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Post by rberman on Aug 25, 2019 7:42:48 GMT -5
Superman's front insignia is red on yellow. Why is his cape insignia yellow on yellow? Not an in-story reason. It just seems an odd design choice, yet it's persisted through many redesigns. My guess would be to keep it visible on the cape, in that sea of red, especially with the cheap comic book printing. Using the red elements risks it looking more like a couple of yellow lobs on a red field. Really, I think they should have left it off completely. The yellow blob problem makes sense. On the Supergirl TV show, her costume has blue showing through the chest insignia, which looks good but would be difficult to pull off consistently on the page except in close-ups.
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zilch
Full Member
Posts: 238
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Post by zilch on Aug 26, 2019 21:19:29 GMT -5
Superman's front insignia is red on yellow. Why is his cape insignia yellow on yellow? Not an in-story reason. It just seems an odd design choice, yet it's persisted through many redesigns. In a few stories, the cape insignia was blue (when they even remembered to put it on there!) and then went to yellow/yellow.
-z
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Post by sabongero on Aug 27, 2019 11:14:06 GMT -5
Hi CCF members. Has anyone read any of the setting in old WWII timeline war comic books? I know there's SGT Fury and the Howling Commandos and Sgt. Rock. I just wanted to ask to those who have read these two titles and other titles, what were your favorite War Storylines or stories? Thanks.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,919
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 27, 2019 11:25:44 GMT -5
My favorite war series is Unknown Soldier. I'm also a fan of The Losers, and Sgt. Fury. If you want recommendations, I'd say Unknown Solider #268 (the last issue, so some major spoilers for the whole series, but a really cool read), Sgt. Fury Annual #4, and my favorite, The Losers #152.
Sgt. Rock I appreciate but the earlier ones at least suffer a little bit from being part of that DC era, as they can be formulaic if you read several in a row. But it has cool characters and good stories, and I know many consider it the best mainstream WWII comic.
Haunted Tank for me is a cool idea, but it's both gimmicky and formulaic.
Of the other ongoing WWII books or features...
Captain Savage is, for me, a second rate Sgt. Fury knockoff series and is mostly pretty dull (sorry dan bailey!). Combat Kelly and His Deadly Dozen is much more interesting, though also a knockoff of the film Dirty Dozen.
Mlle. Marie is a great character, her series was far too short. Hunter's Hellcats I haven't read enough to say. The War That Time Forgot, great idea, surprisingly tedious to actually read. Lt. Cloud is cool, but like all DC war books of its era, gets formulaic quickly.
Weird War Tales is a horror anthology, but in a war setting, and not just specific to WWII. It's a cool book, lots of misses, but some hits, including the Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot.
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Post by MDG on Aug 27, 2019 11:54:22 GMT -5
Hi CCF members. Has anyone read any of the setting in old WWII timeline war comic books? I know there's SGT Fury and the Howling Commandos and Sgt. Rock. I just wanted to ask to those who have read these two titles and other titles, what were your favorite War Storylines or stories? Thanks. Sam Glanzman's USS Stevens stories are great. Based on his own experiences and free of bravado.
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Post by rberman on Aug 27, 2019 12:07:34 GMT -5
There sure were a lot around circa 1970, 25 years after the war ended. Our Army At War (home of Sgt Rock), Our Fighting Forces (featuring The Losers), Sgt. Fury, Fightin' Army, Fightin' Marines, Combat Kelly, Attack, Army War Heroes, G.I. War Tales, G.I. Combat (starring the Haunted Tank), Weird War (who doesn't love soldiers vs dinosaurs?), Star Spangled War Stories (home of The Unknown Soldier), and more. Obviously the WW2 vets among the Golden Age creators had lots of stories to tell.
By the early 80s when I was collecting, most of these were gone. Nick Fury was a senior executive in S.H.I.E.L.D. Roy Thomas was still keeping the flame alive in All-Star Squadron, which is where I first heard of the Battle of Britain. Weird War featured the Creature Commandos, who were cool. But straight war stories held little allure for the children of Rubik and Atari.
