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T H I S I S S U E : C O M I C S G O T O W A R !T H I S I S S U E : C O M I C S G O T O W A R !

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No.37$6.95

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

SECRETS OF THEUNKNOWN SOLDIERSECRETS OF THEUNKNOWN SOLDIER

WONDER WOMAN’SRETURN TO WWIIWONDER WOMAN’SRETURN TO WWII

THE INVADERS,WWII’s HEROESTHE INVADERS,WWII’s HEROES

PLUS A HISTORY OF THE JOE KUBERT SCHOOL!

®

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Volume 1,Number 37December 2009

Celebratingthe Best Comicsof the '70s,'80s, '90s,and Today!

EDITORMichael Eury

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERRich J. Fowlks

COVER ARTISTJoe Kubert

COVER COLORISTSGlenn Whitmoreand Jason Geyer

COVER DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrowand Eric Nolen-Weathington

SPECIAL THANKSG. K. AbrahamMark ArnoldMichael AushenkerDick AyersJerry BoydAlan BrennertPete CarlssonCatholic DigestGerry ConwayDC ComicsTony DeZunigaMark DiFruscioBill DuBayMichael DunneMark EvanierGary FriedrichFather Roy GasnickDon GlutGrand Comic-Book

DatabaseLarry HamaJack C. HarrisHeritage Comics

AuctionsIce Cream SoldierCarmine InfantinoDan JohnsonDave Karlen

Jim KingmanJoe KubertDon LomaxDavid MichelinieIan MillstedThe National

ArchivesNightscreamMartin PaskoGeorge PrattJohn Romita, Sr.Alan RutledgeBill SchellyJoe SinnottMark SinnottAnthony SnyderDan SpiegleGerry TalaocRoy ThomasJohn Wells

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: [email protected]. Six-issue subscriptions:$44 Standard US, $60 First Class US, $70 Canada, $105 First Class Mail International, $115 PriorityMail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorialoffice. Cover art by Joe Kubert. Sgt. Rock TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All charactersare © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial mat-ter © 2009 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing.ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

The Retro Comics Experience!

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

FLASHBACK: Sgt. Rock of Easy Company in “The Longer Shadow” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3How the controversies of the Vietnam War shaped the adventures of DC’s Top Sergeant

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

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

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

PRO2PRO: Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle Fly with Blackhawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18The unbeatable writer/artist duo look back at their fondly remembered Blackhawk collaboration

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Blackhawk Declassified: The Story ofthe Lost Miniseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Bill DuBay and Carmine Infantino’s unpublished series, with never-before-seen art

FLASHBACK: Stop a Bullet Cold, Make the Axis Fold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Wonder 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. . . . . . . . . . 34Despite its brutally short run, this comic-book casualty breathed fresh life into the war genre

BEYOND CAPES: From Parts “Unknown”!: The Unknown Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Joe Kubert’s other World War II hero battled Axis forces for a dozen years

INTERVIEW: Soaring to New Heights: George Pratt’s Enemy Ace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50An art-loaded look at the master painter’s War Idyll graphic novel

FLASHBACK: The Invaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Marvel Comics’ Golden Age heroes in their Bronze Age series

WHAT THE--?!: Saints and Superheroes: The Brief Union of Marvel Comics and theCatholic Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61When Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II, and Mother Teresa blessed the House of Ideas

FLASHBACK: The Annotated Vietnam Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70A review of Don Lomax’s seminal work

INTERVIEW: Don Lomax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77The writer/artist of Vietnam Journal takes us into the trenches

FLASHBACK: Sad Sack During the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83War isn’t always hell, at least not in this funny favorite

BACK TALK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Reader feedback on “Villains” issue #35

C o m i c s G o t o W a r I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1

“I think there is such a small audience to Vietnam fighting,because even if it is current, and the most important at thiswriting, the war essentially, on the ground, is small andlarge scale guerrilla action, and the action does not lenditself to continuous illustrating. Just as the majority of theair actions are against ground targets, and not againstother aircraft. Despite the dead and wounded which arevery real and very tragic, Vietnam is not a picture war.Just compare the photos and drawings coming out ofVietnam today, with those of World Wars I and II.”

The above reply by writer/editor Robert Kanigher to letterwriter John Schlafer’s request for a Green Beret series setduring the Vietnam War was published in the Oct. 1967issue 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 onthe nightly news. The devastating effects of this escalatingand controversial conflict on the American consciousnesswould be explored in the Sgt. Rock series for twodecades, albeit indirectly, as opposed to other forms ofentertainment such as cinema and television.

While Sgt. Rock and the combat-happy Joes of EasyCompany underwent the early throes of characterdevelopment in the pages of DC’s Our Army at Warbeginning in 1959, half a world away in Vietnam,the United States initially maintained advisory status toaid the Republic of (South) Vietnam in the growingconflict for Vietnamese independence. Less than tenyears later, the Vietnam War raged between Americanand South Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong(Vietnamese communists) and would become thelongest war in US history, with US troop strength peak-ing at 542,000. The war had become a controversial,polarizing military engagement that had no end in sightand was swiftly becoming America’s first “television war.”

A Not-So-Combat Happy JoeDespite a divide of over two decades, DC’s WorldWar II-based Sgt. Rock stories published during theVietnam War began to echo Americans’ attitudesover that latter conflict. Art by Joe Kubert.TM & © DC Comics.


by J i m K i n g m a n

“NO MORE KILLIN’…”From 1959 to 1967, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company’s monthly comic-book exploits, which started in Our Army at War #81 (Apr. 1959),were essentially battle-action adventures for boys depicted in a WWIIsetting. While Easy’s missions were more realistically chronicled byKanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert and Russ Heath than concurrentsuperhero tales published in most DC and Marvel comics, they werestill marketed to eight- to 12-year-olds, and had to adhere to thestrict regulations of the Comics Code Authority.

“The stories that we had done up to that time,” explains JoeKubert, “were ones where we felt that we were trying to showrealistically as possible within the context of a comic book thatwar is not a great thing, that you don’t run around with a cigarin your face and run over and kill people. What we tried to dowas to show that people are in the Army and people do whatthey have to do as required of them and that it is actually abuddy-to-buddy kind of situation, watching out for the guy nextto you; where you are in a position in wartime where you can getkilled in order to defend yourself very often, and the fact is thatyou feel [you] are doing the right thing but not for the glory ofit and not for the killing of it.”

In a decade already besieged by social unrest and great historicalsignificance, 1968 was one of the most volatile years in ournation’s existence. War protests were escalating. The ReverendMartin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated.Riots were occurring all across the country. And in the pagesof 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 replacementsin 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 stoodalone in a field of battle, smoke all around him. A toppled tankturret rested near him. Four soldiers lay in the rubble before him,apparently dead. Rock felt great anguish. This dramatic scenethen shifted to a few hours before. An exhausted Rock reportedto 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 foursoldiers marched out with Rock point on probe for the fourthstraight night.

The soldiers drew close to enemy lines. Rock spotted anenemy bunker up ahead. One soldier believed it was an emptytank 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 singedRock’s eyes. Tears swelled up, and he snapped, pleading withhimself for an answer to why they wouldn’t listen. He shouted indespair, “Yeah … it’s funny! Four young guys whose names I didn’teven know! Gone!,” and charged the tank turret, while 88mmblasts cut the dirt around him.

Rock climbed onto the tank turret, shoving grenades into theview slits. The turret exploded, and the story had reached themoment 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 USsoldier suddenly appeared before Rock. The soldier worked to getRock out of his funk by telling him tales of mankind’s many strugglesto overcome adversity in the midst of war. When the soldieraddressed the threat of Hitler and the evil Hitler had cast over theworld, including the concentration camps, Rock snapped out of it.The soldier disappeared, and Rock discovered that the replacementssurvived. After a long string of Rock teaming up with Unit 13, a gangof kid resistance fighters, “Stop the War—I Want to Get off!” wasclearly a different kind of Rock story.

