Back Issue #37 Preview

THIS ISSUE: COMICS GO TO WAR!

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SGT. ROCK, UNKNOWN SOLIDER, WONDER WOMAN TM & © DC COMICS.THE INVADERS TM & © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

WONDER WONDER WOMAN’S WOMAN’S RETURN RETURN TO TO WWII WWII

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THE INVADERS, WWII’s HEROES

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PLUS A HISTORY OF THE JOE KUBERT SCHOOL!

PLUS: BLACKHAWK • ENEMY ACE • COMBAT KELLY • VIETNAM JOURNAL WITH: EVANIER • PRATT • SINNOTT • SPIEGLE • AND GERRY TALAOC RETURNS!

Volume 1, Number 37 December 2009 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Sgt. Rock of Easy Company in “The Longer Shadow” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How the controversies of the Vietnam War shaped the adventures of DC’s Top Sergeant

COVER ARTIST Joe Kubert

INTERVIEW: Comics 101: Joe Kubert and His School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. . . . 9 The master illustrator/teacher/editor in an exclusive interview

COVER COLORISTS Glenn Whitmore and Jason Geyer

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Stan Lee’s “Kubert School”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Didja know that Marvel once considered opening its own comics school?

OFF MY CHEST: In Search of “True Bios” of Comic-Book Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 In a guest editorial, Man of Rock’s Bill Schelly discusses what makes a “true” biography

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS G. K. Abraham Mark Arnold Michael Aushenker Dick Ayers Jerry Boyd Alan Brennert Pete Carlsson Catholic Digest Gerry Conway DC Comics Tony DeZuniga Mark DiFruscio Bill DuBay Michael Dunne Mark Evanier Gary Friedrich Father Roy Gasnick Don Glut Grand Comic-Book Database Larry Hama Jack C. Harris Heritage Comics Auctions Ice Cream Soldier Carmine Infantino Dan Johnson Dave Karlen

Jim Kingman Joe Kubert Don Lomax David Michelinie Ian Millsted The National Archives Nightscream Martin Pasko George Pratt John Romita, Sr. Alan Rutledge Bill Schelly Joe Sinnott Mark Sinnott Anthony Snyder Dan Spiegle Gerry Talaoc Roy Thomas John Wells

PRO2PRO: Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle Fly with Blackhawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The unbeatable writer/artist duo look back at their fondly remembered Blackhawk collaboration GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Blackhawk Declassified: The Story of the Lost Miniseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Bill DuBay and Carmine Infantino’s unpublished series, with never-before-seen art FLASHBACK: Stop a Bullet Cold, Make the Axis Fold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Wonder Woman went back to the ’40s in the ’70s, thanks to the popular TV show BEYOND CAPES: Kiss Me “Deadly”: Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen. . . . . . . . . . 34 Despite its brutally short run, this comic-book casualty breathed fresh life into the war genre BEYOND CAPES: From Parts “Unknown”!: The Unknown Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Joe Kubert’s other World War II hero battled Axis forces for a dozen years INTERVIEW: Soaring to New Heights: George Pratt’s Enemy Ace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 An art-loaded look at the master painter’s War Idyll graphic novel FLASHBACK: The Invaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Marvel Comics’ Golden Age heroes in their Bronze Age series WHAT THE--?!: Saints and Superheroes: The Brief Union of Marvel Comics and the Catholic Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 When Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II, and Mother Teresa blessed the House of Ideas FLASHBACK: The Annotated Vietnam Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 A review of Don Lomax’s seminal work INTERVIEW: Don Lomax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 The writer/artist of Vietnam Journal takes us into the trenches FLASHBACK: Sad Sack During the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 War isn’t always hell, at least not in this funny favorite BACK TALK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Reader feedback on “Villains” issue #35 BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $44 Standard US, $60 First Class US, $70 Canada, $105 First Class Mail International, $115 Priority Mail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Joe Kubert. Sgt. Rock TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2009 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing.

ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. Comics Go to War Issue

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A 2005 Sgt. Rock watercolored sketch by Russ Heath, from the collection of Jerry Boyd. TM & © DC Comics.

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

by

Jim Kingman

“I think there is such a small audience to Vietnam fighting, because even if it is current, and the most important at this writing, the war essentially, on the ground, is small and large scale guerrilla action, and the action does not lend itself to continuous illustrating. Just as the majority of the air actions are against ground targets, and not against other aircraft. Despite the dead and wounded which are very real and very tragic, Vietnam is not a picture war.

Just compare the photos and drawings coming out of Vietnam today, with those of World Wars I and II.” The above reply by writer/editor Robert Kanigher to letter writer John Schlafer’s request for a Green Beret series set during the Vietnam War was published in the Oct. 1967 issue of DC’s Our Army at War (#185), featuring Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. In less than a year, Vietnam would very much become a “picture war,” its horrors shown in daily newspapers and broadcast on the nightly news. The devastating effects of this escalating and controversial conflict on the American consciousness would be explored in the Sgt. Rock series for two decades, albeit indirectly, as opposed to other forms of entertainment such as cinema and television.

While Sgt. Rock and the combat-happy Joes of Easy Company underwent the early throes of character development in the pages of DC’s Our Army at War beginning in 1959, half a world away in Vietnam, the United States initially maintained advisory status to aid the Republic of (South) Vietnam in the growing conflict for Vietnamese independence. Less than ten years later, the Vietnam War raged between American and South Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong (Vietnamese communists) and would become the longest war in US history, with US troop strength peaking at 542,000. The war had become a controversial, polarizing military engagement that had no end in sight and was swiftly becoming America’s first “television war.”

A Not-So-Combat Happy Joe Despite a divide of over two decades, DC’s World War II-based Sgt. Rock stories published during the Vietnam War began to echo Americans’ attitudes over that latter conflict. Art by Joe Kubert.

TM & © DC Comics.

Comics Go to War Issue

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“NO MORE KILLIN’…”

From 1959 to 1967, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company’s monthly comicbook exploits, which started in Our Army at War #81 (Apr. 1959), were essentially battle-action adventures for boys depicted in a WWII setting. While Easy’s missions were more realistically chronicled by Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert and Russ Heath than concurrent superhero tales published in most DC and Marvel comics, they were still marketed to eight- to 12-year-olds, and had to adhere to the strict regulations of the Comics Code Authority.

“The stories that we had done up to that time,” explains Joe Kubert, “were ones where we felt that we were trying to show realistically as possible within the context of a comic book that war is not a great thing, that you don’t run around with a cigar in your face and run over and kill people. What we tried to do was to show that people are in the Army and people do what they have to do as required of them and that it is actually a buddy-to-buddy kind of situation, watching out for the guy next to you; where you are in a position in wartime where you can get killed in order to defend yourself very often, and the fact is that you feel [you] are doing the right thing but not for the glory of it and not for the killing of it.”

In a decade already besieged by social unrest and great historical significance, 1968 was one of the most volatile years in our nation’s existence. War protests were escalating. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated.

Riots were occurring all across the country. And in the pages of Our Army at War #196’s “Stop the War—I Want to Get Off!,” published in June and written, illustrated, and edited by Kubert, who had taken over as editor of the book with Our Army at War

#193, the attitude of the “Sgt. Rock” series shifted dramatically.

Rock reacted to the perceived deaths of four new replacements in Easy Company as he never had before in the fields of war— with despair.

As the story opened, Rock had had enough of war. He stood alone in a field of battle, smoke all around him. A toppled tank turret rested near him. Four soldiers lay in the rubble before him, apparently dead. Rock felt great anguish. This dramatic scene then shifted to a few hours before. An exhausted Rock reported to his superior officer. Rock was heading out on patrol again, but the C.O. said no, Rock needed his rest. Weary, but determined, Rock refused to let the new replacements go out alone. The four soldiers marched out with Rock point on probe for the fourth straight night.

The soldiers drew close to enemy lines. Rock spotted an enemy bunker up ahead. One soldier believed it was an empty tank turret. But inside the turret, a Nazi prepared to fire.

Explosives suddenly ignited the sky. The replacements panicked, despite Rock’s orders for them to stay down. The smoke singed Rock’s eyes. Tears swelled up, and he snapped, pleading with himself for an answer to why they wouldn’t listen. He shouted in despair, “Yeah … it’s funny! Four young guys whose names I didn’t even know! Gone!,” and charged the tank turret, while 88mm blasts cut the dirt around him.

Rock climbed onto the tank turret, shoving grenades into the view slits. The turret exploded, and the story had reached the moment after the opening sequence. Succumbing to despair, Rock cried, “Enough! No more killin’ … no more blood … no more war!”

The story then took on a surreal nature, as a mysterious US soldier suddenly appeared before Rock. The soldier worked to get Rock out of his funk by telling him tales of mankind’s many struggles to overcome adversity in the midst of war. When the soldier addressed the threat of Hitler and the evil Hitler had cast over the world, including the concentration camps, Rock snapped out of it.

The soldier disappeared, and Rock discovered that the replacements survived. After a long string of Rock teaming up with Unit 13, a gang of kid resistance fighters, “Stop the War—I Want to Get off!” was clearly a different kind of Rock story.

Anti-Vietnam Demonstration (below) Anti-Vietnam demonstrator offers a flower to a miltary police. Arlington, Virginia, October 21, 1967.

By S. Sgt. Albert Simpson. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration. (left) Kubert’s war-weary Rock, on the cover of Our Army at War (OAaW) #196 (Aug. 1968).

Sgt. Rock TM & © DC Comics.

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by

Dan Johnson

conducted June 1, 2009

A lot of people have dreams of working in the comics industry. To make it in the business, you need a number of things going for you, including talent, determination, and a love for the art form. What really helps, though, is having someone who has already made a name for themselves in comics recognize the potential in you and offer their wisdom and guidance.

