Featuring special guest host, John Scoleri! |
The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
19: February, 1952
Kurtzman |
"Mud!" ★★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by Jack Davis
"Bunker Hill!" ★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by Wally Wood
"Corpse on the Imjin!" ★★★ 1/2
Story and Art by Harvey Kurtzman
"Buzz Bomb!" ★★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by John Severin and Will Elder
The downpour of rain brings "Mud!" to the battlefield. Tanks can't advance but men on foot can manage. It ain't easy, but they manage. In one of the platoons bogged down by the never-ending deluge, Sergeant Shadburn seems to take a bit too much pleasure in slagging on one of his men, a soldier he nicknames "Duck-butt." The hatred building in "Duck-butt" is just about to spill out (the man contemplates shooting his Sarge if battle breaks out) when the platoon is ordered to be "point" on a small hill. A massacre ensues and Shadburn grabs a bag of grenades and heads for the enemy pillbox. He's wounded but "Duck-butt" comes to his aid and the pillbox (actually an enemy tank buried in the mud) is blown to bits. A respect between the two soldiers is born. What's this? A "happy" ending to a Harvey Kurtzman story? What in the world? Mud is introduced in our first couple pages but then quickly dispatched (well, it's at the bottom of just about every panel) and I began to wonder why Harvey chose the title, but then the men are ordered to take what is essentially a big pile of wet dirt and the enemy tank is buried in the stuff, so I guess it was important enough to emphasize. It's not great Kurtzman but, as the cliche might go, decent Harvey is still miles above the best of the rest.
"Mud!" |
"Bunker Hill!" |
"Corpse on the Imjin!" |
The "Buzz Bomb!," a weapon used by Germany against the Allies in World War II, was a "jet-propelled bomb" that flew until it ran out of fuel and then would fall, exploding when it landed. In the final story this issue, a troop of American G.I.s tries to cope with a score of these nasty buggers. Though my history books note that the weapon was not very reliable (only about 20% of the V-1, a/k/a "buzz bomb," came anywhere near their targets and a good portion were shot down), Harvey makes a good case for the psychological ramifications of an explosive device that is so random, it might easily miss its mark and nail a German platoon instead. The irony here, of course, is that the Allies handle the pressure better than the Germans (ostensibly because our boys were getting used to the damn things). --Peter
"Buzz Bomb!" |
Jack: An unusually dull issue of Two-Fisted Tales is still pretty darn good, especially compared to the DC war comics of the mid-1960s. The unexpectedly optimistic "Mud!" rings true and gives us some hope, while "Bunker Hill!" is a visual feast but little else. "Corpse on the Imjin!" is gritty but slight, while "Buzz Bomb!" is that rare story where the letterer is the star, with the sound of the omnipresent and noisy title bomb represented by a series of lettered noises that runs across the top of nearly every panel and helps the reader imagine the tension felt by the soldiers.
Jose: I don’t think this issue of TFT was weaker than the consistent quality we’ve come to expect from Kurtzman’s pioneering war comic. If anything, it just further reasserts my belief that, along with Johnny Craig, Harvey was probably the best writer that the company had in its entire stable. Both artists could always be counted on to raise their pieces to a higher level, and while purple-hued pulp is always appreciated, Craig’s and especially Kurtzman’s stories, as Peter says, could very likely stand on their own as genuine works of literature. While the writing is fairly strong all across the board here, I have a special affection for the prose of “Corpse on the Imjin!” There are beautiful and brutal details scattered throughout, like the wind brushing the hair on the back of the drowned Korean soldier’s head, and they all blend together to create one of the most tense and sober stories that we’ve seen from Harvey in some time. The remaining three stories all have plenty of other merits—Davis’s grungy aesthetic and Wood’s breathtaking, minute compositions in “Mud!” and “Bunker Hill!,” respectively, the powerful “foley effects” of “Buzz Bomb!”—but for me “Corpse” is the definite victor this time out.
"Corpse on the Imjin!" |
Feldstein |
"The Two-Century Journey!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Wally Wood
"Shrinking from Abuse!" ★
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"The 10th at Noon" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Wally Wood
"The Thing in the Jar" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Joe Orlando
Al proves it wasn't only pulp writers who were paid by the word. ("The Two-Century Journey") |
I love Wally Wood's art but this particular fable gives Wally no room to stretch with way too many close-ups and a boatload of text (there is, in fact, so much text that I felt like the last five hours leading up to the blast-off was in real time!). I wasn't that enamored with the script, either; too many holes and lapses in logic. For instance, at the beginning of the script we're told there's not enough space on the ship for the proposed one thousand space-explorers so a quarter of them lose their seats but there's room enough for a TV store?! And how about the method of reducing the population? Isn't there a more humane way of killing the old-timers than ejecting them into space alive and watching them explode?! Why does the first Captain wear a cape? Well, because it looks very Wood-ian, of course.