Anti-Vietnam Demonstration(below) Anti-Vietnam demonstrator offers a flower to amiltary police. Arlington, Virginia, October 21, 1967.By S. Sgt. Albert Simpson. Courtesy of National Archivesand 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.

4 • B A C K I S S U E • C o m i c s G o t o W a r I s s u e

A lot of people have dreams of working in the comicsindustry. To make it in the business, you need a numberof 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 forthemselves in comics recognize the potential in you andoffer their wisdom and guidance.

Comics legend Joe Kubert knows that the latter isessential to artists who want to break into the highlycompetitive field of comics. Indeed, having the right peoplesee the raw ability in a young artist and encourage themis just as important today as it was when Kubert himselfwas first breaking into the business at the dawn of theGolden Age of Comics. That was why he founded theJoe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover,New Jersey, in 1976. This institution has played a majorrole in shaping the world of comics since the early 1980sand has turned out some of the best artists working todayin comics and other areas of the commercial arts.

– Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: How did you come up with the ideafor the school?JOE KUBERT: It was a thought I had for many years.Ours is a very unique area in the commercial-arts fieldand my experience has been that very few peopleoutside of the field really know what the demands arein order to be able to get into it.

I was lucky because I talked to different publisherswhile I was looking for jobs when I was a kid, and theguys I met were really terrific. The artists, the editors,and the publishers would talk to me and explain thingsto me. I would have an art director or an editor thatwould refer me to an artist who was doing work andthese artists would then explain to me the tools theyused and how the work had to be done and so on.Little by little, I was able to garner enough informationto get into the business. If a person doesn’t, through hisown efforts, find out exactly what the demands are, it isvery difficult to get into the business. In the back of myhead, [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 wantingto do this work could get all this information fed tothem?” Instead of taking the ten or 15 years it tookme to absorb all the things that were necessary to

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


by D a n J o h n s o nconducted June 1, 2009

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 forthe school really took shape] when the kids got out ofthe house and were old enough to get out on theirown. My wife was a graduate of a business school andshe was looking around for something to keep herselfbusy. I said, “If we could find a place that was closeenough to where we live, what do you think of the ideaof 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 wouldbe 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 thehouse to my own studio, the school would not be here.It was a large house and it was only five minutes frommy house, so we kicked it off. That’s the way it began.JOHNSON: Was there anyone in particular that yousought out in the comics business to get advice frombefore you started the school?KUBERT: I got a lot of help and advice from people inthe business. I spoke to Jack Adler, who was in chargeof production up at DC, and Sol Harrison, who hadalso been in production at DC. I asked them what theyfelt the artists should know before doing work for anypublication. I also spoke to Burne Hogarth, who wasone of the initiators of the School of Visual Arts in NewYork, and he happened to be a fellow member of theNational Cartoonist Society. We discussed the schooland talked about it and Burne kind of warned meabout some of the pitfalls that might occur.JOHNSON: Who were some of the first instructors atthe school?KUBERT: The instructors were friends and people that Iknew in the business. Dick Giordano was one of theearly teachers. Hy Eisman has been with the schoolsince I started. Irwin Hasen, who has been a longtimefriend, was working with me until just a year ago, as amatter of fact. He’s in his early nineties and commutingfrom New York to Dover just became too much for him.Dick Ayers worked here. Lee Elias taught here, as well asRic Estrada. We’ve had a heck of a lot of instructors here.JOHNSON: How many instructors work at theschool currently?KUBERT: We keep at least 15 to 20 different instructorson staff because none of them work here full-time.They take a day or two out of their week and they’remore than willing to come here and teach. They sure asheck aren’t doing it for the money. The instructors arethe same kind of people I met when I first came into thebusiness. They know how tough it is to get into thebusiness, and if they can recognize and see somethingin someone who really wants to learn, someone whoreally wants to get into the business, they are more thanwilling to help them in any way they can.JOHNSON: I didn’t realize there were no full-timeinstructors on staff at the school.KUBERT: There are no full-time instructors and none ofthem are contracted. [The reason why there are nocontracts] is because every one of them is working inthe area that they teach, and very often a deadline willcome up and they can’t make it to the school. We try tobe as flexible with them as we can be and they areflexible with us. If there is any success that is linked tothe school with the people coming here, it is a direct

1 0 • B A C K I S S U E • C o m i c s G o t o W a r I s s u e

Joe Kubert, instructor,and unidentified

students, early 1980s.

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 Agerevival in Showcase (with Carmine Infantino) / Sgt. Rock inOur 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

joekubert

C o m i c s G o t o W a r I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1 5

For fans of cinema, there’s a book about the life ofjust about every movie star and director, often morethan one. The superstars—people such as WaltDisney, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock,Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, and John Ford—have been the subjects of weighty, exhaustivelyresearched tomes. Several impressive biographicalbooks on newspaper-strip cartoonists haveappeared, but books that can be considered “truebiographies” about the creators of comic bookshave been few.

To explain, I consider a “true biography” (“truebio” for short) of a creative individual to be a bookthat attempts to tell the subject’s life story anddescribe his/her work with a degree of completenessthat most agree doesn’t leave out anything essential.In order to accomplish this in any depth at all, thetext of a “true bio” ought to be at least 45,000 to50,000 words long, which is the standard length ofa short novel. In addition, it ought to more or lessobjective; that is, be willing to discuss the bad withthe good, rather than being merely an exercisein adulation. This is based on my belief that noone’s life and work, even the greatest of the great,is wonderful all the time, and a book that doesn’tacknowledge this isn’t capable of giving the readera complete portrait.

I should add before continuing that I know thereare numerous books and fanzines with biographicalessays, often as an introduction or adjunct toreproductions of the creator’s work. These are finefor what they are, and I’m not disparaging them inany 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, BillGaines collaborated with Al Feldstein to create storyideas for the great EC line of horror, science-fiction,suspense, and war comics of the early 1950s. It’s anentertaining book, containing quite a bit aboutGaines’ life and work in comic books. However, it wascreated primarily as an entertainment for a generalaudience, and as such is quite superficial in terms ofwhat comics aficionados would want from a biographyof the man. Moreover, it’s primarily about Gaines in

by B i l l S c h e l l y

© the respective owners.


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

In the early 1980s, Evanier and Spiegle worked on arevival of DC Comics’ Blackhawk that took the aerial-acetitle character and his high-flying team back to theirroots, 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-datedNov. 1984), this run is fondly remember by fans as oneof the best handlings of the characters ever.

– Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: How did you two come to work onBlackhawk?MARK EVANIER: DC had this property that had notbeen published lately, and the last few times they hadtried it, it had not sold too well. Then one day, there wassuddenly interest in doing a Blackhawk movie.Steven Spielberg was allegedly interested in it andsomeone had even mentioned that Dan Aykroydwanted to play the lead. The folks up at DC said,“We ought to preserve the brand name and get thiscomic book back out on the stands to remind people thatit exists. Maybe that would make this movie happen.”

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

For about a week, it was going to be written byMarv Wolfman and drawn by Dave Cockrum, but therewas this feeling at the office that those two guys weretoo valuable to waste on this book because, by all theirprojections, it was not going to sell very well.

Marv and Dave were convinced to apply theirskills to other projects so Len, who’d been assigned toedit Blackhawk, went looking for another creative team.He called me, and asked, “Who would be great for drawing

Blackhawk and DominoTwo and a half decades after his memorable

Blackhawk stint ended, illustrator Dan Spieglecontinues to revisit the Aerial Ace in beautiful

watercolor paintings like this one. Courtesy of DaveKarlen. Visit Dave’s site—davekarlenoriginalart.com—

for information about purchasing SpiegleBlackhawk (and other) originals.

