Atlas at War_ 9781682474709, 9781682475294

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EDITED BY DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO ART RESTORATION BY ALLAN HARVEY

Annapolis, Maryland

Published by Dead Reckoning 291 Wood Road Annapolis, MD 21402

© 2020 MARVEL

Dead Reckoning is an imprint of the Naval Institute Press, the book-publishing division of the U.S. Naval Institute, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data Names: Vasallo, Michael J., editor. | Harvey, Allan, restorationist. Title: Atlas at war! / edited by Michael J. Vasallo ; art restoration by Allan Harvey. Description: Annapolis, Maryland : Dead Reckoning, [2020] Identifiers: LCCN 2019051452 (print) | LCCN 2019051453 (ebook) | ISBN 9781682474709 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781682475294 (ebook) | ISBN 9781682475294 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Atlas Comics (Firm : 1951–1957)—History. | War—Comic books, strips, etc. | War stories. | Comic books, strips, etc.—United States—20th century. Classification: LCC PN6726 .A784 2020 (print) | LCC PN6726 (ebook) | DDC 741.5/973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051452 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051453 ∞ Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 First printing

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

15 “Hill 603!”

Art by Russ Heath

16 “Flare!” Introduction

1 “A.P.O.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1

Art by Norman Steinberg

17 “The Big Guns!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 84 From Men’s Adventures #16 (October 1952)

Art by Russ Heath

Art by Allen Bellman

2 “Alone!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7 From War Comics #7 (December 1951)

18 “The Wind Mill”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 89

From War Adventures #8 (September 1952)

Art by Russ Heath

Art by Bernie Krigstein

3 “5 Hours ’Til Dawn!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13

From Battlefield #1 (April 1952) Art by Russ Heath

19 “No Way Out!”

4 “Rain!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18 From War Action #1 (April 1952)

Script by Hank Chapman ● Art by Gene Colan

From Combat #7 (December 1952)

Art by Joe Sinnott

5 “Cycle!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 24 From War Adventures #3 (April 1952)

21 “Death Stand”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 105

From Man Comics #21 (December 1952)

Script by Stan Lee ● Art by Joe Maneely

Art by Gene Colan

6 “The Final Salvo” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 27 From War Adventures #3 (April 1952) Art by Jerry Robinson

7 “The Monster!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 94

From Battlefield #5 (November 1952)

20 “The Man-Eaters!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 100

Art by Joe Maneely

22 “12 Hours till Death” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 111

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 32

From War Comics #9 (April 1952)

From Battlefield #7 (January 1953)

Script by Carl Wessler ● Art by Russ Heath

23 “The Dead Men!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 118

From Battlefront #8 (January 1953)

Art by Russ Heath

Art by Joe Sinnott

8 “Snow” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 39 From Men in Action #1 (April 1952)

Art by Paul Reinman

9 “Flame”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 79

From Battlefield #4 (October 1952)

-------------------------------------v

From War Comics #7 (December 1951)



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 73

From Man Comics #17 (August 1952)

24 “Close-Up” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -123 From Man Comics #23 (February 1953) Art by Gene Colan

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 44

From War Action #1 (April 1952)

Art by Gil Evans

10 “Bouncing Betsys” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 47

From Man Comics #14 (May 1952)

Script by Hank Chapman ● Art by Jerry Robinson

11 “The Big Bog!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 52

From Battle #9 (June 1952)

Art by Jerry Robinson

12 “Rookie!”

------------------------------------

From Battlefield #2 (June 1952)

57

Art by Joe Maneely

13 “Muck!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 61 From War Comics #10 (June 1952)

Art by Werner Roth

14 “Atrocity Story”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 66

From Battlefield #2 (June 1952)

Script by Hank Chapman ● Art by Paul Reinman

iii

CONTENTS 36 “The Stalkers!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 191

From Battle Action #24 (August 1956)

Art by Don Heck

37 “The Ace of MiG Alley”- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -196 From Marines in Battle #13 (August 1956)

Art by Don Heck

38 “Bazooka Battle!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 201

From Battle #49 (November 1956) Art by Jack Davis

39 “The Hidden Doom!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -206 From Battle #63 (April 1959)

Art by Steve Ditko

40 “Bataan!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 210 From Battle #65 (August 1959)

Art by Joe Sinnott

41 “Back to Bataan!” 25 “City of Slaves” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -129 From Battlefield #9 (March 1953)

Art by Sam Kweskin

26 “D-Day!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -135 From War Comics #19 (May 1953)

Art by Joe Certa

27 “Last Bullet”

Art by Joe Sinnott

42 “Ring of Steel!”

