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SOLDIERS ISSUE

SGT. ROCK

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NO. 127 JUNE 2021

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Sgt. Rock and Cinder and Ashe TM & (C) DC Comics.

BACK ISSUE starring

HULK FOE THUNDERBOLT ROSS

Nth Man the

Beetle Bailey

is The Ultimate comic books & ★ War ★ ’Nam Hell ★ Ninja ★ more

CONWAY & GARCIA-LOPEZ’S CINDER & ASHE

Volume 1, Number 127 June 2021 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Brian Bolland (Originally published as the contents page of Sgt. Rock Special #2, 1994. Original art scan courtesy of Scott Williams.)

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Richard J. Arndt Brian Azzarello Ed Catto Chris Claremont Gerry Conway DC Comics Peter David Steve Englehart Grand Comics Database Andy Greenbaum Larry Hama Heritage Comics Auctions Ice Cream Soldier Tony Isabella Douglas R. Kelly King Features Syndicate John K. Kirk Adam Kubert Paul Kupperberg

BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 James Heath Lantz Jeph Loeb Ed Lute Al Milgrom Doug Murray Mike Pigott John Rose Philip Schweier Brian Sheppard Roger Stern Bryan Stroud Roy Thomas Steven Thompson August Uhl Wayne Vansant Don Vaughan Ron Wagner Greg Walker John Wells Scott Williams Craig Yoe

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OFF MY CHEST: Sgt. Rock: No Rest for a ‘Sojer’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Brian Azzarello, Adam Kubert, and Paul Kupperberg inspect DC’s enduring GI THE TOY BOX: Sgt. Rock Diecast Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Move out, Easy! Remco’s rolling battle miniatures BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: General Thunderbolt Ross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Superstar Marvel writers discuss the Hulk’s most persistent foe FLASHBACK: Bronze Age Beetlemania: Beetle Bailey in Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mort Walker’s sad sack at Charlton and in graphic novels FLASHBACK: Atlas/Seaboard’s Savage Soldiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The short-lived publisher’s Marvel-mimicking combat comics BEYOND CAPES: War is Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The story of Marvel’s offbeat battlefield deadman, John Kowalski WHAT THE--?!: Blitzkrieg: As Seen Through Enemy Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Bob Kanigher’s “different kind of war comic” INTERVIEWS: The ’Nam Revisted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The groundbreaking Marvel series, through the memories of its creators BEYOND CAPES: Cinder and Ashe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Gerry Conway revisits his soldier-turned-detective miniseries ROUGH STUFF: Pencil Art Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 FLASHBACK: Nth Man: Larry Hama’s Other Ninja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Marvel pulled the plug on this innovative World War III warrior BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $36 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Brian Bolland. Sgt. Rock TM & © DC Comics.

All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2021 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

TM

by

John K. Kirk

His Army At War Courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions (www.ha.com), Dan Brereton’s original cover painting for Sgt. Rock Special #2 (1994).

This is the illustration DC Comics used as the Special’s cover instead of the Brian Bolland art that graces our cover.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Won’t Stand Down “The Rock” presented a resilient prototype for Easy Company’s Top-Kick.

From G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959),

by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert.

TM & © DC Comics.

The virtues, the spirit, and the message of DC Comics’ goals, dealing with the losses we face, then looking Sgt. Rock are universal ones that every underdog, to the next stage. By virtue of the brevity of the regardless of nationality, situation, or lifestyle, can comics medium, readers are an audience who are appreciate. In everyone’s life, there are moments in very aware of the importance of these lessons in their lives, since so many characters in comic fiction are which we are tested and require courage and representative of these notions. fortitude to overcome those challenges. Often, You can’t keep these ideals down, much the source of that courage lies in the role like a good soldier. The classic values models we encounter in our lives. of resilience and defiance, of what is In comics, there’s none better to wrong in the face of what is right— exemplify that than the Top-Kick of there is always a demand for these Easy Company himself, Sgt. Frank Rock. things and they are eternal, and never His attitude is what you need to get go out of style. They are the noble back up after you’ve been knocked virtues that we find in the character of down, something that will always Sgt. Rock. The character, the genre, the sell comics—and why DC Comics will generation of readers and the creators never keep this soldier down for long. all contribute to the reasons why At the risk of sounding romantic, this character will never disappear, we all need stories with ideals to and why he will continue to return in live up to. We need inspiration robert kanigher various DC Comics incarnations. and hope, as well as exemplars of Caricature by Joe Kubert. these values to emulate regardless of the decade or century we live in. People need to THE CHARACTER see representative characters that stand for ideals Created by the legendary team of artist Joe to give us a perspective on the battles we fight in Kubert and writer Robert Kanigher, Sgt. Rock first life. Life is about overcoming obstacles, achieving appeared in G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959), and then in Our Army at War, running for 29 years, with a brief, transformative title change to Sgt. Rock; the character’s publishing run finally came to an end in 1988 with Sgt. Rock #442. Rock would appear in reprints in the digest-sized format as well.

However, Rock returned in a new, 21-issue series that ran from 1988 to 1991; in guest appearances in one-shots like the 1997 DC Holiday Special; and in two miniseries of great distinction by talented and prominent creators like Brian Azzarello and Billy Tucci. While there were many other creators who drew or wrote Rock stories (Ross Andru, Howard Chaykin, et. al.), the two that most stood out after the ’90s were Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place (2003), written by Brian Azzarello and drawn by Joe Kubert, and Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion (2009), written and drawn by Billy Tucci.

Kubert and Kanigher were responsible for establishing the template of Rock that would remain consistent throughout the various incarnations of the character. In a sea of 1950s war comics, Sgt. Rock’s enduring feature was his constancy. Many of these comics featured a short story based on war experiences, and to be sure, Rock’s first appearance was undistinguished from any of those.

An anonymous soldier whose sheer determination and doggedness was born in the boxing ring. Rock didn’t even have a name yet—he was just known as “The Rock.” He wasn’t a champion fighter, but his career was marked by one fact—he had never been knocked down. In this inaugural story, artist Kubert uses a split-panel presentation comparing the young boxer to the young soldier, both characters uttering the same battle challenge, which would become a mantra for the entire story: “C’mon—and fight!”

Writer and former DC editor Paul Kupperberg comments to BACK ISSUE, “It helped that Rock was such a well-built soldier—such a well-defined soldier—that brought him to life in the first place. Bob Kanigher had such an uncanny ability to create these [combat] characters—being one himself. Like the Metal Men, [Sgt. Rock] was something he conceived over a weekend. The first few shots were in proto—but then when Joe got a hold of it, and started building the cast around Rock… it was just one of those things.

You have a war comic, but you’re outside of reality.

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Speechless… …that describes our reaction to Billy Tucci’s realistic treatments of the Rock from the fontless covers to Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #1 (Jan. 2009) and 5. Issue #1’s cover colors by Mark Sparacio, issue #5’s by Hi-Fi Design.

TM & © DC Comics.

Joe Kubert’s art was a massive draw to any subject, and this was the case with Sgt. Rock.