Comics legend Joe Kubert knows that the latter is essential to artists who want to break into the highly competitive field of comics. Indeed, having the right people see the raw ability in a young artist and encourage them is just as important today as it was when Kubert himself was first breaking into the business at the dawn of the Golden Age of Comics. That was why he founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey, in 1976. This institution has played a major role in shaping the world of comics since the early 1980s and has turned out some of the best artists working today in comics and other areas of the commercial arts.

– Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: How did you come up with the idea for the school?

JOE KUBERT: It was a thought I had for many years.

Ours is a very unique area in the commercial-arts field and my experience has been that very few people outside of the field really know what the demands are in order to be able to get into it.

I was lucky because I talked to different publishers while I was looking for jobs when I was a kid, and the guys I met were really terrific. The artists, the editors, and the publishers would talk to me and explain things to me. I would have an art director or an editor that would refer me to an artist who was doing work and these artists would then explain to me the tools they used and how the work had to be done and so on.

Little by little, I was able to garner enough information to get into the business. If a person doesn’t, through his own efforts, find out exactly what the demands are, it is very difficult to get into the business. In the back of my head, [I thought,] “I was able to gather all this information.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place, a school, where somebody who was really committed and wanting to do this work could get all this information fed to them?” Instead of taking the ten or 15 years it took me to absorb all the things that were necessary to

(top) Joe Kubert, instructor, 1980. (left) Print ad for Kubert’s school frequently seen in comic books in the 1970s/1980s. © 2009 Joe Kubert School.

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Beginnings:

Apprenticing at Harry “A” Chesler’s comics studio at age 11

Milestones:

Flash Comics / 3-D comics co-creator / Tor / The Flash’s Silver Age revival in Showcase (with Carmine Infantino) / Sgt. Rock in Our Army at War / Hawkman in The Brave and the Bold / Enemy Ace / Tales of the Green Beret / Unknown Soldier / Tarzan / Abraham Stone / Fax from Sarajevo / Yossel: April 19, 1943

Current Projects:

Instructing a new generation of artists at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art

Cyberspace:

www.kubertsworld.com

joe kubert

Joe Kubert, instructor, and unidentified students, early 1980s.

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become a true professional, it could be done in less time.

Of course, it would be a rather intense course of study, but nevertheless, I thought it would be a good idea.

I’m married and I have five kids, and [the idea for the school really took shape] when the kids got out of the house and were old enough to get out on their own. My wife was a graduate of a business school and she was looking around for something to keep herself busy. I said, “If we could find a place that was close enough to where we live, what do you think of the idea of starting [a school]?” And I said to my wife, Muriel, “We will do this only if you handle the business end.

If you think you’re interested in doing that, then I would be willing to take a crack at it and try it.” My wife said, “Sure, if we come across a place.” As it happened, a place did come up, a large house in our town, Dover, New Jersey, which meant I wouldn’t have to commute.

If I had to commute more than 15 minutes from the house to my own studio, the school would not be here.

It was a large house and it was only five minutes from my house, so we kicked it off. That’s the way it began.

JOHNSON: Was there anyone in particular that you sought out in the comics business to get advice from before you started the school?

KUBERT: I got a lot of help and advice from people in the business. I spoke to Jack Adler, who was in charge of production up at DC, and Sol Harrison, who had also been in production at DC. I asked them what they felt the artists should know before doing work for any publication. I also spoke to Burne Hogarth, who was one of the initiators of the School of Visual Arts in New York, and he happened to be a fellow member of the National Cartoonist Society. We discussed the school and talked about it and Burne kind of warned me about some of the pitfalls that might occur.

JOHNSON: Who were some of the first instructors at the school?

KUBERT: The instructors were friends and people that I knew in the business. Dick Giordano was one of the early teachers. Hy Eisman has been with the school since I started. Irwin Hasen, who has been a longtime friend, was working with me until just a year ago, as a matter of fact. He’s in his early nineties and commuting from New York to Dover just became too much for him.

Dick Ayers worked here. Lee Elias taught here, as well as Ric Estrada. We’ve had a heck of a lot of instructors here.

JOHNSON: How many instructors work at the school currently?

KUBERT: We keep at least 15 to 20 different instructors on staff because none of them work here full-time.

They take a day or two out of their week and they’re more than willing to come here and teach. They sure as heck aren’t doing it for the money. The instructors are the same kind of people I met when I first came into the business. They know how tough it is to get into the business, and if they can recognize and see something in someone who really wants to learn, someone who really wants to get into the business, they are more than willing to help them in any way they can.

JOHNSON: I didn’t realize there were no full-time instructors on staff at the school.

KUBERT: There are no full-time instructors and none of them are contracted. [The reason why there are no contracts] is because every one of them is working in the area that they teach, and very often a deadline will come up and they can’t make it to the school. We try to be as flexible with them as we can be and they are flexible with us. If there is any success that is linked to the school with the people coming here, it is a direct

by

Bill Schelly

For fans of cinema, there’s a book about the life of just about every movie star and director, often more than one. The superstars—people such as Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, and John Ford— have been the subjects of weighty, exhaustively researched tomes. Several impressive biographical books on newspaper-strip cartoonists have appeared, but books that can be considered “true biographies” about the creators of comic books have been few.

To explain, I consider a “true biography” (“true bio” for short) of a creative individual to be a book that attempts to tell the subject’s life story and describe his/her work with a degree of completeness that most agree doesn’t leave out anything essential.

In order to accomplish this in any depth at all, the text of a “true bio” ought to be at least 45,000 to 50,000 words long, which is the standard length of a short novel. In addition, it ought to more or less objective; that is, be willing to discuss the bad with the good, rather than being merely an exercise in adulation. This is based on my belief that no one’s life and work, even the greatest of the great, is wonderful all the time, and a book that doesn’t acknowledge this isn’t capable of giving the reader a complete portrait.

I should add before continuing that I know there are numerous books and fanzines with biographical essays, often as an introduction or adjunct to reproductions of the creator’s work. These are fine for what they are, and I’m not disparaging them in any way when I yearn for longer-form, full-bodied— “true”—biographies.

What would be an early example of a “true bio” of a comic-book creator? Consider Frank Jacobs’ biography The Mad World of William M. Gaines (1972). As a comic-book editor and publisher, Bill Gaines collaborated with Al Feldstein to create story ideas for the great EC line of horror, science-fiction, suspense, and war comics of the early 1950s. It’s an entertaining book, containing quite a bit about Gaines’ life and work in comic books. However, it was created primarily as an entertainment for a general audience, and as such is quite superficial in terms of what comics aficionados would want from a biography of the man. Moreover, it’s primarily about Gaines in

© the respective owners.

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Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle have a partnership that spans almost forty years. In their time together, the writer and artist have collaborated on such properties as Scooby-Doo, Tarzan, New Teen Titans, and their own creations, Crossfire and Hollywood Superstars.

In the early 1980s, Evanier and Spiegle worked on a revival of DC Comics’ Blackhawk that took the aerial-ace title character and his high-flying team back to their roots, setting their adventures during World War II. While the book only lasted a couple of years (from issue #250, cover-dated Oct. 1982, to issue #273, cover-dated Nov. 1984), this run is fondly remember by fans as one of the best handlings of the characters ever.

– Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: How did you two come to work on Blackhawk?

MARK EVANIER: DC had this property that had not been published lately, and the last few times they had tried it, it had not sold too well. Then one day, there was suddenly interest in doing a Blackhawk movie.

Steven Spielberg was allegedly interested in it and someone had even mentioned that Dan Aykroyd wanted to play the lead. The folks up at DC said, “We ought to preserve the brand name and get this comic book back out on the stands to remind people that it exists. Maybe that would make this movie happen.”

The initial plan had been to put it out as a quarterly with a writer-artist team that DC had under contract— two guys they didn’t want to use on the books they cared about. A couple of people in the office, with Len Wein, I believe, as the ringleader, said, “This is too wonderful a property to do that to. Let’s do justice to Blackhawk.”

For about a week, it was going to be written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Dave Cockrum, but there was this feeling at the office that those two guys were too valuable to waste on this book because, by all their projections, it was not going to sell very well.

Marv and Dave were convinced to apply their skills to other projects so Len, who’d been assigned to edit Blackhawk, went looking for another creative team.

He called me, and asked, “Who would be great for drawing

Blackhawk and Domino Two and a half decades after his memorable Blackhawk stint ended, illustrator Dan Spiegle continues to revisit the Aerial Ace in beautiful watercolor paintings like this one. Courtesy of Dave Karlen. Visit Dave’s site—davekarlenoriginalart.com— for information about purchasing Spiegle Blackhawk (and other) originals.

Blackhawk TM & © DC Comics.

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by

Dan Johnson

conducted April 22, 2009

Blackhawk?” I said, “Dan Spiegle,” Dan being my usual answer to almost any question about who’d be great for any assignment. Len thought this was a brilliant idea, so he called Dan and asked him if he was interested in doing this comic. Dan didn’t even know what Blackhawk was, but he said yes because he heard it had airplanes in it.

DAN SPIEGLE: Blackhawk sounded interesting. I liked the World War II theme and it sounded like it would have a lot of action.

EVANIER: Lucky for me, Dan asked, “Is there any chance Mark could write it?” Len called me back and said, “Would you like to write it?” I said, “Sure, I’ll write anything Dan draws.”

While the book was never a huge seller, it did sell a little better than the company’s projections. Folks in the office also liked it, so for a while there, they let us do the book and DC just left us alone. They changed editors a few times and it didn’t make any difference. I wrote it and Dan drew it. Eventually, they made me editor and again, nothing changed. I just wrote it and sent it to Dan to draw like I always did. Then he sent it back to me and I proofed it and did lettering corrections and such. I always tried to do that on a comic even if I wasn’t the editor.

JOHNSON: I was impressed with the various artists who did covers and backup stories on the book [see sidebar for listing of backup stories and artists].

EVANIER: We had Dave Cockrum doing some of the covers, and Howard Chaykin.