Don't answer that! ("Shrinking from Abuse") |
As the "Eastern Alliance" threatens the States with devastation via H-bomb, Professors Sanders and Huxton perfect their amazing "Future-Injection" machine, a gizmo that can send an item into the future and bring it back. The men decide to experiment on a camera, so they set the machine for two minutes and send the camera forth. After the first experiment is a success, the scientists decide to set the camera to take a pic five hours into the future; again, the test brings fruitful results. Meanwhile, back in civilization, the Eastern Alliance has set a deadline: if its demands are not met by "The 10th at Noon," the madmen will drop their bombs. Since the two professors have been locked up in their lab for months on end, they have no idea what's going on above but Sanders suddenly hopes his precious football game won't be rained out on the 10th. Huxton smiles and suggests they send the camera even farther into the future; say, maybe the 10th at 12:30. As all hell breaks loose above them, the camera comes back with predictable results. Predictable, indeed. Don't get me wrong, "The 10th at Noon" is an enjoyable story (with great art) but the climactic panel is treated as a surprise when everything that happened prior to this image was built to produce that image. Though these scientists are dedicated to their invention, it's hard to believe they had no idea what was going on in the world at the time. Still, it's an adequate time-waster and Wood's art is on the money, especially with his wacky splash where a H-bomb victim seemingly has eyeballs growing out of his melting innards!
"That was some football game!" ("The 10th at Noon") |
Don't they teach this in all college chemistry classes? ("The Thing in the Jar") |
Jack: Like many a DC horror comic of the early 1970s, this issue of WF has some brilliant art but the stories can't match it. I like wordy comic stories that require some reading, but "The Two-Century Journey!" is too much. The stunning Wood art makes me wonder how they could have picked 750+ gorgeous folks to fill the spaceship. Kamen's story crosses The Shrinking Man with Fantastic Voyage and is laughably bad, while Wood's second story features the stunning half-splash page reproduced above but a predictable tale that barely contains a plot. Orlando's art is weak this time around and doesn't compare to what we see from Wood this month; the story has too many panels depicting scientists just standing around.
The thing before it's in the jar |
Ghastly |
"Ooze in the Cellar?" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
"The Acid Test!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Extermination" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by George Roussos
"Ear Today . . . Gone Tomorrow!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
Silas Thornton is a hoarder and there's nothing his poor wife Emily can do about it. He never wants to throw anything away and piles it all in the cellar. He even insists on keeping the apples from the tree outside and gets angry when Emily gives the poor neighborhood kids a few pieces of fruit to assuage their hunger. Silas punishes his wife by locking her in the cellar overnight, but the next morning he discovers that she ate some spoiled food and died. He buries her body under the cellar floor but soon the conditions down there are just right and everything begins to congeal into a living mass of "Ooze in the Cellar!" that finally overwhelms Silas himself.
"The Acid Test!" |
Florence Blair should be happy with her loving husband Cedric, but this hard-boiled dame just thinks he's a bore. One day, his kindness gets to be too much for her and she snaps, throwing acid in his face. She is jailed for assault but her husband begs the jury at her trial to let her go. She is acquitted and returns home with Cedric, who soon removes the bandages from his horribly scarred face and takes his revenge by bathing his wife's face in acid.
I thought "The Acid Test!" was heading into Postman territory but, instead, Al & Jack give us a straightforward story of revenge. The bar is set low for Jack Kamen stories and, as a result, this seems like one of his better ones.
Ralph Mellon is a pest-killer who is a little too enthusiastic about his job of "Extermination." When he stomps on a cockroach in his own house, various pests rise up and kill him. He wakes and is glad it was only a dream, then stomps on a cockroach and it all happens for real. The sickening glee that Ralph exhibits when doing his job is what saves this predictable yarn.
"Extermination" |
In "Ear Today . . . Gone Tomorrow!" Irwin and Elliot are having trouble keeping their fertilizer company afloat. They get a big order for bone meal but can't fill it because they have bad credit. They get the bright idea to tunnel under the ground and raid the coffins in the cemetery next door for bones to grind up into meal and fill the order. That fall, they take a vacation and their car breaks down by a corn field. They march through the corn stalks looking for a farmhouse but it turns out that the corn field was fertilized with the bone meal that they made from cemetery bones, and the corn stalks attack and kill them.
