Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 158: March 1975

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

Dominguez

Weird War Tales 35

"The Invaders"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Abe Ocampo

"Night of the Blood-Feast!"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Frank Robbins

"The Day After Doomsday!"
Story by Steve Skeates
Art by Alfredo Alcala

"To Hell and Back"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by George Evans

"The Invaders"

Peter: In the Himalayas, soldiers searching for a missing cargo plane find a band of Yeti scavenging the carcass of the wreckage and fire on them. The snowmen flee but their leader is mortally wounded and passes his chief-ship down to his son, Kerli, with a story of their history. Thousands of years ago, a spaceship flew in from Mars and began a war with the cavemen of Earth. It was a long and bloody war and eventually only a few of the leader's ancestors survived, heading up into the hills to hide. The leader finishes his story and urges Kerli to run and not seek revenge for the attack. Being a hothead, Kerli does exactly the opposite and heads back to the cave of the Yeti, where he rouses his troops to head down into the valley and attack the Martians. Surprise is on their side and the snowmen come away with more than a victory; they arm themselves. The army calls in back-up and a bloody war between the soldiers and the snowmen ends with the only surviving Yeti being Kerli. As the soldiers advance into Kerli's cave, the ape-like creature is surprised to see his father at the front of the ranks. The leader explains to his son how the soldiers took him back to the base and nursed him back to health, hoping that the elder could talk sense to the fiery youngster. When Kerli vows to his father to kill all the Martians, his pop calmly explains that it was and always has been the Yetis that were the Martians!

"The Invaders"

It was finished! All but the hate... the hate that destroys reason, that drives men to war... the hate that drives its victims on and on and never permits them to learn until it is too late that in war, nobody wins. Not even--the victor.

Oh, I get it. War is Hell, right? Oleck's last panel reveal for "The Invaders" is a good one until you realize the whole story is built on a cheat. When the leader is relating the history of the conflict, he never tells his son that they themselves are the Martians. Why wouldn't he? Just a few more words and perhaps Kerli might not have gone on his deadly jag, but I guess Pops loved to tell a good cliffhanger. It is interesting that there's no real time frame given for the story; this could be WWII or contemporary times. The art, by Abe Ocampo, is spotty; here it's not bad and over there it looks like Ocampo might have traced over some Planet of the Apes stills (the panel of Kerli done up like Sgt. Rock is a howler!).

The cleverest aspect of "The Night of the Blood-Feast!" is its title (which not only evokes the pulps but riffs off of an old 1950s' AIP horror flick). This three-pager, which tells the totally original story of a man who shows up at a German field hospital requesting blood, is stupid, cliched, and sports a typically bad Frank Robbins art job. I'd complain about the three pages wasted but then at least it wasn't ten pages like the first travesty. The latest installment of the worthless series, "The Day After Doomsday!," gives us a man who knows he's going to die, so he breaks into a bank so he can roll in piles of money just one time. This one feels more like one of those silly short-shorts that filled the pages of Plop! back in the day.

The last story this issue is the best, but only by default. During World War I, pilot Captain Hamilton begs his CO not to saddle him with any more rookies, as they're only being shot out of the sky. The CO tells Hamilton to buck up and protect the new kids and Hamilton swears he will, even if he has to go "To Hell and Back!" Well, during a particularly snowy Christmas Eve, the ace does exactly that as he is shot down but then manages to lead his boys back to the airstrip. Though the story is overly familiar, at least we get to see George Evans at the top of what game he had left in 1974 (no, it's not close to his work at EC, but it's still tolerable).

"To Hell and Back"

Jack: "To Hell and Back" is an old story with a twist that's been used before, but the whole thing is well-told by Evans and it's always a treat to see his WWI planes. I kind of liked "The Invaders," though you're right that the art was uneven. The story is a mashup of ancient astronauts, abominable snowmen, and end of Vietnam War malaise. The Kashdan/Robbins combo lived up to expectations in "Night of the Blood-Feast!" and "The Day After Doomsday!" was even weaker than usual, due to some lackluster work by Alcala. Still, the issue as whole didn't seem as bad as we've come to expect from this series.

Kubert

G.I. Combat 176

"A Star Can Cry"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sam Glanzman

"The Frog and the Shark"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Peter: Jeb Stuart and the men of the Haunted Tank find they are unwitting pawns in the game of the gung-ho General Crocker, who sees every battle as a way to one-up another competitive general. After the crews of three tanks are killed and the Jeb is the only tin pot left standing, Jeb gives Crocker a solid left hook and finds himself facing a court-martial. Fortunately for Jeb, the building he's being tried in is blasted by Nazi sumbitches and he and Crocker are the only survivors. Like characters in a great Hemingway story, the two forget their differences and band together for the greater good of mankind. In the end, Jeb discovers that even "A Star Can Cry."