JOHNSON: Chaykin did those covers at the same time his American Flagg! was a huge hit. How did you come to land him?

EVANIER: Chaykin just went to Len one day and said, “I love Blackhawk. If you want me, I’d love to do something on it.” Howard was a huge fan of Dan’s. The first time I took Dan up to the DC offices, Chaykin had just drawn the one backup story he did. I passed Howard in the hallway and I yelled down the hallway, “Hey, Howie! Great job on Blackhawk!” He yelled back, “Hey, Mark! Great script!”

I was standing next to Dan, who Howard had never met, and I yelled, “Howie, this is Dan Spiegle!” Chaykin sprinted the length of the hallway to pounce on Dan and gush and tell him how much he loved his artwork.

JOHNSON: That same issue also had a backup story

by Alex Toth.

EVANIER: I was pretty close to Alex at the time.

Our friendship went away later, but at the time I was going by to visit him every few weeks. Every time, he’d ask, “Do you have any Spiegle pages with you?” I usually had the original artwork for the latest issue of Blackhawk with me so I’d bring the pages in and Alex would just study them over and over. Alex regarded Dan as a contemporary, not just in age, but also as one who’d worked for a lot of the same companies on the same kind of material, and who had much the same goals. He admired Dan’s work and one day he just asked if he could be part of the book and do one. Dan was our secret weapon. Good artists wanted to be in the same comic. A friend of mine, Ken Steacy, came up to me in San Diego one year and said, “I want to do a Blackhawk story. Dan was telling me about how he had painted insignias on airplanes during the war. Let’s do a story about that.” Well, I know a good idea when I hear it. So I wrote a story, and I don’t think Dan saw it until it was printed, but he was in it, and Ken stuck himself and me in the story as other characters.

SPIEGLE: I have the originals of that particular story on the wall. The Navy didn’t allow naked ladies on their planes. We could paint the squadron insignias, which might be like a flying bomb or something like that. I did the squadron insignias for all the squadrons

Beginnings:

Cartoon comics scripts for Disney and Gold Key, and an apprenticeship under Jack Kirby (circa 1969–1970)

Milestones:

Comics: Kirby’s Fourth World titles (as an assistant) / Welcome Back, Kotter / Groo the Wanderer / Blackhawk / DNAgents / Crossfire / Tarzan / Hollywood Superstars / The Mighty Magnor / Fanboy Animation and Live-Action TV: Welcome Back, Kotter / Garfield and Friends / Plastic Man / Thundarr the Barbarian / Superman / Richie Rich / Dungeons & Dragons / That’s Incredible!

Current Projects:

POV Online / more Groo / a new Garfield cartoon series

Cyberspace:

www.povonline.com

Mark evanier

Beginnings:

Hopalong Cassidy comic strip (1949)

Milestones:

Maverick / Space Family Robinson / Magnus: Robot Fighter / Tarzan / Brothers of the Spear / Korak, Son of Tarzan / Scooby-Doo / The Unknown Solider / “Nemesis” (backup in DC’s The Brave and the Bold) / Blackhawk / Crossfire / Hollywood Superstars / Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient / Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny / Terry and the Pirates comic strip

Works in Progress:

Selling original artwork and commissions

Cyberspace:

www.davekarlenoriginalart.com

Dan Spiegle Comics Go to War Issue

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While conducting the Blackhawk “Pro2Pro” for this issue, I learned from Mark Evanier that DC had intended to let Blackhawk and his men continue fighting the good fight after he and Dan Spiegle completed their run. What follows is the story of a mid-1980s Blackhawk miniseries that came close to liftoff but didn’t quite clear the runway.

The genesis of this four-issue miniseries originated from a most unique source, the creator of Blackhawk himself. “Will Eisner was a pretty good teacher when he wanted to be,” recalls William DuBay, the writer of the aborted Blackhawk miniseries. (DuBay worked with Eisner at Warren Publications, where 16 issues of The Spirit were produced in the mid-1970s.) “He was also friend, mentor, and godfather to everyone on staff during his four-year Spirit run. [Will told me] the best stories are those about that one most important moment in your protagonist’s life.”

While working with Eisner, DuBay also learned about the original plans that the legendary comics creator had for the avenging aviator. “[Will said that] commercially, there will always be a place for heroic icons—but Blackhawk, with that one, they thought about doing something special,” explains DuBay. “Will said that when they came up with [the original Blackhawk concept], Hitler was already marching across Europe. They all knew that America was building up, not just to supply the Allies, but to get into the war. They all knew that when that happened, it’d be over quickly. [When Quality Comics, Blackhawk’s original publisher, needed] a lead series for Military Comics, Eisner and his crew figured they would time the ending [of the Blackhawk series] to coincide with the end of the war. [He thought the end of the war was] about a year or so away, like everyone else figured. Will saw a story where these heroes—because that’s what they are, average men,

Following Eisner’s Lead Writer Bill DuBay and penciler Carmine Infantino (inked by Dennis Jensen) planned to realize Blackhawk creator Will Eisner’s original series’ ending for the Blackhawk saga, but their miniseries was scuttled before ever seeing print. Never-before-published artwork from the collection of Michael Dunne.

TM & © DC Comics.

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by

Dan Johnson

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by

John Wells

As Bob Rozakis recalls, Denny O’Neil used to joke that there was a sub-imprint called “DC-Misses-the-Boat Comics.” Born in an editorial meeting when DC launched the Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter and Karate Kid titles long after the martial-arts craze had peaked, the phrase took on a life of its own and was invoked many times in the years ahead. Case in point: the Flash TV Special comic that wasn’t published until the series it was based on had been canceled.

JENETTE KAHN TUNES IN

When she arrived at DC in early 1976, new publisher Jenette Kahn quickly began to wonder why there was a Super Friends cartoon but no comic book. Or why Shazam!, despite a live-action Saturday morning series of its own, had seen its sales drop to a degree that it was reduced to a quarterly reprint comic. In short order, the groundwork was laid for a line of “DC TV Comics” that included Welcome Back, Kotter; Isis; the Super Friends comic that Kahn had wondered about; and a revamped Shazam! title that creatively mirrored the TV series continuity.

And then Kahn turned her attention to Wonder Woman. Quite unexpectedly, the Amazon Princess created by William Moulton Marston in 1941 had become a phenomenon again, thanks in large part to one of the greatest bits of casting in the history of jenette kahn comics-based movies. As Wonder Woman and her bespectacled alter ego Diana Prince, Lynda Carter stood virtually alone amidst a troupe of comedic actors in ABC’s The New Original Wonder Woman TV movie in playing things straight.

Blast From the Past Echoing the success of TV’s World War II-based Wonder Woman series, DC Comics followed suit by having its WW title star its Earth-Two version of the heroine in new Nazi-busting adventures.

Cover to Wonder Woman #229 (Mar. 1977)

by José Luis García-López and Vince Colletta.

TM & © DC Comics.

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BACK ISSUE • 27

That integrity of character was coupled with an infectious theme song

by Charles Fox and a surprising faithfulness to the source material.

Where a 1974 TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby did little more than use the name of Wonder Woman, this new film (first aired on November 7, 1975) borrowed liberally from the first two Wonder Woman stories in All Star Comics #8 and Sensation Comics #1.

Significantly, it also retained the general time period of those early stories, taking place in the summer of 1942.

After two follow-up episodes in April proved the movie was no fluke, ABC commissioned 11 episodes to air on an irregular basis beginning on October 13, 1976. The next issue of Wonder Woman to be published after that episode, Jenette Kahn declared to the book’s new editor Denny O’Neil, needed to reflect the TV show.

So the comic’s regular scripter Marty Pasko had to ditch the already-plotted WW/Cheetah story intended for Wonder Woman #228 (Feb. 1977) and come up with a new one that fulfilled management’s directive—in addition to having his deadline for #229 moved up a month by virtue of the comic’s promotion from six times a year to monthly. Oh, and there was also going to be a Wonder Woman story in each issue of the expanded World’s Finest Comics that began in January of 1977.

the red-jacketed villain arrived instead in 1976 on the other-dimensional Earth-One long enough to get on the bad side of that world’s Wonder Woman, the one whose adventures fans had been following up to that point. The Panzer’s craft was set to automatically return to its point of origin in an hour’s time so both he and the Amazing Amazon wound up back in 1943. That’s when the fun began.

Well-versed on parallel worlds from her time in the Justice League, the latter-day Wonder Woman figured out very quickly where she was.

The Earth-Two WW was understandably skeptical, though, trading a punch or two before her magic lasso confirmed that her twin’s outrageous story was true. Apologies were made, Earth-One’s Diana used the time-ship to go home, and Earth-Two’s heroine got back to the business of stopping bullets cold and making the Axis fold.

As the conclusion of the story in #229 revealed, that wasn’t as easy as it might have seemed. On Paradise Island, Diana was gently taken to task by her mother for having been defeated by the Red Panzer. The problem, Queen Hippolyte explained, was in her newfound assurance that the Nazi menace would be defeated.

Subconsciously, she continued, “your knowledge of the future has dulled the sharp edge of your resolve.” Encircled by the magic lasso, Wonder Woman was commanded by her mother to forget everything she knew about the future.

MARTY PASKO FINE TUNES The supporting cast members seen on TV Pasko’s elegant solution to the mandate was to shift marty pasko made their first appearances in #229 and became the series back to World War II, setting the action indicative of something, as Pasko would later on Earth-Two, a parallel world that DC had write in the Amazing World of DC Comics #15 declared to be the home of many of the heroes it published during (Aug. 1977), that “a certain faction of the letter-writing the 1940s. And rather than jolt regular readers, he decided to segue readership hasn’t stopped carping [about] since.” The details didn’t into the new status quo via a transitional issue. match the stories actually published in the 1940s.