Feldstein has the Crypt-Keeper interrupt the proceedings numerous times, which suggests that he was having trouble filling out the pages of this story. At one point, Crypty asks the readers what they think will happen next and tells us that it's nothing so unimaginative. I wish the conclusion had been as clever as the host suggested. --Jack
"Ear Today . . . Gone Tomorrow!" |
"Ooze in the Cellar?" |
John: I found "Ooze in the Cellar?" to be awfully wordy for a story that is so well defined by the clarity and brevity of its title. And for what it's worth, I expected a little more from Ingels as far as bringing the ooze to life. I didn't think his visualization in this case was particularly special. "The Acid Test!" bounced back from a slow start with a strong finish, and while Kamen always excels at presenting the handsome chaps and babe-alicious dames, he gets a chance to dip into his colleagues' realm with a nice acid-wash face. George Roussos's art in "Extermination" left a lot to be desired. I wonder if this tale had any influence on Stephen King's "They're Creeping Up On You" segment from Creepshow. If so, then we can at least give it credit for inspiring something better a few decades down the road. "Ear Today . . . Gone Tomorrow!" is another one of those tales that asks the reader to take a larger leap than is probably reasonable. I'd like to think they could have come up with a better killer corn story.
Feldstein |
"The Conquerors of the Moon!" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Wally Wood
"Only Human!" ★ 1/2
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Why Papa Left Home" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Joe Orlando
"The Worm Turns" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Joe Orlando
After claiming Earth’s moon in the name of the Uranium Development Corporation, the bigwigs of the mining company set about settling the satellite for purposes of extracting from it the rich abundance of ore to use back on the home planet. UDC runs into financial difficulties five years down the road when the cost of mining and shipping the ore back to Earth far outweigh the profits they reap from the sales, not to mention the extreme, machine-debilitating temperatures of the moon and the cumbersome space-suits the miners are forced to wear. A sure-fire solution is hit upon by UDC chairman Mr. Lamont: just take a tiny slice of Earth’s atmosphere and use it to sustain the climate and workers on the moon. What could possibly go wrong? A council on Earth gives UDC a big fat “no” and files an injunction forbidding the company from doing any kind of atmo-snatching. Lamont laughs at the council’s puny paper and secretly teleports a chunk of atmosphere back to the moon before racing back in a rocket ship before anyone’s caught on. Unlucky for him (and the human race), the teleporter’s automatic shut-off gets stuck and ends up sending the planet's entire atmosphere to the moon, leaving everyone back on Earth to die slowly of asphyxiation before the sun’s merciless rays incinerate the whole planet. Lamont has about three seconds to mourn the loss before he’s forced to start worrying about the moon’s unreplenished oxygen and lack of food for all the survivors there. A miracle occurs when plant life is later discovered; apparently, the dead moon’s once-thriving vegetation had been reduced to spores that were revitalized when the atmosphere was reintroduced. So now the moon-villagers have both replenished oxygen and a source of food. All is good times and champagne now, right? Not exactly. You see, the moon’s primitive animal life was also reduced to spore-form, and the folks of UDC quickly learn that it’s of a rather hostile nature. Left with nowhere else to turn, the survivors flee to the old mine shafts to live out the rest of their days in desolation and darkness.
"The Conquerors of the Moon" |
EC Comics for women's rights. ("Only Human!") |
“The Worm Turns” could easily be summarized as thus: Guy on space crew thinks Mexican jumping beans are fun, but Captain says, no, beans not fun, actually little trapped worms that are shaking to get free, but Guy’s like, aww, who cares, me going to light them on fire now. Crew lands on strange planet, big giant worm come outta nowhere kill everybody except Guy and Captain who hide in big piece a fruit that worm picks up and says, me going to light on fire now. I know we’ve moped about EC taking the easy route before—those stories that would have promising and interesting set-ups that fell back on completely rote denouements—but “The Worm Turns” is an example of Gaines & Feldstein trying too hard to deliver the poetic justice. It would be one thing if the Space Guy suffered a fate that was similar to the worms he tortured, say, being trapped in one of the rocket’s cubicles as it burst into flames, but it’s quite another for him to be literally tortured at the hands (?) of a giant worm. A minor distinction to some, but an important one to me, whatever that indicates.
