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The DC War Comics
1959-1976 by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook |
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| Dominguez |
"The Three Wars of Don Q.!"
Story by Arnold Drake
Art by Leopoldo Duranona
Peter: American war correspondent Nick Taylor stumbles onto a career-making story but he's trapped by the Nazis in an old castle in Spain with nary a typewriter to be found. Luckily, while hiding in the crypt, Nick is discovered by a crazy old man who fancies himself Sancho Panza and Nick as Don Quixote. Nick scoffs at the old man's whimsy but, very soon, he begins to doubt his own sanity. Panza talks Nick into donning a suit of armor in order to fight the Moors and then produces a coin that can transfer the duo across time. After a few dangerous adventures, Panza and Nick end up in a future ruled by apes (stop me if you've heard this before) and only our heroes can prevent the simians from destroying the planet.
Jack: Oh, Peter, lighten up! I enjoyed this story and laughed out loud more than once. Sure, Duranona's art is a bit rough, but it's better than what we're getting from Kirby or Glanzman and probably about on par with Estrada. The story is best when it's shifting back and forth between the present and the past; Nick taking down a Nazi plane with a spear is neat, and his view of a tank as a dragon is rather inspired. The whole thing is like a DC/Weird War knockoff of Cervantes, in that the novel had Don Quixote tilting at windmills and here they're Nazi planes and tanks. The trip to the future is less successful, but again I chortled when the Armstro that they believe in turned out to be the cut-off word Armstrong from a poster of King Kong. Frankly, I enjoyed this issue more than any issue of Weird War Tales in recent memory.
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| Kubert |
"A Tank is Born"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sam Glanzman
"Face of the Enemy"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada
Peter: Just after the Colonel lets Jeb know he'll not be watching over the Haunted Tank anymore, the boys watch in horror as a fellow tank squad goes up in smoke. But what conked the tin can? At the site of the axed tank, Jeb meets an old sea captain who tells him that his ship was torpedoed by a U-Boat and all his men were lost. The Captain now spends his time planning revenge. No time to swap war stories; a score of FWs sets its eyes on the Haunted Tank and manages to score a bullseye before our heroes blast the birds out of the sky. Left with no tank, the crew ponder their future when, wonder of wonders, a brand new Pershing is discovered in the wreckage of a nearby bombed-out train. The boys christen their new vehicle by blasting the heretofore mentioned U-Boat out of the water and dub the new ride "The Haunted Tank II."
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| "A Tank is Born" |
In the short-short back-up, a disgruntled gunner complains about his job, arming a long-range weapon and wishing he could see the "Face of the Enemy." When his whole troop is wiped out by a Nazi tank, he finally gets his wish. The problem with Big Bob's "ironic tales" is that the set-up robs the pay-off of any surprise. Is that ironic?
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| "Face of the Enemy" |
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| Kubert |
"Mercy Mission"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by George Evans
"Medal of Honor"
Story and Art by Norman Maurer
"The Rock of Easy Co.!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
(reprinted from Our Army at War #81, April 1959)
"The Rock and the Wall!"
(Reprinted from Our Army at War #83, June 1959)
"Every Man's a Sergeant!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Mort Drucker
(Reprinted from All-American Men of War #52, December 1957)
"Sentries Never Sleep"
Story Uncredited
Art by Fred Ray
(Reprinted from Star Spangled War Stories #6, February 1953)
Jack: Easy Co. crosses the Remagen Bridge into Germany and the war is nearly over! Four Eyes sees smoke and jokes with Little Sure Shot that he sees smoke signals, but when Easy Co. finds the source of the smoke it turns out to be a wrecked German tank that is being used as a decoy. Gunfire breaks out and Easy again defeats the enemy. In the battle, Four Eyes's leg is grazed and Sgt. Rock orders Little Sure Shot to take Four Eyes back to Battalion Aid.
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| "The Rock of Easy Co.!" |
Fortunately, Easy Co. knew to avoid it because Little Sure Shot sent smoke signals from the farmhouse to warn them. Easy Co. fights off another bunch of Nazis and resumes its march into the heart of Germany.