“I didn’t like superhero comics when I was a kid. I liked DC’s war books,” admits Brian Azzarello. “Joe’s work… he was the greatest artist I’d ever seen.

I loved his Tarzan; right in my wheelhouse.”

However, war comics’ storytelling has a profound effect upon the young comic-book reader who would grow into a superstar writer. “War comics clean war up. Azzarello says. “They give it a mythic element. One of my favorite characters was the Unknown Soldier—just an incredible idea.”

It’s the mythic, romantic element that brings out the nobility in people during war. Our Army at War #115 (Feb. 1962) is a story that talks about this nobility.

The members of Easy Company are talking about their families they left behind at home. Everyone, save Rock, has someone they love—parents, children or a lover. Rock laments this in the story titled “Rock’s Battle Family.” In a series of three adventures, he rescues an Italian elderly couple as German tanks storm their cottage. Having no children themselves, they declare Rock to be the son they never had and because of his willingness to sacrifice on their behalf, they leave the house to him. Rock now has parents.

In the next segment, Rock helps defend a French town from attack. Easy Company learn that a child’s christening had been interrupted and young French mother, whose husband is fighting with the Free French, begs for Rock to stand in and act as the child’s godfather. In reward for his actions, now Rock has a son, of sorts.

The third segment sees the introduction of another of DC’s seminal war comics heroines, the famed resistance fighter, Mademoiselle Marie.

When Rock rescues her from a German patrol boat, she asks him if he has a girlfriend. Rock’s shy answer that he doesn’t elicits her declaration that “he does now,” and gives him a loving kiss.

This nobility is built on the classic values of camaraderie, teamwork, self-sacrifice, and loyalty which, as previously mentioned, are character ideals that never go out of style. These things are not just universal in terms of storytelling, but they are universal in every time period. There is a tendency in people to nostalgically look back and pine for a generation when these values were not just readily accepted, but expected.

Adam Kubert says, “How many stories did my dad draw and write that were centered around little kids… you know, holding a rag doll while a tank is coming on. Sgt. Rock—will he get to the little kid in time to save him? That’s something we can all relate to.”

While the heroism is very obvious, who wouldn’t throw themselves in harm’s way for the sake of a child? Or, in Our Army at War #111 (Oct. 1961), when Rock answers the question “What’s the Price of a Dogtag?” and the entire collection of “Combat-Happy Joes” from Easy Company go all out to rescue one of their most beloved company—Sunny. It all comes back to values and the resilience that we can all have.

Brian Azzarello had this to offer: “You know, a lot of those stories didn’t have happy endings. I liked that. They ended in either someone dying, many people dead, and he just walks away with the ‘Make War No More’ tag.”

There is a sense of finality in those stories. Sure, Rock walks away with that sense of “War is Hell,” but the acceptance and appreciation are also matched by acceptance. Accepting a situation clears one’s head, allows him or her to appreciate it for what it is, and that creates headspace to be able to think your way out of a problem.

One could argue that this was simply a suppression of expression—a common way of dealing with stressful situations in the mid-20th Century—but for better or for worse, this was part of the values that allowed a generation to go to war and come home and rebuild a society. If you read and enjoyed war comics, these were the values that an audience readily accepted.

The Combat-Happy Joes of Easy Company created a sense of appreciation that the readers of my generation, raised by the Greatest Generation, could appreciate and understand. The events that would see a proliferation of the Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

TM

Over the years, there have been many famous diecast models based on DC Comics characters, from Corgi’s classic Batmobile and Batboat in the 1960s, to the current offerings by Hot Wheels. However, others are less known—and possibly the most obscure would have to be the range of vehicles based on military hero Sgt. Rock, made by Azrak-Hamway International (AHI).

Azrak-Hamway International was a New York-based toy importer founded in 1964 that imported cheap toys, mainly from Hong Kong. During the 1970s, the company obtained the licenses to many of the major entertainment franchises, including DC and Marvel Comics, Star Trek, Space: 1999, Planet of the Apes, and many other popular TV and cartoon characters. Despite the high profiles of the licenses, the toys produced were budget-priced “rack toys” of low quality. Many had little to do with the characters they were based on, and were items such as water pistols, flashlights, and puzzles—often the packaging was more interesting than the contents!

In 1982, rival toymaker Hasbro revived its G.I. Joe trademark, but instead of reviving the large 12” action figures that were introduced in 1964, the new G.I. Joes were now a line of 3 3/4” mini-figures, a size that had been popularized by Kenner’s Star Wars figures.

Instead of being realistic American fighting men, they were now a mercenary force. The backstories of the team were developed in conjunction with Larry Hama and Jim Shooter of Marvel Comics, which published a popular tie-in comic book, and the enemy was a terrorist organization called COBRA. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #16 for our G.I. Joe coverage.]

A year later, AHI introduced a range of similarly sized military figures based on DC Comics’ Sgt. Rock.

These were sold under the Remco brand; Remco was a major toy manufacturer that had gone broke, with AHI acquiring its trademark in 1974. It was intended that AHI would use this respected brand for its more expensive toys. The product line included a Sgt. Rock figure, but none of his Easy Company Combat-Happy Joes such as Bulldozer or Wildman. Other figures just had generic names like “Marine” or “Airman.” Instead of fighting Nazis, Rock’s enemies were now a terrorist group with the unimaginative name of “The Bad Guys,” and whose emblem was… a cobra! Remco also released a line of stocky action figures based on DC’s sword-and-sorcery character the Warlord, which looked suspiciously like Mattel’s Masters of the Universe [see BI #121—ed.]. The irony was that the el-cheapo rip-offs were officially licensed from much higher-profile characters than the originals they were copying!

DIECAST MILITARY VEHICLES

AHI also used its Sgt. Rock license for some cheaper rack toys, including a water pistol, cap gun, and parachute figure. In addition, there was a line of eight military vehicles, including four tanks. None of the

Move Out, Easy!

DC Comics house ad drawn by Joe Kubert promoting the Sgt. Rock vehicles from Remco (a trademark of Azrak-Hamway International).

TM & © DC Comics.

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by

Mike Pigott

While Doctor Robert Bruce Banner and his green- (and gray-) skinned alter ego the Incredible Hulk would disagree, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross really isn’t a bad guy in the traditional sense of the term. He’s not like Darkseid, Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, or the Red Skull.

Ross is more like Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. He’s obsessed with capturing and defeating the Hulk in the same way Ahab is with hunting literature’s most famous white whale. As our salute to soldiers continues, BACK ISSUE takes a look at the life, adventures, and personality of Thunderbolt Ross in Marvel’s comic pages in the BI era and beyond.

Watch out for the gamma rays, dear readers. by

James Heath Lantz

GENERAL HISTORY

General Thaddeus E. Ross, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, is a product of his lineage, environment, life as a soldier, and the wars in which he fought.

Thaddeus comes from a family with a proud tradition in the military. His grandfather and father both served, leading him to follow in their footsteps. Ross gained the nickname “Thunderbolt” on the battlefield, which led to his blustery demeanor and stormy reputation in combat.