Alerted to Germany’s eventual defeat by way of a time scanner, a Holliday College student Etta Candy, for instance, now worked in Nazi scientist-turned-armored-villain declared himself the Red Panzer the War Department as General Blankenship’s secretary. In his scripts, and created a time-ship to leap a year into the future and change at least, Pasko dodged that particular point by never using her last history. Overshooting his destination of the June 1944 D-Day invasion, name, implying this was a different Etta.

Blankenship himself was created exclusively for the TV show.

In the 1940s (and beyond), Steve and Diana took their orders from General Darnell. Pasko’s rationalization was that Steve reported to two superiors and readers just hadn’t seen Darnell.

Diana Prince had been a lieutenant as early as Sensation Comics #14 but she was a yeoman here.

Pasko suggested that Diana began as a yeoman and these stories chronologically preceded the Golden Age accounts.

Pasko’s explanation for the blond Steve Trevor now having brown hair (like Lyle Waggoner, the

So, Tell the Truth… …wasn’t Lynda Carter perfect as TV’s Wonder Woman? (inset) Wonder Woman issue #228.

Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. Photo © 1975 Warner Bros. Television and ABC-TV.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Comics Go to War Issue

Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen … more like Combat Kelly and the Deadly Nine. As in “nine issues.”

Call it a comic-book casualty of war, but the short-lived Marvel Comics Group World War II feature known as Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen (June 1972–Sept. 1973) fought a losing battle for readers before ever reaching the magic number in its title.

Combat Kelly may have died a quiet death, and creatively, this series may have been no path of glory for veteran World War II comics writer Gary Friedrich, who helmed Kelly’s entire run with Dick Ayers providing the pencils. And yet, the book is not without its charms.

One thing’s for sure: This is one comic book that went out with all guns blazing.

COMICS GO TO WAR

By the end of the 1960s, the trend of World War II comics—popular since, oh, World War II?—was finally winding down. Sgt. Fury had traded in his dog tags for secret-agent status and entered the espionage game as a S.H.I.E.L.D. commandant. Revived World War II relic Captain America went urban warrior, taking on Manhattan-based madmen. Over at DC, a few old chestnuts—Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier—lingered into another decade, while Marvel outfitted the Second World War in superhero drag with The Invaders. But by the 1970s, these titles were the exceptions, not the norm.

Bridging the chasm in 1972 as if it were the River Kwai was Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen. Those nine issues may not have warranted an article were it not for the fact that this otherwise generic-looking combat series took a few daring detours in its brief existence.

Among those conceits: some colorful, well-developed characters; crude-looking visuals backboned by structurally solid storytelling; and, most memorably, a brazen, explosive series-ending finale presenting some unvarnished, Comics Code-baiting Nazi brutality that left one character crippled for life, and all of Kelly’s men dead by the end of the last issue.

Stirrin’ Up the Stalag Kelly’s heroes bust free from a concentration camp in this original cover art to Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen #2 (Aug. 1972), by the legendary John Severin. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Comics Go to War Issue

by

Michael Aushenker

Combat Kelly’s Talented Two Gary Friedrich (left) and Dick Ayers at the New York Comic-Con in Manhattan, April 20, 2008. Photos courtesy of Nightscream.

SILENT BUT DEADLY

Now, if you’re thinking right now that Combat Kelly is still not ringing a bell, you are not alone, chief. The series barely registered even with Kelly’s very creative team, headed by the series’ editorial commando Roy Thomas.

“I just don’t recall much about that series, having left it to Gary [Friedrich],” Thomas tells BACK ISSUE. “Gary was probably experimenting somewhat to see how far he could go in certain areas.”

BACK ISSUE pressed Thomas if Combat Kelly was a warm-up for his writing chores a few years later on another Marvel comic, The Invaders, and his current World War II-drenched superhero endeavor, Anthem (Heroic Publishing).

“Can’t say more than that it was a warm-up ... unintended,” responds Thomas. “I was always interested in WWII, but not necessarily writing about it. In fact, when a big Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora!

Tora!, opened in the late ’60s, I never got around to walking the block or two to see it before it went off ... but I got more interested in writing a WWII superhero comic as time went on.”

Dick Ayers, now 84 with a lengthy résumé behind him that includes myriad war comics, tells BACK ISSUE that he only faintly remembers working on the book.

Combat Kelly was not the first military series on which Friedrich and Ayers collaborated. Friedrich relieved his old Missouri pal (and future Invaders creator/scribe) Thomas from writing duty on Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, as Thomas was graduated to editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics following Stan Lee. Friedrich and the art team of Ayers and John Severin produced a World War II series for the Vietnam era, combining militaristic camaraderie and gung-ho humor with a melancholy sense of war as a terrible last resort. Under Friedrich, the series won the Alley Award for “Best War Title” in 1967–1968.

Following in the combat-boot prints of Sgt. Fury (not to mention the obvious tip o’ the hat to the 1967 Robert Aldrich film The Dirty Dozen), Combat Kelly milked that award-winning formula, delivering a multiethnic squadron that started at the top with the title Irish-American and worked its way down the chain of command—as did Sgt. Fury’s Howlers, which featured such colorful characters as Private Dino Manelli (inspired

by Italian-American crooner Dean Martin), Private Isadore “Izzy” Cohen (the first demonstrably Jewish-American comic-book hero), token Brit Private Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton, and Nazi defector Private Eric Koenig.

In Combat Kelly #1, both Manelli and Pinkerton transferred from the Howlers to the Deadly Dozen to help transition readers to the new series. And the Howlers’ “Dum Dum” Dugan ran the show, ticking off the Deadly Dozen roster, until Kelly is brought in to replace him as squadron leader.

The formula couldn’t have been more all-American: What better symbol of our country’s diversity and opportunity than portraying men of different ethnicities coming together as one to defeat a common enemy.

The Dirty Deadly Dozen Debut John Severin’s cover to Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen #1 (June 1972) promised explosive action, which the series’ writer/artist team of Gary Friedrich and Dick Ayers ably delivered. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROLL CALL!

Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen began its march to a different war drum with the June 1972 cover-dated issue titled “Stop the Luftwaffe … Win the War!” To put things in context, it was released at the same time Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 smashed through brick-and-mortar onto the Marvel scene. Kelly’s creative troops: Friedrich wrote it, Ayers penciled it, and Jim Mooney inked it.

In the inaugural issue, a US military captain enlists Sgt. Fury’s howling commando “Dum Dum” Dugan to lead a special battalion to crush a Nazi Luftwaffe jet that will win the war for the Germans.

Part and parcel with that objective is a mission to abduct the über-plane’s inventor. Removed from leading the mission, Dugan passes the baton to Michael Lee Kelly, a 6' 1" Bostonian heavyweight boxer doing life in a government prison for killing a man with his bare hands. This fightin’ Irish-American has one chance of redemption and freedom—lead the Deadly Dozen on this suicide mission and help America win the war. No sweat, right?

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They called him “the Immortal Man of War…” From the shores of Iwo Jima to the sewers of Berlin to the beaches of Normandy, this hero— first identified with master cartoonist Joe Kubert— fought the Axis in some of the most harrowing, hair-raising World War II adventures that DC Comics has ever published … the most spectacular of which saw him personally take down Adolf Hitler deep within Der Fuhrer’s bunker.

Now, if you’re thinking of Sgt. Rock, guess again, goldbricker!

The Unknown Soldier remains an underrated run— even by those who dig Kubert’s beautifully scratchy, shadowy art. Even by creator Kubert himself. There are many interviews scattered like stardust across the Internet in which Kubert discusses Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, and Hawkman, but Unknown Soldier talk remains scarce… …until now.

by

Michael Aushenker

ICONIC AND IRONIC

So, who is the Unknown Soldier?

Well, we know who the Unknown Soldier isn’t: Captain America. Sgt. Fury. Capt. Savage.

Combat Kelly—those were the competition’s World War II characters (many issues of which were drawn by Unknown Soldier artist Dick Ayers). He wasn’t Sgt. Rock, the only other DC World War II hero to surpass the Soldier’s comic-book lifespan. The erstwhile Steve Rogers notwithstanding, none of those WWII books outlasted the Unknown Soldier, star of a solid 1970–1982 run. Contrary to impressions, this character did not debut during the Second World War’s Golden Age but at the dawn of comics’ Bronze Age, first appearing in Star Spangled War Stories #151 (June–July 1970).

The Unknown Soldier’s power lies in the character as a compelling visual; the character is the link between the Mummy and the Invisible Man, Sam Raimi’s Darkman, and 100 Bullets. The simplicity of this iconic anti-hero archtype, his face wrapped in bandages, instantly conveys horror, tragedy, mystery. Hero and anti-hero, the Soldier falls in line with a tradition of lean, mean, sleekly designed heroes where their only revelation is all in the eyes—the Human Fly, Union Jack. He dons a hat, trench coat, and shades to conceal himself … and that’s when he’s not in disguise! For in each heart-stopping issue, the Soldier dons at least one latex mask to impersonate and infiltrate Axis circles … and he throws down stealth moves, not always government-issue, to accomplish his mission. In essence, this is “Darkman meets Combat!” or “the Invisible Man goes to war.” Unlike the H. G. Wells character, he is not evil … yet like the scientist Griffin, he is not above killing.

This comic book’s concept was simple: the exploits of Arlington National Cemetery’s Unknown Soldier incarnate; the embodiment of every anonymous US soldier who died fighting for this country and its ideals of justice and freedom, from the Revolutionary War through World War II. In 2002, three months before the first Spider-Man movie hit theaters with its unprecedented nine-digit box-office tally, I had the good fortune to interview director Raimi for a local L.A. periodical. Here’s an excerpt from the my article: 40 • BACK ISSUE • Comics Go to War Issue

Face Off The Unknown Soldier shows the true face of war in this detail from the Joe Kubert cover art to Star Spangled War Stories #168 (Mar. 1973), with its original word balloons supplanted by our article’s subtitle.

TM & © DC Comics.

