The DC War Comics
1959-1976 by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook |
Kubert |
"Sergeants Don't Stay Dead!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath
"Invisible Sniper!"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Neal Adams
Jack: A cartoonist is following Easy Company, drawing pictures from the war, when he is killed in an attack by a Nazi plane. Sgt. Rock sees that his last work was a sheet with three drawings of Rock himself, as a soldier in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War One. Rock is knocked out in a battle with a tank and dreams that he's fighting in each of the wars the cartoonist pictured. Every time, he fights to the death and earns the enemy's admiration, but "Sergeants Don't Stay Dead!" and he wakes up on the tank to find the rest of the men of Easy Co. finishing the job for him.
"Sergeants Don't Stay Dead!" |
A Nazi named Hans Ritter acted on the stage before the war, so when his commander asks him to become an "Invisible Sniper!" in order to kill some G.I.s and give the rest of his men time to escape from a village, Hans relishes the role. His disguise as an old woman works out fine but when he dresses as an American soldier and forgets he's still holding his German rifle, it's time to ring down the curtain.
A rather exciting story, this, featuring more art by the great Neal Adams. It's thrilling to see him at the start of his career and he already shows a great sense of pacing and outstanding skill at drawing faces.
"Invisible Sniper!" |
Heath |
"Stay Alive--Until Dark!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath
"Clay Pigeon Sub!"
Story Uncredited
Art by Russ Heath
(from Our Army at War #47, June 1956)
Peter: The Allieds have one heck of a problem: the Nazis have blown the hell out of the tin can population and the Jeb Stuart is one of only a handful left in the entire sector. The C.O. radios his orders: "Stay Alive--Until Dark!" and fool the enemy into thinking that four tanks are actually forty. It's a suicide mission for certain but no man shirks his duty and the Jeb Stuart rolls toward the French village of Crecy. Along the way, the Jeb fights off a multitude of German tanks and bombers with the help of the ghostly General Jeb Stuart. At last arriving at Crecy, the Jeb battles much larger German tanks but beats the odds and survives until nightfall. Heading for home, they save a couple of G.I.s about to be flattened by an enemy tank. Turns out to be Jeb's old buddy, Sgt. Rock. The two men muse about survival in World War II as the sun goes down.
"Stay Alive--Until Dark!" |
Great work from Russ Heath |
Jack: The story has a good premise and the scene in part one where the tank is overheated by flaming hunks of plane is genuinely exciting. It's good to see the ghost giving more help than usual and I also like the panels where tanks smash through the walls of houses. One question, though, about tank warfare in general--don't they make a lot of noise? It makes me wonder how tanks can ever sneak up on each other.
"Clay Pigeon Sub!" |
Jack: I read this without looking at the credits and I could tell it was a reprint right away. The stories from the '50s in DC war comics are less complex and the art is more straightforward. It's a good thing Heath signed it; one panel looked like Ross Andru's work to me.
More Heath |
Novick |
"Kill the Wolf Pack!"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Jack Abel
"Flying Jeep!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
(Reprinted from Our Army at War #47, June 1956)
Jack: D-Day is only days away but the Nazis have U-boats guarding the French coast in pens with concrete walls. Lt. Hunter and his Hellcats are assigned to "Kill the Wolf Pack!" by driving a fishing boat into enemy waters so that it will get captured and taken to be docked near the U-boats. What the Nazis don't know is that the boat has a false hull and is packed with TNT, which blows sky high as planned and destroys the U-boats.
The Hellcats then steal a Nazi jeep to head 20 miles to a hilltop, where they are to be rescued by a plane. The Nazis give chase, so the Hellcats commandeer a Nazi tank and make it to their rendezvous point. Nazi Major Von Kramm follows them, angry that they destroyed his submarine base. The Hellcats win a machine gun battle and get to the plane, though Von Kramm tries one last, desperate leap to stop Lt. Hunter. The lieutenant ducks and Von Kramm is chopped to bits by an airplane's propeller. The Hellcats get away safely, ready for another suicide mission.
"Kill the Wolf Pack!" |
Peter: Only three chapters in and "Hunter's Hellcats" has become Hogan's Heroes with its bad one-liners and inept adventures. Abel's art is no better.
Jack: Since he was a kid, Lennie Brown always missed his target. Now that he's in the Army, the same thing keeps happening. He falls into the drink instead of landing on an assault boat, but while he's under water he blows up a Nazi sub with TNT that was meant for his own boat. Told to drive a jeep to the next town, he encounters Nazi gunfire and the jeep is destroyed. Later, as a paratrooper, his parachute is shot full of holes, but he lands in a jeep that is also descending by parachute. From the jeep's front seat, he blasts a Nazi plane out of the air. Why does his commanding officer keep complaining? Lennie single handedly saved a boat full of soldiers and destroyed an enemy plane! The story doesn't make a lot of sense but, for some reason, the Andru and Esposito art of 1956 is much easier to take than their art of the 1960s.
