Friday, June 24, 2011

JET FIGHTERS "Iron Curtains for Ivan"

Ten-Hut!
We journey to the skies over Korea for the tale of...
...as we look at the Korean War from a "Soviet point of view" as perceived by American writers and artists in Jet Fighters #7 (1953).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by John Celardo, a versatile artist best known for handling both the daily and Sunday Tarzan comic strips for over a decade!

Until next time...
Dis-missed!

Friday, June 17, 2011

FOXHOLE "Replacement"

Ten-Hut!
Back to World War II and Europe...
 From FoxHole #2, 1954.  Writer unknown.  Pencils and inks by Bill Draut.
Simple, effective tale with a nicely-done wordless sequence where a comparison of comics to movie storyboards is demonstrated most effectively.
Though Bill Draut is listed as the sole artist on this story at the Grand Comics Database, I believe Jack Kirby did roughs or layouts.
Most of the panel designs and figure placements are, for want of a better term, "Kirbyesque".
Curiously, though Draut was in the Marines, the story doesn't list a credit with his service, as most of the other stories in FoxHole did.

Until next time...
Dis-missed!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

USA is READY "Marines"

For Flag Day, here's a look at USA is READY's Marine Corps entry...
You'll note it's shorter than the others, perhaps because the branch was considered just a composite of Army and Navy. (A belief fully-refuted by the end of World War II)




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Saturday, June 11, 2011

ATOMIC WAR! "Sneak Attack" Conclusion

Ten-Hut!
On a quiet night in 1960, the Soviet Union launched a treacherous attack on the United States utilizing nuclear weaponry.
Though caught off-guard due to Commie sleeper agents disabling most of NORAD's Distant Early Warning System, America's armed forces swing into action...
In reality, a mid-air burst would be as effective, if not more so, than a nuclear bomb hitting the ground, with the electro-magnetic pulse effectively destroying all electronics and a shock wave unobstructed by buildings or geographic features.
From the New York Journal-American Archive at the University of Texas

This 1952 tale launched the short-lived Atomic War comic book series, which presented a remarkably-consistent "future" world of 1960 with it's own continuity.
We'll be presenting the complete, never-reprinted series along with it's "brother" title World War III over the next few months, rotating it with war stories ranging from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the World Wars to Vietnam.

Until Next Week...
Dis-missed!

Friday, June 10, 2011

ATOMIC WAR! "Sneak Attack"

Ten-Hut!
We go from Vietnam to a potential near future (the 1960s as seen from 1952)...
 ...when Commies were everywhere, ready to strike against the complacent Democracies of the world, and the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn!
 We pause to take in the sheer devastation and assure you that
America WILL Strike Back...
TOMORROW!
 Don't Miss It!

Until tomorrow...
Dis-missed!

Monday, June 6, 2011

D-Day Special: TWO-FISTED TALES "D-Day"

For our D-Day memorial special, we present one of the coolest war comics tales ever!
"Why?" you may ask...
Read for yourself, then come back afterwards...
To answer the question "Why is this one of the koolest war comics tales ever?"
1) The troops don't fire a single shot. (Rocket-propelled grapnels don't count.)
2) It shows that, no matter how the higher-ups screw up, the American fighting man was (and still is) the finest soldier in history.
From Two-Fisted Tales #27 (1952) Story by Harvey Kurtzman. Art by John Severin. Lettering by Ben Oda. Color by Marie Severin.
Notes: Kurtzman, Severin, and Oda all served in the Army during World War II. Oda was a paratrooper.

Friday, June 3, 2011

JUNGLE WAR STORIES "Requiem for a Red..."

Ten-Hut!
We go from World War II to Vietnam...
...the period before escalation, when our troops were just advisors to the South Vietnamese, who were doing the bulk of the fighting.
It's the old "I tricked him so he'd discover how brave he really is for himself" plot, transposed to the early Vietnam era.
Most publishers simply adapted WWII or Korean War plots with names and places changed, but a couple did do Vietnam-specific tales, especially in the late 1960s-early 1970s.
 From Jungle War Stories #1 (1962). Writer unknown. Pencils by Bill Fraccio. Inks by Tony Tallarico.

Until next time...
Dis-missed!