Star Spangled DC War Stories Part 27: August 1961

The DC War Comics 1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook

Jerry Grandenetti

 All American Men of War 86

"Top Gun-Ace!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Irv Novick

"Tiptoe Thru the TNT!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Jack Abel

"Bronze Star Express!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

Peter: Johnny Cloud knows he has trouble when a hot-shot young pilot named Cole arrives on the scene and promises that soon he'll be the "Top Gun-Ace!" On their first run, Cole throws caution to the wind in an effort to get all five kills in one day. He quickly learns that there's more to being a Top Ace than just the number of enemy jets you blast when he's on the receiving end of some of that fire power. Cole's jet goes down into the ocean and it's up to Johnny Cloud to save the day. The "New Kid in Town" scenario, of course, has been used to death (particularly over in Our Army at War's Sgt. Rock strip) but once we're clear of the constant bragging and get down to the action, this installment is pretty exciting. The outcome is never a question but the dogfights and sea thrills (not to mention the vibrant Irv Novick art) make this one a winner, probably the best of the five Johnny Cloud adventures so far. If I was a Native American back in 1961, I'd have been a little perturbed at the colorist's constant shading of Johnny a bright red. The poor ace appears either constantly angry or sunburnt.

"Top Gun-Ace"

Jack: Aiee! How many captions begin with this alleged Native American cry? Too many! But perhaps not as many as the panels that include one version or another of the spirit in the sky or the brother in the sky or some other cloud or ghost that Johnny Cloud routinely talks to. Is a guy who's always seeing things really qualified to fly a fighter jet? One thing I want more of is flashbacks to Johnny's life on the reservation. I recently read a novel that came out last year called The Son (excellent, by the way) and life on the reservation wasn't quite the way Kanigher and Novick portray it.

"Tiptoe Thru the TNT"

Peter: Skinny Stevenson is constantly worrying aloud that he's not contributing to his squad because he's too... skinny. Then the lightweight beanstalk gets to prove he's every bit a man as his comrades when he takes a "Tiptoe Thru the TNT!" Not so much a story as a vignette, but between the constant "I'm worthless" and the inevitable "Skinny saves the day," it's not a story fragment worth reading. The art is ugly beyond compare. For Jack Abel, whose art had been climbing the quality ladder, it's one step up and two steps back with this one.

Jack: I thought it was pretty run of the mill Abel and the sequence where Skinny walks into the darkened cave over the mines is pretty suspenseful, though one wordless panel looks more like Grandenetti's work than Abel's.

"Bronze Star Express"

Peter: The men of Able Company have been waiting a long time to get their medals of honor. For the men with the job to deliver those honors, the "Bronze Star Express" is fraught with peril at every turn.  Forget what I said about Able being unAble to deliver the last story's visuals. He's Russ Heath next to Andru and Esposito and their BEMs (bug-eyed-militia). The Nazi tank commander is a dead ringer for Andru's Harry Osborn in the run of The Amazing Spider-Man currently being dissected over at Marvel University. The final preach, that no one really owns a medal, was delivered much better (not coincidentally by author Haney) in "Nobody Owns a Medal" back in AAMaW #73 (September 1959).

Jack: Favorite line: "powerful, made-in-Naziland binoculars"! Gotta get those Bronze Stars to Able Co.! What a dangerous mission! What a dumb story!

More Andru/Esposito shenanigans

Joe Kubert

 Our Army at War 109

"Roll Call of Heroes!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert

"Drop One for Me!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Jack Abel

Jack: As Sgt. Rock lies back taking a rest, he hears two new Joes talking about how he must have been born a sergeant. He thinks back to his early days in the war and remembers a "Roll Call of Heroes!" First there was Slim, who kept shooting at a Nazi plane even after he was nearly cut down himself. Then there was Phil, who kept advancing on a Nazi tank until he could barely lift his arm to throw a grenade. Rock wondered what made these ordinary men turn into heroes when the time came. Finally, it was his turn, and he stuck a grenade in a tank's treads as it passed within inches of his injured body. Back in the present, Rock demonstrates his own brand of heroics to the new recruits and assures them that they will find similar strength within themselves when the time comes. Once again, Rock is almost a mythic figure in this well-told tale, and Kubert's art rises to the occasion.

"Roll Call of Heroes!"

Peter: After a one-issue absence, the world order is restored and we get Joe back on Rock. I love these flashback stories that fill in some of the grout around the tile, fleshing out a character who's fast becoming a major DC star. I'm not sure if it was in the grand scheme of Kanigher and Kubert to fill us in on the Rock's history just a bit at a time but it's a perfect formula, breaking it up into little pieces rather than one all-encompassing epic that tells everything in one sitting.

Jack: Pilot Captain Ed is proud when his brother Billy joins the squadron on a bombing run, but when Billy's plane is shot down all Ed remembers are the last words he heard coming over the radio: "Drop One For Me!" Despite many enemy planes, a curtain of flak and jammed bomb doors, Ed succeeds in completing his mission and bombing the target, all the while hearing his late brother's voice. Even though this story verges on the dreaded "repeat a phrase till it's worn out" technique, it still manages to be exciting and suspenseful, and much of the credit goes to Jack Abel.