From Battle #23 (November 1953)

Art by Sam Kweskin

29 “Vive, Paris” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 151 From Battle #26 (February 1954)

Art by Harry Anderson

30 “The Battle of Jutland!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -156 From War Comics #27 (September 1954)

Art by John Severin

31 “Gas!”

From Battle #66 (October 1959)

44 “The Man With the Beard!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -228 From Battle #66 (October 1959)

Art by Joe Sinnott

45 “The Invincible Enemy!”

From Battle #33 (October 1954)

32 “Kiska” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 168 From Battlefront #26 (December 1954)

Art by Joe Sinnott

33 “21 Days”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 174

From Battle Action #14 (December 1954)

Art by Syd Shores

34 “Tank Destroyer!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -180 From Marines in Action #4 (December 1955)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -232

From Battle #67 (December 1959)

Script and Art by Jack Kirby ● Inks by Christopher Rule

46 “I Flew in the Berlin Airlift!”

From Battle #67 (December 1959)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 237

Pencils by Reed Crandall ● Inks by Al Williamson

47 “I Was the Man Overboard!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 241 From Battle #67 (December 1959)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 162

Art by John Severin

Script and Art by Jack Kirby ● Inks by Christopher Rule

Art by Jack Davis

28 “The Butcher of Wulfhausen!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 146 From Kent Blake of the Secret Service #14 (July 1953)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 218

From Battle #65 (August 1959)

43 “Breakthrough!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -223

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 141

Script by Paul S Newman ● Art by Bernie Krigstein

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 214

From Battle #65 (August 1959)

Art by Jack Davis

48 “Guard Duty!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 246

From Battle #68 (February 1960)

Script and Art by Jack Kirby ● Inks by Steve Ditko

49 “A Tank Knows No Mercy!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -250

From Battle #70 (June 1960)

Script and Art by Jack Kirby ● Inks by Steve Ditko

50 “Gettysburg!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -255 From Battle #70 (June 1960) Art by Bill Everett

Art by John Severin

35 “Battle Stations”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -186

From Navy Combat #7 (June 1956)

Art by Mort Drucker

iv

Note When these comics were originally published, it was not industry standard to provide detailed credits. Creator credits in this volume represent the most accurate information available at publication.

Introduction Now this is a treat! About eighteen months

ago I was contacted by Gary Thompson of Dead Reckoning, the graphic novel imprint of the Naval Institute Press. Gary was reaching out to inquire whether I was interested in helping compile a collection of Atlas war stories for Dead Reckoning, to be produced in conjunction with Marvel Comics. Having past been a consultant on Marvel Masterworks’ Atlas-era Battlefield reprint volume (and at least twenty other Timely/Atlas reprint collections), I jumped at the chance, eager to show the diversity of artistic talent that proliferated across the largest publisher of war titles in comic book history. From my initial submission of about seventy stories, all scanned from my complete Atlas war comics collection (and then prepared beautifully for publication by restorer Allan Harvey), fifty were selected, showing a wide diversity of artists, and this wonderful book before you is the result of all our efforts. War comics, in some respects, have always been a part of comics history, especially since the medium’s “Golden Age” ran concurrently with World War II. An endless array of costumed heroes battled Axis foes and villains all across the four-color landscape. Alongside them were the “solo” non-hero war genre titles and stories in the 1940s published by the likes of Fiction House (War Comics), Dell (War Heroes, War Stories), Centaur (Man of War Comics), Quality (Uncle Sam Quarterly, Blackhawk), Harvey (War Victory Comics, War Victory Adventures), and Standard (The Fighting Yank). Some of them blended strict war stories with hero tales, but all of these titles petered out following the war as the newsstands moved away from global conflicts toward other genres. At Timely Comics, nowhere was the Golden Age patriotic fervor more evident than the March 1941 debut cover of the medium’s prototypical patriotic hero, Captain America. The dynamic impact of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s image of “Cap” landing a shattering haymaker into Adolf Hitler’s face cannot