Blackhawk TM & © DC Comics.

by D a n J o h n s o nconducted April 22, 2009

®

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 / TheUnknown Solider / “Nemesis” (backup in DC’s The Brave and theBold) / Blackhawk / Crossfire / Hollywood Superstars / IndianaJones: Thunder in the Orient / Indiana Jones and the Spear ofDestiny / Terry and the Pirates comic strip

Works in Progress:Selling original artwork and commis-sions

Cyberspace:www.davekarlenoriginalart.com

DanSpiegle

Beginnings:Cartoon comics scripts for Disney and Gold Key, and an apprentice-ship 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 / FanboyAnimation and Live-Action TV: Welcome Back, Kotter / Garfield andFriends / Plastic Man / Thundarr the Barbarian / Superman / RichieRich / Dungeons & Dragons / That’s Incredible!

Current Projects:POV Online / more Groo / a newGarfield cartoon series

Cyberspace:www.povonline.com

Markevanier

Blackhawk?” I said, “Dan Spiegle,” Dan being my usualanswer to almost any question about who’d be great forany assignment. Len thought this was a brilliant idea,so he called Dan and asked him if he was interested indoing this comic. Dan didn’t even know what Blackhawkwas, but he said yes because he heard it had airplanes in it.DAN SPIEGLE: Blackhawk sounded interesting. I likedthe World War II theme and it sounded like it wouldhave a lot of action.EVANIER: Lucky for me, Dan asked, “Is there anychance Mark could write it?” Len called me back and said,“Would you like to write it?” I said, “Sure, I’ll writeanything Dan draws.”

While the book was never a huge seller, it did sell alittle better than the company’s projections. Folks in theoffice also liked it, so for a while there, they let us do thebook and DC just left us alone. They changed editors afew times and it didn’t make any difference. I wrote it andDan drew it. Eventually, they made me editor and again,nothing changed. I just wrote it and sent it to Dan todraw like I always did. Then he sent it back to me and Iproofed it and did lettering corrections and such. I alwaystried to do that on a comic even if I wasn’t the editor.JOHNSON: I was impressed with the various artists whodid covers and backup stories on the book [see sidebarfor listing of backup stories and artists].EVANIER: We had Dave Cockrum doing some of thecovers, and Howard Chaykin.JOHNSON: Chaykin did those covers at the same timehis American Flagg! was a huge hit. How did youcome 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 somethingon it.” Howard was a huge fan of Dan’s. The first time Itook Dan up to the DC offices, Chaykin had just drawn theone backup story he did. I passed Howard in the hallwayand I yelled down the hallway, “Hey, Howie! Great job onBlackhawk!” 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!” Chaykinsprinted the length of the hallway to pounce on Danand gush and tell him how much he loved his artwork.JOHNSON: That same issue also had a backup storyby Alex Toth.EVANIER: I was pretty close to Alex at the time.Our friendship went away later, but at the time I wasgoing by to visit him every few weeks. Every time, he’d ask,“Do you have any Spiegle pages with you?” I usually hadthe original artwork for the latest issue of Blackhawk withme so I’d bring the pages in and Alex would just studythem over and over. Alex regarded Dan as a contemporary,not just in age, but also as one who’d worked for a lotof the same companies on the same kind of material,and who had much the same goals. He admired Dan’swork and one day he just asked if he could be part of thebook and do one. Dan was our secret weapon. Good artistswanted to be in the same comic. A friend of mine,Ken Steacy, came up to me in San Diego one year andsaid, “I want to do a Blackhawk story. Dan was telling meabout how he had painted insignias on airplanes duringthe war. Let’s do a story about that.” Well, I know a goodidea when I hear it. So I wrote a story, and I don’t thinkDan saw it until it was printed, but he was in it, and Kenstuck himself and me in the story as other characters.SPIEGLE: I have the originals of that particular storyon the wall. The Navy didn’t allow naked ladies ontheir planes. We could paint the squadron insignias,which might be like a flying bomb or something likethat. I did the squadron insignias for all the squadrons



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

The genesis of this four-issue miniseries originatedfrom a most unique source, the creator of Blackhawkhimself. “Will Eisner was a pretty good teacher whenhe wanted to be,” recalls William DuBay, the writer ofthe aborted Blackhawk miniseries. (DuBay worked withEisner at Warren Publications, where 16 issues of TheSpirit were produced in the mid-1970s.) “He was alsofriend, mentor, and godfather to everyone on staffduring his four-year Spirit run. [Will told me] the beststories are those about that one most importantmoment in your protagonist’s life.”

While working with Eisner, DuBay also learnedabout the original plans that the legendary comicscreator had for the avenging aviator. “[Will said that]commercially, there will always be a place for heroicicons—but Blackhawk, with that one, they thoughtabout doing something special,” explains DuBay.“Will said that when they came up with [the originalBlackhawk concept], Hitler was already marchingacross Europe. They all knew that America wasbuilding up, not just to supply the Allies, but to getinto the war. They all knew that when that happened,it’d be over quickly. [When Quality Comics,Blackhawk’s original publisher, needed] a lead seriesfor Military Comics, Eisner and his crew figured theywould time the ending [of the Blackhawk series] tocoincide with the end of the war. [He thoughtthe end of the war was] about a year or so away,like everyone else figured. Will saw a story where theseheroes—because that’s what they are, average men,

Following Eisner’s LeadWriter Bill DuBay and penciler Carmine

Infantino (inked by Dennis Jensen) planned torealize Blackhawk creator Will Eisner’s original

series’ ending for the Blackhawk saga, but theirminiseries was scuttled before ever

seeing print. Never-before-published artworkfrom the collection of Michael Dunne.

TM & © DC Comics.

by D a n J o h n s o n

®

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

JENETTE KAHN TUNES INWhen she arrived at DC in early 1976, new publisherJenette Kahn quickly began to wonder why there wasa Super Friends cartoon but no comic book. Or whyShazam!, despite a live-action Saturday morning seriesof its own, had seen its sales drop to a degree that itwas reduced to a quarterly reprint comic. In shortorder, the groundwork was laid for a line of “DC TV

Comics” that included WelcomeBack, 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 AmazonPrincess created by William Moulton Marston

in 1941 had become a phenomenonagain, thanks in large part to one of thegreatest bits of casting in the history ofcomics-based movies. As Wonder Womanand her bespectacled alter ego Diana

Prince, Lynda Carter stood virtually alone amidst atroupe of comedic actors in ABC’s The New OriginalWonder Woman TV movie in playing things straight.


Blast From the PastEchoing the success of TV’s World War II-basedWonder Woman series, DC Comics followed suitby having its WW title star its Earth-Two versionof 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.

jenette kahn

by J o h n W e l l s

®


That integrity of character was coupled with an infectious theme songby Charles Fox and a surprising faithfulness to the source material.Where a 1974 TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby did little morethan use the name of Wonder Woman, this new film (first aired onNovember 7, 1975) borrowed liberally from the first two WonderWoman stories in All Star Comics #8 and Sensation Comics #1.Significantly, it also retained the general time period of those earlystories, taking place in the summer of 1942.

After two follow-up episodes in April proved the movie was nofluke, ABC commissioned 11 episodes to air on an irregular basisbeginning on October 13, 1976. The next issue of Wonder Woman tobe published after that episode, Jenette Kahn declared to the book’snew editor Denny O’Neil, needed to reflect the TV show.

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

MARTY PASKO FINE TUNESPasko’s elegant solution to the mandate was to shiftthe series back to World War II, setting the actionon Earth-Two, a parallel world that DC haddeclared to be the home of many of the heroes it published duringthe 1940s. And rather than jolt regular readers, he decided to segueinto the new status quo via a transitional issue.

