Russkie-Smashers COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB "Day in the Life of an Atomic Commando"

Did you know the leader of the Atomic Commandos, Commander Bill Battle, was...

...an ex-spy, not a Navy officer?

Was it really wise of President Eisenhower to give command of America's first atomic submarine to a guy with no military, much less naval, training or experience?

Talk about on-the-job training!

This never-reprinted backup tale from ACG's Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub #3 (1954) was produced by series creators Richard Hughes (writer) and Sheldon Moldoff (illustrator).
There are a few more "Day in the Life of an Atomic Commando" shorts featuring other members of the team fighting various Commies.
We'll run them from time to time.
Trivia: there was another Bill Battle,who not only had his own comic book from Fawcett, but was even more of a Commie-Crusher than Commander Bill Battle!

...However, "The One-Man Army" fought only Koreans!

Also, since his series ended after only four issues in 1953, when Fawcett closed their comic book division, the character name was available for anyone to use!

Russkie-Smashers MARVEL BOY II "Blast of Doom!"

Even though he was raised on Uranus, Robert Grayson is as all-American as anyone...

...and he'd defend the good 'ol USA against any and all Commie threats, whether they're Chi-Coms, North Koreans, or Russkies!

Note: the "Astros Invasion" involved an alien race, not Houston's baseball team (which didn't exist when this story was published in Atlas' Marvel Boy #2 (1951)!

Some days you just gotta let your inner nerd out!

Patriotic and a planet-saver!

Whatta guy!

Illustrated and likely written by Bill Everett, an under-appreciated creative who worked in comics from the beginning of the Golden Age in 1938 to the Bronze Age, when he passed away in 1973.

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Atlas-Era Heroes

Volume 1

which includes all of Marvel Boy's 1950-51 appearances as well as the 1953 re-intro of Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner
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NoKo Crushers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Commission in Korea!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...the Howling Commandos under Colonel "Happy Sam" Sawyer, are sent into North Korea to blow up a secret air base!

With a slightly shaken-up "Happy Sam" stationed outside the base as backup, Sgt Fury and the Howlers attack in their own inimitable style...

Why all the set-up for Nick Fury?

He had recently-appeared in Fantastic Four (V1N21 [1963]) as an eyepatch-wearing CIA colonel (though he's named "Sgt Fury" and wearing ripped Army fatigues on the cover) to help them stop the Hate Monger and reminisce with Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, whom he'd met during WWII when Reed was an OSS agent.

So we knew the crusty noncom-turned-officer had survived to the (then) present day.

But bigger plans were in store for Nick...

Fury had just replaced The Human Torch and The Thing as Dr Strange's co-feature in Strange Tales as of #135 (1965), making him the first comic character to have two simultaneous strips set in two different time periods!
(Howling Commandos in the 1940s, S.H.I.E.L.D. in the "present day" 1960s!)
Several of the Howlers joined Nick at S.H.I.E.L.D., including Dum-Dum, Gabe, and eventually, Eric Koenig.

Fanboy Trivia:

Eric isn't in this Annual set in the period between World War II and the 1960s because he wasn't even introduced into the WWII-era Howling Commandos comic until six months after the Annual was published (#27 in late 1965)!
And, we finally got to see the only exclusive Sgt Fury-themed Marvel merchandise of the 1960s...a Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos t-shirt (which, unlike most of the other Marvel shirts of the 1960s, had never been reissued by Graphitti!)

Would I love to have a Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos shirt (in XXL, sadly)...

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Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos

#2 Berlin Breakout

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NoKo Crushers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Commission in Korea!" Part 1

Though Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos were best-known for their World War II exploits...

...many of the current comic readers don't know how they battled Commies in the 1950s!

And, no, this ain't rebooting Marvel history with retroactive continuity like the recent Ben Grimm and Logan mini-series presentation!
This was written and illustrated during the Silver Age of Comics by the original Marvel Bullpen crew and has been officially part of Marvel continuity since!

This tale from Marvel's Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos Annual #1 (1965), gives the details...

We'll observe, Commie...NEXT MONDAY!

In the 1960s, Marvel's Annuals were a mixed bag.

Unlike DC's 80-Page Giants which were all-reprint, Marvel's combined a new lead story with new behind-the-scenes featurettes and pin-ups along with a couple of reprinted stories into a 72-page package for the same 25₵ price as the aforementioned Giants.

This Stan Lee-scripted, Dick Ayers-penciled, Frank Giacoia-inked tale ("Frankie Ray" was Giacoia's pseudonym because he was doing a lot of freelance work for DC at the time.) covered a major, but untold, event in the group's history...their only battle during the Korean War!

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Marvel Epic Collection

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos

#2 Berlin Breakout

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Russkie-Smashers ATOMIC ATTACK! "Tomorrow's War!"

RUSSKIES!

In 1953, we thought we'd still be fighting them in the not-so-distant future...

... of 1972!

Now that's scary!

This wild tale was from the first issue of a "future war" title from the 1950s called Atomic Attack!

(It was called simply Attack for it's first four issues and added "Atomic" to the title as of the fifth issue, so the first issue of Atomic Attack was #5!)

Oddly, only the lead story in each issue was future-based!

The other tales were set in contemporary (Korean War) times!
Sadly, because the publisher, Youthful Publications, is long defunct and left no successor company, there are no records of the writer or artist(s) for this story!

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uniform and equipment needs!