The DC War Comics
1959-1976 by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook |
Dominguez |
"The Survivor"
Story by John Albano
Art by Alfredo Alcala
"Jump Into Hell"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Alfredo Alcala
"A Time to Die"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Ernie Chan (Chua)
Peter: During the first World War, French Corporal Deauville racks up some pretty astounding numbers as far as German kills go. He's a one-man wrecking machine (and he prefers hand-to-hand combat rather than from afar), but his comrades are deservedly spooked by the man's elan (and queer cackling) during battle. Then, one day during battle, Corporal Dupree has a deserting German in his sights but Deauville prevents the man from firing. It's as if Deauville wanted this particular German to survive. Later that day, that particular German, Corporal Adolf Hitler, muses with a medic on how lucky he is that the French are such poor marksmen.
"The Survivor" |
"Jump Into Hell" |
"A Time to Die" |
Kubert |
"The Doomsday Heroes!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Jack Sparling
"Return"
Story by Gerry Boudreau
Art by Walt Simonson
Peter: Over the Pacific, the Unknown Soldier poses as a pilot and must put his all-around military skills to the test when he's suddenly surrounded by kamikazes aiming for a US battleship. At the moment of truth, the jet's guns jam and US is forced to ram a diving plane, sending both pilots into the drink. US prevents the Japanese pilot from committing harakiri and the two head off in a skimpy life raft to find safer waters. Mines and Great Whites keep the pair busy until they wash up onshore. The two have formed a cautious alliance but, once the duo has landed on a small island, the enemy pilot clobbers our hero and swims out to sea to destroy a crippled aircraft carrier just off-shore. Grabbing hold of a mine, the pilot gets within range of destroying the ship but is eaten by a shark just before completing his mission. The Unknown Soldier swims back to the island to ponder life and wonder why there is war.
"Return" |
Gerry Boudreau's "Return" is a sequel to "U.F.M." (from SSWS #170), and it's more of the same ponderous and cliched science fiction but, like its predecessor, it's nicely illustrated by Walt Simonson, and sometimes that's all that matters.
Jack: As I began to read "The Doomsday Heroes!" I thought it was just a retread of a similar story we saw awhile back in the Sgt. Rock series, but as it went along I got wrapped up in it and found it exciting. My only complaint is that the hero could be anyone and the fact that he's the Unknown Soldier seems meaningless. This is a rare tale where the writing is better than the art. The opposite is true of "Return." The story isn't much but, once again, I'm thrilled to see Walt Simonson's dynamic pages. Too bad all of the men in this future world wear their hair and beards like it's 1974!
Kubert |
"A Man Called Rock!
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by George Evans
"The Mighty Mosquito"
Story by Ed Herron
Art by Joe Kubert
(Reprinted from All-American Men of War #49, September 1957)
"The Sergeant and the Gun!"
Story by Robert Bernstein
Art by Mort Drucker
(Reprinted from All-American Men of War #63, November 1958)
"Stop the War--I Want to Get Off!"
(Reprinted from Our Army at War #196, August 1968)
"Death Ship of Three Wars!"
(Reprinted from All-American Men of War #101, February 1964)
"Foxhole Fever!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by John Severin
(Reprinted from Star Spangled War Stories #65, January 1958)
"No Loot for the Hellcats!"
(Reprinted from Our Fighting Forces #114, August 1968)
"Horseless!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada
"A Man Called Rock!" |
"The Mighty Mosquito" |
Not much better is "The Mighty Mosquito," a reprint from 1957 with typically strong Kubert art but also typically cornball writing by Ed Herron. The title craft is a small PT boat that finds itself in the middle of a battle with much larger planes and ships. Of course, in the end, it's the little boat that saves the day and earns the title moniker.
"The Sergeant and the Gun!" |
We then get a reprint of the classic Rock story, "Stop the War--I Want to Get Off!" from 1968, followed by "Death Ship of Three Wars!," a Johnny Cloud reprint from 1964 that Peter and I had very different reactions to when we wrote about it in 2015. Another former EC artist, John Severin, contributes "Foxhole Fever!," a story new to us because it was first published in 1958, before the 1959 start date for issues covered in our War Comics blog. A soldier named Al is an expert at digging foxholes, but when he finds himself in combat he has to resort to a series of makeshift shelters instead of digging the real thing.