The Amazing Spider-Man was Raimi’s favorite title, but he also loved The Shadow. In the 1980s, Raimi lobbied to direct the movie version … to no avail.

“When Universal didn’t want me for the job, I said, ‘Well, damn it, I’m going to write my own ‘Shadow,’” recalled Raimi, who conceived his Gothic antihero Darkman in the spirit of the venerable pulp character.

I wonder now whether or not Unknown Soldier also factored into Raimi’s Liam Neeson-starring movie, as Darkman—with his identical Gothic gauze garb and constant assumptions of new identities (instead of latex guises, he’s a scientist affixing masks of temporary genetic material onto his disfigured face)—was, in essence, an urban Unknown Soldier.

YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION…

When the Unknown Soldier started out in Star Spangled War Stories (SSWS) #151, the nascent concept featured the character as more of the embodiment of an idea rather than a specific person. A typical issue would end with the mysterioso Soldier lost in thought, staring out pensively before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.

Two issues of SSWS, both drawn by Kubert, proved to be crucial in the evolution of the series. “I’ll Never Die!” (SSWS #154) told the origin of the Unknown Soldier; “Invasion Game” (#155), written by Bob Haney, introduced a significant supporting character to the Soldier mythos: “the most famous French Resistance leader alive,” black jazz player Chat Noir.

As the series progresses, the Unknown Soldier evolves from a symbolic character—he could be anyone of us—to a specific character: a master of disguises ready to impersonate and infiltrate at a moment’s notice when London calls. It’s not until #183 (Jan.–Feb. 1975) where we finally see the shadowy Soldier’s horrific, disfigured, skull face, and rather than detract, it only adds new flavor to the feature, as new writer David Michelinie

maximizes the conceit of the unraveled Unknown Soldier to great effect; and Gerry Talaoc becomes the first artist to “expose” him after many issues of the Soldier unmasking in shadows or covering his face with his hands.

So here’s the million-dollar Charlie Rose question: The Unknown Soldier:“The Man No One Knows …

Yet Is Known By Everyone!” How did he come … to be?

“It was during the time I was editing a bunch of war books,” Joe Kubert tells BACK ISSUE. “The Unknown Soldier is a memorial that houses the body of one of the soldiers whose history was unknown. I thought it was a good excuse to get [elements of] mystery, horror, and sci-fi, which we tried to do with all the war books.”

Kubert created the Unknown Soldier during his editorial tenure at DC Comics from 1967–1976—a stint during which Kubert launched titles based on such Edgar Rice Burroughs properties Tarzan of the Apes and Korak, Son of Tarzan; and supervised such series as Weird Worlds and, of course, Our Army at War featuring Sgt. Rock.

DC veteran scribe Robert Kanigher was key to the Unknown Soldier’s early genesis.

“Bob was always a pleasure to work with,” remembers Kubert. “He was very enthusiastic. He had a lot of terrific ideas. Bob had for a long time been the editor on all of the war books. Eventually Bob took ill and couldn’t finish his chores. [Then-DC editorial director] Carmine Infantino, we’ve known each other for years. He felt I would be the right one to handle it. I was the editor, Bob was the writer ... it’s not a situation that a lot of people could take to. Bob was professional enough to know what the situation was.”

Visual experimentation on the series was common.

One of the visual trademarks—especially in Jack Sparling runs written by Archie Goodwin and Frank Robbins— was a splash page that incorporated photographic elements. SSWS #155, “Invasion Game” by Bob Haney and Kubert, featured a French Resistance montage— beautifully rendered grease pencil on Coquille board— as the center frame, an ink drawing of the Soldier getting his assignment from his superior in Washington, D.C., 1944.

“We started out by trying to give as much credibility as possible by cutting out photographs to give an additional credibility to the character,” Kubert says. “I still do. I’ll take the back of a drawing pad or corrugated cardboard and draw on that … something that looks a little different than what’s been done before.”

Comics Go to War Issue

Private Eyes The Invisible Man (above) and Darkman (left), tragic “cousins” of the Unknown Soldier. © Universal Pictures.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Writer/artist George Pratt’s Enemy Ace: War Idyll was released by DC Comics in 1990 to great critical acclaim.

While the book’s painted artwork set new standards for graphic novels, it is the story’s connection made between Hans von Hammer, Germany’s “Enemy Ace” of World War I, and an American reporter who has recently done a tour in Vietnam that make this book a powerful read. In the course of the story, the two find they aren’t as different as they might think. Both know what it is like to fight in a war and about the horrors a solider encounters in conflict. More importantly, both men know the greatest challenge a man faces because of war: making it out alive when so many others do not, and learning to live with being a survivor.

– Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: George, please tell the readers how Enemy Ace: War Idyll came about.

GEORGE PRATT: As a kid, I was a huge war comics fan.

The reason I was a DC guy was because, for one, they had Batman, but second, they had Sgt. Rock and all the war comics. [I liked the] Joe Kubert and Russ Heath material and I was into their interpretation of Sgt. Rock, and I was a big fan of [Robert] Kanigher’s writing as well.

After graduation, I was casting about trying to find illustration work and at that time I was helping Jon J Muth on Moonshadow. He would call when he was behind the eight ball and say, “Hey, I’m really late.

You want to try to help me finish this issue?” He would give me a train ticket to upstate New York and I would go up to his place and over the weekend we would just crank out one of those issues of Moonshadow in watercolor.

JOHNSON: So you got some hands-on training there…

PRATT: That really convinced me that I could do the amount of work needed to actually put out a graphic novel. One of the first jobs that I got out of school was working for Eagle, which was Harris Publications’ kind of Solider of Fortune-type magazine. I had gone in trying to get work at Creepy and Eerie, which they had just brought back. Tony Dispoto was heading that up at the time. He wasn’t interested in my comics work, but I had done a painting of an American solider in Vietnam and he liked that a lot. The reason I had done that painting was because I wanted to understand for myself why that war had happened. From 1960 until I was 14 or 15 years old, that war was going on and I never really understood the cause or the whys or the wherefores [of it]. I started reading a lot of books about the war and I got into the visual aspects of it. Tony said, “We don’t have any comics work, but if you like, I can show this to the editor over at Eagle and maybe you can do some war stuff.”

So, he showed it to the editor of Eagle, Jim Morris, [who hired me]. The magazine only came out every other month, but he gave me enough work for each month.

I kind of became his pet artist. He would give me a painting to do, plus three or four panels that would go with an article. The more I did of that, the more I wanted to try and say something of my own. One day, Morris said, “You should really talk to some of these guys and get their perspectives.” Jim himself was a three-tour Green Beret and wrote a book about it called War Diary, as well as some

Bringing Enemy Ace to Life George Pratt used an aged man named Vincent as the model for his interpretation of WWI flying ace Hans von Hammer.

Enemy Ace TM & © DC Comics.

50 • BACK ISSUE • Comics Go to War Issue

by

Dan Johnson

conducted April 23, 2009

science-fiction novels. I see Jim every once in a while on the History Channel. He is one of the guys they call upon as a specialist. He said, “Why don’t you come down to the office and you can use the company phone and I can give you some names and phone numbers of these guys.”

JOHNSON: So you started speaking with veterans?

PRATT: I did that one day. I made a few phone calls to these people Jim knew and they started telling me what they felt and what they thought about their own experiences in Vietnam. That convinced me more than ever that I really wanted to try and put something together of my own, but I really didn’t know how to approach it. I had read all of the Kanigher and Kubert and Heath and Ric Estrada material, but I didn’t want to do anything that would be construed as a glorification of war. I wanted to try and tackle the war stuff and make it as real as I could. I was digging through my old comics and I came across one of my old “Enemy Ace” books [in DC’s Star Spangled War Stories] and I thought this could be a great counterpoint to the Vietnam War. I had been reading about the guys who had been tunnel rats and thought Enemy Ace would be a nice contrast because here was this guy who was in the air and in the open and these other guys were confined in the tunnels. The more I read on the two wars, the more I saw there were a lot of similarities. In World War I, while there was this great, obvious support for that war, but there were a lot of people who were not behind it. Some of them paid a really heavy price and were executed and others were put in jail for being conscientious objectors.

The interesting thing was that when I started reading more about World War I, Vietnam almost took a back seat because the stories I was reading came from a lot of firsthand memoirs, and they were so powerful, and in some ways so understated, that my mind just took off.

There was this underlying sense of the writers not being able to grasp the whole thing and not really understanding it, but still being so moved and changed by it.

The First World War was always dogging my steps as a kid in a weird way and I never thought about it until I started reading all of this stuff. Looking back, I can see that there was this thread through my life.

My grandfather was in World War I, and then my high school English teacher was the model who posed for the Howard Chandler Christy poster of the woman dressed as a sailor with the caption, “Gee!! I wish I was a man, I’d join the Navy!!” The first piano piece I ever learned as a kid was a World War I song, “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.” It was weird, like [these connections with World War I] were always there, but I never really noticed it. The first real artist I ever met, Phyllis Lee, is convinced that I died in the trenches or something like that and I’m slowly starting to remember this past life.

JOHNSON: So this made Enemy Ace right up your alley.

PRATT: With Enemy Ace, I figured this was a character with whom I could really take my idea and run with, if DC would ever allow it since it seemed that professionals were mostly the fans of that comic. So, I played around with this idea for a number of years and never really believed that DC would allow me to do this thing. It just became this fun little thing for myself.

I would pull it out and write on it and sketch on it.

I kept two big sketchbooks where I was trying to learn how to draw the First World War and I had been building up a library of World War I reference material.