Soak up that splash page. It's as good as this ride gets. |
Ahh, and what of “Why Papa Left Home”? As opposed to trying to capture in words what my initial reaction to this story was, allow me to attempt to recreate the feeling in an approximation of real-time using some select panels …
Hey, cool splash panel. Title's pretty neat, too. Wonder where they're gonna go with that? |
So our hero still lives with his mother? And she has a fixation on the father who abandoned them? Hmm. Okay. |
Now we're being informed that our 23-year-old hero will be sent back 25 years into the past? That seems... uncomfortably specific. |
No. |
Don't you even think about it. |
Oh, come on... |
Oh, come ON! |
He'll have the same look on his face for the rest of his life. |
Yes, that’s right. They went there. As if the tangential incest and pedophilia that EC experimented with in their past time-traveling stories just weren’t quite enough, the company goes full-Oedipus Rex on us with “Why Papa Left Home.” It gets an extra star from me solely for the sheer audacity of it all, a warped kind of bravery to see things to the finish no matter how squirm-inducing they got. Was this really meant to be targeted to a young audience? Did Gaines and Feldstein think they were going to get a flood of letters requesting “More family sexy time, please” after the publication of this tale? Or was this an early example of trolling in action, shattering those fastidiously-held taboos in order to provoke an extreme response? Pondering (and perverse) minds want to know. --Jose
Peter assesses this month's issue. ("Only Human") |
Jack savoring the taste of his Weird Fantasy Crunch. ("The Worm Turns") |
Kurtzman |
"Combat Medic!" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by Jack Davis
"Light Brigade!" ★★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by Wally Wood
"Air Burst!" ★★
Story and Art by Harvey Kurtzman
"Bomb Run!" ★★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by John Severin and Will Elder
Two American medics rush to the aid of a felled British troop writhing from shrapnel in his gut during an attack by the Chinese in the Korean War. A few applications of morphine and “sulpha powder” later, the British soldier is prepped to be taken to the waiting ambulance truck. But as he’s being carried by a group of Indian stretcher-bearers, machine gun fire wipes all the Indians out in one fell swoop. The American medics, Higgens and “Doc,” quickly take up the mantle only to witness the ambulance truck blown to bits by the Chinese. Much to Higgens’s disbelief, Doc insists on carrying the British troop to the safety of their base by foot. The journey is a long and arduous one, made all the more difficult by the sorry condition of their cargo who begs for quenching water even as his intestines rest on top of his stomach. Ragged and exhausted, Higgens collapses for a moment of reprieve, but there is little to be had as Doc detects the quick approach of foreign soldiers heading their way. There’s hardly any time to decide on a course of action before the Asian troops are upon them… but, much to our heroes’ relief, the soldiers turn out to be friendly South Koreans, a sign that the Americans have successfully reached their base camp. Doc is just encouraging Higgens to take pride in the life they’ve saved when the camp physician comes over and declares that the British soldier has been dead for some time.
Atten-tion! You have it. |
Kurtzman, whose unwavering output of gripping, fully-conceived wartime dramas for not one but two separate series in EC’s New Trend line continues to impress and invigorate. In this tale and the others in this issue we see Kurtzman beginning to ease up on the “moral lesson” that is meant to be gleaned from the story. Whereas before the writer was prone to make his intentions clear well before the climax (and repeat them several times throughout just for good measure), he allows the themes of “Combat Medic”—the sanctity of human life and the ethical code of never leaving a good man behind—to be understood implicitly, with only two lines of dialogue by Doc touching upon these ideas as opposed to the usual eulogizing that Kurtzman has indulged in before. There’s also a brilliant sequence where Higgens and Doc, listening to the voices of the Korean soldiers approaching and realizing without actually voicing the fact that they are completely screwed, can only lie on the ground and wait for the inevitable. The three panels illustrating this moment make full use of the comics medium, the lettering of the Korean speech bubbles getting steadily larger with each “shot” to visually convey an increase in volume, the “camera” closing in on Higgens’s sweating face, forcing the reader to share this intimate moment with him, down in the dirt, waiting for death.
"Light Brigade!" |
Shot through with lines from Alfred Tennyson’s classic poem, “Light Brigade!” is the picto-historical account of the infamous charge Lord Cardigan’s light cavalry made against the Russian forces in the “Valley of Death” during the Crimean War. Kurtzman presents a stolid record of the events from the initial delivery of the vague order and the miscommunication that were to seal the cavalry’s doom to the broken retreat of the last remaining survivors following the slaughter. The story is essentially the Tennyson poem set to sequential art, with the lines appearing occasionally in distinguished typeface above the action. Though given the prestige Technicolor treatment by Wally Wood’s artwork, “Light Brigade!” never really illuminates the valor and unquestioning loyalty that serve as the backbone of the poem, a bit of a shame considering Kurtzman’s noted ability to depict the complex emotions of the battlefield.
