Friday, December 24, 2021

Christmas Combat Comics WAR COMBAT "Silent Night"

TEN-HUT!
You believe war takes a time-out for the holidays, recruit?
Maybe it does!
Maybe it doesn't!
Illustrated by Mac L Pakula and scripted by a writer whose identity is lost in the fog of combat, this never-reprinted Yuletide tale from Atlas' War Combat #1 (1952) was typical of the melancholy tales the Korean Police Action inspired!
DIS-MISSED!

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Halloween Horror MILITARY COMICS "Blue Tracer vs the Nazi Zombies!"

What could be more frightening than a slain enemy rising to fight again?
This Halloween tale (guest-starring Hitler himself) dares to answer the question!

This scary story from Quality's Military Comics #15 (1943) has a scientific, instead of supernatural, explanation.
Blue Tracer creator/writer/artist Fred Guardineer created and handled both sci-fi and mystical characters with equal enthusiasm, but he always seemed uncomfortable about doing war stories, unless they had a fantastical element.
Even this ongoing contribution to Military Comics (which was a fairly realistic war comic, except for Blackhawk), was about a fantastic torpedo-shaped vehicle that fought the Axis with super-science.

Friday, May 28, 2021

Asians in Combat JOHN WAYNE ADVENTURE COMICS "Bridgehead"

Ten-HUT!
You know John Wayne did a Vietnam War movie (Green Berets)...

...but he never did a Korean War flick!
(Jet Pilot is a Cold War movie involving Russians.
No Koreans or scenes set in Korea.)
Comic books were a different matter...

Trivia: Besides not doing a Korean War movie, Wayne never did a film set in World War II Germany!
This never-reprinted tale is from Toby's John Wayne Adventures #15 (1952), penciled by Mel Keefer.
(The other credits are unknown)
You'll note that Wayne is referred to as "John Wayne", not "John Wayne as Sgt Stryker" or some other character he played in movies or a totally-new character!
One of the conceits of this 31-issue series, John Wayne Adventure Comics, was that Wayne was always himself in the stories, no matter where or when they were set!
Stories ran the gamut from Wayne in the French Foreign Legion to putting out oil-rig fires to big-game hunting in Africa to tracking spies in Hong Kong, with at least one Western-themed story every issue.
Oddly enough, though there are numerous comic adaptations of Wayne's Western movies, and even a comic based on The Conqueror (where he portrayed Genghis Khan), there are no comic adapting any of his war movies!
Until next time...

Dis-Missed!

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