I was living in New York at the time and Scott Hampton would come up and hang out for weeks at a time. One time while he was up he said, “I’m going to be over at Rick Bryant’s in the city. Bring all that Ace stuff

Beginnings:

Assisting Jon J Muth on Moonshadow (Marvel, 1987)

Milestones:

Enemy Ace: War Idyll / Sgt. Rock Special / Batman: Harvest Breed / Wolverine: Netsuke (2003 Eisner Award winner)/ covers and pinups for numerous series including Akira, Animal Man, Batman, Detective Comics, Marvel Comics Presents, and The Spectre / paintings exhibited in galleries in New York and Houston

Works in Progress:

Teaching art students / “Paroles de Poilu” for a French album

Cyberspace:

www.georgepratt.com

George Pratt

Trial and Error Page layouts from War Idyll didn’t come easy. “I would do anywhere from five to 10 different versions [of each page] trying to zero in on the best way to tell the story,” says Pratt.

Enemy Ace TM & © DC Comics.

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BACK ISSUE • 51

®

by

Ian Millsted

In the summer of 1975, Marvel Comics put out two new Giant-Size titles featuring superhero teams.

Both were new variations of older series, but while Giant-Size X-Men went on to an ongoing series that eventually topped the sales charts and spun off into multiple titles and media formats, Giant-Size Invaders, despite featuring established characters, launched a title that ran only 41 issues before being canceled.

However, the series is still fondly remembered by many.

In the letters page—or, more accurately, text page— of that Giant-Size issue, Roy Thomas wrote that he had been waiting thirty years to do the title: “Stan [Lee] invited me to come up with a new title or two I’d like to start, write and edit. I thought about it overnight— and that’s all it took. The idea just fell into place, as if it had been there all along just waiting for me to stumble over it. I’d do the kind of superhero group I’d always wanted to find in those old wartime comics, but rarely did—and I’d do it with (inevitably, unavoidably) a 1970s perspective.”

(NOT SO) STRANGE INVADERS

Giant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975) was written by Roy Thomas with art by the team of Frank Robbins and Vince Colletta, although the cover was inked by John Romita, Sr., over Robbins. The story, naturally, tells how the team of Captain America and Bucky, the Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch and Toro comes together in December 1941 to fight against the Axis enemy, in the form of new villain Master Man. Frank Robbins’ art, described by Roy Thomas as “slightly offbeat,” and the introductory nature of the script give a reading experience closer in tone to the Captain America stories set in World War II featured in Tales of Suspense in the 1960s than the 1970s’ perspective mentioned above. Two other aspects of the Giant-Size issue which would return in the ongoing series that followed were the use of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in cameos and the appearance of reprints from the Golden Age. In this case, the latter is in the form of a “Sub-Mariner” story by Bill Everett.

Axis Smashers Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch show the Nazis who’s boss on Jazzy Johnny Romita’s original cover artwork to The Invaders #1 (Aug. 1975). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The next-issue box promised a second issue of Giant-Size Invaders featuring another 30-page main story and a “Human Torch” reprint backup. The suggestion was that this would be the continuing format on a bimonthly basis. However, while the bimonthly schedule was kept, the format was changed to that of an ongoing regular Marvel title. The creative team of Thomas/Robbins/Colletta was also retained.

The Invaders #1 (Aug. 1975) contained the first part of a longer story that had been produced with the Giant-Size format in mind.

“The Ring of the Nebulas” is a curious attempt to bring Wagner’s Ring cycle into comics form. (Thomas was to do this again, more successfully, in Thor and especially in the straight adaptation, The Ring of the Niebelung. The latter featured some of Gil Kane’s best art of his later years.) In this case, the Teutonic gods turn out to be aliens when the story is concluded in Invaders #2 (Oct. 1975).

Issues #3 (Nov. 1975) and 4 (Jan. 1976) used the backdrop of the U-Boat raids on merchant shipping to introduce new villain U-Man. Perhaps I’m influenced by #4 being the first issue I actually came across, bought, and read (the Giant-Size issue was not generally distributed in Britain and I didn’t get to the only local shop that stocked US Marvel titles often enough to see #’s 1–3), but this seemed to be where the series started to hit its stride. Frank Robbins’ art, being somewhat different from the Marvel house style of the time, suited the series well. He drew the hardware of war expertly and the characters’ faces allowed for a range of expressions often absent in superhero comics. When the characters were running, jumping, or even flying they looked like they were using the right set of muscles. At the same time the action and detail were all in the foreground and the sometimes-criticized Vince Colletta did a fine job inking. The action moves quickly with plenty of humor along the way. There is even a one-panel gag with Winston Churchill that acts as a plug for the short-lived Marvel title Skull the Slayer.

A new art team of pencilers Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers, plus embellisher Jim Mooney, came on board for a four-part story starting in #5 (Mar. 1976) and crossing over into Marvel Premiere. When the Red Skull manages to turn Captain America, Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and Toro into pro-Nazi puppets, Bucky is left to look for further allies. This issue also has the entertaining conceit of showing the two younger members of the team reading about themselves in the Timely comics of the day, and pointing out inaccuracies.

While this might be an example of the postmodern in comics, it was really a device to allow Roy Thomas to pick and choose what he wanted to be canon from the Timely era.

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First Strikes (left) Roy Thomas’ Invaders made their debut (sort of) in The Avengers #71 (Dec. 1969); cover art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger. (center) The Allied Aces’ series premiere occurred in Giant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975); cover art by Frank Robbins and John Romita, Sr. (right) Invaders Annual #1 (1977) tied in to Avengers #71 and featured this amazing cover by Golden Age great Alex Schomburg. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

GIVE ME LIBERTY

The cover of Marvel Premiere #29 (Apr. 1976) features new team, the Liberty Legion. Although continuing from Invaders #5, the story—

by Thomas and with art by the team of Don Heck and Colletta— tells of the formation of a new team of heroes. This had been planned even before The Invaders launched. As Roy Thomas explained in the text page: “Even before Giant-Size Invaders went on sale, I was already hard at work on a couple of try-out issues of a second WWII title, to be composed of some of the lesser superheroes from the Timely comics of the period.” Those heroes were the Patriot, Red Raven, Miss America, the Whizzer, the Thin Man, Jack Frost, and Blue Diamond. The Whizzer and Miss America were familiar to 1970s Marvel readers from Thomas-scripted Giant-Size Avengers, and Red Raven had appeared in X-Men. Frank Robbins returned to art duties, still inked by Colletta, on Invaders #6 (May 1976), wherein the Liberty Legion fought the Red Skull-controlled Invaders. The story concludes in Marvel Premiere #30 (June 1976) by Thomas, Heck, and Colletta, and also includes a text page listing all the Golden Age appearances of the members of the Liberty Legion. Once the Red Skull’s plan has failed and the Invaders are freed from his control, it is established that the Liberty Legion will operate on the home front while the Invaders return to Europe.

Back in Britain in Invaders #7 (July 1976), the new villain, Baron Blood, allowed artist Robbins to show his strengths. The dynamic sense of movement he puts in allows Blood to appear powerful

by

Mark DiFruscio

In a medium where heroism and virtue are so often equated with brute strength and a propensity for violence, the notion of doing a comic book about the life of an elderly Catholic nun might seem like something of an oddity. Yet Marvel Comics produced just such an anomaly when it published Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1984) during the halcyon days of the 1980s, when superhero titles such as Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four ruled the comics world.

The 48-page one-shot, written by fan-favorite David Michelinie, penciled by the late John Tartaglione, and inked by the legendary Joe Sinnott, also included a story credit attributed to Father Roy Gasnick, a man of the cloth who played an integral role in bringing religion to the House of Ideas.

Despite the seemingly incongruous union of comic books and Catholicism, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was in fact the third in a series of religious-themed biographies published by Marvel during the 1980s.

The first was an illustrated biography of Saint Francis of Assisi entitled Francis, Brother of the Universe (1980), followed two years later by The Life of Pope John Paul II (1982).

DIVINE IRONY

The genesis of these books is detailed in a brief foreword to Francis, Brother of the Universe, which recounts how a Marvel Comics representative in Japan by the name of Gene Pelc was chatting about his work over coffee with Father Campion Lally at the Franciscan Chapel Center. When Fr. Campion asked, “Why don’t you do a book on St. Francis?” Pelc paused, then replied simply, “Why not?”

From this inauspicious beginning, Pelc went on to suggest that a Franciscan friar should be brought in to collaborate on the comic book. As a result, Pelc eventually turned to Father Roy Gasnick, who at that time was the Director of the Franciscan Communications Office in New York, and had recently

Blessing the House of Ideas The cover of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, published by Marvel Comics in 1984.

Art by John Tartaglione and Joe Sinnott. © 1984 Marvel Comics.

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worked with Paramount Pictures on publicizing Franco Zeffirelli’s biopic on Francis of Assisi entitled Brother Sun, Sister Moon (released in 1972). A childhood comics fan himself, Fr. Roy “jumped at the chance” to do an illustrated version of the life of St. Francis.

“When I was a kid, I read every comic book I could get my hands on,” Fr. Roy, now in his seventies, recalls. “My favorite was Captain Marvel, the story of a young boy who could turn into a superhero by merely shouting out ‘Shazam!’ There was a kind of mysticism in that. It made me think of a Catholic priest saying the words of consecration which turns bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass. I’m sure that was one of many influences that turned my young mind and heart toward the Catholic priesthood.”

Once the executives at Marvel Comics approved the unique venture, longtime Marvel editor Mary Jo Duffy was enlisted as scripter, while John Buscema and Marie Severin were brought in to tackle the art chores. In addition, the comic was distributed through both Marvel Comics and the Paulist Press, a Catholic publishing group.

“Divine irony” is how Fr. Roy describes the opportunity in retrospect. “At the time, in l982, I was chair of the coordinating committee for the US celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis. We Franciscans had a suggestion on the table to publish a comic book life of St. Francis.

I used my journalistic background to argue against the idea because even if we had a great storyteller, great artist, great layout designer, etc., the major lack would be that of a nationwide distributor. We might have a great product, but what good would that be if we did not have the means to sell it…

“Six months later Marvel Comics approached me with their offer to do Francis, Brother of the Universe, which turned out to be an extraordinary success.”