Readers first saw Thunderbolt Ross in The Incredible Hulk #1, way back in 1962. However, he was a part of Bruce Banner’s life even before the Gamma Bomb’s creation. The Hulk had not yet even become a physical manifestation of Banner’s Dissociative Identity Disorder when young Major Ross had “recruited” teenage Banner in a post-Bronze Age flashback in The Incredible Hulk #81 (July 2004). Going back to 1997, in The Incredible Hulk #-1 [minus 1] (July 1997), a special backstory issue by Peter David, Adam Kubert, and Mark Farmer, General Ross discusses the Gamma Bomb with Bruce Banner. Ross claims he wants to put the fear of God and into the enemy with the weapon Banner designed. What Ross says to the young nuclear physicist could sum up how Thaddeus Ross perceived himself before he encountered a certain Green Goliath.

“They call me ‘Thunderbolt,’ Banner,” Ross says, “because when I’m angry, it’s like Zeus throwing thunderbolts from on high.”

Bruce Banner is unimpressed. His response even expresses this.

Peter David, whose memorable run of The Incredible Hulk in the 1990s still resonates with readers, tells BACK ISSUE of Thaddeus Ross’ past with Bruce Banner. “I just figured that there had to be some potential backstory here. It wasn’t as if they had met the day of the Gamma Bomb test. Bruce was already romantically involved with Betty, and Ross already had strong negative feelings about him, possibly because of his involvement with Betty. So I have, from time to time, explored their relationship because I wanted to see how it got to the point that it was at in [1962’s] The Incredible Hulk #1.”

No. 1 Hulk Hater Thunderbolt Ross, from the splash page of Incredible Hulk #291 (Jan. 1984).

TM & © Marvel.

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Ross is “a dedicated Army officer,” David says, “who sees everything in terms of how it can be used to protect and defend the United States. If he can make use of it, it interests him—if he can’t, it doesn’t.”

Going further back into the Ross/ Banner history, Ross says to Bruce in Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola’s The Incredible Hulk #312 (Oct. 1985) that

he knew Brian Banner, Bruce’s father, and considered him a “real man.” Now, in the aforementioned issue #-1, Ross does not know who Brian is and is disgusted by his presence. This is due to Bruce repressing that latter event’s memory. Yet, Ross maybe felt as he did in #312 before learning of Brian’s murder of Bruce’s mother Rebecca.

However, Ross could have merely been trying to provoke Banner in #312 as he would a foe in battle. He would have said anything to get the Gamma Bomb test done, even if it meant contradicting himself, because he was a good soldier working to protect his country. peter david In addition to being a soldier, Thaddeus Ross is a family man. © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. He married his captain’s daughter, Karen Lee, and together they brought a daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” Ross, into the world. Thaddeus loved his family, but he felt more at home in combat. When he was at home during times of peace, he’d be itching to fight an enemy, even as he saw Betty grow. Writer Jeph Loeb describes Ross’ character, while discussing with BACK ISSUE his work on the series Hulk: Gray (2003–2004) and Hulk (2006).

“In Hulk: Gray, Tim Sale and I spent a lot of time working with the dynamic of Ross/Betty/Banner. The heartbreak of that story was Banner realizing that Betty loved him as a monster because it was familiar to her, as her father General Ross was a verbally abusive parent.

She lived with a monster growing up and, in turn, fell in love with one as an adult. Ross, of course, never saw himself in that light. He was a protective dad doing what was best for his only child. When the Gray and Green Hulk came around, he was somehow, curiously attached to Betty. This put him in Ross’ crosshairs from Day One.

Back to the Beginning (right) General Ross has been a part of Hulk history since Ol’ Greenskin’s (then Grayskin) first issue back in 1962. Cover art

by Jack Kirby and George Roussos. (above) Writer Peter David fleshed out the Banner/Ross backstory in Incredible Hulk #-1 (July 1997).

Art by Adam Kubert and Mark Farmer.

TM & © Marvel.

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Ross’ Rocky Road (top left) The general has a nervous breakdown in Incredible Hulk #229 (Nov. 1978). By Roger Stern/ Sal Buscema/Mike Esposito. (bottom left) Despite its gravity, Al Milgrom’s cover for Hulk #291 (Jan. 1984) was part of Marvel’s wacky Assistant Editors’ Month. (right) Thunderbolt Ross, wedding crasher, in John Byrne’s Hulk #319 (May 1986).

TM & © Marvel.

al

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OLD SOLDIERS RARELY DIE

After having been put through the ringer, Thunderbolt Ross dies after fighting the crab-like Nevermind in Incredible Hulk #330 (Apr. 1987).

He tells Betty her loves her and states that he’s changed his mind about both Bruce Banner and the Hulk before going to the Great Beyond.

Comics legend Al Milgrom, writer of The Incredible Hulk during this period, discusses Ross’ character and his decision to kill the cantankerous general.

“The old boy is first and foremost a patriot,” Milgrom states to BACK ISSUE. “He loves his country, his daughter, and God, in that order.

He was cruising along being a pretty successful career soldier when this monstrous behemoth bursts into his bailiwick and upsets the apple cart. Then, despite all his best efforts and the best military technology, he’s unable to stop, or even contain, this rampaging behemoth known as the Hulk! Perhaps even worse, his beloved daughter falls in love with a milksop scientist Bruce Banner. I’m sure the good general didn’t know which was worse! Imagine his mortifying chagrin when he ultimately learns that the two biggest thorns in his side turn out to be one and the same being.

“You’ve got to give the man credit,” Milgrom contends. “He sticks to his guns. He tries every imaginable way to kill the Hulk. He never gives up. He blasts him, freezes him, launches him into space in what was supposed to be a one-way trip. Nothing succeeds. This has to make Ross bitter. After a long and distinguished career in the military, he reaches the twilight of his days and suffers defeat after defeat at the hands of a mindless and heedless monster. I only hope that he can take solace in the realization that if he had succeeded in his missions to destroy the Incredible Hulk, the world would’ve probably been destroyed many times over. The Hulk ultimately became a force for good, so the old soldier’s defeats could, I suppose, be viewed as humanity’s victories.”

Milgrom shares with BI the story behind Thunderbolt Ross’ death. “This was my decision. I’m sure I had to run it by editorial first. I thought—wrongly, as I feel now— that the old warhorse had been heckling, chasing, attacking, and trying to eliminate the Hulk for decades in real time. By now, the Army would’ve either put him out to pasture or the Hulk would’ve destroyed him. I felt it would be a big dramatic thing to kill the old grouch off, and I did. I remember having a big fight with [Hulk editor] Bob Harras because he didn’t feature the dead General Ross on the cover of The Incredible Hulk #330.

I thought the death of such a major character would milgrom have spiked sales for the issue. Bob never thought of © Marvel. it that way. This also cost me and the art team some royalty money as well as profits for the company.

“Of course,” Milgrom continues, “deciding to kill him off was probably the stupid reaction of a longtime fan and reader—myself! It’s not necessarily the thing a writer should do in episodic, continuing fiction.