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Post by sabongero on Aug 27, 2019 12:26:55 GMT -5
Thanks for the information and suggested war stories Crimbuster, MDG, and rberman. It's very much appreciated.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 27, 2019 12:58:20 GMT -5
The only one I ever got much into was Enemy Ace. I had the first half dozen appearances of the '60s (Showcase and Star Spangled War) when they weren't collected avidly (were affordable) and because there was amazing Kubert art. Otherwise I thought there were some great non-series stories in the DC war comics... I had a digest with the best stories and remember one illustrated by Alex Toth from an 'enemy' point of view in the Pacific. Robert Kanigher wrote some really thoughtful stuff up there with the E.C.s (which had a lot of Korean War and historical settings for it's stories). Sgt. Fury and multiple adjective guys saying Wha-hoo! a lot could be fun I guess, and I think it did get more serious with John Severin on the team, I just remember them blowing up bridges and that cigar staying in Fury's mouth while he called people gold-bricking lunkheads or blasted shickelgrubers (who were all amazing bad shots). I still hope to at least get the reprint of the cross-over with Captain America (#13).
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Post by brutalis on Aug 27, 2019 13:29:15 GMT -5
You won't go wrong with ANY war comic books from DC/Marvel/Charlton. Can only repeat the love and admiration from others. The early Star Spangled War created the whole Military versus Dinosaurs concept along with a Gorilla Sergeant and a Pterodactyl war pilot with other wild ideas. Weird War gave us the Creature Commando's (the US military is worse than Germany: experimenting on humans to create War versions of Frank, Drac, Wolfie and eventually Medusa) as the ultimate in war weaponry. Unknown Soldier delivers wonderful espionage and mystery style adventures. G.I. Combat had many series alongside the Haunted Tank. Sgt. Rock was the kind of soldier Nick Fury wished to be. The Marvel War comics were mostly hit and miss for the most part but still a pleasure.
For my money though Charlton did the most and best in War comic books. You may find some stories as clunkers but with every issue carrying 3-4 singular done in one and sometimes a written story page and the occasional 1-3 pagers you were always going to find something in EVERY issue to suite your taste. Covering the gamut of "WAR" from caveman to ancient Greece/Rome to the Civil War on through WW1, WW2, Vietnam, Korea and covering the land, sea and air divisions! With the added bonus many times of showing both sides of the struggles with us and the enemy as being human and not just good/evil.
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Post by MDG on Aug 27, 2019 15:18:38 GMT -5
Also, if you can find them at affordable prices, check out the 4 issues of Blazing Combat from Warren (or the one issue best of anthology). I have issues 2-4 (1 is out of my price range right now), and there is a lot of good stuff under those Frazetta covers. -M Yeah, but they tend to be short on dinosaurs and machine gun-totin' gorillas .
Blazing Combat came out during those early glory days of Warren: Archie Goodwin editing (and writing 75+% of the stories) and top-tier artists. Much different in tone than the four-color war comics, adopting the tone of Kurtzman's war books while attacking (no pun intended) the Vietnam war head-on.
Great stuff, but not surprising it tanked (that one is intended).
