The DC War Comics Appreciation Thread (2019)

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This is a continuation of the previous ""Make War No More!"...The Dc War Comic Appreciation Thread!", which can be read here:

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...iation-Thread!

From the original version of this thread (started 09-03-2016 by codystarbuck):

I'm going to date myself severely here; but, I'm a huge fan of DC's various war comics, of the 60s and 70s. Those books had some of the best writing in comics of the era, and had artists like Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Sam Glanzman, Alex Toth, Jerry Grandenetti, Gary Taloc, John Severin, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, and many others.The characters were fantastic and well rounded: Sgt Rock and the Combat Happy Joes of Easy Company, The Losers, Mademoiselle Marie, Enemy Ace, The Haunted Tank, The Unknown Soldier, and later characters, like Gravedigger and even the goofier stuff, like the Creature Commandos and the Viking Commando. There was a deep humanistic side to many, and war was rarely a gung ho, shoot 'em up kind of thing. They took a lot of their cues from the great EC war comics of Harvey Kurtzman and the EC artists, though maybe not as pointedly anti-war as Kutzman. They survived the Vietnam era for several more years and were only fully laid to rest in the 80s. Enemy Ace had that gorgeous Kubert art, with Hans Von Hammer forever carrying that haunting stare. Rock epitomized every good noncom who did his best to keep his men alive and get them home, who had also buried far too many. These stories had a depth that the superheroes rarely were allowed. They also had some truly great covers, especially Kubert's. Just look at some:

NOTE: Part of the inspiration for reviving this thread at present is because here in the U.S., we'll be observing Memorial Day (originally "Decoration Day" and dating back to the time of the U.S. Civil War) on Monday, May 27th this year. Also, June 6th of this year will mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

[MajorHoy]

By the way, here are the last couple of posts from the previous thread:

Wonder what this is about? Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace is the same story?
Sgt Rock #14 vol 2.

Damn, I need to go read that.

By the way, a check of the GCD indicates that particular issue reprinted a Sgt. Rock story ("Easy's Last Stand!") from Our Army at War #153 (April 1965) as well as an Enemy Ace Story ("Death Takes No Holiday!") originally published in Star Spangled War Stories #144 (April-May 1969).

[MajorHoy]

Variant cover to DC Universe: Legacies #4 (October 2010) which spotlighted DC's WWII characters in an 8-page back-up story.

[MajorHoy]

Sgt. Rock Special #2 (1994):

[MajorHoy]

The final issue of Our Fighting Forces, a title that started back in 1954:

Our Fighting Forces #181 (September-October 1978)

[MajorHoy]

By the way, here's the cover from the first issue of Our Fighting Forces (October-November 1954):

[MajorHoy]

All-American Men of War (sometimes just "All American Men of War " without the hyphen) was a DC title that ran from 1952 until 1966, but it has a strange issue-numbering story.

The book originally began as All-American Comics with issue #1 in back in 1939. (Along the way, one of it's more popular features was the Golden-Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott.) In 1948, the Western character Johnny Thunder (John Tane) was introduced, and starting with issue #103 (November 1948), the book's title changed to All-American Western.
That lasted until issue #126 (June-July 1952) and, starting with issue #127 (cover-dated August-September 1952) the book's title changed yet again, this time to All-American Men of War.


But that only lasted for two issues, because after issue #128 (October-November 1952), the book's numbering reset to issue #2 (with a cover date of December 1952-January 1953).


The final issue of the series was issue #117 (September-October 1966).


Lt. Savage, the Balloon Buster (a WWI aviation character) and Johnny Cloud (the "Navaho Ace" who would later become a member of "The Losers") were among its regular recurring features.

[MajorHoy]

G.I. Combat was a long-running DC war book that actually didn't start with DC comics.

The first issue, cover-dated October 1952, was actually published by Quality Comics.


The last issue published by Quality Comics was #43 (December 1956).


The first issue published under DC was #44, cover-dated January 1957.


The title would continue to be published by DC for the next thirty years.

[MajorHoy]

During DC's run of G.I. Combat, perhaps the recurring feature most people tend to associate with that book is "The Haunted Tank", which began in issue #87 (May 1961).


Starting with issue #201 (April-May 1977), G.I. Combat became a "Dollar Comic" with extra pages of story.

A few years later it its number of pages was reduced, but it still had a larger page-count comic than standard 32 page comics, and it was labeled as "The Big War Book" on the cover.

Shortly before its run ended, the book was reduced yet again to the standard 32-page count.
The last issue of G.I. Combat was #288 (cover-dated March 1987).

[signalman112]

WOW! Captain Storm saves the life of John F Kennedy in UNKNOWN SOLDIER #259.

Unknown259.jpg

[MajorHoy]

Like All-American Men of War, DC's Star Spangled War Stories originally took over the numbering from another Golden Age comic book.


Star Spangled Comics #1 (October 1941) started as another of DC's anthology comics that featured such characters as The Star-Spangled Kid (with his partner Stripesy), Tarantula, Captain X (of the R.A.F.), and later The Newsboy Legion (with The Guardian), Robotman, TNT (with Dan the Dyna-Mite), and many others, even a solo-feature with Robin The Boy Wonder. But by the early 1950s superhero comics had fallen in popularity, and issue #130 (July 1952) was the last issue of Star Spangled Comics.


The next issue (#131, cover-dated August 1952) would see the name (and format) changed to Star Spangled War Stories,


That lasted until issue #133 (October 1952), then Star Spangled War Stories started renumbering to issue #3 for the November 1952 cover-dated issue (even though it was the fourth issue to be called Star Spangled War Stories).

[MajorHoy]

. . . That lasted until issue #133 (October 1952), then Star Spangled War Stories started renumbering to issue #3 for the November 1952 cover-dated issue (even though it was the fourth issue to be called Star Spangled War Stories).

Issue #3 (November 1952):


Among the more well-known recurring features that appeared in Star Spangled War Stories were:

Mademoiselle Marie, who first appeared in issue #84 (August 1959)


"Dinosaur Island" and The War That Time Forgot,
which began in issue #90 (April-May 1960)

More to follow . . .

[MajorHoy]

More to follow . . .

Enemy Ace first appeared in Our Army at War #151 (February 1965) and then also in a couple of later issues of that title.


Next, he starred in two issues of Showcase later that same year.


In 1968, he began appearing in Star Spangled War Stories.


But wait! There's more! . . .

[MajorHoy]

But wait! There's more! . . .

Perhaps one of the best-known features in Star Spangled War Stories was The Unknown Soldier.

There had previously been mentions of an "Unknown Soldier" in places like Our Army at War #168 (June 1966),


but the character was first billed as a regular feature starting with Star Spangled War Stories #151 (June-July 1970).


That would continue until issue #204 (February-March 1977)


Starting with #205, the name of the book changed to Unknown Soldier, and issue #268 (October 1982) would be the final of that run.

[Restingvoice]

Have to admit, going to DC because of superpowered men in tights, the only war comics I'm interested was War That Time Forgot, because it has dinosaurs. Does it count or are we just talking about the realistic war stories?