be overstated. Although published nearly a full year before Pearl Harbor brought us into the fighting, America was well aware of what was occurring in Europe and the growing fascist threat. Timely’s publisher, Martin Goodman, allowed depictions of the European war in his books well before the United States abandoned its neutrality, fervently using his comics line as a positive force for propaganda. Nearly all titles depicted furious battles between Timely’s heroes and the Axis powers in books including Marvel Mystery Comics, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, All Winners, Young Allies, USA Comics, and of course, the aforementioned Captain America. (Even Timely’s humor comics joined in as their funny-animal stars battled anthropomorphic Axis villains.) Reflecting public sentiment in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, one notorious character, the ignominious “Jap Buster Johnson,” made no bones about who we were fighting, appearing in eighteen installments across four different titles. Future famous authors such as Mickey Spillane and Patricia Highsmith are known to have written his exploits. Most of the wartime covers, meanwhile, featured intense scenes of busy, blazing conflict drawn by the great Alex Schomburg.

v

Introduction

vi

But even at Timely, these types of comics waned as the war ended and hero titles were replaced one by one in the late 1940s by new genres. Crime comics debuted there in 1947, romance and westerns in 1948, horror in 1949. By 1950 war comics were missing from the lineup. Some background: In 1949 publisher Martin Goodman launched the first of what would become the largest line of men’s adventure magazines. This flagship magazine was Stag. An earlier attempt to mimic the very successful Esquire format in 1942 had ended in lost money and jail for editor Joseph Alvin Kugelmass, and a 1948 attempt that was to feature Stan Lee as editor never got off the ground. This time Goodman hit the jackpot, as returned World War II veterans voraciously read his line of manly “true” adventure stories featuring images of fetching females in distress. At the same time Goodman wanted Stan Lee to start a similar line of adventure comics, launching Man Comics #1 December 1949. Imitations immediately followed: True Adventures, Men’s Adventures, Young Men. These action-packed tales were joined in mid-1950 by the spy genre, as Spy Cases, Spy Fighters, and Kent Blake of the Secret Service appeared on newsstands. None of the adventure or spy titles were “war” comics per se—but that genre soon was destined to repopulate the newsstands in a massive, industrywide deluge. What precipitated it? Quite simply, the Korean War. On June 25, 1950, North Korea, backed by Soviet-built tanks, poured over the border into South Korea. In keeping with its goal to contain communism worldwide, the United States (with the United Nations) responded accordingly. Almost immediately, Martin Goodman directed Stan Lee and his team to create war stories reflecting current newspaper and newsreel reports of the conflict and dealing with war in general. The result was War Comics #1 (December) published on September 1, 1950. Simultaneously, former Timely humor writer/artist Harvey Kurtzman was launching Two-Fisted Tales for William Gaines’ EC Comics line. The reborn war genre was off and running. War Comics’ lead story, “Peril in Korea,” explained the United States’ involvement in the conflict. A pure propaganda piece, it sold the war to readers by showing North Korea as dupes for the Red conquest of the world. As will be seen, many of these

