WORLD WAR III "Operation Comeback"

Ten-Hut!

World War III has begun, and the US will strike back!

Damn Commies!

They'll stop at nothing!

(or so we thought in 1952)

But the US is hardly doing "nothing"...

The second story from World War III #1 (1952) shows other differences in this book's version of 1960s "future history" compared to it's companion title Atomic War!

The missile technology shown seems directly derived from German WWII V-1s and V-2s, perhaps by German scientists we kept out of Soviet hands at the end of the war.

Much is made of defense budget cuts in WWIII, while in Atomic War! we were caught off-guard, but once we began counter-attacking, we were shown to be pretty well-equipped with (then) state of the art lethal tech!

Art by Lou Cameron, writer unknown.

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

BILL BATTLE "I'm the Best There Is!"

Ten-Hut!
Before Sgt Fury!

Before Sgt Rock!

There was...

...the One Man Army, as he'll happily tell you, in his premiere appearance in his own title!

While the writer is unknown, the art is by Dick Dillin, who was also doing Blackhawk for Quality Comics at the time.

Sgt Bill Battle appeared, full blown, in his own title beginning in October, 1952.

In a unique touch, all four issues of his series featured photo covers of a model portraying Bill Battle in action, the only war comic to do so.

After the book was cancelled, he made several appearances in other comics, including the final issue of Master Comics, which featured Captain Marvel, Jr and cowboy star Tom Mix!

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

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Korean War PX

featuring Bill Battle!

Christmas Comics: GI 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!

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 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!

"Sixty Million Jobs"

Ten-Hut!
Even in 1945, we were worried about providing jobs to returning veterans...

...as shown in this piece from Picture News in Color and Action #1!

If only our government could follow thru now like they did in 1945...

Until next time...

Dis-missed!

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...for all your uniform and equipment needs!

UNCLE SAM "Ruthless Invaders"

Ten-Hut!
Six months before Pearl Harbor, this comic book story predicted the event...

...in National Comics #18, cover-dated December 1941!

Remember that comic books used to be cover-dated 2-4 months before the actual on-sale date, and that the actual production time for a comic is anywhere between 1-3 months!

So this comic was on sale in September or October of 1941, and the story was written by Will Eisner and drawn by Lou Fine sometime between May and August of that same year!

Eerie, eh?

Note: they didn't get some of the details quite right...

Guam is hit at the same time as Pearl Harbor.

This one is weirdly close to reality!

Guam was attacked and conquered the very next day, Dec 8th!

Aircraft bomb Guam and battleships shell Pearl Harbor.

In reality, aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor and battleships shelled Guam just before it was invaded!

A German invasion fleet heads for New England!

Plus, the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Guam were part of a coordinated plan by Japan and Germany!

In reality, Germany had no such trans-Atlantic fleet available.

Hell, they couldn't even invade England, only 35 miles away from Axis-occupied France across the English Channel at it's closest point!

And, the Germans were less than happy to discover they now had to deal with America, along with England and Russia!

Hitler had hoped to keep the US out of the war for at least another year.

However the Nazis did honor their pact with Japan and declared war on the USA less than a week after Pearl Harbor.

Until Next Week...

Dis-missed!