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 27, 2019 15:54:25 GMT -5
sabongero, I can only echo what all of the above posts have mentioned. (Enemy Ace and Mlle. Marie are both superb.) I'd add that you should also check out the reprints (originals are way too costly) of the EC war books: Valor, Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales, which are short on WW2 stories but cover so many other eras so beautifully! Also, the Atlas war titles of the '50s, some of which you can find in the Marvel hardcover collections from a few years ago, are also good. Many focus on the Korean War (the setting for several of the EC stories), which goes to show how that now-forgotten war was front-and-center in people's minds at the time. (And for good reason.) Battlefield #s 1-11 includes art by Dave Berg, Heath, Maneely, Everett and Colan, among others. The stories are grim and violent at times. Berg's work anticipates the look of some undergrounds in what I'd call ugly realism. As most have said, the stories of the stars of DC's war titles should be consumed in small doses, b/c Kanigher's plots and writing style will grind on you. Sgt. Fury always was more a superhero title than a war comic like any of DC's, but when it hit the mark, it could be great. Try, for instance, "The All-American," in issue 81, for an example. Oh, and the last 20 or so issues of Tomahawk (I known you were looking for WW2, but...) used the standard frontier fighter stuff to tackle some more modern elements than you might think, including racial prejudice, white-Native American relations, and the horror of war.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,541
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Post by Confessor on Aug 27, 2019 17:08:19 GMT -5
Hi CCF members. Has anyone read any of the setting in old WWII timeline war comic books? I know there's SGT Fury and the Howling Commandos and Sgt. Rock. I just wanted to ask to those who have read these two titles and other titles, what were your favorite War Storylines or stories? Thanks. It's WWI, not WWII, but Charley's War is the greatest war comic ever written. Ever.
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 27, 2019 17:43:18 GMT -5
I was a very late convert to war comics. I picked up the final couple of Sgt. Rock annuals in the last days of its run, the ones drawn by Dan Spiegle, and loved them, but didn't buy any of the regular series until the reprints in Sgt. Rock Special in the late 80's/early 90's. Years later, I read the first couple of Sgt. Rock Archives and was very satisfied with it. I find those early installments to be much less repetitive than most of Robert Kanigher's other work (heck, his Metal Men stories were highly repetitive within a single story!). From there, I started to sample DC's other most successful war comics. I tried the War That Time Forgot Showcase, thinking it would be up my alley, but it's aggravatingly repetitive. Unknown Soldier (in Star Spangled War), despite the unconvincing premise, was a winner with me. I even liked the long run of Jack Sparling-drawn issues, but the high points remain the David Michelinie/Gerry Talaoc issues. Once Bob Haney took over the scripting, I found the book pretty dreadful from then on. Haunted Tank (in G.I. Combat) was tedious when read back to back, but in smaller doses, was a lot of fun; again, I read that one in a Showcase collection. It's got some astounding Russ Heath artwork in several of the stories. From there, I tackled the Losers (in Our Fighting Forces), and I was delighted to discover that so much of the run was drawn by the incredible John Severin. I devoured the Showcase, moved on to the collection of Kirby's work on the series (which picks up right where the Showcase stops) and am now finishing up the rest of the run in back issues. Enemy Ace was the last Showcase I went through. I'd sampled more of this comic than others, so I knew what to expect. It deserved its accolades. Great stuff, unique in the war comics genre. Lots of excellent art and engaging stories throughout DC's war line of the 60's. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I figured I should give Sgt. Fury a try, so I picked up Marvel's Essential volume of that. I'm a big Kirby fan, and I'm kind of fond of Dick Ayers' art, so I was expecting to enjoy it, knowing it's highly regarded by several on this forum. Maybe it gets better when Gary Friedrich takes over, but I found this early part of the run to be almost unreadable. Not since EC's Psychoanalysis has there been such a text-heavy comic book--Stan crammed every available bit of space with dialog, killing (for me) any sense of momentum to the stories. In contrast to DC's war books, Fury was timid. DC didn't shy away from casualties; the Howling Commandos tended to toss grenades off-panel and leave it ambiguous whether they ever actually killed any Nazis. Very disappointing stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2019 19:16:27 GMT -5
Another recommendation for WWII era stuff is Garth Ennis' Battlefields collections (or minis). I say this as someone who usually dislikes Ennis as a writer, but his war comics are so good. My particular favorite among these is Night Witches, but all of the ones I have read have been very good. -M Loved this book ... Battlefields.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 28, 2019 5:41:23 GMT -5
War comics have always left me cold except for this 9 issue masterpiece.
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