It messes with the basic premise of the strip. I’m not surprised, and even

by

Ten-HUT! Being in the military is a serious business. Beyond all the physical training, beyond all the discipline, beyond all the education, beyond all the impressive uniforms, badges, and medals, when it comes right down to it, the purpose of the military is to turn out soldiers ready to fight and kill an enemy.

Heavy stuff indeed, and thus the great need for military humor.

Military humor is, of course, an American tradition, exemplified in the early 20th Century

by Chaplin’s Shoulder Arms, Keaton’s The General, cartoon characters like Bill Mauldin’s Willie and Joe and George Baker’s Sad Sack [see BI #37—ed.], television characters such as Phil Silvers’ Sgt. Bilko and Jim Nabors’ Gomer Pyle, USMC, and novels such as M*A*S*H and Catch-22. While many of these are now considered classics, they also feel very dated and of their time.

And then there’s Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey, the most enduring military comedy character of them all.

BEETLE BAILEY HISTORY

Steven Thompson

For going on 70 years now, Private Beetle Bailey and the resident zanies of Camp Swampy have set the standard for military humor, not only in the US but throughout the free world, particularly in the Scandinavian countries where the strip has long been (surprisingly) even more popular than it is in the United States. A US Army veteran himself, Mort Walker summed up the secret of his strip’s phenomenal success in 1976 when he wrote, “Basically, the strip is not about the army but about a bunch of funny people who happen to be in the army.”

In fact, when Beetle Bailey began in 1950, it certainly wasn’t about the Army. It was about college students, and it didn’t particularly go over well. It was only as a last-ditch effort to get more papers for the strip that Beetle and his frat buddies enlisted in the military in 1951 in the growing gung-ho atmosphere of the Korean War. The ploy worked when it came to getting the strip noticed, but, unlike most other college enlistees, Beetle would go on to become a career soldier—in fact, a career Private!

Beetle and Sarge At Camp Charlton Charlton Comics published Beetle Bailey beginning with issue #67 (Feb. 1969), concluding with issue #119 (Nov. 1976).

Charlton’s Sarge Snorkel spinoff ran from issue #1 (Oct. 1973) through 17 (Dec. 1976).

TM & © King Features Syndicate.

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Wars themselves have rarely reared their ugly heads in the strip.

Walker once said that he turned down proposals for several liveaction Beetle Bailey movies that took place during wartime. Walker reportedly told the scriptwriters that Beetle would immediately be killed in an actual war! Thus, the strip has always been more about the humor found in the self-contained, enforced society and hierarchy of an Army training camp.

Along with the lazy Carl James “Beetle” Bailey, the pasty and somewhat out of shape Sergeant Orville P. Snorkel is the strip’s other major protagonist. Sarge is the standard cliché tough guy drill sergeant, a lifer who’s a tad out of shape but can cuss like xo@#!! and beat the tar out of you on a regular basis, even though at heart he’s a real softie. He even dresses his pet bulldog Otto in a lookalike uniform as a kind of canine mini-me.

A succession of other soldiers and officers of various ranks rounds out the cast. Over the years, these have included, amongst others, Beetle’s sleazy partner-in-crime, Killer Diller; the aging, sexist, and inept Brigadier General Amos Halftrack; Lieutenants Fuzz and (later) Flap; Captain Scabbard; the intellectual and philosophical Plato; the goofy simpleton Zero; Cookie, the mess hall sergeant; and, of course, the curvy, controversial civilian secretary to the General, Miss Buxley, who came along in 1971 but never made it into the US comic books.

Appropriately enough, Beetle Bailey first came to the world of four-color comic books in 1953 via Dell’s long-running Four Color series. The Four Color series presented multiple titles per month, often one-shots based on popular movies, radio, or TV shows or licensed characters from cartoons or from newspaper comic strips.

The newspaper-strip issues originally consisted simply of reprints from the papers, with new covers generally being the only new art. Over time, there were exceptions, where Dell would assign freelance writers and artists to create all-new stories of famous licensed characters. In the case of Beetle, though, Mort Walker insisted on being hands-on, to the

point where he and his assistant at the time—future Sad Sack artist Fred Rhoads—created the first two issues completely on their own. After four good-selling Beetle Bailey issues of Four Color, the character got his own title from Dell in 1956, picking up the numbering at #5 (Feb.–Apr. 1956). By that point, Jack Mendelsohn was providing some scripts and Frank Roberge and Tony DiPreta were doing artwork. Eventually, Walker assigned Bob Gustafson to do the comics.

Gustafson, like Walker, was himself a veteran. Following World War II, he had begun selling single-panel gag cartoons to all the major magazines of the day. He got his foot in the door of newspaper comic strips via a short-lived strip called Specs. From there, he became an assistant to Tillie the Toiler creator Russ Westover, eventually taking over that venerable strip for more than four years in the 1950s.

He joined Mort Walker’s growing staff in the early 1960s. The staff was growing because by that point, the Walker studio had begun syndicating other strips besides just Beetle, including Hi and Lois, Sam’s Strip, and Boner’s Ark. Gustafson assisted on all the Walker studio strips but found his niche in illustrating the comic books to Mort’s satisfaction. Mort wasn’t the only one satisfied, either, as Gustafson, even though he always worked uncredited on the Beetle Bailey comic books, won major awards for his work from the National Cartoonists Society in 1962, 1971, 1972, and 1982! Mort Walker himself, as one might expect, won numerous awards for Beetle from the NCS through the years as well.

Mort told writer Craig Shutt, “They would show me their work until I trusted them to do it, and then I would just let them do it.

Bob Gustafson, for instance, worked with me for many years not only doing the comic book but also as my assistant in the studio.”

When Dell Comics and Western Publishing ended their partnership in 1963, Western continued publishing Dell’s licensed characters— including Beetle—under its new Gold Key imprint. Gustafson continued on the art and at some point, took on the writing as well.

Three years later, though, King Features, which syndicated Walker’s strip, made a half-hearted effort to publish their own comic books, pulling the licenses from Gold Key for all their characters including the Phantom, Blondie, Popeye, and Beetle Bailey. When their experiment was over by mid-1967, their properties were simply no longer seen on newsstands. It seemed they were all relegated back to the daily papers. Even then, with the rising protests against the war in Vietnam, a military strip wasn’t exactly as endearing as it had once been. The steady increase in the number of young men who refused the draft also seemingly made Beetle Bailey less relatable to younger audiences.

Nevertheless, about a year and half after that, someone at King Features decided to license their cash cow properties to Connecticut’s Charlton Comics. For those unfamiliar with the company, Charlton Comics was to the comics industry as the various “Poverty Row” film studios were to mainstream Hollywood. They put out some good product, sometimes even with well-known characters, but they were hampered by some less talented folks behind the scenes, lower budgets, poor production values, and spotty distribution.

BEETLE BAILEY IN THE BRONZE AGE

It was into this environment that Beetle Bailey made its comeback with issue #67 (Feb. 1969), and this time the title would run for nearly eight years straight, with an additional 17 issues of Sarge Snorkel in his own Charlton mag beginning in 1973!