Alerted to Germany’s eventual defeat by way of a time scanner, aNazi scientist-turned-armored-villain declared himself the Red Panzerand created a time-ship to leap a year into the future and changehistory. Overshooting his destination of the June 1944 D-Day invasion,

the red-jacketed villain arrived instead in 1976 on the other-dimensionalEarth-One long enough to get on the bad side of that world’sWonder Woman, the one whose adventures fans had been followingup to that point. The Panzer’s craft was set to automatically return toits point of origin in an hour’s time so both he and the AmazingAmazon 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’soutrageous story was true. Apologies were made, Earth-One’s Dianaused the time-ship to go home, and Earth-Two’s heroine got backto the business of stopping bullets cold and making the Axis fold.

As the conclusion of the story in #229 revealed, that wasn’tas easy as it might have seemed. On Paradise Island, Diana was

gently taken to task by her mother for having been defeatedby the Red Panzer. The problem, Queen Hippolyte

explained, was in her newfound assurancethat the Nazi menace would be defeated.

Subconsciously, she continued, “your knowledgeof the future has dulled the sharp edge of your

resolve.” Encircled by the magic lasso, Wonder Womanwas commanded by her mother to forget everything she

knew about the future.The supporting cast members seen on TV

made their first appearances in #229 and becameindicative of something, as Pasko would laterwrite in the Amazing World of DC Comics #15

(Aug. 1977), that “a certain faction of the letter-writingreadership hasn’t stopped carping [about] since.” The details didn’tmatch the stories actually published in the 1940s.

Holliday College student Etta Candy, for instance, now worked inthe War Department as General Blankenship’s secretary. In his scripts,at least, Pasko dodged that particular point by never using her lastname, 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 fromGeneral Darnell. Pasko’s rationalization was that Steve reported totwo superiors and readers just hadn’t seen Darnell.

Diana Prince had beena lieutenant as early asSensation Comics #14 butshe was a yeoman here.Pasko suggested that Dianabegan as a yeoman andthese stories chronologi-cally preceded the GoldenAge accounts.

Pasko’s explanationfor the blond Steve Trevornow having brown hair(like Lyle Waggoner, the

So, Tellthe Truth……wasn’t LyndaCarter perfect asTV’s WonderWoman? (inset)Wonder Womanissue #228.Wonder Woman TM & © DCComics. Photo © 1975 WarnerBros. Television and ABC-TV.

marty pasko


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

Call it a comic-book casualty of war, but theshort-lived Marvel Comics Group World War II featureknown as Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen (June1972–Sept. 1973) fought a losing battle for readersbefore 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 gloryfor veteran World War II comics writer Gary Friedrich,who helmed Kelly’s entire run with Dick Ayers providingthe pencils. And yet, the book is not without its charms.

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

COMICS GO TO WARBy the end of the 1960s, the trend of World War IIcomics—popular since, oh, World War II?—was finallywinding down. Sgt. Fury had traded in his dog tags forsecret-agent status and entered the espionage game as aS.H.I.E.L.D. commandant. Revived World War II relicCaptain America went urban warrior, taking onManhattan-based madmen. Over at DC, a few oldchestnuts—Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier—lingeredinto another decade, while Marvel outfitted the SecondWorld War in superhero drag with The Invaders. But bythe 1970s, these titles were the exceptions, not the norm.

Bridging the chasm in 1972 as if it were the RiverKwai was Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen. Those nineissues may not have warranted an article were it not forthe fact that this otherwise generic-looking combatseries took a few daring detours in its brief existence.Among those conceits: some colorful, well-developedcharacters; crude-looking visuals backboned bystructurally solid storytelling; and, most memorably,a brazen, explosive series-ending finale presenting someunvarnished, Comics Code-baiting Nazi brutality thatleft one character crippled for life, and all of Kelly’s mendead by the end of the last issue.

Stirrin’ Up the StalagKelly’s heroes bust free from a concentration

camp in this original cover art to Combat Kellyand the Deadly Dozen #2 (Aug. 1972), by thelegendary John Severin. Courtesy of Heritage

Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.

by M i c h a e l A u s h e n k e r

SILENT BUT DEADLYNow, if you’re thinking right now that Combat Kelly is still notringing a bell, you are not alone, chief. The series barely registeredeven with Kelly’s very creative team, headed by the series’ editorialcommando Roy Thomas.

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

BACK ISSUE pressed Thomas if Combat Kelly was a warm-upfor his writing chores a few years later on another Marvel comic,The Invaders, and his current World War II-drenched superheroendeavor, 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 necessarilywriting about it. In fact, when a big Pearl Harbor movie, Tora! Tora!Tora!, opened in the late ’60s, I never got around to walking theblock or two to see it before it went off ... but I got more interestedin writing a WWII superhero comic as time went on.”

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

Combat Kelly was not the first military series on which Friedrich andAyers collaborated. Friedrich relieved his old Missouri pal (and futureInvaders creator/scribe) Thomas from writing duty on Sgt. Fury and theHowling Commandos, as Thomas was graduated to editor-in-chief ofMarvel Comics following Stan Lee. Friedrich and the art team of Ayersand John Severin produced a World War II series for the Vietnam era,combining militaristic camaraderie and gung-ho humor with amelancholy 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 theobvious tip o’ the hat to the 1967 Robert Aldrich film The Dirty Dozen),Combat Kelly milked that award-winning formula, delivering a multi-ethnic squadron that started at the top with the title Irish-American andworked its way down the chain of command—as did Sgt. Fury’s Howlers,which featured such colorful characters as Private Dino Manelli (inspiredby Italian-American crooner Dean Martin), Private Isadore “Izzy” Cohen(the first demonstrably Jewish-American comic-book hero), token BritPrivate Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton, and Nazi defector Private Eric Koenig.

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

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

ROLL CALL!Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen began its march to a differentwar drum with the June 1972 cover-dated issue titled “Stop theLuftwaffe … Win the War!” To put things in context, it wasreleased at the same time Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 smashedthrough brick-and-mortar onto the Marvel scene. Kelly’s creativetroops: Friedrich wrote it, Ayers penciled it, and Jim Mooneyinked it.

In the inaugural issue, a US military captain enlists Sgt. Fury’showling commando “Dum Dum” Dugan to lead a special battalionto 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’sinventor. Removed from leading the mission, Dugan passes the batonto Michael Lee Kelly, a 6' 1" Bostonian heavyweight boxer doing lifein a government prison for killing a man with his bare hands. Thisfightin’ Irish-American has one chance of redemption and free-dom—lead the Deadly Dozen on this suicide mission and helpAmerica win the war. No sweat, right?


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

Combat Kelly’s Talented TwoGary Friedrich (left) and Dick Ayers at the New York Comic-Con

in Manhattan, April 20, 2008. Photos courtesy of Nightscream.


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 Comicshas ever published … the most spectacular of whichsaw him personally take down Adolf Hitler deepwithin 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 beautifullyscratchy, shadowy art. Even by creator Kuberthimself. There are many interviews scatteredlike stardust across the Internet in whichKubert discusses Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, andHawkman, but Unknown Soldier talkremains scarce…

…until now.

ICONIC AND IRONICSo, who is the Unknown Soldier?

Well, we know who the Unknown Soldierisn’t: Captain America. Sgt. Fury. Capt. Savage.Combat Kelly—those were the competition’s World WarII characters (many issues of which were drawn byUnknown Soldier artist Dick Ayers). He wasn’t Sgt. Rock,the only other DC World War II hero to surpass theSoldier’s comic-book lifespan. The erstwhile SteveRogers notwithstanding, none of those WWII booksoutlasted the Unknown Soldier, star of a solid1970–1982 run. Contrary to impressions, this characterdid not debut during the Second World War’s Golden Agebut at the dawn of comics’ Bronze Age, first appearingin Star Spangled War Stories #151 (June–July 1970).