"A Star Can Cry"

Oh my, this is just awful awful awful in both art and script departments. If it's possible, Glanzman seems to be getting worse as far as the crew members go; I'm not sure I can tell one from the other anymore, even when they're being addressed by name. Big Bob lays down one huge slab of lazy here, with such nuggets as "Who wouldn't gripe about a real General who's playin' checkers with us on a TNT board?" while the boys discuss (for the umpteenth time) the fact that their commander seems to be talking to a ghost. Crocker's abrupt 180 degree turn from Patton-esque bravado to crying in the field is not without precedent in Big Bob's toy box. These Kanigher characters seem to find their inner souls right about the time we wrap the story up. It would be tough picking a "Worst Story of the Month" from the wretched lot of funny books we were given this time out.

"The Frog and the Shark"

While diving for evidence of the killer Japanese battleship, the Mitsui, a frogman witnesses the death of his brother when the sub his brother is stationed on is blown out of the water by a Zero. The frog swears revenge on the plane and then manages to get that pound of flesh courtesy of one of the torpedoes left behind by his brother's sunken sub. "The Frog and the Shark" has the feel of one of those Kanigher/Heath frogman adventures from the early days of DC War. It's fun enough on a story level but, unfortunately, Ric Estrada is no Russ Heath (he's not even an Andru and Esposito) and so the tale suffers quite a bit from the cartoony style.

Jack: On page four of "A Star Can Cry," the crew of the tank spend one panel expressing their relief that their commander is not talking to his ghostly friend. In the very next panel, he's talking to the ghost and the crew is back to complaining! Jeb acts like a jerk when he punches the general and the whole setup stinks of Vietnam-era attitudes being superimposed on a story set in WWII. Kanigher's script manages to get from point A to point B competently enough but Glanzman doesn't help him get there. The backup story is far-fetched and ridiculous and I agree that it reads like a script left over from twenty years before. Estrada's art makes me yearn for the good old days when Kubert would've wrung some excitement out of this situation. At the end of this post I've copied Bob Kanigher's autobiography from this issue, which is very interesting!

Kubert

Our Army at War 278

"Rearguard Action"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by George Evans

"A Helping Hand"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: It's late June 1943, and a war correspondent types out his report as Sgt. Rock and the men of Easy Co. are among the American troops landing at Salerno to start the invasion of Italy! A soldier named Andy is killed when the troop carrier is bombed before reaching land, but Rock and the rest of his men make it ashore despite heavy fire from German troops.

On the road north to Rome, the Americans encounter "Rearguard Action" but press forward, with Rock leading the way and sensing booby traps in places like a seemingly placid farmhouse. Heavy rains make the roads difficult to travel due to mud, and Easy Co. manages to defeat a group of Germans dressed in American uniforms. The sun comes out and the march to Rome continues, as Rock and Little Sure Shot wonder if the folks back home will ever know what it's really like in war. With foreign correspondents (and comic book writers and artists) working hard to report the battle action, we're assured that the stories will be told.

"A Star Can Cry"

George Evans's 1970s' DC work is up and down, and he usually does better with stories depicting air battle than with stories depicting land battle, but this tale is not bad. I especially like Kubert's cover, with the reporter's hands typing out a story and Rock and his men engaged in combat in front of the paper. Someone must have gone through the decades of comics and plotted out all of the places Easy Co. fought during WWII, since it seems like they were everywhere!

When Confederate Captain Grantland Brock and his men are ambushed during the Civil War, everyone else is killed and he is wounded. Along comes a fellow Rebel soldier named Andrews, also the lone survivor of his unit, to help Brock get safely back through enemy lines under cover of darkness. Brock lies alone as Andrews fights two Union soldiers single-handedly; fortunately, Andrews is victorious and returns to continue assisting the captain. Brock is so grateful for "A Helping Hand" that he offers to make Andrews his partner in rebuilding his plantation after the war is over, but the captain is surprised at sunrise to see that Andrews is a black man!

That must have been one heck of a dark night for Brock not to notice that Andrews was black. The story is fairly exciting and the fact that Andrews is depicted in shadow until the last panel makes it clear that something is up, but I admit I did not see what was coming until right before the end. Estrada's art is more bearable when the faces are in shadow, anyway.

"A Helping Hand"

Peter: More super-powered adventures and near-misses. What to do with an iconic character who seems to be stuck in the mud with the wheels spinning (ironically, there's actually such a scene in this story)? I have no answer, but plopping him down in random time frames and random locations is not the answer, Big Bob. I wasn't even sure what was going on in the scene with the mud-sunk jeep. Did Rock get wise to the deception? How? And I find it even odder that we are never introduced to the journalist/narrator. Like the Haunted Tank and the Losers, this series (now 186 chapters long) is growing moldy and boring. The "twist" at the climax of "A Helping Hand" is hardly surprising, since Ric keeps his character's face in the shade throughout the tale. The art is atrocious; the "helping hand" looks like a character from one of those Creepy voodoo stories where the guy has his head shrunken but his body stays the original size.