The first thing one notices about Charlton’s Beetle Bailey is that in spite of its inevitably lesser-quality printing, the art itself is instantly recognizable as being on-model. This is because once again Mort Walker insisted that his studio maintain some control of the project in-house. Chic Young didn’t do any work for Charlton’s Blondie comic, nor did Fred Lasswell draw the company’s Snuffy Smith, except perhaps the covers, but Walker provided quality control on his baby.

First Beetle Bailey Comic Book Dell Comics’ Four Color #469 (May 1953), Beetle’s enlistment into comic books. Cover by Mort Walker.

TM & © King Features Syndicate.

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Taking a Stand Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker’s photo was inset into this undated original art for the Doodle for Hunger fundraiser.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © King Features Syndicate.

Bob Gustafson continued to handle most of the art so that every character looked just like they did over your morning cereal and toast, only in longer stories. Looking back, Walker told writer Craig Shutt, “I wanted to keep to our own characters. When Bob Gustafson was doing it, I didn’t want him inventing anything or doing something unusual in the comic book. I wanted him creating stories based on the existing themes and characters.”

Because of that edict, one finds endless but endearingly familiar variations on tropes such as Sarge beating up Beetle, Beetle trying to avoid work, Beetle peeling onions and potatoes on KP, Beetle and Killer trying to pick up girls, and, as always, the General becoming increasingly bewildered.

Another thing a reader notices about the Charlton version of Beetle is the somewhat schizophrenic tone of the early issues, as though no one ever decided whether to market them to children, or to vets and then-currently serving soldiers. There are pages of (clean) Army jokes in some issues, but soon enough come coloring pages and ads for candy and toys as well. There’s even one coloring page that features a naked (but thankfully non-explicit) Sarge in the shower… with his dog Otto!

One early backup strip was “Mister Breger” by cartoonist Dave Breger, a civilian version of another once-popular soldier strip, Private Breger.

Some issues had no backup strips, but others that appeared from time to time included stories of Beetle’s little brother, Chigger; “Vinny the Vet”; and one of the other newspaper strips from Walker’s stable, Boner’s Ark. The Beetle Bailey comics were always filled with a mixture of short stories and one- or two-page gags. When they were funny—which was often—part of that was based on the reader’s familiarity with the characters. In a way, it was similar to a series of silent movie shorts or scenes in which the audience felt a kinship to a familiar character, actor, or type and then laughed at their predicament.

TEN-HUT! AN INSPECTION OF BEETLE BAILEY #84

Why don’t we take a look at a typical issue of Beetle Bailey, chosen at random? Let’s reach into the box here and pull out… Charlton’s Beetle Bailey #84 (Oct. 1971).

There are ten stories and one coloring page gag in this 32-page comic book.

1—The first story, untitled, is the funniest. Sarge orders some new trashcans but the carbon requisition form is illegible and he gets more than he needed. A call to have the excess cans picked up is misinterpreted

as an order for more. His convoluted explanation confuses the situation further. In the final panel of the three-page story, Sarge is sitting outside surrounded by 30 trashcans and says, “I don’t dare call them again.”

A simple gag, well played and drawn out just enough for maximum effect. Rather than have Sarge go ballistic, he—and everyone else in the story—remain calm, but frustrated, as in a Laurel and Hardy short.

2—A single-pager with Sarge demonstrating judo to the men.

He doesn’t notice General Halftrack arriving to surprise him with news of a promotion. When he accidentally flips the General to the ground, that becomes a demotion.

3—“The Pledge” has Killer convincing Beetle to go bowling with him. He jots down the lane’s phone number on a piece of paper so Beetle can go call for reservations. On his way to the phone, Beetle runs across a charity collecting pledges on the base. He jots down a small pledge on a separate piece of paper and hands it in, not realizing he’s just pledged the telephone number Killer had given him!

Everyone thanked him for his more than generous pledge but then he finally gets to the pay phone and realizes his mistake.

4—Next up is “The Fire Fighter,” which finds Sarge and his men camped out on a cold night. The Captain has said “No fires,” so Sarge puts out the one he finds, unaware that it was made by the Captain himself, after getting permission from the General. When the Captain returns with more wood, he restarts it, only to have Sarge act like Smokey the Bear again and put it out. When it happens yet again, Sarge says, “Good Golly, that’s a persistent fire,” and goes to drown it once more, only to be spotted this time by the now-irate Captain.

5—“Code Expert” is another good one. It opens with Private Bailey telling Killer he’s applied for a transfer to the Code Department and is to be interviewed for the position that day. Unbeknownst to anyone, this is also the day the camp psychiatrist has come to interview each man without them knowing who he is. Naturally, when called, Beetle assumes this is his Coder interview and his “decoded” answers to the doctor’s questions come across as nonsense.

A sideways coloring page follows with Beetle having set a bull to charge at Sarge.

6—This is a story of Boner’s Ark, one of the Walker studio’s many other strips over the years. Three pages consisting of only seven large panels illustrate a minor gag, but they do it well.

7—This one is a tad creepy. “The Nature Trip” starts with a school bus of young women—High school? College? Who can tell?—being taken Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

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D o n Va u g h a n

The decade in which a comic-book fan gets his or her first taste of the medium is extremely important.

It forever informs what kind of comics they read, their favorite writers/artists, and more. For me, that allimportant decade was the 1970s.

The first comic book I ever purchased, at age 12, was Where Monsters Dwell #5 (Sept. 1970), a Marvel title that reprinted science-fiction stories from a decade earlier. I was a hardcore Monster Kid (with a subscription to Famous Monsters of Filmland to prove it), and that issue’s powerful Jack Kirby cover spoke to me like no other. I was instantly hooked, and started spending every penny of my allowance on comic books—first monster titles, then funny animals, and finally, superheroes. I loved the Flash and was equally enamored of the Justice League of America. In fact, the first thing I ever had published was an LoC in JLA #94. My name was misspelled, but I didn’t care—I was in heaven.

During those early years I was primarily a DC kid, but would occasionally dip my toe into the Marvel pool. I didn’t care for Charlton’s books, aside from Joe Staton’s delightful E-Man, and wouldn’t discover the unique appeal of Dell Comics until years later (although that once-mighty publisher was on its way out in the early to mid-1970s). I knew what I liked, and didn’t feel the need to look elsewhere.

IN THE MIGHTY MARVEL MANNER

martin

That all changed in 1974, when the comicbook world was rocked by the debut of Atlas Comics (commonly referred to by comic-book historians today as Atlas/Seaboard to differentiate the company from the Atlas Comics of the 1950s). This upstart publisher intrigued me, and I quickly became a fan, ultimately collecting its entire four-color line.

The money man behind Atlas/ Seaboard was Martin Goodman, the former publisher of Marvel Comics, who had sold his baby in 1968 to goodman Perfect Film and Chemical (later renamed Cadence Industries) for a very tidy sum. Enough, in fact, to front a new publishing company with his son, Charles “Chip” Goodman, at the helm.

Get Me Ben Stryker!

