WORLD AROUND US "These Brave Fields"

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On the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettyburg, we present a never-reprinted feature from World Around Us #26 (1960), based on Battle of Gettysburg, an eyewitness account of the battle by Colonel Frank A. Haskell.

A few weeks after Gettysburg, Haskell wrote an account of what he had experienced at Gettysburg and sent it to his brother Harrison, who couldn't get even a local newspaper to publish the first-hand story!

Colonel Frank A Haskell

The tale would be published (postumously since Colonel Haskell was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Cold Harbor) in 1898 as Battle of Gettysburg. 

The book was hailed by noted Civil War authority Bruce Catton as "One of the genuine classics of Civil War literature."

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"Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg"

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It's the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg....

...so this week we're going to present two never-reprinted stories about the battle.

You'll note the ambivalence about which side was "in the right" in this tale from Hillman's AirBoy Comics V5N12 (1949).

Both the writer and artist are unknown.

Be back here on July 4th for another tale time-lost of Gettysburg.

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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...

WAR FURY "Unconquered"

Ten-hut!

It's Memorial Day, 2013...

...and, with our humble thanks to those who serve, a tale about the first (and hopefully, only) Korean War, published at it's height in 1953!

This story from Comic Media's War Fury #1 (1952) is typical of the period.

The emphasis is on the enemy being Communists, not Asians, as was done (sometimes to extremes) in World War II comics.

(That's not to say racial insults or ethnic stereotypes weren't occasionally used,but they weren't on the level of the extreme caricatures of cartoonish slant-eyed and buck-toothed Japanese from the previous war.)

Plus, most of the writers and artists were vets from the European and Asian theatres of war, with first-hand experience of the horrors of war less than a decade earlier.

In the case of this story, artist Don Heck had been too young to enlist (or be drafted) during WWII, but odds are the unknown writer was a vet.

Until next time...

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FOXHOLE "Walkie Talkie"

Ten-Hut!

With North Korea rattling their rusted sabers yet again...

...let's look at a story created during the first Korean War by the legendary Simon & Kirby studio when they were publishing their own titles!

Art for this tale from FoxHole #2 (1954) was by WWII vet Bill Draut (who served in the Marines).
While the writer is unknown, it's likely that either Joe Simon or Jack Kirby (or both as a team) penned it.

FoxHole was a comic produced by writers and artists who had served in the military.

The creators usually put their names and ranks on the splash panels of the stories.

(The book's subhead read "This is WAR as seen by the Guys Who Do the Fighting!")

Jack Kirby, as the book's co-publisher, primary plotter, and layout artist didn't sign his name on the stories even though he served in the Army as a scout, sneaking behind enemy lines and creating sketches and maps of enemy-held areas.

He also did the cover at left.

Unlike most Korean War-era comics, this was not a gung-ho, kick-ass title, but one that took a hard-edged look at the heavy cost of war to the participants.

Until next time...

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