Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 145: January 1974

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

Dominguez

Weird War Tales 21

"One Hour to Kill!"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Frank Robbins

"When Death Took a Hand"
Story by Sheldon Mayer
Art by Bernard Baily

Peter: Captain Philip Starr is dragged off the front lines by Army brass and given a super-secret mission: he will go back to the 15th-Century via a time machine and he has "One Hour to Kill!" Leonardo da Vinci. Since da Vinci is the originator of rapid fire weapons, the Army is convinced war will no longer exist if the artist is assassinated. His boss explains that the machine will allow Starr to stay in the past for sixty minutes then pluck him up and dump him right back in the 20th. Starr makes the journey but can't pull the trigger on an innocent man and he drops his sidearm just as the machine pulls him back to the future. Oh, the irony! If Captain Starr had not made the journey, da Vinci would never have "designed"  the world's first Walther PPK. It was only a matter of time before we saw Frank Robbins assigned art duties (he's been doing a decent job of writing Unknown Soldier) and so my teeth are gritted and I'm braced for the worst. At least Batman doesn't appear in this wretched time-travel yarn, so we're spared the sight of his wiggly, rubbery limbs. Lots of clenched jaws and unrecognizable backgrounds and a "twist" ending everyone saw coming.

Stan Lee makes an appearance at DC headquarters

In "When Death Took a Hand," Private Ivers has no courage until a grenade goes off near him and he survives. Suddenly, he's leading his friends in a charge and wiping the Earth of scummy Nazis. After a long, arduous battle, his comrades go looking and find him... right in the spot where he died after getting hit with the grenade. A ghost had been leading the charge! Oh, man, this issue is the pits, the worst since the title was introduced. Not only in the microwaved and cliched scripts but also in the ugly, amateurish art found in both stories, which is a startling turnaround from the quality of artwork we've been graced with in the last dozen or so issues. Hopefully, we'll be back on track next time out.

"When Death Took a Hand"

Jack: After seeing so much bad art over the course of 145 DC War Comics posts, ranging from that of Jerry Grandenetti to that of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, I think I've become more immune to it than I used to be. In any case, I didn't think Robbins's art was as terrible as I expected. Granted, the premise of the lead story is ridiculous and the ending uses an old science fiction trope, but it was far from a one-star story, in my opinion. Bernard Baily's art is a tad better than Robbins's but I don't really like his '70s work and it's not nearly as good as his Golden Age stuff. The plot is just more of the same.

Barr

Star Spangled War Stories 177

"The Hornet's Nest!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Jack Sparling

"The Better Part of Valor!"
Story by Don Kaar
Art by Frank Thorne

Peter: Since his identity has been compromised and he's stuck inside a freight car bound for a Nazi concentration camp, the Unknown Soldier must think quick or Operation: Whocanrememberwhatthehellwasgoingon will be nipped in the bud. A melee inside the box car and a lit fire provide the perfect escape into the night but, since the idea is to make it to the stalag, US manages to transform himself into Major Schatz, the officer in charge of the train. The Nazis are on to the deception but they can't figure out who's who. Meanwhile, the German version of The Unknown Soldier stews and awaits the inevitable showdown with his verdammt American counterpart!

"The Hornet's Nest!"

"The Hornet's Nest!" is a 'tweener chapter, thirteen pages of nothing-really-happens, a chance for Archie to strrrrrretch a two-parter into three. It's not awful but it's certainly not the bundle of action and excitement that was the first chapter. For one thing, the other bandaged freak, Captain von Sturm, is barely present and when he does pop up, it's to answer some retort from stalag commandant Krantz or make a silly face. Call me crazy but I'm starting to get used to Jack Sparling's "art." Well, at least when it's applied to pulp fiction such as this.

The back-up this issue,"The Better Part of Valor!," is an interesting look at how Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna and his army after days of retreating. It's another of the bio-comics that Harvey Kurtzman did so well in the EC days and the DC writers do to varying degrees of success. That might be down to which skirmish they elect to dramatize. This here battle had enough twists to keep my interest but Frank Thorne's art is still on the rough side.

"The Better Part of Valor!"

Jack: I like Thorne's art--always have. I remember him wandering around the NYC Comic Con in the mid-'70s dressed as a wizard with half-naked Red Sonjas in tow. Those were the days, eh? "The Better Part of Valor!" is well-told and Thorne's art fits the story, which is of particular interest to me since I visited San Jacinto with my grandfather in 1984. I had ancestors who died at the Alamo, so I like stories of early Texas. I'm not ready to embrace Jack Sparling's art; however, in this issue's letters column, a reader praises it and Archie Goodwin wholeheartedly agrees. The editor also notes that new page count is down to 20 and they have abandoned the "Make War No More" slogan.