Korean War stories were flagrantly politically incorrect by today’s standards, with the North Koreans and Chinese communists depicted in stereotypical fashion and committing brutal atrocities (although not as caricatured as the World War II comics’ depictions of the Japanese). In 1951 Timely followed with Battle (February) and Combat Kelly (November), the latter introducing the first of what would be several ongoing war “character” titles and stories. The end of 1951 also saw a branding of Goodman’s comic book division with a new name, Atlas, as a globe begins to appear on the covers of his comic books cover dated October. The Timely-to-Atlas evolution had to do with Goodman’s distribution history. His pulps, comics, and magazines had long been distributed by Kable News. His first distribution experience had been Mutual Magazine Distributors, a short-lived joint venture with Louis Silberkleit and the Shade brothers of Philadelphia during the pulp years of 1932–34. It ended in bankruptcy, with Goodman and Silberkleit going their separate ways. After two decades with Kable, Goodman once again became involved with self-distribution, launching the Atlas News Company on June 1, 1952, as a subsidiary of his Magazine Management Corporation, the umbrella name under which all his different publishing companies operated. Arthur Marchand was appointed director of distribution. The globe logo of the Atlas News Company was derived from an earlier globe Goodman temporarily had tried out as a brand on a handful of comic books, detective magazines, and crime paperbacks in the mid 1940s. Back then, it failed to catch on and was quickly dropped. (Similarly tried and dropped were short-lived “Marvel Comic” banners in 1947–49). When Goodman revived the globe in October 1951 it stuck around this time, and the name Atlas, as mentioned, soon was adopted by his new distribution company and began to serve as both a brand logo and distribution mark. For this reason, all Goodman comic books during this period are known as Atlas Comics. As 1952 approached, war stories began to infiltrate the earlier adventure and spy genre titles. Then the deluge really began, as Atlas released War Adventures (January), Battle Action (February), War Combat (March), Battlefield (April), Men in Action

Introduction (April), War Action (April), Battlefront (June), and Combat (June). By the end of that single year, a total of 125 war issues were released across seventeen different titles. The vast majority of these stories were drawn by Atlas royalty: Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, Syd Shores, Bernard Krigstein, Jerry Robinson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, Gene Colan, Paul Reinman, Harry Anderson, Norman Steinberg, Dave Berg, Carl Burgos, Cal Massey, Sam Kweskin, Joe Sinnott . . . the list goes on and on. Writers included the prolific Hank Chapman and Don Rico, as well as Paul S. Newman and likely several we still haven’t identified. Surprisingly, Stan Lee scripted only four total war stories, all in 1952. The vast majority of story content dealt with the ongoing Korean War; but all of military history was fodder, especially the recently ended World War II, with topics ranging from famous campaigns, popular generals, and various service branches to Nazi atrocities and concentration camp depictions. The brutality of war was not sugarcoated, although stories were often preachy. While EC Comics are well loved for their two superb war titles (the aforementioned TwoFisted Tales and Frontline Combat), in terms of sheer volume of content, they could not even begin to compete with Atlas’ seventeen. In 1953 as many as fourteen individual war titles a month appeared, two converting to additional character titles, War Combat becoming Combat Casey (January) and Men in Action becoming Battle Brady (also January). By mid-year the deluge was over. Titles were canceled, others went to bimonthly schedules, and all adventure and spy titles dropped their war content. On July 27, 1953, the Korean War ended. With the conflict over, 1954 began with only five war titles. Atlas had no success with a brief foray into the 3-D comics fad as 3-D Action (January) lasted but a single issue. By mid-year Martin Goodman expanded again, adding four more books, Marines in Battle (August), Navy Action (August), Battleground (September), and Rugged Action (December). But 1954 was important for another, more infamous, reason. Child psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham had been assailing comic books as a major cause of juvenile delinquency in magazine articles and lectures since 1948, culminating in his book Seduction of the Innocent in 1954. (While he leveled his strongest vitriol