"Air Burst!" |
Five born-and-bred members of the American Air Force are manning “The Odyssey” during WWII above the Philippines on a routine bomb run when two Japanese zero planes show up and start making trouble, rudely interrupting a conversation between engineer-gunner Arthur and radioman-waist gunner Johnny in which Arthur is explaining the scene in the book he’s reading where the sea-nymphs have just begun to sing in order to lead the ship carrying Odysseus and his men to the fatal rocks of the shore. The crew is at the top of the game, though, and two exciting but highly efficient dogfights later they’ve come out on top over their Axis opponents. The same can’t be said for the bullet-riddled plane which needs an emergency landing fast before it loses a wing. Johnny establishes radio contact with a nearby base who give “The Odyssey” the OK to bring her down. It’s only after they’ve finally touched down and recognized the island for the deadly deception that it is that Arthur makes the connection that the Japanese have just sung them to their deaths before he and the rest of the crew perish in a fiery explosion.
"Bomb Run!" |
Though in some respects lighter in plot than even “Air Burst!,” “Bomb Run!” makes up for the relative lack of excitement—after combing through a good amount of these war comics, I still can’t manage to get invested in aerial dogfights—with one of Harvey’s patented “Ever-Lasting Gobsmackers” (trademark pending) that sees our personable and likable cast of good ol’ Americans getting duped by the enemy and biting the big one real bad. As if one of these indignities wasn’t bad enough, Harvey gives us both of them, in rapid succession, once again demonstrating to audiences weaned on romantic visions of war, then and now, that even the heroes, a.k.a. the folks on our side, could die gruesomely, in the grip of terror, and without dignity. --Jose
Peter starts to feel the toll Harvey's endings are having on him. ("Combat Medic!") |
Jack: I thought "Combat Medic!" was brilliant, even though I suspected the British soldier would be dead by the end of the story. Wood's flawless art and Tennyson's poetry elevate "Light Brigade!" above "Bunker Hill!," this month's other history lesson. "Air Blast!" is good but, when a trip wire is set and one character keeps being referred to by the nickname of "Big Feet," one kind of knows what's coming. Severin and Elder continue to impress me with their joint efforts and "Bomb Run!" is that rare tale with an ending that truly surprised me.
From Two-Fisted Tales #25 |
From Weird Science #11 |
Next Week-- Jack saves Peter from the hordes of Sgt. Rock fans tired of their hero being criticized! On Sale Nov. 21st! |
4 comments:
Am I the only one who doesn't understand the universal praise heaped upon Kurtzman? I get it, the guy was innovative and I will agree that Kurtzman could write well but I find his artwork dreadful, especially when placed alongside the other EC artists that worked on the war books. He wrote some powerful fiction for the war books but his cartoony style, which fit MAD well, is jarring in the other EC books. Guys like Wood and Severin could adapt that cartoon style for the humor books but could always shift back to a fine illustration style for the more serious material. Kurtzman didn't have that versatility. Also, I've read that, as an editor, he was an overbearing bull to work for.
I greatly enjoy Feldstein's work as a writer, probably because he wrote the EC material I mostly enjoy (horror/crime and scifi). Also, he had far more to write each month than Kurtzman or Craig and some of the horror stories and espeically the Shock stories are classics.
Hi Jordan -
Thanks for commenting!
I'm with you as far as Kurtzman's art is concerned. It got to the point where I so rarely had anything positive to say about it, I just began avoiding commenting on the War titles.
But I also realize that such taste is subjective, so perhaps some of Kurtzman's supporters will weigh in.
John
Does "Bunker Hill" have some later (Korean War) tie-in, showing the one group of soldiers as successors to the other, or is it the Battle of Bunker Hill alone?
It's just that, nearly the only war comic I ever owned had a story tying the two things together. If it's the same one, it would've been a reprint, which this one might never have had. Plus, GCD seems to list a SECOND story called "Bunker Hill," which did get a reprint in a mid- ' 60s war comic, so that's probably the one. But I was hoping to find out for sure.
Grant, I went back over "Bunker Hill" and its strictly the American Revolution--no Korean War parallel. You must be thinking of the other story you saw in the GCD.
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