Kubert

Our Fighting Forces 146

"The Forever Walk!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by John Severin

"Burma Sky"
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

Jack: Having left Fort Fini behind, the Losers suffer from extreme thirst and begin to see mirages, including one that looks like a group of Nazis at a water hole. A tiff between Gunner and Johnny Cloud is interrupted when the group is attacked by a Nazi plane; as usual, small arms fire from the ground succeeds in bringing the plane to a fiery end. The Losers happen upon a tank graveyard that is used to conceal a water source, so they drink deep and await the tank attack that comes soon enough. Gunner helps Ona and the position is lost; Cloud complains and, before you know it, Ona is sneaking off alone into a desert dust storm, feeling guilty about the problems she thinks she has caused.

Johnny Cloud's sexism is hard to take in 2018 and he refers to Ona as a "squaw" and Gunner as "moon-eyed." This is just a minor complaint, though, as "The Forever Walk!" is a strong entry in the continuing saga of the desert wanderings of the Losers. Kanigher seems to be developing a romance between Gunner and Ona, which may mean she's not long for the strip. Severin's art is superb and makes the art we saw this month in Weird War Tales and Star Spangled War Stories look all the worse in comparison.

"The Forever Walk!"

In early 1942, Japanese planes rule the "Burma Sky." The Flying Tigers do their best to preserve the Burma Road but cannot hold out against the enemy's superior firepower. The Americans abandon their position and Pappy Coburn, who had flown in the prior World War, takes to the air in an old biplane and gets one last measure of vengeance against the Japanese before being shot down.

Archie Goodwin provides a solid story but Alex Toth really outdoes himself in this seven-page classic, which is not so much drawn as designed and done beautifully. Toth's pages deserve to be reprinted; I'll just reproduce one here so you can see what I'm talking about. He dedicates the art to "Jerry deFuccio, Johnny Severin, and 'Tiger' buffs of every stripe" and to late cartoonist Bert Christman. Wikipedia tells me that Christman was a DC artist who was killed in the action described in this very story in January 1942. Wow is all I can say. We have our first definite entry in the top ten of 1974.

"Burma Sky"

Peter: A very good entry in the Losers' saga this issue, with tempers flaring and hearts palpitating. I keep waiting for this strip to hit its brick wall but it continues to hold my interest, and it's not lost on me that it might be due to John Severin's awesome art. I hate the word "awesome" because it sounds so yuppie, but "awesome" is an adjective I would apply to Severin's Losers work. Not just the art--it's the story and the fact that it seems we are on a journey. I'm not sure I want to get to the end of this particular trip, though. The climax, in particular, is strong, with Ona separating from the rest of the crew to forestall any more macho heroics. We don't need Big Bob's captions telling us "She's making a TNT decision." Nope, we can read it in her eyes and in her tears.

I'd heard and read a lot about "Burma Sky" through the years from fans but, until now, had never had the pleasure of experiencing this four-star battle classic. How could anything with the names Goodwin and Toth attached be anything less than magnificent? In an enlightening essay in Chris Pedrin's Big Five, DC war enthusiast James Robinson calls "Burma Sky," "one of the best stories ever to appear in a comic book." While I'll reserve judgment until I get the reading of at least another ten thousand funny book stories under my belt, I'll bow to the judgment of enthusiasts who know more about this genre than I do.

Kubert

Our Army at War 264

"The Hunt!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath

"The Gook"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: Having liberated the Nazi prison camp at the end of last issue, Rock and Easy Company blow it sky high so it will house no more prisoners. Trudging along through the snowy landscape, they are set upon by Nazis with potato mashers, but some well-aimed shots from the American sergeant quickly eliminate the menace. Moving on, the men of Easy Co. observe that a Nazi tank is attacking the rest of the prisoners who were set free from the camp. Rock and his men try to think of a way to attack the tank when a second tank attacks them and they are forced to take shelter in a farmhouse. They run out the back and find themselves in a minefield! Rock and co. use large stones to detonate the mines and create a walking path for themselves; Rock runs ahead and attracts the tank's fire until its treads come in contact with a mine and it is destroyed. Rock realizes that the delay in fighting off the tank means that the other prisoners are doomed, so he and Easy Co. head back to their lines.

This drawing of Bulldozer does not look like Heath.