against crime and horror comic books, war comics, which were pretty violent, were barely mentioned at all and fell under his radar.) The hysteria he generated was magnified by a U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigation into juvenile delinquency that had begun in 1953, eventually chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver. In the public hearings that ensued in the spring of 1954, comic books became the target. The effect of Wertham’s book and the public hearings was devastating; it led to the formation of the Comics Magazine Association of America and a self-censoring body, the Comics Code Authority, which curtailed, among other things, all graphic depictions of violence. The advent of the Comics Code in November 1954 affected the industry in a seismic way, and comic book covers dated March 1955 began to sport the “Code stamp” on the top right. The negative publicity, plus the recent newsstand glut of comic book titles by all publishers, caused many to go out of business, leading creators to leave the industry in droves as there wasn’t enough work to employ them all any longer. Bucking the prevalent scaling-down trend, in 1955 Martin Goodman expanded again, adding the watered down, Codeapproved Marines in Action (June) and Navy Combat (June). Monthly war title issues ranged from four to eight titles per month that year. More new comics debuted in 1956, including character titles like Sailor Sweeney (July), Devil Dog Dugan (July), and Sergeant Barney Barker (August)—the latter a humorous book seemingly modeled after Phil Silvers’ “Sgt. Bilko” and featuring artwork by John Severin. (Some have said it was a parody of Stan Lee himself!) Then 1957 would end up being another inglorious year for Atlas. Goodman continued adding titles, with the total amount nearing eighty-five by spring. In his post-Code war line, five more titles were added (two of which were merely retitlings): Navy Tales (January), G.I. Tales (February), Tales of the Marines (February), Marines at War (April), and Commando Adventures (June). That gave a total of fifteen ongoing war comics approaching the cover month of August. What happened next was a disaster. Backtrack a year. In late 1956 Goodman had given up self-distribution on the advice of his business manager, Monroe Froelich Jr., changing to the venerable American News Company (ANC), the largest and most influential in the nation. ANC’s history

vii

Introduction

viii

in distribution went back to 1864, when it distributed millions of Beadle dime novels and controlled the railway newsstands. It was an immense company, and on the surface it made good business sense for Goodman. Gone was the Atlas News Company, in came the American News Company, taking over on November 1. Goodman ramped up production, churning out more and more titles into 1957. The Atlas globe remained, now solely a brand, no longer a distributor mark. But disaster loomed. Unbeknownst to Goodman (who really should have known), ANC was having all kinds of trouble behind the scenes and in May 1957 closed down its Wholesale Periodical Division. Having lost his distributor, Goodman now had no way to get his magazines to the newsstands. He frantically secured distribution from his rival, D.C. Comics– owned Independent News, and slashed his output down to sixteen bimonthly titles of eight comics a month. This is known colloquially as “the Atlas Implosion,” and it nearly closed down the comic book line completely. All new work commissions stopped and everyone was let go but Stan Lee, who put books together for the truncated company for a year using inventory. A total of three war books survived this implosion; Battle, Marines in Battle, and Navy Combat. All three continued through the end of 1958, using 1956 and 1957 inventory. By the end of 1958, only Battle was left. In June 1958, Stan Lee’s top artist, Joe Maneely, was killed in a train accident at the age of thirty-two. Within days, the call went out for artists as Goodman gave the word to begin buying new fantasy material when the inventory ran out. Jack Kirby was the first artist back, jump-starting a line of science fiction stories for a new direction of fantasy books. But many do not realize that Jack Kirby also took over the last remaining war book, Battle, provided covers for the final seven issues, and wrote/penciled ten stories that have never been reprinted since 1959, sixty years ago. Four of these forgotten gems are presented in this book. The June 1960 issue, #70, would be the very last of Battle, putting an end to the industry’s largest and longest-running war line of comic books. There would not be another Marvel war comic until Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos in 1963. Here are the statistics: From War Comics #1 (December 1950) to

