse hears Biggles muttering about a sausage and thinks that he wants food. But the doctor says he is hallucinating. The doctor tells the nurse that Biggles is thinking about the Duneville balloon incident which made him famous.
While this section is analogous to The Balloonatics, it is not set up as a competition for bottles of scotch. It is just an order to Mullen.
Like in the original, in the first attack 68 Sqn flies into an ambush but are saved by the arrival of an S.E.5 squadron, in this case 92 Sqn. Learning their lesson, the two squadrons decide to do a combined show the next day.
Back at base, Biggles has an idea and tells Sergeant George Thompson what he has in mind. Thompson works through the night to fit a bomb rack to Biggles' Camel.
Biggles takes off before the others. Mullen is, of course, not happy, but he orders the others to follow along because they have made an appointment with 92 Sqn.
Biggles heads for the balloon. Flying low along the way he almost collides into a church steeple. What is it doing here in a forest? Like in the original, Biggles bombs the balloon winch which frees the balloon, allowing him to destroy the balloon at his leisure. The rest of the squadron arrive to witness it.
Pages 18-23: Biggles a toulavý kostel (Biggles and the Wandering Church)[]
Mullen feels like giving 10 days of house arrest for Biggles but ends up congratulating him for his achievement. Raymond also arrives and commends the squadron. Biggles says that part of the credit should go to George Thompson. Raymond promotes him to Flight Sergeant on the spot and decides to send him off for pilot training. Thompson is delighted.
Reprising the story from Camouflage, Biggles tells Mullen about his close encounter with the church. Mullen thinks he must be drunk or dreaming but Maclaren says he has heard of this and wants to check it out with Biggles using a Bristol fighter. Mullen is puzzled but admits that Maclaren is no coward. He had better get the rest of the squadron fueled up and ready in case. Raymond agrees and makes a phone call to put a bomber squadron on standby.
Maclaren and Biggles spots the church. There is something strange: a set of railway tracks leads into it. But the area is heavily defended by anti-aircraft fire and their Bristol is severely damaged and limps back to a crash landing. Maclaren makes his report: he thinks the church hides a storage for gas shells (some plot elements from Fog?) The wind is in the right direction so Raymond orders 68 and 92 Sqn to join the bomber squadron (No. 32) to attack. The church is made of wood and canvas and burns down, revealing not a gas shell depot but a heavy gun, which is destroyed.
Pages 24-32: Biggles a bílé pírko (Biggles and the White Feather)[]
In the hospital, Biggles becomes more lucid. What is he doing in a hospital and what is "Jane Wilson" doing here? The nurse insists she is Nurse Marsh, not Jane Wilson. Who is Jane Wilson? Biggles insists they met while he was on leave at Lord Harboard's place. He then recounts the events from On Leave.
Like in the original, it begins with a notice posting Biggles to a training school at Narborough. Mullen tells him it is to save his life but Biggles volunteers to go on leave if Mullen agrees not to post him away. Mullen "agrees" and tells him he must stay away for 3 weeks or else he gets posted. Biggles leaves and Mullen and Maloney share a joke--their ruse to get Biggles to take leave has worked.
Biggles meets Harboard (Lord Harboard here) and is invited to his place at Lympne. Biggles lands at a sports airfield belonging to Harboard--if is full of cows which he has to shoo away first (shades of Flying Luck but there is no encounter with a bull. A farmer/keeper helps him push the plane into a hangar and tells him he is on duty there all the time so Biggles can fly when he likes.
Over at Harboard's place, Biggles declines to join Frazer's hunting party and the same taunts from Frazer take place. Only here, a girl named Jane Wilson stands up for Biggles. Later she apologises for Frazer and tells Biggles not to mind Frazer. Biggles thanks her for speaking up for him.
While the party is out, the butler comes in to tell Biggles about two German bombers attacking Lympne. Biggles rushes to the field and gets the teaches the (reluctant) farmer how to swing the prop and help start the Camel. The attack and shooting down of the Hansa seaplanes take place much as in the original.
Back at Lord Harboard's place, Biggles gets a phone call from one Lord Harcourt (a senior British officer). He congratulates Biggles and tells him he has been promoted to Captain and also recommended for the Victoria Cross (in the original a DSO is mentioned but presumably this is more difficult to translate and less recognisable).
