The DC War Comics 1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook
Russ Heath and Jack Adler |
"Secret of the Fort Which Did Not Return"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath
"Soldier in the Dark!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Jack Abel
"Battle Parrot"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Joe Kubert
Peter: A bomber continues on its course despite losing most of its crew. Who steers the giant fortress? As unlikely as the concept might be, "Secret of the Fort Which Did Not Return" is about as exciting a war story as we've encountered yet. Very much like a 1950s war movie, very grim in its systematic elimination of its cast, leaving only our mourning narrator. Heath's art, as always, is majestic.
"Secret of the Fort Which Did Not Return" |
"Soldier in the Dark" |
Peter: PVT Blake is steamed at his sergeant for making him feel like a "Soldier in the Dark." His C.O. won't let him know what his assignment is, so pissing and moaning is the order of the day. Why Stallone or Schwarzenegger didn't latch onto this heaping helping of machismo, I'll never know. How many more stories of under appreciated soldiers who are illuminated before their six pages are up (usually the whiny mope has an ear-to-ear in the final panel)?
Jack: Jack Abel continues his revival in this action-packed 6-pager. There's a very nice splash page and a cool, wordless panel of two Nazis smiling after they fire a mortar shell. We all know where the story is going from page one but it held my interest.
Peter: The Perch and its crew disappear without a trace, leaving only a life raft holding the submarine's mascot, a "Battle Parrot" named Scuttlebutt. Now the crew of the Kingfish search low and high for clues. Looks like animals at war was the big thing in 1961 and Bob Haney wanted to slice off a piece of the pie usually reserved for Bob Kanigher. So far, neither can convince me a war story populated by intelligent livestock is anything more than a gimmick. Kubert's art, always good, is the only thing worth turning the pages for. Supremely silly stuff. Ack!
Jack: Not Kubert's best, but still great--even the parrot is bearable. The panel that shows the submarine cruising by moonlight is a beauty. Do you think a sub could really bob up and fire as quickly as the one does in this story? I was an English major so I don't know a thing about physics, but it seems like it would have to settle a little longer than a split second before it could fire torpedoes with accuracy. By the way, the circulation figures this issue show that G.I. Combat was selling 182,000 copies a month. At 10 cents a copy, that's a gross of $18,200. Yes, $18,200 in dimes!
Joe Kubert |
"A New Kind of War!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert
"My Rival, the Jet!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Irv Novick
"Combat Racket!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Russ Heath
Jack: In "A New Kind of War!" Sgt. Rock chides the combat happy Joes of Easy Company for spending too much time thinking about their girls back home. The grizzled veteran insists that this will take their minds off battle and put them at risk of harm. When Rock is injured by an explosion, he wakes to find himself in the care of pretty Nurse Honey, who insists that he stay put. But you can't keep the leader of Easy Co. down for long, and soon Rock is back on the street, with the nurse trailing along, trying to get him back to his hospital bed. As in "Battle Parrot" in this month's G.I. Combat, Kubert's art is not at its best here, and the story lacks the suspense and depth of the best Rock tales.
"A New Kind of War!" |
Jack: Jet pilot Bill Gage has a new gal--Suzie the jet plane! And boy is Army Nurse Sally Bell jealous! She wishes that the jet would crash and burn and stop being "My Rival, the Jet!" But when Bill gets into trouble on a mission, Sally starts hoping the new gal hangs on and brings her man home safely! If I were a 10 year old boy in 1961, I'd be going "yuck!" at this issue of Our Army At War! Two stories involving GIRLS!
"My Rival, the Jet!" |
Jack: When a rookie soldier goes nuts from all of the "Combat Racket!" his sergeant explains that every sound he hears conveys important information. He goes on patrol with the sergeant and learns to pick up sounds, sounds that save both of their lives. Well, Peter, I think Russ Heath wins the art war for this issue. This is a very well-illustrated six-page story. The only problem is that I think Chapman's script called for potato mashers but Russ drew pineapples!
Peter: Its giant red title letters and multi-panel pages reminded me a lot of the EC war comics but its incessant joy in bringing the action to a halt (in order to lecture us about the sounds of war) dampened my eventual rating. Russ Heath's glorious art is almost John Severin-ish here, also an EC reminder.
Potato mashers? |
Andru/Esposito |
"Guinea Pig Patrol!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
"The Human Torpedo!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Jack Abel
"Gunner From the Past!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Russ Heath
The impossibly large protagonist of "Guinea Pig Patrol!" |
John: Private Scoleri, reporting for duty! After what seems like ages, the dinosaurs have returned to SSWS (and with them, me, for a few pithy comments). I'll forgive the artists the ever changing scale of the dinos to best fit their needs, as a plane vs. a normal-sized pterodactyl. But again I find it amusing that a) the soldiers adjust all-too-quickly, not just to one dinosaur that knocks them out of the sky, but to the tag-team of dinosaurs that they come across, one after another. And worst of all, once rescued, they don't even mention the dinosaurs. They just have a brief chuckle to themselves. I'm hoping that future installments of TWTTF will return to some level of continuity from tale to tale. While I like seeing soldiers go up against dinosaurs as much (or perhaps more) than the next guy, the formula they're relying on is going to get stale pretty quick.
Jack: The initial pages featuring the haunted paratrooper get things off to a good start, but then we're right back to the same old story about finding dinosaurs and blowing the heck out of them. I appreciated the giant pterodactyl's "Skree!" as a precursor to Man-Bat, who favored the same expression, as I recall. I would say that this series catered more to kids than the usual DC war comic book, but then I'd have to accept that Gunner, Sarge and Pooch were meant for more adult readers or, god forbid, that the same could be said about the T.N.T. Trio. Sometimes it seems like we're hanging on to Kubert and Heath and holding on till Enemy Ace and Unknown Soldier get going.
"The Human Torpedo!" |
Jack: You have to admit it was pretty cool, though! Sometimes these heroic soldiers seem to get a little too close to the explosions they set off, making me think that at least their eyebrows must get singed, if nothing else. It's kind of like Rock shooting down a plane and the plane landing in a convenient tree right in front of him, or those omnipresent tanks blowing up with soldiers sitting on top of them.
Heath! |
Jack: I did not see the twist coming, but it was pretty corny. I liked Heath's art in this one, especially the air action. By the way, this issue has the sales figures--169,000 per month sold!
"Gunner from the Past" |
Hawkman returns for the Silver Age! |
DC's main competitor, Dell, had raised prices to 15 cents with issues cover-dated February 1961. |
No comments:
Post a Comment