Friday, February 24, 2012

SGT FURY & HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Gabriel, Blow Your Horn!" Conclusion

Ten-HUT!
We Have Already Seen...
Separated from the other Howling Commandos during a raid in Paris, Gabe Jones is captured by the Germans.
The other Howlers, trapped in Paris, are forced to remain in hiding.
Reb Ralston, Gabe's best friend, blames Sgt Fury for Jones' capture and goes looking for him.
Escaping from the Germans, Gabe links up with the French Underground only to be given new instructions; rescue an female American expatriate jazz singer being held by the Nazis and forced to entertain them.
Pretending to also be an expatriate, Jones manages to be assigned to play accompaniment for the singer, Carla Swain.
When Gabe explains why he's there, Carla says she wants to stay, preferring serving the Germans to the way she was treated back in America due to her race.
The trumpet-tooting Howler offers her no choice, and forces her to escape with him...
"Reb" Ralston initially displayed a racist attitude when he first met Gabe Jones, but working side-by-side with Jones in dangerous situations made the Southerner respect Jones as a fellow soldier.
By the time of this story, Reb and Gabe had become best friends.
In stories set present-day, Ralston is a Congressman who helped craft and pass civil rights legislation, which prompted a racist group to attempt to assassinate him.
Nick Fury, Jones (who was now a senior agent at S.H.I.E.L.D.), and the other Howlers crushed the plot.
Until next week...
Dis-missed!

Friday, February 17, 2012

SGT FURY & HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Gabriel, Blow Your Horn!" Part 1

Ten-HUT!
We usually don't run Sgt Fury or Sgt Rock stories...
...(as much as we enjoy them) but, this tale from Sgt Fury #56 (1968) combines three timely elements that make it worth breaking our own rules for...
Do Gabe and Carla escape?
Is Gabe reunited with the other Howling Commandos?
How does Reb fit into all this?
For the answers to those questions, you'll have to be here next week!

In the meantime...
Did you figure out what the three timely things we mentioned are?
You probably did, but we'll tell you anyway...
1) A plotline about racial prejudice (from an unexpected source) making it a perfect tale for a Black History Month entry.
2) Artist John Severin passed away this week.
This story showed how much his atmospheric inking added to the look of Dick Ayers' pencils.
(In addition, his vast knowledge of uniforms and weapons enabled him to enhance Ayers' artwork with dead-on accurate renderings of military clothing and hardware!)
3) Writer Gary Friedrich lost his lawsuit against Marvel Comics to gain the copyright to the 1970s character Ghost Rider, whose second feature film opens today!
(Friedrich and Ayers handled the creative chores on the first Marvel Ghost Rider series about a Western character that was published at the same time as this issue of Sgt Fury!
And, Ayers was the artist on the original Ghost Rider series at another publisher in the 1950s!
Read about it HERE!)

Until next week...
Dis-missed!

Friday, February 10, 2012

3-D: "Sand"

TEN-HUT!
Get out the red/blue 3-D glasses (red on the left, blue on the right)...
...'cause it's 3-D Week at all the RetroBlogs™!
This tense tale of the French Foreign Legion, illustrated by Bob Powell for Adventures in 3-D #1 (1953), was especially-designed for use as a 3-D story (unlike some comic tales that were adapted from 2-D to 3-D during the 1950s 3-D craze.) 

Support Small Business!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

KNOW YOUR AMERICA "King Phillip's War"

Ten-Hut!
From post-World War II America, we go to pre-Revolutionary War New England...
...to tell the tale of one of the lesser-known conflicts between colonists and natives.
"King Phillip's" real name was Metacomet.
Though Indians are portrayed as the antagonists, the English colonists provoked the conflict, as explained HERE.
This tale from Treasure Comics #8 (1946) was one of the earliest solo assignments by a young up-and-comer named Frank Frazetta, who went on to become one of the premier adventure/fantasy artists of all time!
Until next time...