The Unknown Soldier’s power lies in the character asa compelling visual; the character is the link between theMummy and the Invisible Man, Sam Raimi’s Darkman,and 100 Bullets. The simplicity of this iconic anti-heroarchtype, his face wrapped in bandages, instantly conveyshorror, tragedy, mystery. Hero and anti-hero, the Soldierfalls in line with a tradition of lean, mean, sleekly designedheroes where their only revelation is all in the eyes—theHuman Fly, Union Jack. He dons a hat, trench coat, andshades to conceal himself … and that’s when he’s not indisguise! For in each heart-stopping issue, the Soldier donsat least one latex mask to impersonate and infiltrate Axiscircles … and he throws down stealth moves, not alwaysgovernment-issue, to accomplish his mission. In essence,this is “Darkman meets Combat!” or “the Invisible Mangoes to war.” Unlike the H. G. Wells character, he is notevil … yet like the scientist Griffin, he is not above killing.

This comic book’s concept was simple: the exploitsof Arlington National Cemetery’s Unknown Soldierincarnate; the embodiment of every anonymous USsoldier who died fighting for this country and its idealsof justice and freedom, from the Revolutionary Warthrough World War II.

In 2002, three months before the first Spider-Manmovie hit theaters with its unprecedented nine-digitbox-office tally, I had the good fortune to interviewdirector Raimi for a local L.A. periodical. Here’s anexcerpt from the my article:

by M i c h a e l A u s h e n k e r

Face OffThe Unknown Soldier shows the true face of war in this detail from theJoe 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 antiheroDarkman in the spirit of the venerable pulp character.

I wonder now whether or not Unknown Soldieralso factored into Raimi’s Liam Neeson-starring movie,as Darkman—with his identical Gothic gauze garb andconstant assumptions of new identities (instead oflatex guises, he’s a scientist affixing masks of temporarygenetic material onto his disfigured face)—was, inessence, an urban Unknown Soldier.

YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION…When the Unknown Soldier started out in Star SpangledWar Stories (SSWS) #151, the nascent concept featured thecharacter as more of the embodiment of an idea ratherthan a specific person. A typical issue would end with themysterioso Soldier lost in thought, staring out pensivelybefore the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.

Two issues of SSWS, both drawn by Kubert, provedto be crucial in the evolution of the series. “I’ll NeverDie!” (SSWS #154) told the origin of the UnknownSoldier; “Invasion Game” (#155), written by BobHaney, introduced a significant supporting characterto the Soldier mythos: “the most famous FrenchResistance leader alive,” black jazz player Chat Noir.

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

maximizes the conceit of the unraveled Unknown Soldierto great effect; and Gerry Talaoc becomes the first artistto “expose” him after many issues of the Soldierunmasking 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 UnknownSoldier is a memorial that houses the body of one of thesoldiers whose history was unknown. I thought it was agood excuse to get [elements of] mystery, horror, andsci-fi, which we tried to do with all the war books.”

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

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

“Bob was always a pleasure to work with,” remembersKubert. “He was very enthusiastic. He had a lot of terrificideas. Bob had for a long time been the editor on all of thewar books. Eventually Bob took ill and couldn’t finish hischores. [Then-DC editorial director] Carmine Infantino,we’ve known each other for years. He felt I would be theright 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. Bobwas professional enough to know what the situation was.”

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

“We started out by trying to give as much credibilityas possible by cutting out photographs to give anadditional credibility to the character,” Kubert says. “I stilldo. I’ll take the back of a drawing pad or corrugatedcardboard and draw on that … something that looks alittle different than what’s been done before.”


Private EyesThe Invisible Man(above) andDarkman (left),tragic “cousins” of theUnknown Soldier.© Universal Pictures.

TM & © DC Comics.

Writer/artist George Pratt’s Enemy Ace: War Idyll wasreleased by DC Comics in 1990 to great critical acclaim.While the book’s painted artwork set new standards forgraphic novels, it is the story’s connection made betweenHans von Hammer, Germany’s “Enemy Ace” of World War I,and an American reporter who has recently done a tour inVietnam that make this book a powerful read. In the courseof the story, the two find they aren’t as different as they mightthink. Both know what it is like to fight in a war and aboutthe horrors a solider encounters in conflict. More importantly,both men know the greatest challenge a man faces becauseof 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 howEnemy 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 allthe war comics. [I liked the] Joe Kubert and Russ Heathmaterial 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 findillustration work and at that time I was helping Jon JMuth on Moonshadow. He would call when he wasbehind the eight ball and say, “Hey, I’m really late.You want to try to help me finish this issue?” He wouldgive me a train ticket to upstate New York and I would goup to his place and over the weekend we would just crankout 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 theamount of work needed to actually put out a graphicnovel. One of the first jobs that I got out of school wasworking for Eagle, which was Harris Publications’ kind ofSolider of Fortune-type magazine. I had gone in trying toget work at Creepy and Eerie, which they had justbrought back. Tony Dispoto was heading that up at thetime. He wasn’t interested in my comics work, but I haddone a painting of an American solider in Vietnam andhe liked that a lot. The reason I had done that paintingwas because I wanted to understand for myself why thatwar had happened. From 1960 until I was 14 or 15 yearsold, that war was going on and I never really understoodthe cause or the whys or the wherefores [of it]. I startedreading a lot of books about the war and I got into thevisual aspects of it. Tony said, “We don’t have any comicswork, but if you like, I can show this to the editor overat 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 othermonth, but he gave me enough work for each month.I kind of became his pet artist. He would give me apainting to do, plus three or four panels that would gowith an article. The more I did of that, the more I wantedto try and say something of my own. One day, Morris said,“You should really talk to some of these guys and get theirperspectives.” Jim himself was a three-tour Green Beretand wrote a book about it called War Diary, as well as some

Bringing Enemy Ace to LifeGeorge Pratt used an aged man named

Vincent as the model for his interpretationof WWI flying ace Hans von Hammer.

Enemy Ace TM & © DC Comics.


by D a n J o h n s o nconducted April 23, 2009

science-fiction novels. I see Jim every once in a while on theHistory Channel. He is one of the guys they call upon as aspecialist. He said, “Why don’t you come down to theoffice and you can use the company phone and I can giveyou 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 tothese people Jim knew and they started telling mewhat they felt and what they thought about their ownexperiences in Vietnam. That convinced me more thanever that I really wanted to try and put somethingtogether of my own, but I really didn’t know how toapproach it. I had read all of the Kanigher and Kubertand Heath and Ric Estrada material, but I didn’t want todo anything that would be construed as a glorification ofwar. I wanted to try and tackle the war stuff and make itas real as I could. I was digging through my old comicsand I came across one of my old “Enemy Ace” books [inDC’s Star Spangled War Stories] and I thought this couldbe a great counterpoint to the Vietnam War. I had beenreading about the guys who had been tunnel rats andthought Enemy Ace would be a nice contrast becausehere was this guy who was in the air and in the open andthese other guys were confined in the tunnels. The moreI read on the two wars, the more I saw there were a lotof similarities. In World War I, while there was this great,obvious support for that war, but there were a lot ofpeople who were not behind it. Some of them paid areally heavy price and were executed and others wereput in jail for being conscientious objectors.

The interesting thing was that when I started readingmore about World War I, Vietnam almost took a backseat because the stories I was reading came from a lot offirsthand memoirs, and they were so powerful, and insome ways so understated, that my mind just took off.There was this underlying sense of the writers not beingable to grasp the whole thing and not really under-standing it, but still being so moved and changed by it.The First World War was always dogging my steps as akid in a weird way and I never thought about it until Istarted reading all of this stuff. Looking back, I can seethat there was this thread through my life.