Jaw-dropping opening splash page to Atlas/Seaboard’s Savage Combat Tales #1 (Feb. 1975), premiering Sgt. Stryker’s Death Squad. Original Al McWilliams art courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). Note the ruled area across the bottom: The bottom art, below Archie Goodwin’s writer’s credit, was cropped for publication and the placement of the indicia; glue residue from the now-missing indicia is visible in this scan.

TM & © SP Media Group.

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Ed Catto

“War is Hell,” the grim quote succinctly describing the reality of war, is generally attributed to General Sherman. Like many, he believed that the way to win a war is to destroy the enemy’s will to resist. And from this he wrote, “War is cruel, and you cannot refine it.” There is no actual evidence that he used “War is Hell” in his writings, even though it is believed that he spoke the words in public.

The 1961 film War is Hell, about the deglamorization of war, was held up from release as it was thought to be anti-American. Clearly, this sentiment of war as a horrible thing had been around for a while.

And in the anti-war days of the early and mid-’70s, a comic book could embrace war stories, while employing a disclaimer that professed to acknowledge the grim futility of all it.

Over at DC Comics, Kubert and Kanigher were punctuating each story with a “Make War No More” button, but a comic that proclaimed that War is Hell was a first.

In the early issues of Marvel Comics’ War is Hell, the message didn’t really live up to the hype.

The first six issues reprinted old war stories, some memorable, some not, with new covers. Issues #7 and 8 reprinted issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, often marketed as “the war comic for people who hate war comics,” referring to its comedic and adventuresome tone.

But then, all of a sudden, in War is Hell #9 (Oct. 1974), the series lurched from being a perfectly fine, albeit ordinary, reprint title to something unique and deserving of attention.

WAR GAMES

In the ’70s, creative folks like Don McGregor, Steven Grant, and Tony Isabella were working at Marvel in many different capacities as they tried to find opportunities to write.

Tony Isabella may have been involved in proofreading an issue or two of War is Hell, but he doesn’t have a specific memory of that. Of course, one can’t help but wonder what the reason was for shifting to creating new war stories.

“Likely multiple reasons,” Isabella tells BACK ISSUE, “but I wouldn’t have been involved in the decisionmaking process on that level. I do know Roy [Thomas, then-Marvel tony isabella editor] wanted to give Dick Ayers a series to replace “IT! The Living Colossus” [in Astonishing Tales; see BI #36] and asked me to come up with a new series for War is Hell.

Hell on Earth The Gil Kane/Ernie Chan cover to War is Hell #9 (Oct. 1974), premiering John Kowalski’s adventures.

TM & Marvel.

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Douglas R. Kelly

You can assemble all the right ingredients. You can prepare them and mix them just right. You can bake, broil, or sauté everything just the way the recipe instructs. But there are times that the dish doesn’t turn out as intended, even if family and friends at the table do their best to spare your feelings.

Cooking and comic books? There are at least two parallels—gathering the ingredients (the plot, the dialog, the pencils, the inks, the lettering, the coloring), and the deadline looking over your shoulder, whether it’s the hungry gang waiting for dinner or the pages due at the printer by close of business Wednesday.

Robert Kanigher assembled the right ingredients in 1975 at DC Comics. The prolific writer and creator of such DC characters as the Metal Men and Sgt. Rock had an idea for a different kind of war comic, one that would tell the story of World War II from the perspective of German soldiers. “I went into Carmine [Infantino, DC publisher at the time],” Kanigher said in a 1989 interview with Tim Bateman and Steve Whitaker. “I said I want to do a book called Blitzkrieg.

This guy says, ‘go ahead.’ Carmine had assured me previously… I had told him I was not going to do any new books any more unless I was the editor, and he said yes. So I did Blitzkrieg.”

Kanigher’s concept was a departure from what was being done in DC’s war comics in the mid-1970s.

Titles such as Our Army at War, which would morph into Sgt. Rock in early 1977, and G.I. Combat, which featured the adventures of the Haunted Tank, generally offered readers stories of Allied soldiers (American soldiers, for the most part). Delving into the experiences of German soldiers—Nazis— in a comic book was a risky proposition: Would American readers identify in any way with the lives of enemy combatants, especially at a time when many readers’ families had been damaged, and in some cases, torn apart, by those enemy combatants just 30 years before?

SURVEYING THE BATTLEFIELD

At least Blitzkrieg would have the sub-category to itself. Marvel Comics wasn’t exactly tearing up the racetrack with war comics in the mid-1970s, but they did continue to publish Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, which featured the adventures of an American unit during World War II. Even the shortlived (15 issues) War is Hell, published from 1973– 1975, had half of its issues made up of reprints of old Atlas Comics and Sgt. Fury stories.

The cast of characters in Blitzkrieg was led by a group of soldiers in a German infantry unit.

Not Your Average War Book Blitzkrieg came out of the gate fast with a superb Joe Kubert cover for issue #1 (Jan.–Feb. 1976) that visually summarized the series’ stated goal. All comic scans are courtesy of Doug Kelly.

TM & © DC Comics.

Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

Blitzkrieg Behind the Scenes (top left) Blitzkrieg writer Robert Kanigher, with Cary Burkett and Morris Waldinger, early 1980s. (top right) Blitzkrieg assistant editor Allan Asherman, with Carl Gafford and Cary Bates, early 1980s. (bottom left) Primary Blitzkrieg artist Ric Estrada.

Kanigher and Asherman photos courtesy of Bob Rozakis. Estrada photo from IllustrationHistory.org. (bottom right) Franz, Hugo, and Ludwig eliminate Polish resistance fighters in Blitzkrieg #1. Despite the horrific subject matter, Ric Estrada’s art had a light, somewhat cartoonish style in the first three issues of the title.

TM & © DC Comics.

Kanigher, who died in 2002, said in an interview in The Comics Journal #86 (Nov. 1983), “I invented three soldiers. One of them, I roughly patterned after Paul Bäumer of [Erich Maria] Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. He was a college boy and he was very uneasy about what he was doing. Not that he didn’t do it, but he did it very reluctantly.

And he was very troubled. The middle character was mainly interested in eating.

So it didn’t matter if they had just killed a half dozen people, he was thinking about

44 • BACK ISSUE • Soldiers Issue

the hot rolls in a bakery in Berlin. I placed one scene, actually, in a bakery in which they had killed Allied soldiers. They went in, and this particular character was very food oriented, and thought that the rolls in there were marvelous. The third one was the worst type of soldier, who just obeys orders. They are the ones that are responsible for the atrocities. They obey orders, they have no sense of guilt, no conscience. They do what they are told to do. Their alibi—‘I was just obeying orders.’”

The ’Nam was, in many ways, a groundbreaking comic.

From the mid-late 1960s right through to the early 1980s, Vietnam war stories in comics were few and far between.

Although Vietnam war tales had begun appearing as early as 1954 and quite a number of them were published in 1965– 1967, from that point on the comic-book publishers were caught between a rock and a hard place. The US military had made it clear that they wanted no part of anything resembling anti-war comics being sold in their domestic and foreign PXs and that was emphasized by the banning and eventual demise of the excellent black-and-white magazine Blazing Combat, edited by Archie Goodwin for Warren Publications.