Peter: "Flying Jeep!" is at least a bit enjoyable and the 1956 Andru and Esposito team was certainly better than in 1966. A singularly unremarkable issue of Our Fighting Forces. More interesting is the letters page, where we find missives from super-fan Arnold (Arnie) Fenner and future Marvel editor Al Milgrom. Al suggests that Big Bob should bring back the 1940s junior war gang, the Boy Commandos, seeing as how "revivals are quite big today." Al would get his wish but he'd have to wait twenty years until Len Wein would use the BCs in his Blue Beetle reboot.
"Flying Jeep!" |
Jack: DC also revived the Boy Commandos in the early '70s as a short-lived reprint series.
Heath |
"The Killing Ground!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Neal Adams
"Ace of the Death Cloud!"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Jack Abel
Peter: Lt. Blake has come under fire for being soft and Ensign Frye is itching to take command of their PT boat but more pressing matters appear on the blue horizon: prehistoric monster dinosaurs from the stone age at the dawn of time have suddenly surfaced between the PT and the destroyer that had been dogging them, making the Pacific "The Killing Ground!" Sea serpents drag the destroyer to the bottom of the ocean, kayoing one threat to our boys, but then a giant octopus wraps its deadly tentacles around the little boat. Only a synchronized volley of TNT cupcakes blasts the octopus into diner's portions. Through a haze of fog, the men spot an island and decide to investigate. Approaching, they are fired on by the enemy, who had obviously ensconced themselves on this little good-for-nothing plot of ground. Suddenly, a giant Platiobrontosaur crushes the machine-gunners with a well-placed tree before turning its attention to the pretty floating thing just offshore. Luckily, the men are able to destroy the stone-age nightmare creature with a well-synchronized volley of TNT rumballs; unluckily, the beast holds fast to the PT. Waiting for the tide to come in and float them to safety, the Lt. and his men wade ashore to look for more snipers. Just then, a pterodactyl swoops in and carries away the Ensign and the Lt. feels obliged to search for him. Frye is rescued just before he is to be consumed by two very hungry birds. The men make their way back to the PT, confident that their Ensign now feels as though the skipper is the man for the job.
"The Killing Ground!" |
Jack: Adams's creative page layouts are impressive and point the way forward to the great work he would soon do for DC and Marvel. He must have had a Big Book of Dinosaurs on his drawing table when he penciled this story, because he sure provides a smorgasbord of monsters for our entertainment. The pterodactyl was good practice for his depiction of Sauron two years later in X-Men 60 and 61.
"Ace of the Death Cloud!" |
Jack: I guess we have to grade Jack Abel's art on a curve--is it Good Abel or Bad Abel? If you compare it to the art by Neal Adams in the first story, it falls woefully short. Still, this is definitely Good Abel, and the WWI planes sure do look cool in the flying scenes. The ghostly aspect is also welcome, as you point out.
More Adams! |
Kubert |
"Candidate for a Firing Squad!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert
"Invasion Beach Taxi!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Russ Heath
(Reprinted from Our Army at War #44, March 1956)
Jack: Sgt. Rock and the men of Easy Co. are about to execute a "Candidate for a Firing Squad!" named Vic Smith, a deserter who mocks their guns. Just then, Nazi paratroopers attack! Easy Co. defeats the enemy and, rather than shooting Smith, Rock decides to take him to HQ and let the brass decide what to do with him.
On the way to HQ, Rock takes a bullet from a Nazi plane while protecting Smith. Little Sure Shot saves Smith from a land mine and Wee Willie is killed when he jumps in front of Smith and takes a Nazi bullet. When a tank flattens Easy Co., Smith attacks it on his own and is killed saving Rock and his men. As he dies, he sees Rock saluting him as a real soldier.
"Candidate for a Firing Squad!" |
Russ Heath does a great job filling in for Joe Kubert on Sgt. Rock, but there's nothing like the real thing, as the old song goes. The death of Wee Willie is a shock, since he's a real character that we've gotten to know over the months and years, not just a new recruit thrown in for an issue to be killed off. Smith's epiphany is believable and the plotting works out when he dies, since he was a man marked for death from the start.
"Invasion Beach Taxi!" |
Peter: Both Big Bob and Sgt. Rock are stuck in a rut. "Candidate" is another poor script with the requisite touches--awkward shout out to the title (twice), Easy blasting a Nazi plane from the sky yet avoiding immolation, and the same message (every G.I. is equal as long as they wear the uniform) hammered home ad infinitum. Even Joe's work here is a bit sketchy. I liked the reprint much more with its "the grass is always greener . . ." message and, of course, Russ's art is easy on the eyes.
Next Week: A pack of Jack Kamen fans finally catches up to Peter |
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