Clobberin' Korean Commies with The Duke! JOHN WAYNE ADVENTURE COMICS "Bridgehead"

You know John Wayne did a Vietnam War movie (Green Berets)...

...but he never did a Korean War flick!

(Jet Pilot is a Cold War movie involving Russians.

No Koreans or scenes set in Korea.)

Comic books were a different matter...

Trivia: Besides not doing a Korean War movie, Wayne never did a film set in World War II Europe!
Correction: Wayne did appear in a film with flashbacks to WWII, Cast a Giant Shadow, and an actual WWII movie, The Longest Day, as part of an all-star ensemble!
(Though, to be fair, neither one had a comic adaptation!)
Thanks to reader Lawrence for catching my gaffe and inspiring me to do a little more research!
This never-reprinted tale is from Toby's John Wayne Adventures #15 (1952), penciled by Mel Keefer.(The other credits are unknown)
You'll note that Wayne is referred to as "John Wayne", not "John Wayne as Sgt Stryker" or some other character he played in movies...or a totally-new character!
The conceit of this 31-issue series, John Wayne Adventure Comics, was that Wayne was always himself in the stories, no matter where or when they were set!
Tales ran the gamut from Wayne in the French Foreign Legion to putting out oil-rig fires to big-game hunting in Africa to tracking spies in Hong Kong, with at least one Western-themed story every issue.
Oddly enough, though there are numerous comic adaptations of Wayne's Western movies, and even a comic based on The Conqueror (where he portrayed Genghis Khan), there are no comics adapting any of his war movies!

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John Wayne
Four Fim Favorites

Russkie-Smashers BLACK COBRA "Big Blast"

As we have done in the past...

...we go from Blackhawk to Black Cobra!
Yet we're still involved in aquatic combat with Russkies!

The creatives for this never-reprinted tale from Ajax/Farrell's Black Cobra #6 (1954-5), which is actually #2, were from the Iger Studio which "packaged" comic stories (both scripts and artwork) for various publishers including Fox, Chesler, Elliot, Fiction House, St John, and (of course) Ajax/Farrell!
It may be a re-working of a previously-published comic story, which the studio was notorious for, as shown HERE, where a story written and drawn for one character was modified/updated for a totally-different character!
Or, it may be a totally-new tale.

We're not yet certain.

NEXT WEEK:

Another Water-Logged Russkie-Smashing Tale!

Who knew we'd actually find a sub-category to Russkie-Smashing!

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Threat from the Abyss!"

For a bunch of aviators...

...Blackhawk and his team spend a lot of time underwater, as this adventure from their first DC issue demonstrates!

In fact, all three of the stories in this issue, DC's Blackhawk #108 (1957), feature aquatic, not aerial, action!

DC didn't miss a month when it bought the rights to Blackhawk from Quality Comics, which was closing their business.

Quality's final issue, #107, was published in December, 1956!

DC's premiere issue, #108 rolled off the presses one month later, January, 1957!

Quality had several completed and almost-completed stories ready to go, and DC used them in this issue to meet the already-established deadline with the printer!
Trivia: those "inventory" tales were the last ones featuring the Blackhawks singing triumphantly at the end of the story!
DC dropped that, along with almost all Communist-clobbering plotlines until the final issue of the original run, as we showed HERE, HERE, and HERE!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

Russkie-Smashers DANGER Duke Douglas in "Khyber Incident"

He's a hard-hitting, hard-drinking, hard-loving, Russkie-smashing secret agent...

...who could be played by Daniel Craig (who hadn't been born at the time this tale was told) if there was a Duke Douglas: Secret Agent movie!

Not only is he a Russkie-Smasher, Duke Douglas is a Russkie-Kisser!

What is it about Good Guys and Bad Girls in genre fiction?
Our Hero's premiere tale from Comic Media's Danger #7 (1954) was written by Ken Fitch and illustrated by Don Heck.
Note I emphasized "tale", since he actually premiered on the cover of the previous issue...

...without having an actual story inside the book!

Neither of the stories promoted on the cover feature him!
But every issue after that until the end of the book's run featured two or three stories starring the Agent with a Vest...and you'll be seeing them here!

Russkie-Smashers SUB-MARINER (and Namora) "Unseen Invaders"

Let's celebrate the New Year enthusiastically with even MORE Russkie-Smashing...

...featuring Marvel's (retroactively) first mutant, Prince Namor and his cousin, Namora!

Written and illustrated by Subby's creator, Bill Everett, this tale from Atlas' Sub-Mariner V1N37 (1954) shows that, while Namor is as anti-Russkie as he was anti-Axis in World War II, Americans still don't trust him!

Marvel Multiverse note: the aliens resemble the Badoon, officially-introduced in Marvel's Silver Surfer #2 (1968)...who also used invisibility and flying saucers!
Bill Everett brought the Badoon into his final run on Subby in the 1970s...as allies of Namor's evil cousin Prince Byrrah!

Coincidence?

I think not!

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Atlas-Era Heroes Masterworks Volume 3

Sub-Mariner