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| Grrr... ("Medal of Honor") |
In 1861, in the Arizona territory, an eight-year-old boy and a herd of cattle are captured by the Indian leader Cochise. The boy's father rides after the Indians but is wounded and must return to Fort Breckenridge, where he is tended to by Dr. Bernard Irwin. Lt. Bascom and 60 men head out and track down Cochise, but the Indians attack the white men in a box canyon and a scout travels back to the fort for reinforcements. Dr. Irwin leads the second group of soldiers and manages to trick the Indians and rescue the lad. "As punishment, Irwin burned the village."
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| "Every Man's a Sergeant!" |
Herr Hauptmann may be a man of iron, but he's no match for "The Rock of Easy Co!" The American sergeant got really tough working in a steel mill back home, so when the Nazis come at the Americans, Sgt. Rocky stands up and blows them away with a machine gun. He also plants a mine under a tank and shoots a potato masher out of the air. Finally, he defeats the Iron Captain in hand to hand combat, earning him the nickname, "The Rock of East Company!" No, that's not a typo.
It's kind of hard to believe that this corny story, written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Andru and Esposito, would give birth to our beloved Sgt. Rock--or Rocky, as he is called repeatedly in this six-pager. He does demonstrate the super-heroic tendencies we'd later see in Kanigher's long-running series but, other than the name and general appearance, this isn't yet the leader we'd come to know and love.
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| "Sentries Never Sleep" |
Mort Drucker's art always makes me smile, and this six-page reprint is no exception. He just knew how to draw war stories and, especially, the faces of the men who fought. It's obvious what's going on from early in this story, but with Drucker at the drawing board it's still fun.
In the early days of the American Revolution, a Colonial soldier named Will Latham is sentenced to death by firing squad after falling asleep at his sentry post. His executioners all load their muskets with blank charges and he pretends to fall dead, thus escaping the Grim Reaper. He joins another company and is promoted to captain for bravery, but when another sentry falls asleep he takes the man's place and loses his life in the course of repelling an attack by the British.
Mediocre Fred Ray art drags down the excessively wordy "Sentries Never Sleep," a story from the very early days of DC war comics. It's a good thing we didn't start this blog in the early 1950s, because stories like this might have knocked us off our track before we ever met Sgt. Rock!
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| Bill Mantlo would have probably called this "The Doomsday Gauntlet" or some such rubbish ("Mercy Mission") |
"The Rock of Easy Co." is a Rock story in name only. The plot was borrowed years later by Big Bob for the "Iron Major" stories and there's just no getting used to that goofy Andru/Esposito art, is there? For me, the greatest joy of the 100-page "super spectaculars" is that it usually means we'll get a Mort Drucker story and, sure enough, we get "Every Man's a Sergeant!" Predictable, yes, but I couldn't care less about the words when I have Drucker's "gee,whiz!" style to admire. Speaking of words, I think "Sentries Never Sleep" could hold the record for DC war verbosity; it's the equivalent of a Stephen King novel.
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| Kirby & Berry |
"The Partisans!"
Story by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry
Jack: Somewhere in the snowy woods of Yugoslavia, Sarge drags a wounded Gunner along with him when he comes face to face with a man in a furry hat and another man in a green hat. The two men are silent but, when furry hat man waves his hand, a large group of locals with guns emerge from the mist. They all head off somewhere and Sarge follows with Gunner slung over his shoulders.
After a long march, Sarge sees Nazi soldiers guarding a railroad bridge that "The Partisans!" plan to blow up. The locals attack a railroad station to divert Nazi attention from the bridge, leaving Sarge alone on the bridge to battle an enemy tank. The tank points its gun at the group of partisans, who have appeared on a rocky spot next to the bridge but, when the tank blows them up, the entire hill explodes, having been mined with explosives.