My grandfather was in World War I, and then myhigh school English teacher was the model who posedfor the Howard Chandler Christy poster of the womandressed as a sailor with the caption, “Gee!! I wish I wasa man, I’d join the Navy!!” The first piano piece I everlearned as a kid was a World War I song, “The CaissonsGo Rolling Along.” It was weird, like [these connectionswith World War I] were always there, but I never reallynoticed it. The first real artist I ever met, Phyllis Lee,is convinced that I died in the trenches or something likethat 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 characterwith whom I could really take my idea and run with,if DC would ever allow it since it seemed that professionalswere mostly the fans of that comic. So, I playedaround with this idea for a number of years andnever really believed that DC would allow me to dothis 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 learnhow to draw the First World War and I had been buildingup a library of World War I reference material.

I was living in New York at the time and ScottHampton would come up and hang out for weeks at atime. One time while he was up he said, “I’m going to beover 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 pinupsfor numerous series including Akira, Animal Man, Batman, DetectiveComics, Marvel Comics Presents, and The Spectre / paintings exhibit-ed in galleries in New York and Houston

Works in Progress:Teaching art students / “Paroles de Poilu” for a French album

Cyberspace:www.georgepratt.com

GeorgePratt


Trial and ErrorPage layouts from War Idyll didn’t come easy. “I would do anywherefrom five to 10 different versions [of each page] trying to zero in onthe best way to tell the story,” says Pratt.Enemy Ace TM & © DC Comics.

In the summer of 1975, Marvel Comics put out twonew Giant-Size titles featuring superhero teams.Both were new variations of older series, but whileGiant-Size X-Men went on to an ongoing series thateventually topped the sales charts and spun off intomultiple titles and media formats, Giant-Size Invaders,despite featuring established characters, launched atitle 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 hadbeen waiting thirty years to do the title: “Stan [Lee]invited me to come up with a new title or two I’d liketo start, write and edit. I thought about it overnight—and that’s all it took. The idea just fell into place, as ifit had been there all along just waiting for me tostumble over it. I’d do the kind of superhero group I’dalways 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 INVADERSGiant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975) was written by RoyThomas with art by the team of Frank Robbins andVince Colletta, although the cover was inked by JohnRomita, Sr., over Robbins. The story, naturally, tells howthe team of Captain America and Bucky, the Sub-Mariner,and the Human Torch and Toro comes together inDecember 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 areading experience closer in tone to the CaptainAmerica stories set in World War II featured in Tales ofSuspense in the 1960s than the 1970s’ perspectivementioned above. Two other aspects of the Giant-Sizeissue which would return in the ongoing series thatfollowed were the use of Franklin Roosevelt andWinston Churchill in cameos and the appearance ofreprints from the Golden Age. In this case, the latter isin the form of a “Sub-Mariner” story by Bill Everett.

Axis SmashersCaptain America, Sub-Mariner, and the originalHuman Torch show the Nazis who’s boss onJazzy Johnny Romita’s original cover artwork toThe Invaders #1 (Aug. 1975). Courtesy ofHeritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.


by I a n M i l l s t e d

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The next-issue box promised a second issue of Giant-Size Invadersfeaturing another 30-page main story and a “Human Torch” reprintbackup. The suggestion was that this would be the continuing formaton a bimonthly basis. However, while the bimonthly schedule waskept, the format was changed to that of an ongoing regular Marveltitle. The creative team of Thomas/Robbins/Colletta was also retained.

The Invaders #1 (Aug. 1975) contained the first part of a longerstory that had been produced with the Giant-Size format in mind.“The Ring of the Nebulas” is a curious attempt to bring Wagner’s Ringcycle into comics form. (Thomas was to do this again, more successfully,in Thor and especially in the straight adaptation, The Ring of theNiebelung. The latter featured some of Gil Kane’s best art of his lateryears.) In this case, the Teutonic gods turn out to be aliens when thestory is concluded in Invaders #2 (Oct. 1975).

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

A new art team of pencilers Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers, plusembellisher Jim Mooney, came on board for a four-part story startingin #5 (Mar. 1976) and crossing over into Marvel Premiere. When theRed Skull manages to turn Captain America, Sub-Mariner, the HumanTorch, and Toro into pro-Nazi puppets, Bucky is left to look forfurther allies. This issue also has the entertaining conceit of showingthe two younger members of the team reading about themselvesin the Timely comics of the day, and pointing out inaccuracies.While this might be an example of the postmodern in comics, it wasreally a device to allow Roy Thomas to pick and choose what hewanted to be canon from the Timely era.

GIVE ME LIBERTYThe 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 plannedeven before The Invaders launched. As Roy Thomas explained in thetext page: “Even before Giant-Size Invaders went on sale, I wasalready hard at work on a couple of try-out issues of a second WWIItitle, to be composed of some of the lesser superheroes from theTimely comics of the period.” Those heroes were the Patriot, Red Raven,Miss America, the Whizzer, the Thin Man, Jack Frost, and BlueDiamond. The Whizzer and Miss America were familiar to 1970sMarvel readers from Thomas-scripted Giant-Size Avengers, and RedRaven had appeared in X-Men. Frank Robbins returned to art duties,still inked by Colletta, on Invaders #6 (May 1976), wherein theLiberty Legion fought the Red Skull-controlled Invaders. The storyconcludes in Marvel Premiere #30 (June 1976) by Thomas, Heck,and Colletta, and also includes a text page listing all the Golden Ageappearances of the members of the Liberty Legion. Once the RedSkull’s plan has failed and the Invaders are freed from his control, it isestablished that the Liberty Legion will operate on the home frontwhile 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 dynamicsense of movement he puts in allows Blood to appear powerful

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


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

The 48-page one-shot, written by fan-favoriteDavid Michelinie, penciled by the late JohnTartaglione, and inked by the legendary Joe Sinnott,also included a story credit attributed to Father RoyGasnick, a man of the cloth who played an integralrole in bringing religion to the House of Ideas.Despite the seemingly incongruous union of comicbooks and Catholicism, Mother Teresa of Calcuttawas in fact the third in a series of religious-themedbiographies published by Marvel during the 1980s.The first was an illustrated biography of Saint Francisof Assisi entitled Francis, Brother of the Universe(1980), followed two years later by The Life of PopeJohn Paul II (1982).

DIVINE IRONYThe genesis of these books is detailed in a briefforeword to Francis, Brother of the Universe, which recountshow a Marvel Comics representative in Japan by thename of Gene Pelc was chatting about his work overcoffee with Father Campion Lally at the FranciscanChapel Center. When Fr. Campion asked, “Why don’tyou do a book on St. Francis?” Pelc paused, then repliedsimply, “Why not?”

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

Blessing the House of IdeasThe cover of Mother Teresa of Calcutta,published by Marvel Comics in 1984.Art by John Tartaglione and Joe Sinnott.© 1984 Marvel Comics.


by M a r k D i F r u s c i o

worked with Paramount Pictures on publicizing FrancoZeffirelli’s biopic on Francis of Assisi entitled BrotherSun, Sister Moon (released in 1972). A childhoodcomics fan himself, Fr. Roy “jumped at the chance” todo an illustrated version of the life of St. Francis.

“When I was a kid, I read every comic book Icould get my hands on,” Fr. Roy, now in his seventies,recalls. “My favorite was Captain Marvel, the storyof a young boy who could turn into a superhero bymerely shouting out ‘Shazam!’ There was a kind ofmysticism in that. It made me think of a Catholicpriest saying the words of consecration which turnsbread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christduring Mass. I’m sure that was one of many influencesthat turned my young mind and heart toward theCatholic priesthood.”

Once the executives at Marvel Comics approvedthe unique venture, longtime Marvel editor Mary JoDuffy was enlisted as scripter, while John Buscemaand Marie Severin were brought in to tackle the artchores. In addition, the comic was distributedthrough both Marvel Comics and the Paulist Press,a Catholic publishing group.