The shooting party returns and one of the women hands him a white feather. But Harboard intervenes--and tells everyone about what Biggles has really done while they were away. Jane Wilson is delighted--she knew Biggles was no coward all along.
Back to the hospital, Nurse Marsh tells Biggles that it is because Jane Wilson believed in him and so now he confuses her with Jane. But Biggles is sure. He tears off her head cloth, grabs her and tells her to stop denying. She admits she is Jane and they kiss.
Professor Tenningstone comes in and asks what's going on. Biggles obviously has made a decision. He introduces the professor to his fiancee, Jane Wilson. She is the daughter of Lord Wilson. Jane tells the professor it is true. She lied to her father that she is in America but came to the front to help because she wanted to be nearer to Biggles. But she will stay on as Nurse Marsh if the professor agrees not to tell her father.
The professor leaves and tells Jane she might want to ask Biggles about the time he let Baron von Graff off, it would be an interesting story.
Pages 33-36: Biggles a Baron von Graff (Biggles and Baron von Graff)[]
This part is not an adaptation from the original, but there are some elements from The Great Arena but the roles are reversed.
Biggles is strafing trenches when he is somehow bounced by Baron von Graff in a Fokker Triplane. There is a hard fight but von Graff gets the upper hand and is about to deliver the coup de grace when his guns jam. Biggles has him in his sights but decides to let him go and gives him a friendly wave before they part.
No one knew of this incident until some time later, when a German pilot is captured and he tells his captors this story. According to him, von Graff's squadron was out to give the British a hard fight but admitted that they would have done the same were the circumstances reversed.
Would the Germans really have done the same, Jane asks. Yes, says Biggles, they are fighting for their country just as he is. All perhaps, except for this next pilot....
Pages 37-38: Biggles a záhadný velbloud (Biggles and the Mysterious Camel)[]
So here Biggles tells the story which reprises some of the plot elements from J-9982 but Biggles is the one who gets shot down!
By this time, Biggles is a Major and has his own squadron. Biggles is out alone and spots another Camel flying on its own and not noticing a large German patrol approaching. Mysteriously, the German patrol just passes him by. Biggles decides he must catch up with the other Camel and warn him to look out. Closing in, he notes the number, J-9982 and decides that he must report this to the commander--he must tell him not to send rookies out alone. He peels off but doesn't notice that J-9982 turns with him and then shoots him from the rear.
The story now comes full circle. Biggles decides he must get back to warn the others. He crashlands and is rushed to hospital. Nurse Marsh tells the orderlies to bring Biggles straight to the operating theatre....
Characters[]
- Biggles
- Nurse Marsh
- Professor Tenningstone
- Major Mullen
- Captain Mahoney - called Maloney here
Aircraft[]
Research notes[]
- In some of the speech bubbles, Jane Wilson calls Biggles "Cecile" - perhaps the "C." in James C. Bigglesworth.
Gallery[]

This depicts the finale of the attack on the "wandering" camouflaged church. Note the Handley Page 0/400s in the distance, Camels in the foreground. Václav Šorel wanted realism. He built models of relevant aircraft to help the illustrator portray them accurately.

Part of Biggles' narration of how he let von Graff go when his guns jammed. The nurse is Jane Wilson whom Biggles has decided he wants to marry. In the lower pictures, he is telling her his belief that the German pilots would have done the same for him. This page encapsulates the values Václav Šorel saw in Biggles: always on the side of what is right and honourable. Note that Jane sometimes calls Biggles "Cecile" -- probably Šorel's conjecture about the C. in James C. Bigglesworth.

Biggles and George Thompson work through the night to build an improvised bomb rack and release mechanism for the Duneville balloon attack. As Šorel imagines it, this mechanism is based on straps released by a handle beside the cockpit. Nicely detailed and plausible, as befits Šorel who was an aircraft designer at the Avia aicraft company.
References[]
- ↑ Available on Google Books
- ↑ #252 : Zlatá kniha komiksů (6. část): Biggles - 70% - This blog entry with details is in Czech.