A very Heath-like panel

Peter: This just goes to show you that even if you build a story around "Cliched DC War Plot Idea #4: The Brothers," you can find an entertaining way to tell the tale. This one's a real corker, touching and exciting all at the same time. The GCD lists Jack Abel as his own inker on both this and "Tiptoe Thru the TNT!" With all due respect to the experts and historians who contribute to that site, I have to disagree. Two different inkers is the only answer to two diametrically opposed jobs like "Drop One" (gorgeous and very Heath-ian) and "Tiptoe" (ostensibly dropped in mud before being turned in to editor Kanigher). Hopefully, we'll see more of the former from Abel in the future.

Jerry Grandenetti

Our Fighting Forces 62

"The Flying Pooch!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Jerry Grandenetti

"Tank Jockey!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Jerry Grandenetti

"Battle Mess!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Jack Abel

Jack: Gunner, Sarge and Pooch are out on patrol again on an island somewhere in the Pacific theater when Pooch shows his worth by warning his masters about some booby traps--first, a sniper in a tree, then a buried mine. After the trio destroys an enemy tank, the two humans fall into a camouflaged pit and pooch prevents a Japanese soldier from tossing a potato masher in on top of them. In order to get to the other side of the Tikaru River, Gunner, Sarge and "The Flying Pooch!" are dropped from a plane by parachute. Only Pooch makes it to land as his masters are blown out to sea, where a Japanese PT boat picks them up as it runs interference for a destroyer that is ferrying troops to the island! Gunner and Sarge overpower the enemy and use the PT boat to wreck the destroyer before returning to base, where they discover that Pooch has made it back on his own through enemy lines, a Japanese battle flag clutched between his teeth. Jerry G's art just gets worse and worse. His Japanese are either caricatures out of the 1940s or orange-colored Americans!

Hey, Jerry--tone it down! The war ended 16 years ago.

Peter: I know this is Jack's favorite series but I can't stand it. I dislike it so much that I can't even see the good bits through all the fluff and muck. The only reason I read Gunner and Sarge (aside from duty) is that I can always count on Bob Kanigher to deliver some real goofy crap. "Arf! Arf! Arf! Arf!" translates to "The sniper's really in the other tree, guys!" Why does the enemy take the time to paint their flag on every little item (aside from the obvious wink at the reader)? Do they have POWs lined up in a factory stenciling swastikas on binoculars and the Rising Sun on land mines? Just how big is that hole that Gunner and Sarge fall in? It seems, at first, to be big enough for both of them to fall in but, later, we see that the pit is hardly big enough for one to squeeze into. Why doesn't the army assign Pooch his own platoon of soldiers? He's obviously loads smarter than the dolts known as Gunner and Sarge. Until we find out that the helmet of the sniper that falls from the tree is a decoy I thought "Holy Moley, that was a heck of a head shot to be shown in a kid's comic book!" And why is it that every time we nail a sniper, his helmet falls off? Don't these guys believe in fastening? Very dangerous. Other than all this fun stuff, the 20th appearance of G&S is a dog. Arf! Arf!

"Tank Jockey!"

Jack: A marine whose job is to deliver tanks laments the fact that he is just a "Tank Jockey!" who never sees any action, unlike his brother. He gets his wish when his ship is attacked in sequence by a Japanese sub, then a PT boat, and finally a fighter jet--all of which he destroys. Delivering a tank onto land, he has to take out an enemy bunker before finally reaching his brother and getting to hear, "'Congratulations, hot-shot!'" This story is mercifully short and Jerry G avoids drawing too many faces, so the art is bearable.

Peter: Grandenetti's art is much better than in Gunner & Sarge and the story's an exciting one. The tank firing from the hole in the ship's bow is a great visual. We do get a dopey climax though, where Hank resorts to "Cliched DC War Plot Idea #4" (see above). Aside from that howler, this is the best story in OFF this month.

Jack: Consumed by guilt that he is only a cook in the Korean War, Crawford wants to fight and be a hero so he can tell his future son that he did something more than whip up tasty meals in the war's "Battle Mess!" When the enemy appears at camp demanding food, Crawford cooks up his special hot and spicy dish for them, which gives them such tummy aches that he is able to capture the whole bunch! This is as loony a story as we've seen, with the ghostly little boys' heads chanting "'What'd you do in the war, Daddy?'" and a cook trying to sneak off with a gun to get some fightin' time in. It may not be serious, but it's fun to read!

Paging Dr. Freud!

Peter: "My heart wasn't in my cooking--it was out on the battlefield." The visual of Crawford entering battle in his apron is one that will stay with me for... seconds. Our culinary GI finally got to be a hero because Commies can't handle spicy food! I assume that, afterward, the military peppered their ammo with Tabasco? Hands down, worst story of the year (I hope).

COMING NEXT ISSUE!