Battle #70 (June 1960), Timely/Atlas produced 533 comic books with war content across thirty-four different titles. With four to six stories per issue, that means close to 2,700 stories drawn by at least 121 different artists, by my own count. It’s a legacy that I’m proud to be finally able to share. With that history lesson in mind, let’s look, then, at what this volume presents. Of the fifty stories selected from the years 1951 to 1960, thirtythree are pre-Code, seventeen are post-Code. Twentythree pencil artists are represented, and two ink artists, across fifteen war titles. Five writers have been identified, but their work accounts for only ten stories. The remaining forty stories are of unknown authorship. Most of these authors and artists had service experience in World War II, manifested here in extensive attention to detail, both visually and descriptively. The most heavily featured artists are Russ Heath and Joe Sinnott, with six stories apiece. Jack Kirby has four stories, several others have three, and the rest have one and two each. The stories are presented in the order of their cover dates. Let’s now take a look at some of the individual artists. The book begins with three of the six total Russ Heath stories. Heath worked on staff at Timely starting in 1948 on westerns and romance stories, then freelanced some of Atlas’ best pre-Code horror. Heath was an Atlas war comics powerhouse, drawing ninety-nine covers and fifty-four stories between 1951 and 1960, the vast majority in the pre-Code era. Heath’s splash panels set a dark, oppressive tone, immediately drawing in the reader. His stories and covers present some of the most graphic depictions of war’s violence seen in the line. The six stories selected here are from 1951–52. They are masterpieces of mood and evocation of war’s grim reality: a postal letter trying to catch up with a soldier who is constantly on the move and desperate to hear from his wife back home; a sharpshooter who believes himself a coward until he faces up to his fears. A monstrous Nazi tank rains death on Europe and is taken out by Allied bombers. A platoon faces a night of hellfire in a foxhole waiting for dawn. Soldiers battle their way to take a hill at all costs. Engineers march through rain and mud for miles to deliver and prime a bomb to destroy an enemy power plant. Five of these stories

Introduction have unknown authors, yet it can be discerned that several different hands penned them. “12 Hours till Death” was written by Carl Wessler, who wrote fifteen Atlas war stories in 1952 and 1953. Joe Sinnott likewise has six stories. Sinnott drew two covers and 107 Atlas war stories from 1952 to 1959. He inked two more for Jack Kirby in 1960. Sinnott excelled at “character” and “campaign” stories, four of which are in this volume. Where Heath evoked mood, Sinnott rendered action and optimism. Sinnott, a Navy veteran, has told me on more than one occasion how much he enjoyed working on these stories presented in this volume, especially “Kiska.” “Kiska” was an inaccurate, almost fictional account of the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Island chain in 1942. (In reality, when the Americans arrived in 1943, the Japanese already had abandoned the islands, and most Allied casualties were due to friendly fire.) Joe renders a sympathetic portrait of Fidel Castro in “The Man with the Beard” as liberator of Cuba from the throes of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Also presented here is the rare two-part story “Bataan!” and “Back to Bataan!” Although both are post-Code, with much of the action softened, they effectively tell a human story of the surrender in the Battle of Bataan in 1942 and the liberation of prisoners in 1945. Unmentioned, unfortunately, was the Bataan Death March, which might have been covered in all its brutality in the pre-Code era. Jack Kirby follows with four pre–hero era stories contemporaneous with the new sci-fi/fantasy titles Strange Worlds, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense. An Army veteran who served under General George Patton in Europe, Kirby knew the horrors of war firsthand. He also was a veteran of war comics, having produced quite possibly the most iconic war comic cover image of all time, Mainline’s Foxhole #1 (October 54), based on the Joseph Hirsch painting “High Visibility Wrap” published in Men Without Guns (Blakeston Company, 1945). Martin Goodman liked the image so much he used the original Hirsch painting on the cover of Stag, Volume 2, #1 (June 1951). Kirby’s very first story for Atlas upon his first return in 1956 was “Minefield” in Battleground #14 (November). From there he worked in Atlas westerns and revamped Yellow Claw into a science fiction feature before losing work in the Atlas implosion.