“Divine irony” is how Fr. Roy describes theopportunity in retrospect. “At the time, in l982, I waschair of the coordinating committee for the UScelebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth ofSt. Francis. We Franciscans had a suggestion on thetable to publish a comic book life of St. Francis.I used my journalistic background to argue againstthe idea because even if we had a great storyteller,great artist, great layout designer, etc., the major lackwould be that of a nationwide distributor. We mighthave a great product, but what good would that beif we did not have the means to sell it…

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

The comic, which benefits greatly from the gorgeousartwork produced by the teaming of Buscema andSeverin, depicts the evolution of Francis Bernardonefrom callow youth to revered saint, starting with hischildhood as the son of a wealthy Italian merchantin the city of Assisi during the latter years of the DarkAges. Filled with ambitions of becoming a heroicknight, Francis sets out for glory by joining the armyof Assisi in their war against the neighboring Italiantown of Perugia. Yet the grim realities of war quicklytake their toll on young Francis, who finds himselfimprisoned with the remaining survivors of thedefeated Assisian army. After being freed inexchange for a hefty ransom, the recovering Francisreturns home and throws himself into empty revelries,declaring, “I want to spend my life trying newthings, and finding new ways of seeing and doing


“The Comic Book Priest”(top) Father Roy Gasnick, from the article“The Comic Book Priest,” which appearedin Catholic Digest’s Nov. 1984 issue.(left) Page 9 from Francis, Brother of theUniverse (1980), by the art team of JohnBuscema and Marie Severin.Photo © 2009 Catholic Digest. Art © 1980 Marvel Comics.


From the FrontlinesWriter/artist Don Lomax’s gritty, personal

black-and-white title Vietnam Journal may notbe widely known, but those who have discov-ered it have praised its authenticity and emo-tional impact. Seen here is the splash page to

issue #4 (May 1988). All Vietnam Journal scanscourtesy of G. K. Abraham.

© 2009 Don Lomax.

TM

by G . K . A b r a h a m

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

Those lines by the late, great Edwin Starr to thecontrary, war remains with us, as an ever-present partof 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 itis the hope of the war film, book, comic—the best ofthem—to channel away our ... easy stumblings into war.

The purpose of recounting tales of war, then, is tostrip away the lies and the glamour and to unearththe 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 towar comics was with titles such as Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Furyand His Howling Commandos, books I came acrosswhile tagging along with my mom at the local Rite-Aid.Rite-Aid, for those of you who don’t know that particularbrand 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 acquaintedwith and hooked (somehow apt, a place where drugswere dispensed, being the source of my “drug” ofchoice) on this uniquely American genre of the comic.

And along with the corner pharmacy, there werethe libraries.

Before libraries had graphic-novel sections,before there was such a thing as a graphic novel, our locallibrarian had a comic box and once a week kidscould come in and trade their comics for other comics.This librarian was somehow den mother to this unrulyband of preteens—God love her, ’cause my friends and Icertainly did. What a nifty and smart thing to do, to lurekids off of the corners and out of brawling and into libraries.There, with peers, friendships were made while tradingand 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 titlessuch as The Unknown Solider and G. I. Combat.

These books (which you can clearly go back to andsee their strengths: the late Bob Kanigher, who wrotemany of these war comics, being a writer whose work Iactively seek out now) at the time held very little swayagainst the four-color wonders of men whose rageturned them green, whose tragedy turned them intobat-costumed avengers, and whose time in prisonturned them into bullet-resistant, 300 lb. heroes for hire.

Kids of our age back then were looking for largerwonders. Something beyond our experience. In a timenot far removed from the shadow of Vietnam, what weweren’t looking for was any repetition of our nightlynews. 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 hadgrown up and matured, and amazingly, the mediumhad grown up with them. There was renewed popularity

of the war film in cinema, with films such as Platoon,Rambo, and Full Metal Jacket coming along in time toprep a generation for the Gulf War.

The 1980s saw a resurgence in war as fodder forentertainment. To understand the resurgence of the warcomic 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 newperiods of armed conflict—in this case the Gulf War,but you’ll generally see this going back as far asthe Spanish American War—where entertainment,from cartoons to comics, begins to prime an audience forwar. 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 tosome extent, to paint duty and war and killing aspatriotic necessities. That’s the way war is historically sold,the fact of it preceded by a mass-media blanketingof the fun of it. Patriotism as product of popcorn, coolspecial effects, and rousing music scores. Propaganda.

However, along with the traditional pro-war movies ofthe early ’80s, in the latter half of the’80s you began to geta rash of very personal stories from directors, such as OliverStone, who had seen this cycle before and decided in theirown films to say: “All those John Wayne-type moviesare fine and good, but let me show you the other side.”Films like Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), JohnIrvin’s Hamburger Hill (1987), Brian De Palma’s Casualties ofWar (1989), and Stone’s own Platoon (1986) and Born onthe Fourth of July (1989) very much sought to show warbeyond the simplistic, to speak of war in terms elegiac.

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

Sylvester Stallone, as co-writer and uncredited directorwith Ted Kotcheff, with First Blood launched this genre of


Make WarOnce More(left) While seemingpro-war in itsgung-ho approach,director Ted Kotcheff’sFirst Blood (1982)—moviegoers’introduction tomacho icon Rambo—was anti-war at heart.(right) Oliver Stone’sOscar-winning 1986film Platoon was athinking man’s warmovie and helpedcreate the marketclimate that gavebirth to Don Lomax’sVietnam Journal.First Blood © 1982 Anabasis N.V.and Elcajo Productions.Platoon © 1986 Hemdale Film.


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 thebook, where the protagonist wasn’t sympathetic at all)that called back to thoughtful ’70s war films like TheDeer Hunter and would foreshadow and inform films likePlatoon. However, the surprising success of the film wasa mixed blessing. First Blood was a blockbuster, being atop-ten moneymaker of 1982, and was very muchembraced as a pro-war film, and this slant is seen in allits very inferior sequels (the last one excepted). It wouldgo on to inspire tons of pro-war movies, such as RedDawn (1984) and Heart Break Ridge (1986).

And Oliver Stone’s Platoon came out very much asan answer to these ... love songs to war, and Platoon wasquickly followed by the rest. So First Blood’s successinspired both the pro-war films of the early ’80s and theanti-war films of the late ’80s—arguably, the only film inthe 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 awar that we were for a long time as a culture quietabout. And this spirit of the times, the zeitgeistreached, extends to every medium. It extends tocomics. A desire to speak of an unspoken war, in thevoice of men who had fought it ... with authenticity.

Comics followed this rise in popularity of the war filmwith the release of fantastic series, from the cartoony tothe 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.

I was quite a fan of G. I. Joe and The ’Nam (as well asAlien Legion) when they came out in the ‘80s, as were alot of comics readers of the time. G. I. Joe being a toy andTV tie-in was particularly successful; issues sold outquickly and became pricey collectibles on the secondarymarket. On the other side of the spectrum there wasthis black-and-white book called Vietnam Journal,the brainchild of Don Lomax, which fell under the radarof myself and seemingly most other readers, which nodoubt 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 inwar comics. Writer/artist Don Lomax, who was drafted in1965 at the age of 21 and stationed in Vietnam in 1966,recounts with authenticity the times and the men andthe stories of those who sailed those turbulent years.

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

But beyond the occasional burst of praise andspecious bio info, a real detailed analysis, an overviewif you will, of the entire 16-issue Vietnam Journalseries and what the issues felt like and what they said,and what they meant to people, and why they areworthy 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 wasindeed praiseworthy, and if it was, to critique it.

VJ’s ContemporariesBoth Marvel’s The

’Nam (left) and theBritish import

Charley’s War (right)offered poignant

battlefrontperspectives, as did

Vietnam Journal. (Formore on The ’Nam,

see BACK ISSUE #24’sinterview with the

series’ original artist,Michael Golden.)

The ’Nam © 2009 MarvelCharacters, Inc. Charley’s War

© Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.

