Celebrate D-Day...by Reading Comics/Graphic Novels About It!

TEN-HUT!!!

It's the anniversary of D-Day, when the Allies, led by America, invaded Fortress Europa...

...and we at War: Past Present and Future , along with our fellow RetroBlogs, Hero Histories and Atomic Kommie Comics, have presented numerous graphic tales of that epic day, beginning with Marvel's Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos hitting the beach on D-Day!

Yes, it was reprinted in a Marvel Masterworks over a decade ago, but those are extremely-expensive and didn't sell very well, so most of you have never seen this tale from over a half century ago!

We gave equal time to Fury's DC counterpart, Sgt. Rock, presenting his never-reprinted D-Day adventure...which was also the final story illustrated by his co-creator Joe Kubert!

It was really crowded at Normandy on June 6th, 1944 since Blackhawk and his team were also there, so it's only fair we present their never-reprinted D-Day adventure...which also doubles as their previously-unrevealed origin...at Hero Histories!

The EC Comics crew, best known for sci-fi and horror, also did a story about D-Day...by three ex-military personnel as seen HERE!

And one of their crew, who served in the Merchant Marine before becoming a paratrooper, did this tale  about our paratroopers on D-Day...

Our "parent" RetroBlog, AtomicKommie Comics, joined in with both a brief three-pager...

...and a multi-part retelling courtesy of Gilberton, the publisher behind Classics Illustrated and World Around Us!

Enjoy, and if you have a friend or family member who's a D-Day veteran, tell him "Thank You" for us!

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Essential Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos

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D-Day Special: D-DAY "D-Day for the Fighting Airborne"

69 years ago today, the course of World War II changed...

...when the Allies, spearheaded by American forces, invaded Nazi-controlled "Fortress Europe" at several locations on the coastline of the French provence of Normandy.

Unlike our previous, closer to real-life D-Day Special, this one is a more gung-ho, typical "war comic" tale, albeit featuring some superb artwork by comics legend Wally Wood!

Published in Charlton's D-Day #2 (1964) on the 20th Anniversary of the invasion!
D-Day was an annual title from 1963-68.
All the tales in the first issue were about the June 6th invasion of Normandy.
All successive issues had at least one D-Day-themed tale.
But later issues also featured other World War II battles as well as Korean War, Vietnam War, even American Civil War stories!

Since he was too young to enlist in the military during World War II, Wally Wood joined the Merchant Marine.
Turning 18 in 1945, he enlisted in the Army, became a paratrooper, and served in post-war Japan.
After his hitch, he briefly attended the brand-new Hogarth School of Art (now-known as the School of Visual Arts) and made the rounds of comic book publishers, where he met fellow artist John Severin (who illustrated our earlier D-Day Special).
And the rest is comics history...

BATTLEFIELD ACTION "Christmas, 1944: Bastogne"

Ten-Hut...

The "Battle of the Bulge" was, in reality, many battles...

...as the Germans launched a desperate all-out counter-attack from December 16th, 1944 to January 25th, 1945, on rapidly-advancing Allied forces.

This is the story of one of those battles...

There are no writer or artist credits available for this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Battlefield Action #20 (1958).

Until next time...

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WAR AT SEA "Pearl Harbor: the Day of Infamy"

It's December 7th, seventy-one years since...

...so let's have a look back at a story illustrated by a veteran who served in the US Navy during WWII!

Illustrated by ex-swabbie Sam Glanzman, this tale from Charlton's War at Sea #26 (1958) exhibits Glanzman's clean storytelling skills and amazing knack for accurate, authentic, renderings of military equipment from ships to aircraft and uniforms.

His best-known military comics work are the autobiographical graphic novels A Sailor's Story and A Sailor's Story Book II: Wind, Dreams & Dragons, about his WWII service on the destroyer U.S.S. Stevens.

Until next time...

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FOXHOLE "Lucky Stiff"

Ten-hut!
It's Veteran's Day, so let's salute the troops...

...with a Korean War tale written and laid-out by a veteran of WWII, Jack Kirby...

The penciler-inker for this tale from FoxHole #5 (1955) was Joaquin Albistur, a well-established illustrator from Argentina who tried to break into the US market in the early 1950s.
Besides  almost two dozen comics stories for the Simon & Kirby studio, he did some illustrations for LOOK Magazine.
Unfortunately, the logistics of dealing with sending art long-distance from Argentina to America precluded his doing more work for US publishers.

Until next time...

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AMERICAN EAGLE "Eagles' Shame"

Ten-Hut...
There were a number of aviator-team strips during the Golden Age...

Art by Pat Masulli & Rocke Mastroserio

...but only one created during the Silver Age, ironically at the same time that the prototypical aviator-team series, Blackhawk, was undergoing a metamorphosis into a campy spy/super-hero strip!
Introduced in Fightin' Air Force #50 (1966), Native American pilot Captain Fort, nicknamed American Eagle, and his three fellow pilots, known as the Eagles, used unorthodox tactics to battle often overwhelming enemy forces.
Unlike Blackhawk and his team, who operated independently of any military authority (though they cooperated with various Allied forces), the Eagles were US Army Air Corps pilots who went wherever they were assigned, but once there, were given free rein to get the job done.

This tale from #53, the final issue of Charlton's Fightin' Air Force in 1966 was also the fourth and final appearance of the team.

Though the art is attributed to Ernie Bache, it's believed that Sam Glanzman either laid out or penciled the story.

Until next time...

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FOXHOLE "50th Man"

Ten-HUT!

From post-World War II, we return to the days of the Roman Empire...

...when bread and circuses (and gladiators) kept the population enthralled, as in this tale from FoxHole #6 (1955)!

You may note the final panel is a repeat of the figure from the page 1 splash and the caption lettering is different from the rest of the story.

While the tale, illustrated by Bill Draut, was produced before the Comics Code came into being, it was published after the Code began censoring comics.

It's rumored that the original final panel was a medium shot of Gratus/Geta with a sword thru his throat and his eyes rolled up.

But, unless the original art surfaces somewhere, we'll never know...

Until next time...

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FIGHTIN' ARMY "Gavin's Stupid Mule"

Ten-Hut!

We go from the jungles of Vietnam to the bloody fields of the Civil War...

 ...for a tale of a tail (and the mule it's attached to)!

This tail...I mean tale from Fightin' Army #20 (1957) was one of the first art jobs by a young artist who would go on to co-create Spider-Man, Dr Strange, Captain Atom, The Creeper, and The Question...Steve Ditko!

Until next time...

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