The bridge is destroyed and Sarge is badly wounded. Nazis are about to shoot him when another group of partisans, along with the rest of the Losers (Johnny Cloud and Captain Storm), appear and all of the Nazis are killed. Gunner and Sarge are given emergency medical attention in a tent and Sarge is shocked to learn that the man in the fur hat was the ghost of a man who had been killed in fighting the year before.
Essentially a solo outing for Sarge, this story is better than the worst we've seen from Kirby, but that does not mean it's anywhere near the quality of the Losers stories we were getting before Kirby took over the strip. The King's fetishistic drawings of big machinery are a little weird, frankly, and his Sarge could be anyone--Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury, etc.
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| Ben Grimm guest-stars as Sarge in "The Partisans!" |
Peter: There's no denying that "The King" delivers the goods when it comes to big bulky inanimate objects and the results of exploding devices, but I've still got major problems with the individual characters and the lack of any personality or distinguishing features. Seriously, I can't tell them apart. The story is a tad confusing and it's capped by another of the endless "You mean our savior was a ghost?" denouements found in the funny books of the period, but I'll allow that it's the best Losers Kirby has contributed yet. I ain't sayin' it's very good, though.
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| Kubert |
"A Death in the Chapel"
Story by David Michelinie
Art by Gerry Talaoc
"Waiting for a Legend"
Story by Don Kaar
Art by Frank Redondo
Peter: After the events of last issue (Unknown Soldier is sent into Monte Grande, a small village held by the Nazis, to eliminate a priest who may be collaborating with the enemy), our hero is caught with his guard down and threatened by a vengeful soldier. US makes quick work of the Nazi and then sets about convincing Father Memmoli that it wasn't American soldiers who ran down innocent children in the village square. US drags the corpses of the Germans who had masqueraded as Americans into the father's church and leaves them there for discovery. When the priest confronts Colonel Weile about the charade, the Nazi drops all pretense and admits to the ruse, assigning a guard to watch that Memmoli doesn't escape to alert his townsfolk. Memmoli talks his way out of the church and heads for the forest where the men have made camp, awaiting orders from the Nazis. When Memmoli reveals the truth, the men angrily head back into the village and mow down the stinkin' Nazi scum that murdered their children. When Colonel Weile's orders to Memmoli go unheeded, the German shoots the father in the back and is then murdered by the Unknown Soldier. Back in D.C., the Soldier is informed that the Americans are pulling out of Monte Grande and leaving it to the Germans. Our hero's reaction leaves his C.O. without his prized world globe.
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| "A Death in the Chapel" |
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| "Waiting for a Legend" |
Jack: As we learned when reading our way through the DC horror line, the influx of Filipino artists at DC in the mid-'70s meant that the readers had better get used to their particular art styles. Fortunately, Gerry Talaoc was one of the better ones, and his work on Unknown Soldier continues to impress me. I have the same concerns as Peter about the superhero-like nature of the character under Michelinie, but I enjoy it nonetheless. Of course, it's all heavily seasoned with circa-1975 malaise, but a good story is a good story. In fact, I think "A Death in the Chapel" could have been longer, exploring more of the priest's personality. The backup is also good, and Quico (Frank) Redondo's art is pleasing without being overly stylized. The bromance between the two main characters is entertaining without being overdone; Kanigher would have been more direct and less successful with this story.
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CIRCULATION, WE GOT CIRCULATION!
Here's how our favorite war titles did in 1974 (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. As you can see, sales for the DC titles were up across the board.
1974 1973 1972 1971
G.I. Combat 168,042 161,702 170,557 167,841
Our Army at War 178,134 163,221 165,021 161,881
Our Fighting Forces 161,417 147,968 156,524 164,142
Star Spangled War Stories 144,765 144,292 154,716 145,869
Amazing Spider-Man 288,232 273,204 288,379 307,550
Batman 193,223 200,574 185,283 244,488
Superman 285,634 240,558 252,317 325,618
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| Next Week... Join us for a dissection of illustrated terror and suspense! |
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| From Our Army at War 280 |
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