Love is a Battlefield! WARTIME ROMANCES "Road to Disgrace"

TEN-HUT!!!

Before 1973, serving in the military, whether voluntary or conscripted (the "draft")...

...used to be a part of almost every American man's life.

So, it seemed logical that there would be romance comics based around something that affected almost all young (18-25), eligible males, and the women who loved them!

The illustrator of this story from St John's WarTime Romances #4 (1952) is legendary good-girl artist Matt Baker, but the writer is unknown.

Until Next Time...

DIS-MISSED!!!!

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.

Christmas Combat Comics G.I. JOE "Weepy's Christmas"

Ten-Hut!

Christmas is a helluva time to be fighting a war...

 ...as the ORIGINAL G.I. Joe and his buddies discover during the Korean War!

This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' G.I Joe #10 (1952), illustrated by penciler Irv Novick and inker Frank Giacoia, was published long before Hasbro unleashed their 12" action figures upon the kids of America, the phrase "G.I. Joe" was slang for American soldiers.

It was popularized in 1945 by the release of the movie Story of G.I. Joe, starring Burgess Meredith as real-life war correspondent Ernie Pyle as he traveled with American troops during the invasions of Tunisia and Italy.

Ziff-Davis used the phrase as the title for a new war comic beginning in 1950.

Set in the (then) present-day Korean War, the series detailed the saga of Private Joe Burch, and the rest of his unit.

Running an impressive 55 issues, the series ended in 1957 with Joe Burch and his unit reassigned stateside to Camp Humbolt.

We'll be presenting the highlights of the original G.I. Joe's comics career next year.

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

SPACE BUSTERS "Remember Makano"

Ten-HUT!
It's the final battle in the series that may have inspired Don the Con's fantasy about a "Space Force"...

...appropriately enough, a tale that places emotion over logic!

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) is the final story in the short-lived series.

Oddly, none of the sci-fi books about specific characters (this one and Lars of Mars, Crusader from Mars, and Space Patrol) lasted more than two issues!

But the anthologies lasted longer...Amazing Adventures ran six issues and Weird Thrillers ran five!

It must be admitted that Murphy Anderson's revamp gave the book a solid "shot in the arm" artistically, so why it was cancelled so abruptly remains a mystery!

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

SPACE BUSTERS "Victory on Valda"

Ten-Hut!
Editor Jerry Siegel wanted Space Busters to look more like...

... the recently-revamped and revitalized Buck Rogers strip!

But artist Marvin Stein ended up using the original Buck strip as reference in his tryout, and lost the gig!

With a looming deadline, Siegel contacted the Buck Rogers strip's artist, Murphy Anderson (who had recently left the series) to provide redesigns...

...as well as the cover-featured story!

(Note: the cover is by Allen Anderson...no relation to Murphy!)

Personally, I'm not crazy about the purple-red color scheme, but at least it matches the uniform on the cover.
And, I think this is more the "look" Don (the John) Trump wants for his "Space Force" than the utilitarian garb of the first issue!

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

SPACE BUSTERS "Mission to Baldor!"

Ten-Hut!
We're on to Space Busters #2, and the first of the "redesigned" stories...

...as artist Marvin Stein takes a crack at making the "Marines in space" series look more like Buck Rogers!

This never-reprinted story appeared in the back of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) because editor/writer Jerry Siegel had nothing else to fill the empty pages!
Unfortunately, Stein had gone "old school" Buck Rogers, when Siegel had wanted "modern" Buck Rogers.
So Siegel got the guy who had been illustrating the modern Buck...Murphy Anderson!

You'll see his work starting next week!

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

SPACE BUSTERS "Battle for Alana"

Ten-Hut!

No, recruit, your eyes do not deceive you...

...This Space Busters #1.5 tale is in 3-D!

Put your 3-D glasses on (blue lens on right eye!) and enjoy!

One of the changes made for the second issue of Space Busters was to expand the war against Belzar as the aliens lost their hold on Mars and "Earthian" forces pushed outward!

Human traitor Senstral commands these attempts to "hold the line", after having failed to do so on Mars!

When Ziff-Davis dropped their comics line (except for G.I. Joe), several publishers bought up both the unpublished material, with St John picking up the bulk of it!

This never-published Space Busters story by Bernie Krigstein was converted to 3-D to fill out the St John one-shot Daring Adventures 3-D (1953)!

Until next time...

Dis-missed!