El Mestizo

By Carlos Ezquerra. Battle dated 25th June 1977. In an interview conducted a few years ago CS was asked: 

Of all the strips you've been part of over the years, which one would you most like to bring back if you could?

I wouldn't mind to bring back El Mestizo, it appeared in Battle with Alan Hebden script, about a black guy caught in the middle of the American civil war, he wasn't very popular (a black hero in the earlier seventies!) but I think it was a nice character.

El Mestizo

Art by Carlos Ezquerra. From Battle dated 23rd July 1977. I'm putting this one up here out of guilt. When I was reading Battle at the time I felt a certain kind of outrage/betrayal when this strip appeared. How dare they have a non WW1/WW2 strip in Battle! Ahem... sad, I know. Well, I was only 11 at the time. I just had no interest in the American Civil War: I liked tanks, aircraft and machine guns. Brrrrrrrrrt! K-pow, k-pow; ker-ping!!
I think that I wasn't the only one of Battle's readers who disliked the strip. It never returned after it's initial run. It's a shame really, because I think the comic would have been better if it had broadened it's subject matter... I'd like to read the complete El Mestizo run again. I think it deserves another chance.
Also, let's not forget (and to state the obvious) it's one of the few comics where a black character plays the lead-rather than being a side-kick or servant to a honky.