The comic-book publishers also remembered the distributor nightmares of 1954–1955, when conservative members of the magazine distributors left many comics sitting in the warehouses rather than distribute them, disturbed by the violence and perceived “liberal” stance of horror and war comics. Efforts to soft-pedal that sort of perception in Vietnam stories by the publishers resulted in poor sales as readers declined to buy and read Vietnam war comics that didn’t have “something to say.”

With that sort of sales nightmare staring them in the face, both DC and Marvel backed away from any kind of story set in the Vietnam War. Only Korean War and earlier stories would appear in their war books. Charlton continued to publish a few stories set in Vietnam—mostly notable the conservative-leaning “Shotgun Harker and Chicken Smith” tales in Fightin’ Marines, written by Joe Gill and illustrated for most of its run by Sam Glanzman.

From 1967–1985, that’s pretty much how things stood.

FROM ‘5th TO THE 1st’ TO A FIRST ISSUE

Richard J. Arndt

The ’Nam TM & © Marvel.

by

By 1985, DC’s war comics were on life support and Marvel had none, unless you counted G.I. Joe. Debuting that year was Savage Tales vol. 2, a revival of the 1970s black-and-white magazine, under the editorship of Larry Hama. It presented at least one traditional war story every issue, the most popular one being a Vietnam-set serial called “5th to the 1st,” written by Doug Murray and illustrated by Michael Golden. Two episodes of the serial appeared, “The ’Nam, 1967” in Savage Tales #1 (Oct. 1985) and “The Sniper” in 4 (Apr. 1986); the team produced a third installment, “The Tunnel Rat,” intended for the magazine, but Savage Tales was cancelled (with issue #8, Dec. 1986) before it could be published. Several months after the publication of Murray and Golden’s “The Sniper,” The ’Nam #1 (Dec. 1986) debuted, featuring the same writerartist team, accompanied by, at least initially, inker Armando Gil. The ’Nam broke most of the rules that had governed war comics since the advent of the Comics Code in 1954.

Both Marvel and DC’s war heroes had been incorporated into the Marvel or DC universes, despite the fact that none of them were superpowered. Much of the military silliness that had marked those much-loved titles—such as shooting down planes with a hand-held machine gun or, worse, a tommy gun, or having soldiers throw grenades down tank turrets (which would have done no damage to a tank and where the muzzle would have been impossible to reach for any soldier on the ground)—were eliminated.

As much as possible for a mainstream comic, soldiers talked like soldiers, fought realistic battles, and suffered deaths and wounds as it might have actually happened in combat—very little of those “famous last words” appeared in the mouths of anyone who was mortally wounded in The ’Nam. Perhaps most important, events involving the characters in the book transpired in both Vietnam and Stateside. Seeing the home front events, particularly during the turbulent 1960s, was something that had rarely happened in war comics up to that point.

Other rules, unique to the title, were also set down in the very first issue and will be discussed in the following interviews.

In addition, editor Larry Hama did the smartest thing he could have done for a relatively high-risk title. He recruited the “5th to the 1st” creative team, who’d only done three stories of that series to date, to write and pencil the new title.

Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

Before The ’Nam… …there was Murray and Golden’s “5th to the 1st,” a short-lived feature in the rebooted Savage Tales magazine, edited by Larry Hama. Pages 1 and 2 of the first “5th to the 1st” story, “The ’Nam, 1967,” from Savage Tales #1 (Oct. 1985).

TM & © Marvel.

Then he came into my office and put it on my desk and told me that he’d like to have this book done. [laughs] He didn’t know what the book was about. He just laid it in my lap.

We just had a title and mocked-up cover.

I had to come up with everything else.

I came up with the concept of telling the stories from a grunt’s point of view, and having it be in real time. Real time in that 12 monthly issues would present a full year of the war. That way, characters would do their 364-day tour and then ship back RICHARD ARNDT: How did home. We’d have this continually rotating larry hama The ’Nam get started, and what cast with any one character usually having was your role in that? I think the Michael Soloff/Scoop. only 12 issues or less to appear in. war stories in Savage Tales vol.

Characters would move in and out of the 2 had a hand in that. unit just like the real thing. Of course, the military LARRY HAMA: After the fact, they did. We used a “5th would never replace the entire unit. People would to the 1st” story in The ‘Nam in the tunnel rat story; come and go as their tour was up. using that was a ploy to get Michael Golden more time I called up Doug Murray and Michael Golden and on an issue. He didn’t have to draw eight pages that they both signed on. That’s how it happened. I gave month and could get a little ahead on the next issue. what I just said to Doug Murray. I told him those were [chuckles] However, The ‘Nam didn’t spring from “5th my only parameters. The only other thing I think I told to the 1st.” him was “The ’Nam is not like Sgt. Fury and the Howling Basically, [then-Marvel editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter Commandos. The soldiers are not superheroes. North had a cover mocked up in the production Vietnamese and VC do not jump out from perfectly department. He’d taken a G.I. Joe cover of two good cover and charge. I want it as realistic as possible.” soldiers peering through the foliage with their Doug was fine with that. He came up with everything faces camouflaged. He had a logo of The ’Nam done else. All the characters, members of the platoon, were up. It didn’t actually appear as any cover for the his creation. Michael did the visual interpretations. book. It was a mockup. This was all done without Mike is a guy who can look at stuff, just absorb it, and my knowledge. come back with something that’s amazing.

, ’the NAM EDITOR LARRY HAMA

50 • BACK ISSUE • Soldiers Issue

In the mid-1980s, DC Comics was enjoying a creative renaissance, thanks to the success of projects such as Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

Flagship characters such as Superman and Batman were being reinvented for new audiences, and the publisher was fertile ground for fresh ideas. Many remain hot properties decades later, while others remain lukewarm.

Cinder and Ashe #1–4 (May–Aug. 1988) is a detective thriller set in New Orleans. The fourissue miniseries is the creation of Gerry Conway, a seasoned writer credited with extended runs on such titles as Amazing Spider-Man, Firestorm, and Justice League of America.

As comics began to expand beyond four-color masks and capes in the mid-’80s, DC Comics decided to produce non-superhero material with higher production values. These titles, intended for older, more sophisticated readers with deeper pockets, would be available only in comic shops, and would not be beholden to the Comics Code Authority.

Writing stories more grounded in reality very much appealed to Conway. “I had this interest in writing something more adult, more mainstream, and the opportunity presented itself with DC having this market that they wanted to reach,” he says.

“I don’t know that DC had a clear idea of what it was they wanted to accomplish other than explore what this market could be,” he continues. “We didn’t know what this audience was capable of responding to. Pretty much anything would have gone, in the sense that it was an audience that could embrace Camelot 3000 or V For Vendetta.”

As a result, there were no editorial parameters for what could be pitched, and Conway wanted to create something a little more realistic. He had always been a fan of suspense and mystery in general as a genre, and had played around with the idea of doing more straightforward, thriller-based stories. He had the opportunity to pitch some ideas, and the result that most appealed to him was Cinder and Ashe. gerry conway

BORN ON THE BAYOU

“The premise came to me primarily because of the title,” Conway says. “I came up with the title first, knowing I wanted to do something that was kind of a noir-ish, New Orleans mystery, and then the name Cinder and Ashe, for some reason, popped into my head and that sort of developed into these two characters.”

