Pierre Veys now takes us through von Richthofen’s early days flying, mastering a plane both on the ground and in the air, and learning aerial combat at the same time.

It’s a peculiar choice as it impacts on Red Baron, the character being obviously different people from one page to the next.

Not as successful is Puerta’s method of continually using different photo references for his illustrations of von Richthofen. The result is evocative, and like nothing previously seen in stories of aerial combat, the scenery and surroundings standing out. The opening pages to Rain of Blood complete that skirmish, highlighting the less successful aspects of it, although also display the distinctive artwork of Carlos Puerta, who seems to morph photographs and paint over them. Machine Gunners’ Ball introduced him as a singularly unpleasant student in cadet school, then jumped forward to his first combat, at which point a rather arbitrary ending occurred. Red Baron is a fictional extrapolation around what’s known about German World War I fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen.