Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is the name of two Vertigo comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

 created by writer Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...

 and artist Carlos Ezquerra

Carlos Ezquerra

Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...

. The first series, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, was released in 2000

2000 in comics

-February:*Strange Adventures vol. 2, #4, final issue cover-dated February - January :* January 5: Goseki Kojima, co-creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, dies at age 71.* January 6: Mad magazine fixture Don Martin dies at age 68....

. Its sequel, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: Operation: Bollock, was released in 2001

2001 in comics

-Year overall:* Marvel Comics withdraws from the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system for its publications.- January :* January 23: Fred Ray, Superman's primary cover artist of the 1940s, passes away at age 80.- September :...

 and 2002

2002 in comics

-March:* Adventures of Superman #600: super-sized anniversary issue by Joe Casey, Mike Wieringo, and Jose Marzan, Jr. -April:* Batman #600: "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive," part one, 64-page giant, written by Ed Brubaker.-January:...

.

Plot

The Rifle Brigade is a British special forces commando unit commanded by Captain Darcy and staffed with a variety of oddball and at times deviant soldiers from varied British cities and allied nations. The two stories concerns their various covert missions across Europe and Africa and their relevance to the Allied victory.

'Operation: Bollock' in particular focused on the team's diplomatic and action-packed attempts to gain for themselves the missing testicle of Adolf Hitler. It is being held in the small Arabic country of Semmen and is being pursued by many forces, German, American and British, none of which the Brigade can trust.

The American forces are represented by Maryland Smith, a whip-wielding adventurer with the unwanted nickname of 'Mary'.

The Rifle Brigade

• Captain Hugo 'Khyber' Darcy: The Unit's leader. A British aristocrat and combat-hungry officer. Some of his past exploits include calling Rommel a "big nosed cunt" to his face. Characterized by a large moustache.
• Second Lieutenant Cecil 'Doubtful' Milk: Darcy's second in command. A highly accomplished marksman, hand-to-hand combatant and pilot. Survivor of many incidents in which his side were massacred. Implied to be homosexual, a running gag has the unit surviving a very lethal incident, to find Milk wounded, upon which he will ask Darcy to perform various sexual favors on him, "like nanny used to do", only to learn that Milk had been faking it.
• Sergeant Crumb: Allegedly the largest man in the British armed forces. A man so frightening that his parents emigrated upon his birth. He was institutionalized at the age of one, and later ate his uncle. He only speaks on occasion, and only ever says "Ey-Oop".
• Corporal Geezer: A "cut-throat thug" tried for 413 counts of murder, his sentence waived upon posting to the Rifle Brigade. He only speaks on occasion, and only ever says "Yer aht of ordeah".
• Hank the Yank: The Unit's demolitionist. A loud American soldier who volunteered before the United States entered the war. Characterized by constantly having a cigar in his mouth, echoing others fictional American WWII GIs such as Nick Fury
  Nick Fury
  Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury is a fictional World War II army hero and present-day super-spy in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, Fury first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 , a World War II combat series that portrayed the...
  
  . He only speaks on occasion, and only ever says "Gawd Dammit".
• The Piper: A walking Scottish caricature. Very old, as he is said to have served the Darcy family for five wars. He carries a bagpipe into battle, made from human remains. His playing of said bagpipe has the effect of invigorating the members of the Rifle Brigade, while being extremely traumatic for anyone else. Several enemies have killed themselves upon hearing it.

Collected editions

• Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (by Garth Ennis
  Garth Ennis
  Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
  
   and Carlos Ezquerra
  Carlos Ezquerra
  Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
  
  , tpb
  Trade paperback (comics)
  In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
  
   collects both mini-series, 2004
  2004 in comics
  -February:*February 6: Marvel Enterprises and Electronic Arts announce a multi-year agreement in which EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Marvel superheroes against a new, original set of EA heroes....
  
  : ISBN 1-4012-0353-1):
  • Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (Vertigo, 3-issue mini-series, 2000)
  • Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: Operation Bollock (Vertigo, 3-issue mini-series, 2001)