"Horseless!" |
Peter: I disliked Robert Kanigher's script and George Evans's art for "A Man Called Rock!" immensely. Where does Rock find the time to be in all these different places and training so many green recruits and why would he be separated from the rest of Easy? Big Bob's monstrous monthly workload obviously contributed to the cut-and-pasting from past scripts and the silliness thrown in to ramp up the drama (doubtful the Nazis would waste firepower on a bunch of harmless natives and then sit tight inside their tin can while Rock set them ablaze). Best just to forget this sub-par Sgt. Rock and hope for better out of both Kanigher and Evans next issue. Much better is "Horseless!," another grim "Big Bob's Gallery of War" entry, with passable art by Estrada. Yes, I'd rather this was illustrated by John Severin, but there aren't a lot of close-ups of human faces so Ric's art doesn't grate.
The three reprints offer up a lot of nice artwork from Kubert, Drucker, and Severin, along with the patented catch phrases and impossible GI odds and situations that 1950s' DC War titles excelled in. Any of the three are certainly preferable to the main event this issue.
Kubert |
"The Man Who Killed Jeb Stuart"
Story by John David Warner
Art by Sam Glanzman
"Sword of Blood!"
Story by John David Warner
Art by Ric Estrada
Peter: While rumbling through Italy, the boys of the Jeb Stuart come across a kid named Rod Carson, who's escaped from the decimated town of Carola. He begs the crew to take him to the village so that they can save the men who are trapped by the Germans. After getting the GI aboard, the Haunted Tank heads for Carola, but something about Carson is nagging at Jeb Stuart (the tank commander) and that same nagging extends to the ghost who "protects" the Haunted Tank. The General materializes to his descendant and insists the Jeb should stay clear of Carola and, further, should drop Carson off on the side of the road and leave him be. Jeb (the younger) explains that they can't shirk their duty and the General disappears in a funky vapor. Later, the General appears before Carson and tries to talk sense into him as well, but to no avail. Just then, a sniper cuts down Carson and the crew assumes he's dead, so they roll into Carola to blow the hell out of some Nazi bastards. Carson shows up in the nick of time to save Jeb from eating German shrapnel and Carson's comrades are saved. The General makes another appearance to confirm to the younger Stuart that Carson is the descendant of "The Man Who Killed Jeb Stuart."
"The Man Who Killed Jeb Stuart" |
"Sword of Blood!" |
Jack: Another example of an issue where the writing is better than the art, G.I. Combat 171 is hobbled by more sub-par work by Sam Glanzman and Ric Estrada. Twenty-one year old John David Warner brings some fresh ideas to what has become a stale comic book. The increased involvement of the ghost in the first story is welcome, as is the small history lesson. The second story reflects the kung fu craze that was in full swing at the time.
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CIRCULATION, WE GOT CIRCULATION!
Here's how our favorite war titles did in 1973 (Weird War Tales was still too young to qualify and we won't see sales figures for that title until 1975). We're suckers for lots of trivial data, so we've included the sales reports for the three previous years as well. After a growth spurt in 1972, sales of DC war titles are down across the board (in the case of G.I. Combat, drastically so), but then so were sales of just about all comics titles.
1973 1972 1971 1970
G.I. Combat 161,702 170,557 167,841 178,363
Our Army at War 163,221 165,021 161,881 171,510
Our Fighting Forces 147,968 156,524 164,142 139,770
Star Spangled War Stories 144,292 154,716 145,869 136,204
Amazing Spider-Man 273,204 288,379 307,550 322,195
Batman 200,574 185,283 244,488 293,897
Superman 240,558 252,317 325,618 329,925
Next Week... This is what happens when you read too many comic books every week! |
Wow. Wonder what drove the huge drop in the comics circulation...and suspect it was drugstores and supermarkets particularly dumping their comics racks, as the nickels and dimes they made on the comics became less and less valuable...and probably no little single-issue sales resistance from readers as prices rose to 20c, 25c, and onward.
ReplyDeleteI think you're eight, Todd-the price hikes had a lot to do with it, along with a general drop in circulation of periodicals across the board. I know that when I was a teenager in the mid- to late-'70s, I was incensed at one of the price hikes--40 cents?--and decided it was just too much to keep paying for comics. Now, I pay $4.99 for a 100-pager at Wal-Mart without blinking an eye.
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