Kirby & D. Bruce Berry

Our Fighting Forces 153

"Big Max"
Story by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer

Jack: The Nazis have a new weapon known as "Big Max" that is blowing everything to Kingdom Come. An American spy gets close to the weapon but is discovered and killed; with his dying breath he warns of an Allied weapon called the Devastator, which can destroy Big Max.

The Nazis are concerned about the rumored weapon and the Losers hook up with Rocketship Rumpkin, who holds the key to the Devastator. Rumpkin is really P.F.C. Rodney Rumpkin, a soldier who loves science fiction pulps. The Losers ordered up a twin-barreled Devastator and ask Rodney to pilot it. The secret weapon is rolled out and it blows three enemy planes out of the sky.

Unknown to the Nazis, the Devastator is a fake and the planes were rigged to blow up. The Nazis buy into the secret weapon and roll out Big Max in the daytime to respond; immediately, Allied planes bomb the Nazi weapon and reduce it to rubble. Though Rodney feels like a fraud, the Losers are glad that the Nazis fell for the ruse.

"Big Max" is classic '70s Kirby. Lots of big pages, big machines, and simple ideas presented as if something really big is going on. Mike Royer's inks bring out all the worst traits of the King's art and any characterization that had been built up among the Losers before Kirby's arrival is forgotten. At the bottom of this post is Kirby's page-long essay that replaces the letters column. He argues that his Losers stories show the war as it really was and that readers need to cut him some slack.

Peter: I'm really not sure what the hell I just read but at least it was more entertaining than any of the previous catastrophes. That doesn't mean I thought it was a good story; it's confusing as all hell and Holy! Crap! Does! Jack! Love! His! Exclamation! Points! Was the crux of the story that the Army will go to any extreme to fool the enemy? Why bother using science fiction cliches? I give extra bonus points to anyone out there who can keep these characters separate in their heads thanks to Jack's stenciling. Have a gander at the consecutive panels reproduced here. Does Storm doff his Naval cap and eye patch and re-emerge as Johnny Cloud in the next panel or what?

Kubert

Star Spangled War Stories 185

"The Hero"
Story by David Michelinie
Art by Gerry Talaoc

"To Defend the Fatherland!"
Story by Don Kraar
Art by Sam Glanzman

Peter: The Unknown Soldier is given a two-pronged mission: he must rescue captured surgeon, Lord Buford Rodney, from behind enemy lines and he must also elevate the doc into a hero for the sake of English morale. US impersonates a Nazi-sympathizing Swiss scientist and manages to worm his way into German trust but the mission takes a left at the fork when our scarred protagonist discovers that Rodney doesn't want to be rescued. He's, in fact, a masochistic scumbag who digs having a never-ending supply of Jewish guinea pigs to conduct his hellish experiments on. When the time to escape arrives, US has a change of heart and frees the prisoners Rodney has been using, leaving the monster to the whim of his victims.

"The Hero"

Another very strong installment of the Unknown Soldier, "The Hero" defies the cliches that Big Bob swims in and continues to offer up excitement and think pieces. I'm astonished that editor Joe Orlando was allowing Michelinie a free hand to tell these gruesome and novel tales, but I guess by this time the title had sunk to such low sales numbers, no one bothered. Rodney's descent, in a matter of pages, from hero to zero, is handled well; in other hands, the Lord would be cackling and thrusting beakers in the air. US's choice to leave his target behind surprised me as does Michelinie's choice to forego the usual bandaged visage and leave the Soldier's scarred face open to the general public. With the death of "The Losers," this series is the only thing that keeps me hopeful for the final stretch of our journey. "To Defend the Fatherland!" is a tale of the Hitler youth and an old German colonel who only wants to shield them from harm. I get the message (War is Hell!) but it's hard to get through this one thanks to Glanzman's chicken scratch.

Jack: Easily the best of the five comics we read for this post, SSWS 185 features a great lead story and a fair backup, along with another terrific cover by Kubert. There's a harsh scene in "The Hero" where the doc amputates a healthy leg without anesthesia, and the tale's violence is not hidden from view. The Unknown Soldier's unbandaged face goes back and forth from white skull to pink flesh, making me wonder how it manages to function, but if I can accept a man who flies and has x-ray vision I guess I can accept this. The sequence near the end showing the damage the doctor has done is powerful. The GCD shows "To Defend the Fatherland!" as the first credit for Don Kraar, who would go on to write Conan for Marvel in the '80s. This is a touching story marred by the usual weak art from Glanzman.

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From G.I. Combat 176

From Our Fighting Forces 153