Christopher Rule inks two stories, and Steve Ditko inks the final two. The Kirby/Ditko art is fantastic, and Ditko gives a gritty, almost three-dimensional effect of “weight” to the art. See if you agree. Joe Maneely is represented by three stories, one of which was scripted by Stan Lee. Maneely was without a doubt Atlas’ most important artist and Lee’s top 1950s collaborator, his “Jack Kirby” of the 1950s, drawing more of Lee’s non-humor Atlas genre stories than any other artist. Maneely came to Atlas in 1949 via Street & Smith at the tail end of the Timely bullpen, freelancing first from Philadelphia, then moving to New York. From 1950 until his untimely death in 1958, he was possibly the fastest and most prolific artist in the industry, launching most of the new Atlas character features and drawing in every genre. Maneely was a Navy veteran, and in the Atlas war books drew 108 covers (21 percent of the total!) and eighty-six stories, including tenures on character features Combat Kelly, Battle Brady, Battleship Burke, Private Tim O’Toole, and finishing the very last Torpedo Taylor story left unfinished by Don Heck after the work stoppage in April 1957. Maneely and Lee’s “Cycle!” is a parent’s worst nightmare, a dark and somber story told very quickly in three pages. “Rookie!” shows the rapid transformation of a green recruit into a soldier. “Rain!” is the first story we see of several that utilize one single word in the title, a story written around a depiction of weather or topographical condition. Atlas was watching EC very closely. When Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis produced their seminal “Mud!,” Atlas came back with “Rain!,” “Muck!,” and “Snow,” each well written and beautifully crafted artistically. Gene Colan first entered the comic book industry at Fiction House in 1944. He left to serve in the Philippines, producing art for the Special Service in the Army Air Corps. He returned to comics in the summer of 1947, landing at Timely, where he debuted on crime stories but soon added romance and hero stories into the mix. When the bullpen was closed at the end of 1949 he began to freelance for Atlas in all genres, drawing 135 war stories between 1952 and 1957, 106 of them in the post-Code years of 1955–57. Most of these post-Code pieces have fullpage splashes. His first of three stories, “No Way Out!” relates the story of an injured carrier pigeon that saves a trapped battalion. “No Way Out!” is

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written by Hank Chapman, one of the most prolific Atlas writers, with over 175 war scripts to his credit between 1951 and 1953, many of them on character features such as Battle Brady, Combat Casey, and Combat Kelly. Colan was inking his own pages at this time, and the work is more couched in realism than what his art would become over the next decade. The splash panel to “Death Stand” is a masterpiece of composition and coloring. Jerry Robinson, a father of the Joker and Robin of the Batman mythos at National, came over to Atlas after an invite from Stan Lee. Between 1951 and 1956 he drew nine covers and ninety-one stories for Atlas; most (twenty-seven) were in the war genre, and all drawn in 1952. These twenty-seven war stories were drawn for only twelve total issues. This is because the first five issues of Battlefront, primarily written by Don Rico, were all-Robinson issues containing continuing, interlocking stories. “The Final Salvo,” “Bouncing Betsys” (written by Hank Chapman), and “The Big Bog!” are gorgeously rendered with beautiful splash panels, the latter a brutal tale of a hellish Korean winter campaign in the snow. John Severin, renowned for his work on the EC war titles, came over to Atlas in 1954 following EC’s demise. For Atlas war comics, he drew fifty-two covers and only twenty stories, mostly post-Code. His three stories here are “The Battle of Jutland!,” the very EC-inspired “Gas!” and “Tank Destroyer!” All are realistically rendered perfection, interchangeable with his work for EC. Another EC alumnus, Jack Davis, is presented with all three of his Atlas war stories. Although his work is visually commendable, Davis was handcuffed by Comics Code restraints. His stories, particularly the last two pre-hero stories, suffer for this reason. The best is “Breakthrough!” from 1956. Paul Reinman, Bernard Krigstein, Sam Kweskin, and Don Heck each have two stories in this volume. Reinman drew ninety-one Atlas war stories between 1951 and 1959 and was at his artistic peak in 1952. A German Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1934, Reinman left behind a country and town, Worms, in the midst of rising fascism. He translated that experience easily onto his artboards. The highlight of his career was “Atrocity Story” in Battlefield #2 (June 1952). Written by Hank Chapman,