The comic, which benefits greatly from the gorgeous artwork produced by the teaming of Buscema and Severin, depicts the evolution of Francis Bernardone from callow youth to revered saint, starting with his childhood as the son of a wealthy Italian merchant in the city of Assisi during the latter years of the Dark Ages. Filled with ambitions of becoming a heroic knight, Francis sets out for glory by joining the army of Assisi in their war against the neighboring Italian town of Perugia. Yet the grim realities of war quickly take their toll on young Francis, who finds himself imprisoned with the remaining survivors of the defeated Assisian army. After being freed in exchange for a hefty ransom, the recovering Francis returns home and throws himself into empty revelries, declaring, “I want to spend my life trying new things, and finding new ways of seeing and doing

“The Comic Book Priest” (top) Father Roy Gasnick, from the article “The Comic Book Priest,” which appeared in Catholic Digest’s Nov. 1984 issue. (left) Page 9 from Francis, Brother of the Universe (1980), by the art team of John Buscema and Marie Severin.

Photo © 2009 Catholic Digest. Art © 1980 Marvel Comics.

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TM

by

“War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!

Say it again!”

Those lines by the late, great Edwin Starr to the contrary, war remains with us, as an ever-present part of our history, our reality, even our consumerism.

Somewhere, as you read this, war is occurring ... the horrors of it. And somewhere, as you read this, revenue is generated from wars past and wars present.

But there are also the lessons of war.

If it is the hope of horror films—the best of them— to channel away our daily horror; then perhaps it is the hope of the war film, book, comic—the best of them—to channel away our ... easy stumblings into war.

The purpose of recounting tales of war, then, is to strip away the lies and the glamour and to unearth the lessons of wars past, that may, if we can listen, guide us away from wars present and wars future.

Being a child of the ’70s, my earliest introduction to war comics was with titles such as Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, books I came across while tagging along with my mom at the local Rite-Aid. Rite-Aid, for those of you who don’t know that particular brand of store, is much like CVS; part pharmacy, part convenience store, and seemingly ever-present.

And for me, at least, and I’d wager a generation of youth, the corner pharmacy is where I became acquainted with and hooked (somehow apt, a place where drugs were dispensed, being the source of my “drug” of choice) on this uniquely American genre of the comic.

From the Frontlines Writer/artist Don Lomax’s gritty, personal black-and-white title Vietnam Journal may not be widely known, but those who have discovered it have praised its authenticity and emotional impact. Seen here is the splash page to issue #4 (May 1988). All Vietnam Journal scans courtesy of G. K. Abraham. © 2009 Don Lomax.

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G. K. Abraham

Make War Once More (left) While seeming pro-war in its gung-ho approach, director Ted Kotcheff’s First Blood (1982)— moviegoers’ introduction to macho icon Rambo— was anti-war at heart. (right) Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning 1986 film Platoon was a thinking man’s war movie and helped create the market climate that gave birth to Don Lomax’s Vietnam Journal.

And along with the corner pharmacy, there were the libraries.

Before libraries had graphic-novel sections, before there was such a thing as a graphic novel, our local librarian had a comic box and once a week kids could come in and trade their comics for other comics.

This librarian was somehow den mother to this unruly band of preteens—God love her, ’cause my friends and I certainly did. What a nifty and smart thing to do, to lure kids off of the corners and out of brawling and into libraries.

There, with peers, friendships were made while trading and talking about that most perfect of mediums, comics.

However, not all comics were considered perfect.

Invariably some comics, like unpleasant orphans, would stay unchosen. In our librarian’s comic box, you could always be certain to find Archie comics, and the aforementioned war comics, along with titles such as The Unknown Solider and G. I. Combat.

These books (which you can clearly go back to and see their strengths: the late Bob Kanigher, who wrote many of these war comics, being a writer whose work I actively seek out now) at the time held very little sway against the four-color wonders of men whose rage turned them green, whose tragedy turned them into bat-costumed avengers, and whose time in prison turned them into bullet-resistant, 300 lb. heroes for hire.

Kids of our age back then were looking for larger wonders. Something beyond our experience. In a time not far removed from the shadow of Vietnam, what we weren’t looking for was any repetition of our nightly news. We wanted what all kids want at that age— we wanted to sail the oceans cosmic. So during the ’70s and into the ’80s, superheroes reigned supreme.

But by the mid-’80s, the children of the ’70s had grown up and matured, and amazingly, the medium had grown up with them. There was renewed popularity

First Blood © 1982 Anabasis N.V. and Elcajo Productions.

Platoon © 1986 Hemdale Film.

of the war film in cinema, with films such as Platoon, Rambo, and Full Metal Jacket coming along in time to prep a generation for the Gulf War. The 1980s saw a resurgence in war as fodder for entertainment. To understand the resurgence of the war comic book, and how from it Vietnam Journal was born, it is necessary to understand the resurgence of the war film.

Historically, these cycles pop up prior to new periods of armed conflict—in this case the Gulf War, but you’ll generally see this going back as far as the Spanish American War—where entertainment, from cartoons to comics, begins to prime an audience for war. This is largely aimed at youth. So G. I. Joe, Rambo, and Iron Eagle came along at the right time to “prep” my generation for the Gulf War, to glamorize it to some extent, to paint duty and war and killing as patriotic necessities. That’s the way war is historically sold, the fact of it preceded by a mass-media blanketing of the fun of it. Patriotism as product of popcorn, cool special effects, and rousing music scores. Propaganda.

However, along with the traditional pro-war movies of the early ’80s, in the latter half of the’80s you began to get a rash of very personal stories from directors, such as Oliver Stone, who had seen this cycle before and decided in their own films to say: “All those John Wayne-type movies are fine and good, but let me show you the other side.”

Films like Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), John Irvin’s Hamburger Hill (1987), Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War (1989), and Stone’s own Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) very much sought to show war beyond the simplistic, to speak of war in terms elegiac.

Surprisingly enough, First Blood (1982), which introduced Rambo, is a very interesting and significant film in the proliferation of war movies in the ’80s.

Sylvester Stallone, as co-writer and uncredited director with Ted Kotcheff, with First Blood launched this genre of Comics Go to War Issue

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VJ’s Contemporaries Both Marvel’s The ’Nam (left) and the British import Charley’s War (right) offered poignant battlefront perspectives, as did Vietnam Journal. (For more on The ’Nam, see BACK ISSUE #24’s interview with the series’ original artist, Michael Golden.)

The ’Nam © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. Charley’s War © Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.

war film, as healing elegy. With some creative conflict, they very much created, under the action trappings, an anti-war film (that I might add works better than the book, where the protagonist wasn’t sympathetic at all) that called back to thoughtful ’70s war films like The Deer Hunter and would foreshadow and inform films like Platoon. However, the surprising success of the film was a mixed blessing. First Blood was a blockbuster, being a top-ten moneymaker of 1982, and was very much embraced as a pro-war film, and this slant is seen in all its very inferior sequels (the last one excepted). It would go on to inspire tons of pro-war movies, such as Red Dawn (1984) and Heart Break Ridge (1986).

And Oliver Stone’s Platoon came out very much as an answer to these ... love songs to war, and Platoon was quickly followed by the rest. So First Blood’s success inspired both the pro-war films of the early ’80s and the anti-war films of the late ’80s—arguably, the only film in the history of cinema that can claim such a duality.

And so the spirit of the late ’80s is about that duality, and that confessional nature, the ability to speak on a war that we were for a long time as a culture quiet about. And this spirit of the times, the zeitgeist reached, extends to every medium. It extends to comics. A desire to speak of an unspoken war, in the voice of men who had fought it ... with authenticity.

Comics followed this rise in popularity of the war film with the release of fantastic series, from the cartoony to the gritty. Among them: G. I. Joe, The ’Nam, Semper Fi, Alien Legion (a war book under its sci-fi trappings), and the one we are here to discuss, Vietnam Journal.

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I was quite a fan of G. I. Joe and The ’Nam (as well as Alien Legion) when they came out in the ‘80s, as were a lot of comics readers of the time. G. I. Joe being a toy and TV tie-in was particularly successful; issues sold out quickly and became pricey collectibles on the secondary market. On the other side of the spectrum there was this black-and-white book called Vietnam Journal, the brainchild of Don Lomax, which fell under the radar of myself and seemingly most other readers, which no doubt accounted for the series’ short-lived run.

Published by the now-defunct company Apple Comics, Vietnam Journal ran 16 issues, from 1987 to 1991, and is generally regarded as one of the high points in war comics. Writer/artist Don Lomax, who was drafted in 1965 at the age of 21 and stationed in Vietnam in 1966, recounts with authenticity the times and the men and the stories of those who sailed those turbulent years.

I was turned on to this short-lived series by the glowing praise it received from Jason Aaron, the author of the highly acclaimed 2006–2007 Vertigo comic, The Other Side.

But beyond the occasional burst of praise and specious bio info, a real detailed analysis, an overview if you will, of the entire 16-issue Vietnam Journal series and what the issues felt like and what they said, and what they meant to people, and why they are worthy of being remembered ... has not existed.

Until now.

Following up on the high praise, I set out to collect the relatively hard-to-find series and determine if it was indeed praiseworthy, and if it was, to critique it.

TM

by

G. K. Abraham conducted in April 2009

It’s worth noting Don Lomax is a humorous and insightful creator, and both traits are in evidence in the informative, free-flowing interview that follows. It veers pretty far afield of comics, but I think in a good way, as it discusses not just a younger America that bore young men who dreamed in four colors, but perhaps says in contrast something about today’s youth.

– G. K. Abraham G. K. ABRAHAM: Mr. Lomax, first I want to say that I’m a huge fan of Vietnam Journal. Let’s do a quick synopsis for people who have come late to the party.

Vietnam Journal ran 16 acclaimed issues. Its protagonist was a journalist by the name of Scott “Journal” Neithammer, and the story revolved around his battlefield coverage of Vietnam.

