War Comics: Chronicles of Battlefront Heroes and Strategies

By Fouad Sabry

What is War Comics

After the end of World War II, the genre of comic books known as "war comics" began to acquire popularity in countries where English is the primary language.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: War comics

Chapter 2: Nick Fury

Chapter 3: Joe Kubert

Chapter 4: 1960s in comics

Chapter 5: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

Chapter 6: 1965 in comics

Chapter 7: The Losers (comics)

Chapter 8: Dick Ayers

Chapter 9: Robert Kanigher

Chapter 10: Gary Friedrich

(II) Answering the public top questions about war comics.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of War Comics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 23, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: War comics

After the end of World War II, the genre of comic books known as war comics began to acquire popularity in countries where English is the primary language.

Shortly after the emergence of the modern comic book, in the middle to late 1930s, publishers of comics started adding stories of wartime experiences in the multi-genre omnibus editions that were popular at the time as a format. Even before the United States entered World War II in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, comic books such as Captain America Comics #1 (published in March 1941) featured superheroes engaged in combat with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

It was in 1944 when Quality Comics, a publisher of Golden Age comics, first released the title Blackhawk; the title continued to be published more or less regularly until the middle of the 1980s.

Following the conclusion of World War II, comic books that were completely devoted to war stories began to appear and gained popularity in the United States and Canada throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. These comic books covered the time periods of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Generally speaking, the titles focused on events that occurred during the United States military, specifically during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Anthologies were produced by the majority of companies; among the war comics published by DC Comics, which is a powerhouse in the industry, were volumes such as All-American Men of War, Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces, and Star Spangled War Stories. Charlton Comics was another publisher of military comics that was quite prolific. Beginning in the 1950s, they created a wide array of series, including Battlefield Action, Fightin' Army, and Fightin' Marines, amongst others. Over the course of this time period, Quality also started publishing G.I. Combat. War titles were also released by Marvel Comics, the most notable of which was Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos.

The EC Comics titles Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales (produced in the early 1950s) depicted the horrors of war in a realistic and in-depth manner, exposing what editor Harvey Kurtzman saw as the truth about war without idealizing it. This is in contrast to the typical approach that most war titles take, which is to romanticize the horrors of war. (The black-and-white comics magazine Blazing Combat, which was published by Warren Publishing in the middle of the 1960s, was equally committed to accurately drawn and researched combat stories with a self-proclaimed anti-war leaning.)

Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank, both of whom were featured in the DC Comics line, were among the recurring characters that started making their debut in popular comic book lines around the year 1959. These recurring characters were initially featured as guests in anthology titles such as Our Army at War, but they eventually moved on to stand on their own in their own publications.

Many of the renowned military titles that were published during the Silver Age of Comic Books in the late 1950s and 1960s had been discontinued by the late 1980s. The majority of these publications were either anthologies or titles that were centered upon World military II. The following are examples of war comics series that finished their lengthy runs in the 1980s, after having published more than one hundred issues::

There were 273 issues of Blackhawk published by Quality/DC between the years 1944 and 1984.

(Charlton, 157 issues from 1956 to 1984) Fightin' Army is a comic book series.

Charlton published a total of 163 issues of Fightin' Marines between the years 1955 and 1984.

G.I. Combat (Quality/DC, 288 issues from 1952 to 1987) is a comic book series.

Our Armed Forces (DC, 181 issues produced between the years 1954 and 1978)

Marvel's Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos appeared in 167 issues between the years 1963 and 1981. •

A total of 422 issues were published between the years 1952 and 1988 under the title Sgt. Rock (DC), which includes a rebranding of the preceding Our Army at War.

DC Comics Unknown Soldier was a rebranding of Star Spangled War Stories that was published from 1952 to 1977. After that, it was renamed The Unknown Soldier and continued to be published from 1977 to 1982, with issue number 268 being the final issue.

Marvel Comics' Weird War Tales ran for 124 issues from 1971 and 1983. Additional noteworthy war comics that focused on Vietnam include Don Lomax's Vietnam Journal, which was released by Apple Comics between the years 1987 and 1991.

The toy tie-in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, which focused on a fictional counter-terrorist team in a current context, was another Marvel publication that was released in the 1980s. Additionally, Marvel published a limited run of Tales of the Marine Corps, which was comparable in tone and style to Charlton's Fightin' line of war anthologies.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, anthology stories that were written in black and white were very popular in Britain. Commando Comics and other weekly comics like Battle Picture Weekly, The Victor, and Warlord are some examples of such publications.

Among the war comics that are included in trade paperback reprint collections are::

Reprinting Blackhawk stories from Military Comics #1–17, Blackhawk Archives Volume 1 is a collection of reprints.

Reprints of Enemy Ace stories from Showcase #57 and 58, as well as Star-Spangled War Stories #138–142, are included in the first volume of the Enemy Ace Archives.

Reprints of Star-Spangled War Stories from issues #143–145, 147–150, 152, 181–183, and 200 are included in Enemy Ace Archives Volume 2.

Jack Kirby's The Losers is a reprint of Our Fighting Forces #151–162 in its entirety.

It is a reprint of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1–13, which is included in Marvel Masterworks Sgt. Fury Vol. 1.

The second volume of Marvel Masterworks Sgt. Fury is a reprint of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos issues 14–23, as well as the first annual.

Our Army at War #81–96 and G.I. Combat #68 are reprinted in the first volume of the Sgt. Rock Archives.

Reprints of Our Army at War issues 97–110 are included in Sgt. Rock Archives Volume 2.

The third volume of the Sgt. Rock Archives is a reproduction of Our Army at War #111–125.

This is the first volume of Blackhawk, which is a reproduction of Blackhawk issues #108–127.

Reprints of Enemy Ace stories from Our Army at War #151, 153, and 155, Showcase #57–58, Star-Spangled War Stories #138–152, 158, 181–183, and 200, Detective Comics #404, Men at War #1–3, 8–10, 12–14, 19–20, The Unknown Soldier #252–253, 260–261, 265–267, and DC Special #26) are included in the first volume of the Enemy Ace series.

A collection of stories from The Haunted Tank that were first published in G.I. Combat #87–119, The Brave and the Bold #52, and Our Army at War #155 are reprinted in Showcase Presents The Haunted Tank Vol. 1.

The Haunted Tank stories from G.I. Combat #120–157 are reprinted in Showcase's second volume of The Haunted Tank, which is shown here.

This volume of Sgt. Rock is a reprint of the Sgt. Rock stories that were originally published in Our Army at War issues 81–117.

A reprint of the Sgt. Rock stories that appeared in Our Army at War #118–148 is included in Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock Vol. 2.

The first volume of The Unknown Soldier is presented by Showcase. This volume contains reprints of Unknown Soldier stories from Star-Spangled War Stories #151–190.

The War that Time Forgot stories from Star-Spangled War Stories #90–137 are reprinted in Showcase's first volume of The War that Time Forgot, which is presented by Showcase.

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Nick Fury

The fictional figure known as Colonel Nicholas Joseph Nick Fury Sr. is a character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics located in the United States. He made his debut in the first issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963), a World War II battle series that portrayed the cigar-chomping man as the leader of an elite United States Army Ranger troop. The book was created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee.

Fantastic Four #21 (December 1963) was the first issue to feature the modern-day character, who was initially a member of the Central Intelligence Agency. A James Bond-like spy and a top operative of the fictional espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. was the transformation that the character underwent in Strange Tales #135, which was published in August and was published in 1965. The character is the previous chief of S.H.I.E.L.D.