this seven-page chronicle was a screaming indictment of the horrors perpetuated by communists throughout the world. The reader is overwhelmed with the story title blaring at the top of each page as atrocity after atrocity is presented. Reinman renders the story in a newsreel fashion with a brutal full-page splash depicting a score of inhumanly bound and slaughtered U.S. Marines. The tempo is swift and the art is dark and grim. Page five is a disturbing eight-panel review of Nazi concentration camp atrocities with riveting single panels of hollow-eyed, skeletal survivors. “Atrocity Story” is probably the most intense and provocative story in the entire Atlas war oeuvre. Sam Kweskin drew eight war stories for Atlas; the two selected here are among his most personal. Kweskin had Polish Jewish ancestry on his mother’s side and served in World War II with the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion. His unit was on site following the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, and in “City of Slaves” he depicts this in a realistic and haunting manner. Then, in “The Butcher of Wulfhausen!,” we go off-trail. Kweskin presents another concentration camp storyline, but this time the climax is pre-Code horror! This tale of comeuppance about an ex–concentration camp commander predates both Al Feldstein and Bernard Krigstein’s thematically similar “Master Race” in E.C.’s Impact #1 (April 1955) by two years and the Twilight Zone episode “Deaths-Head Revisited,” written by Rod Serling and broadcast in November 1961, by eight years. Krigstein drew thirteen Atlas war stories, primarily in 1952 and 1953. Universally acclaimed for EC’s “Master Race,” this earlier Atlas work previewed his remarkable talents nicely. In later Atlas post-Code fantasy stories, he experimented with panel breakdowns to get more sequential storytelling room, once reaching a high of twenty-three panels on a page! “Last Bullet” was written by Paul S. Newman, who wrote a total of forty-one Atlas war stories in 1952 and 1953. Don Heck drew fifty-four Atlas war stories between 1955 and 1960. The two presented here show how superlative an artist he was. But Heck will always be known by Atlas readers for the war feature “Torpedo Taylor,” rendering twenty-five installments in the title Navy Combat.

Introduction Werner Roth, Gil Evans, Allen Bellman, Joe Certa, Syd Shores, Mort Drucker, Steve Ditko, Norman Steinberg, Harry Anderson, Reed Crandall (inked by Al Williamson), and Bill Everett are each represented by one story in this volume. Of this group, Syd Shores produced art for the most Atlas war stories (seventy-three stories and fourteen covers). He also drew the character features “Sailor Sweeney” and “Battleship Burke.” At the other end of the spectrum is Steve Ditko. Though he inked several Jack Kirby stories for Atlas, he did art for only a single Atlas war story, “The Hidden Doom!” (utilizing an older pre-implosion script). Allen Bellman drew an installment of “Jap Buster Johnson” (scripted by Mickey Spillane) during the war and is the last Timely artist standing who drew Captain America during the war years. Bellman drew six Atlas war stories. “The Big Guns!,” the selection

for this compilation, is wonderfully stylized, his technique having greatly matured from his earlier Timely penciling. Bill Everett drew seventeen covers and twenty-two war stories, represented here by the last one in 1960, “Gettysburg!” Norman Steinberg was prolific (forty-three Atlas war stories) and a one-time studio mate of Syd Shores. He drew “Battle Brady” in 1953. Werner Roth (twenty-seven stories), Gil Evans (eighteen stories), Joe Certa (five stories), Mort Drucker (twenty stories), and Harry Anderson (six stories) were all wonderful artists, and their efforts in the genre are appreciated by readers. That about sums up the history of Atlas war comics with a bit of context on all the creators involved. I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did; know that I have enough material for sixty more volumes! —Dr. Michael J. Vassallo September 9, 2019

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About the

Contributors Dr. Michael J. Vassallo is a noted comics historian and a world-renowned authority on the Timely/Atlas period of Marvel’s history. He is the co-author of The Secret History of Marvel Comics and has written twenty introductions to Marvel’s Timely and Atlas Age Masterworks volumes. A frequent contributor to comic history publications, Dr. Vassallo has provided writing and editorial support to Taschen Publishing (75 Years of Marvel, The Stan Lee Story) and maintains his own Timely-Atlas-Comics blog. A Manhattan dentist, he resides in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, Maggie, and their children, Michelle and Jason. He is currently researching and writing an art biography of Atlas giant, Joe Maneely.  Welsh graphic artist Allan Harvey specializes in digital restoration, breathing new life into vintage comic artwork. Previous restoration projects include Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil, Stan Lee’s Amazing Fantastic Incredible, and a host of Sam Glanzman war comic reprints for It’s Alive Press.

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