You were drafted at 21, and shipped overseas to Vietnam in 1966. Tell us a little about yourself, of the young man you were before being drafted. I’m guessing that like many young men, you had plans that did not at the time include an unknown country called Vietnam.

DON LOMAX: First of all, I was a little surprised at your request for this interview. Being a senior citizen and a grandfather (I’ll be 65 this September), I am used to [being] patronized and treated like someone on the brink of senility. You know, the knowing smiles, the pats on one’s hand to reassure, and the eyes rolling back when I say something stupid or un-cool.

Well, if I say too many things stupid or un-cool just chalk it up to old age (another benefit to getting old— you are seldom taken seriously).

I was born September 14, 1944. My mom and dad were poor but we got by. I have two sisters, both older, so that made me the baby of the family.

I had a great life growing up. Being a child of the ’50s, everything was black and white, nobody bothered to lock their doors. I don’t think we even had a key to our car. Back then you didn’t need one. Crime was nearly nonexistent. At least in rural Illinois where I grew up.

“…the best war comic book in more than 35 years.”

That’s what Don Thompson wrote in The Comics Buyers’ Guide about Don Lomax’s Vietnam Journal. Seen here is detail from Lomax’s cover to Vietnam Journal #1 (Nov. 1987). © 2009 Don Lomax.

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Beginnings:

“Puttin’ with the Rat...” in Easyriders magazine (early 1980s)

Milestones:

CARtoons / Heavy Metal / Vietnam Journal / Desert Storm Journal / American Flagg! / Captain Obese in FantaSCI / High Shining Brass / The ’Nam / The Punisher Back to School Special / Sleepwalker / Starslayer / Guard Tales

Works in Progress:

The entire Vietnam Journal series and its spin-offs are being published by Transfuzion Comics / the continuation of Vietnam Journal

Cyberspace:

www.lomaxcomics.com

Don Lomax Photo courtesy of Don Lomax.

97 North Before being drafted, Don Lomax worked for the CB&Q Railroad.

On his website he describes this painting: “Number 97 North pulls out of yard ‘D’ in Galesburg, Illinois, on the outbound freight track to pick up his orders at Seminary Tower and head out of town. In the ’60s, 97 North was a mixed freight train that ran daily from Galesburg, Illinois, to Savanna, Illinois, on the CB&Q Railroad.” © 2009 Don Lomax.

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I have many fond memories of childhood.

I remember taking my 25-cent allowance per week to the local Rialto Theater on Saturday afternoon.

Admission was 12 cents, and for that you got a color cartoon, the latest installment of the current serial, and a double feature.

Cowboy movies were my favorites. I didn’t care for war movies that much. War scared me—it still does.

A bag of popcorn was a dime and a Coke was a nickel, which left me three cents. So, after the movie I stopped by the local grocery next door, and with the rest of my money bought a good-size bag of candy which I would share with my friends on the walk home.

There were treehouses, fights with my sister, snow forts, riding out to the area streams on our bikes to go fishing all summer. We blew up every unfortunate tin can we could find with fireworks left over from the Fourth of July (until the government outlawed them).

We were continually riding in the back of pickup trucks. There were no helmet laws, or child restraints or pampering. We took our lumps and bumps and scrapes and sunburns and healed up nicely with a few scars to brag about from our adventures.

I feel sorry for youngsters today. In a world of overprotective scare-mongers and parents who won’t send their children outside without wrapping them in bubblewrap, it’s no wonder kids grow up to be frightened of their own shadows and spoiled little copies of their overindulged parents.

At any rate, I graduated from high school in 1962 and hired out to the CB&Q Railroad as an agent/ operator shortly after. Then, in 1965, I was drafted.

After being released from the Army I returned to the Railroad, where I worked for a total of twenty years and pursued my comic career on the side until 1984, when I quit the Railroad to create comics full time.

And, no, I’d never even heard of Vietnam before I was drafted. In ’65, the genie had just escaped the bottle.

Right after I was drafted, the first major action between the First Air Cavalry and the North Vietnam Army took place in the Ia Drang Valley and the die was cast.

Soon, Vietnam was the unspoken boogie man in every living room in the US and certainly every military base.

ABRAHAM: Beyond Vietnam, were you stationed anyplace else overseas? And if so, do you or did you have a desire to return to any of those places?

LOMAX: Vietnam was my only overseas duty.

ABRAHAM: How long were you in the military?

LOMAX: I spent only two years in the Army and mustered out in the fall of 1967. My MOS [Military Occupational Specialty] was 35B, wheel and track vehicle mechanic. I took my AIT [Advanced Individual Training] at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, though in Vietnam my MOS was never utilized.

ABRAHAM: In other interviews you’ve spoken about the poor reception you and other returning GIs received from an American public that wrongly attributed the choices and failures of the Administration to the choices and perceived failures of the fighting men. Can you elaborate a little more on that period, and that transition from soldier to comics writer/artist? It’s a transition shared by many great creators, including Robert Kanigher, Gene Colan, and I’m thinking Nick Cardy as well.

LOMAX: Being a draftee, the concept of “choice” never entered into the equation. I always loved comics, Vietnam was just a rude interruption in my life.

Vietnam as a subject for my art seemed like an inevitable fit since I subscribe to the old adage, “Write (and draw) about what you know.” I don’t pretend to speak for the

®

by

Mark Arnold

“Sad Sack” started as a silent comic strip that appeared in the pages of “Yank–The Army Weekly” during World War II. It would have gone against all predictions that the strip would be a viable and quite popular comic book well into the 1970s and 1980s.

At this point, Sergeant George Baker’s creation had transcended its pantomime panels and now appeared in monthly or bimonthly verbose entries written and drawn by others. It was almost a different creation.

How Baker’s strip managed to become the longest-lasting and highest-numbered Harvey comic (287 issues from 1949–1982, with five more appearing sporadically over the next 25 years) had more to do with Alfred Harvey’s friendship with Baker, a relationship so strong that Baker even became godfather to one of Alfred’s sons.

When Harvey started publishing Sad Sack Comics in 1949, the “Sack” had become a civilian and the comic book reprinted newer episodes that were created especially for the Sunday funnies. Eventually, these strips were expanded from a single page into five-page stories with new artwork by Paul McCarthy and Fred Rhoads amplifying the stories with dialogue, while remaining true to Baker’s art style.

Sad Sack as a civilian was not extremely popular and soon the newspaper strip faded away, but as the comic book continued, an interesting development occurred: America went back to war, this time in Korea.

As the Korean conflict erupted, the decision was made to return Sad Sack to the Army in issue #22 of Sad Sack Comics, in a story entitled “The Specialist,” heralding Sad Sack’s reenlistment into the Armed Forces. By this point, the Sunday newspaper strip was long abandoned, and so the idea of returning Sad Sack to the Army was purely an idea of Baker’s and Harvey Comics.

By this transition, the success of the comic book was assured and soon new Sad Sack titles were gradually added to the fold from 1955–1964, including Sad Sack’s Funny Friends, Sad Sack’s Army Life, Sad Sack and the Sarge, Sad Sack Laugh Special, and Sad Sad Sack World.

Sad Sack even took a cue from Archie and its “Little Archie” series by creating the relatively short-lived “Little Sad Sack,” which originally appeared in various issues of Harvey Hits. Harvey Hits also was the title that featured “Sad Sack’s Muttsy,” which never graduated to its own title.

Sales for Sad Sack slowed a bit as the Korean War ended, but rose again as the conflicts in Vietnam heated up. By the early 1970s, the time was right to expand the Harvey Comics line and especially titles featuring the more popular characters. As a result, there were numerous new titles that debuted in 1972 starring Casper, Richie Rich, and, of course, Sad Sack.

These new titles included Sad Sack with Sarge and Sadie;

Fed Ex-cedrin Headache Sad Sack gets a not-so-special delivery on this original cover art to Sad Sack and the Sarge #105 (Feb. 1973) illustrated by George Baker. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Sad Sack © 2009 Sad Sack, Inc.

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George Baker (right) The original Sad Sack artist. Photo courtesy of Mark Arnold. (below) Joe Dennett Sad Sack sketch. © Sad Sack, Inc.

SAD SACK’S OTHER BRONZE AGE ARTISTS

joe dennett

paul mccarthy

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jack o’brien

fred rhoads

© Sad Sack, Inc.

Sad Sack U.S.A.; Sad Sack Navy, Gobs ’n’ Gals (featuring Rhoads’ Navy creation “Gabby Gob,” also a Harvey Hits mainstay); and Sad Sack Fun Around the World. As a peacetime soldier, Sad Sack did quite a lot of traveling rather than facing active combat.

Sad Sack U.S.A. was supposed to feature Sad Sack and his Army buddies traveling to a different state of the Union in each issue, surely a concept to last at least 50 issues. Unfortunately, the tour of duty was cut short as the series lasted only eight.

Fun Around the World fared even worse, and only a single issue was published featuring stories about Great Britain, though it would have been interesting to see if Sad Sack would actually travel to countries engaged in actual war!!

Newer artists such as Joe Dennett and Jack O’Brien were added to the fold in the 1960s to keep up with the accelerated work pace. Meanwhile, McCarthy passed away as did the title Sad Sack’s Funny Friends, which emphasized McCarthy’s predilection for stories starring the General.

Dennett’s art style was sketchier than the others due mainly to his previous work on Mutt and Jeff, and his Sad Sack was similar in style, though he tried to emulate Rhoads’ style as best he could. He also did several issues of Harvey Hits, featuring the adventures of Sad Sack’s dog Muttsy.

O’Brien, meanwhile, developed a style completely his own and even his own concepts, which repeatedly featured Sad Sack getting knocked in the head and having an ambitious dream life. O’Brien was also the mastermind behind the “G.I. Juniors” series for Harvey Hits.