Not a bad story, but not a very good one, either--"The Hornet's Nest!" features some unusually rough work by our friend Russ Heath and this makes me wonder if someone else did the inking. I also wonder if we've seen the last of those supposedly doomed prisoners. I do like the continued stories we're seeing now.

"The Gook" is a North Vietnamese soldier who witnesses bombing runs and vows to see the eyes of the men who fly the enemy planes. He is shot during a jungle ambush and finally sees the enemy close up when an American soldier inspects the bodies of the dead. A grenade ends the lives of both American and North Vietnamese soldiers.

"The Gook"

The offensive term of the title is hopefully used with irony, though the final paragraph mentions "slant eyes and round eyes" and remarks that no one can tell the difference once they're dead. I admire Kanigher's efforts at telling more adult stories in the back of the book, but this one verges on offensive and Ric Estrada's art doesn't help.

Peter: Though "The Hunt" does not steer far from the road Rock has been traveling (the one I was complaining about in our last installment), there were a couple of novel detours that I liked quite a bit. Having Easy stumble so quickly across the United Nations of POWs they had freed last issue was a surprise, but then to have Rock wave his men away because the death of the others is "somethin' we're helpless to stop!" is a pretty ballsy move for Big Bob to make. We don't get the usual last-second save, either. The scene where Easy must throw stones across the mine field is a classic, something I'd never thought about. Rock even dispatches the Tiger in a unique way, rather than resorting to the usual "Open up the turret! I'm dropping in a TNT pineapple while I ride this iron horse!" nonsense. "The Gook" is a decent entry in "Gallery of War" but the subject matter (or variations thereof) has been used a few times already and I'm hoping for a new artist on this strip pronto. This Ric Estrada cartooning is killing me.

Neal Adams

G.I. Combat 168

"The Breaking Point!"
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Sam Glanzman

"Panzer!"
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Sid Check

Peter: After being rescued (last issue) and airlifted back to Italy, the Haunted Tank crew comes under attack and Leftenant Farrar (again, see last issue!) is shot and killed. Reaching "The Breaking Point!" after watching his new friend and ally murdered before his eyes, Jeb Stuart chases the assassin into the ruins of a village and brat-ta-tat-tats the party responsible, but gets a shock to the system when he discovers his target was a girl. Another round of machine gun bullets brings Jeb back to his senses and he whirls to see a dead Nazi, blown to hell by Jeb's crew. Turns out the girl was an innocent bystander but the good news is... she's alive! The better news is... she's a babe! And it doesn't take very long for Jeb and Rachele to fall in love. Disgusted with all this war business, Jeb tells his boys that he's deserting and heading to a paradise known as San Palmera with his new soulmate. But, as happens in war, all of Jeb's dreams are dashed when Rachele steps on a land mine and becomes a memory (well, pieces of a memory) that Jeb will cherish for the rest of this arc.

"The Breaking Point!"

Possibly the most maudlin and utterly predictable script Archie Goodwin has ever turned in, a hunk of junk from start to finish. Just in case we don't remember that maintaining a good relationship during wartime is not an easy task, we get a brief flashback to Jeb's doomed marriage (way back in #139) just before the curtain falls on Rachele. Not that we expected Jeb to actually turn his back on war and leave the series, but this new-found freedom (thanks to desertion, I might add) lasts all of three panels and our hero's mood after returning to his mates could be described as "sulky," rather than devastated. His final proclamation, to get the men responsible for mining the road and killing his true love, sounds a bit far-fetched, but this is a strip about a tank commander and his ghost bodyguard. The follow-up this issue, "Panzer!," is better Goodwin, but the art by Sid Check is at times very good and at other times, almost shapeless. It's tough in some of the panels to figure out exactly what is going on since everything seems to blend together, but that may be down to the colorist. This was Check's comeback to the comics field after retiring in the late 1950s (and joining the Post Office!); his first wave of art appeared in EC and Atlas comic books.

"Panzer!"

Jack: It's almost false advertising to put a Neal Adams cover on this comic and then open it up to reveal art by Sam Glanzman and Sid Check. Glanzman's work here is dreadful, especially when he draws close-ups of human faces. The romance is hokey though I was surprised when Rachele was blown up. Goodwin's script reaches an almost Marvelesque level of self pity by the end. I also found "Panzer!" hard to follow, mostly due to the muddy art. One letter writer this issue comments that "the war magazines get the leftovers as far as artists go" and, with the exception of John Severin, Russ Heath, and Alex Toth, he's right.

In Two Weeks...
The Curtain Begins to Close on EC!