Cinder is the offspring of an African-American G.I. and a Vietnamese woman. As a teenager, she was

From ’Nam to New Orleans José Luis García-López’s covers for writer Gerry Conway’s Cinder and Ashe 1988 miniseries.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Philip Schweier

by

When most comic book, animation, or action figure fans hear the words “Larry Hama” and “ninja” in the same sentence, they usually think of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. This is a perfectly understandable response.

Despite Hama’s long and multifaceted career in comics, he is best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, as well as his influence on the G.I. Joe property itself, which includes the popular ninja characters of the silent Snake Eyes and the mysterious Storm Shadow.

(See BACK ISSUE #16 for coverage of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and BI #118 for a look at how Hama’s unrealized Fury Force series influenced not only Marvel’s G.I. Joe comic-book series but Hasbro’s G.I. Joe property in general.)

However, Hama also created another ninja, but not just any ninja… the ultimate ninja. Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja was published by Marvel Comics in 1989 through 1990, running for 16 issues and one eight-page preview story. The comic tells the story of John Doe, the ultimate ninja, and a telekinetic named Alfie O’Meagan, in a backdrop of World War III and beyond.

Ed Lute

WELCOME TO WORLD WAR III

In 1989 in our reality, the United States and the former U.S.S.R were still in the midst of the Cold War, which was characterized by the two countries’ reliance on their stash of nuclear weapons to prevent the other country from using their own nuclear weapons [M.A.D.: Mutually Assured Destruction—ed.]. This fear had been permeating both nations for over 40 years, and many citizens feared that World War III was an eventuality.

When writer Larry Hama and artist Ron Wagner’s Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja premiered, the real world was still two years away from the fall of the Berlin Wall, which many consider the end of the Cold War—and with that momentous event, the expected world war never occurred. However, when Nth Man premiered, it wasn’t far-fetched to think that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. could be at war in the future. The Cold War and a looming third World War set the stage for this Marvel series.

Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja #1 (Aug. 1989) presented readers with a reality in which the two countries—and many others, including China—were at war. However, it wasn’t the nuclear war with the resultant fallout and global desolation that many people expected from a

Marvel’s New Super Soldier Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja #1 (Aug. 1989) through 3 (Oct. 1989). Covers

by Ron Wagner and Bob McLeod.

TM & © Marvel.

Soldiers Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

Don’t Mess Around with John (Doe) Even in captivity, Doe’s no doe.

From Nth Man #1,

by Larry Hama, Ron Wagner, and Fred Fredericks.

TM & © Marvel.

conflict between these two superpowers.

THE GOOD CHILD? In the first issue, Alfie O’Meagan used his telekinetic The first issue of Nth Man wasn’t the first time that powers to neutralize all of the nuclear weapons readers saw Alfie and John. Although Nth Man on the planet in order to bring peace to the was set in a separate reality from the main world. Although Alfie was trying to save the Marvel Universe (616), Marvel chose to world and avoid war, his plan backfired. give to give the series a preview in its Without nuclear weapons, the countries anthology title Marvel Comics Presents. waged conventional warfare.

As detailed in BACK ISSUE #110, Alfie’s nuclear neutralization put MCP contained shorter stories, usually him on the world stage and even eight pages each, and each issue placed a target on his back. The U.S contained a mix of self-contained government sent a special team to stories and serials that ran for Russia to rescue Special Agent John several issues. MCP #25 (Aug. 1989) Doe, a.k.a. Nth Man the Ultimate contained an Nth Man preview story Ninja, a highly trained ninja and that helped introduce the series. deadly assassin, one of the two Although he doesn’t recall specifics deadliest and most effective assassins terry kavanagh about how Nth Man made its debut in the world. The U.S. wanted John in the anthology series, Marvel Comics Facebook.

Doe to kill Alfie O’Meagan for what Presents editor Terry Kavanagh tells he had done. However, it wouldn’t work out the way BI, “Although my memory is increasingly questionable they had planned, because there was a link between about specifics, I can tell you that I was happy to debut the two characters that made up the crux of this series. any new character/series in MCP, allowing them to get the exposure proffered to the other Marvel characters with history and existing fanbases. But it was likely Larry Hama’s idea [to preview Nth Man in MCP].

And I’d have been an idiot to ignore any idea from Larry.

“But, in general, I welcomed submissions/ideas/ suggestions from anyone and everyone in the industry about what to include in the book. Half the fun of the IF YOU ENJOYED PREVIEW, title was that I could spotlight new THIS characters and CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER characters not seen for a long time, new creatorsTHIS and IN PRINT characters OR DIGITAL legacy creators, ISSUE give supporting the FORMAT! lead in their own stories, etc.”

In the preview story, which took place in August of 1968, readers were introduced to Alfie and John as young boys. In 1959, the two unrelated youths, as infants, had been dropped on the doorstep of the Merrivale Home for Boys in Iowa by an unknown woman who burst into flames and died shortly after. Before she died, the woman said, “One of them is very, very good… and the other is very, very bad!”

In the story, John was depicted as Alfie’s protector when Alfie did something bad. The preview also showed that Alfie could use his powers to see the future. In the future, John would become a worldclass assassin and that Alfie would neutralize of the BACK ISSUE #127 nuclear weapons of the world.

One of the series’ SOLDIERS ISSUE! Sgt. Rock revivals, General Thunderbolt main mysteriesRoss, ofBeetle how John would goWar from Bailey in comics, DC’s Blitzkrieg, is Hell’s a John Kowalski, soldiers, The ’Nam, Nth the Ultimate good, caring child to Atlas’ thesavage cold-blooded assassin he Ninja, and CONWAY and GARCIA-LOPEZ’s Cinder and Ashe. became is first introduced in this story.

After young Featuring CLAREMONT, DAVID, DIXON, GOLDEN, HAMA, DON LOMAX, DOUG MURRAY, John learned he KUBERT, wouldLOEB, become an assassin, heTUCCI, said,and more. BRIAN BOLLAND cover!

“I don’t want to kill anybody!”

(84-page FULL-COLOR The series kept readers guessingmagazine) as to$9.95 which (Digital Edition) $4.99 child was good child and which was bad. Through Alfie’s destructionhttps://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1560 of the nuclear weapons he is depicted as a bad child in this flashback, as well as the other flashbacks throughout the main series.

While John is an assassin, he is seen as a good child in the flashbacks.

Nth MAN THE ULTIMATE SERIES

Nth Man debuted one week after the MCP preview.

The future that readers glimpsed in the preview was shown to have come to pass in the regular series.

Alfie neutralized the nuclear weapons and John had become an assassin.

After John Doe was rescued from his Soviet imprisonment by Dr. Irving Nagyu (John’s ninja master and trainer) and U.S. Special Forces Sergeant Deb Levin and her team, they went on the run in an attempt 70 • BACK ISSUE • Soldiers Issue