“…the best war comic book in morethan 35 years.”That’s what Don Thompson wrote in The ComicsBuyers’ Guide about Don Lomax’s VietnamJournal. Seen here is detail from Lomax’s coverto Vietnam Journal #1 (Nov. 1987).© 2009 Don Lomax.

It’s worth noting Don Lomax is a humorous andinsightful creator, and both traits are in evidence in theinformative, free-flowing interview that follows. It veerspretty far afield of comics, but I think in a good way, as itdiscusses not just a younger America that bore youngmen who dreamed in four colors, but perhaps says incontrast something about today’s youth.

– G. K. Abraham

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

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

You were drafted at 21, and shipped overseas toVietnam in 1966. Tell us a little about yourself, of theyoung man you were before being drafted. I’m guessingthat like many young men, you had plans that did notat the time include an unknown country called Vietnam.DON LOMAX: First of all, I was a little surprised atyour request for this interview. Being a senior citizenand a grandfather (I’ll be 65 this September), I amused to [being] patronized and treated like someoneon the brink of senility. You know, the knowing smiles,the pats on one’s hand to reassure, and the eyesrolling back when I say something stupid or un-cool.

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

I was born September 14, 1944. My mom and dadwere 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 botheredto lock their doors. I don’t think we even had a key toour car. Back then you didn’t need one. Crime was nearlynonexistent. At least in rural Illinois where I grew up.


TM

by G . K . A b r a h a mconducted in April 2009


97 NorthBefore being drafted,

Don Lomax workedfor the CB&Q Railroad.

On his website hedescribes this painting:

“Number 97 Northpulls out of yard ‘D’ inGalesburg, Illinois, onthe outbound freight

track to pick up hisorders at Seminary

Tower and head outof town. In the ’60s,

97 North was amixed freight trainthat ran daily from

Galesburg, Illinois, toSavanna, Illinois, on

the CB&Q Railroad.”© 2009 Don Lomax.

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 pub-lished by Transfuzion Comics / the continuation of Vietnam Journal

Cyberspace:www.lomaxcomics.com

Photo courtesy of Don Lomax.

Don Lomax

I have many fond memories of childhood.I remember taking my 25-cent allowance per week tothe local Rialto Theater on Saturday afternoon.Admission was 12 cents, and for that you got a colorcartoon, the latest installment of the current serial,and a double feature.

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

A bag of popcorn was a dime and a Coke was anickel, which left me three cents. So, after the movie Istopped by the local grocery next door, and with therest of my money bought a good-size bag of candywhich 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 togo fishing all summer. We blew up every unfortunatetin can we could find with fireworks left over from theFourth of July (until the government outlawed them).

We were continually riding in the back of pickuptrucks. There were no helmet laws, or child restraintsor pampering. We took our lumps and bumps andscrapes and sunburns and healed up nicely with a fewscars to brag about from our adventures.

I feel sorry for youngsters today. In a world ofoverprotective scare-mongers and parents who won’tsend their children outside without wrapping them inbubblewrap, it’s no wonder kids grow up to be frightenedof their own shadows and spoiled little copies of theiroverindulged parents.

At any rate, I graduated from high school in 1962and 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 theRailroad, where I worked for a total of twenty yearsand 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 Iwas drafted. In ’65, the genie had just escaped the bottle.

Right after I was drafted, the first major actionbetween the First Air Cavalry and the North Vietnam Armytook place in the Ia Drang Valley and the die was cast.Soon, Vietnam was the unspoken boogie man in everyliving room in the US and certainly every military base.ABRAHAM: Beyond Vietnam, were you stationedanyplace else overseas? And if so, do you or did youhave 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 andmustered out in the fall of 1967. My MOS [MilitaryOccupational Specialty] was 35B, wheel and trackvehicle mechanic. I took my AIT [Advanced IndividualTraining] at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland,though in Vietnam my MOS was never utilized.ABRAHAM: In other interviews you’ve spoken about thepoor reception you and other returning GIs received froman American public that wrongly attributed the choicesand failures of the Administration to the choices andperceived failures of the fighting men. Can you elaboratea little more on that period, and that transition fromsoldier to comics writer/artist? It’s a transition sharedby many great creators, including Robert Kanigher,Gene Colan, and I’m thinking Nick Cardy as well.LOMAX: Being a draftee, the concept of “choice” neverentered 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 inevitablefit since I subscribe to the old adage, “Write (and draw)about what you know.” I don’t pretend to speak for the


Fed Ex-cedrin HeadacheSad Sack gets a not-so-special delivery on thisoriginal cover art to Sad Sack and the Sarge #105(Feb. 1973) illustrated by George Baker. Courtesyof Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).Sad Sack © 2009 Sad Sack, Inc.

“Sad Sack” started as a silent comic strip thatappeared in the pages of “Yank–The Army Weekly”during World War II. It would have gone against allpredictions that the strip would be a viable and quitepopular comic book well into the 1970s and 1980s.At this point, Sergeant George Baker’s creation hadtranscended its pantomime panels and now appearedin monthly or bimonthly verbose entries written anddrawn by others. It was almost a different creation.

How Baker’s strip managed to become thelongest-lasting and highest-numbered Harveycomic (287 issues from 1949–1982, with five moreappearing sporadically over the next 25 years) hadmore to do with Alfred Harvey’s friendship withBaker, a relationship so strong that Baker evenbecame godfather to one of Alfred’s sons.

When Harvey started publishing Sad Sack Comics in1949, the “Sack” had become a civilian and thecomic book reprinted newer episodes that werecreated especially for the Sunday funnies. Eventually,these strips were expanded from a single page intofive-page stories with new artwork by Paul McCarthyand Fred Rhoads amplifying the stories with dialogue,while remaining true to Baker’s art style.

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

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

By this transition, the success of the comic book wasassured and soon new Sad Sack titles were graduallyadded to the fold from 1955–1964, including Sad Sack’sFunny Friends, Sad Sack’s Army Life, Sad Sack and theSarge, 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 variousissues of Harvey Hits. Harvey Hits also was the title thatfeatured “Sad Sack’s Muttsy,” which never graduatedto its own title.

Sales for Sad Sack slowed a bit as the Korean Warended, but rose again as the conflicts in Vietnamheated up. By the early 1970s, the time was right toexpand the Harvey Comics line and especially titlesfeaturing the more popular characters. As a result,there were numerous new titles that debuted in 1972starring Casper, Richie Rich, and, of course, Sad Sack.These new titles included Sad Sack with Sarge and Sadie;

®

by M a r k A r n o l d

Sad Sack U.S.A.; Sad Sack Navy, Gobs ’n’ Gals (featuring Rhoads’ Navycreation “Gabby Gob,” also a Harvey Hits mainstay); and Sad SackFun 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 ofthe Union in each issue, surely a concept to last atleast 50 issues. Unfortunately, the tour of duty wascut short as the series lasted only eight.

Fun Around the World fared even worse, and onlya single issue was published featuring stories aboutGreat Britain, though it would have been interestingto see if Sad Sack would actually travel to countriesengaged in actual war!!

Newer artists such as Joe Dennett and JackO’Brien were added to the fold in the 1960s to keepup with the accelerated work pace. Meanwhile,McCarthy passed away as did the title Sad Sack’sFunny Friends, which emphasized McCarthy’spredilection for stories starring the General.

Dennett’s art style was sketchier than the othersdue mainly to his previous work on Mutt and Jeff,

and his Sad Sack was similar in style, though he tried to emulateRhoads’ 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 gettingknocked in the head and having an ambitious dream life. O’Brien wasalso the mastermind behind the “G.I. Juniors” series for Harvey Hits.

George Baker(right) The original Sad Sack artist. Photo courtesy ofMark Arnold. (below) Joe Dennett Sad Sack sketch.

© Sad Sack, Inc.

joe dennett paul mccarthy jack o’brien fred rhoads

©Sa

dSa

ck,I

nc.SAD SACK’S OTHER BRONZE AGE ARTISTS


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