Monday, May 27, 2024

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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Monday, May 20, 2024

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!

Monday, May 13, 2024

Russkie-Smashers SPURS JACKSON AND HIS SPACE VIGILANTES "Spurs Sees RED!"

...once more with Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes battling Commies...piloting a flying saucer!
(Hey it was the 1950s!)
Sadly, the Russkies didn't even salvage a crashed alien ship and retro-engineered it's tech.
It's just a disguised Flying Wing...which both we and they were working on at the time.
(We were also working on our own flying saucers, but don't tell the Russkies!)
Art was by John Belfi, with a script by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson!.

Monday, May 6, 2024

Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Monster of Flame"

He's not creator Jack Cole's wacko version of the Ductile Detective...

...but he is the Russkie-Smasher Quality Comics' editors thought we wanted in the 1950s!






Written by Joe Millard and illustrated by Al Luster, this tale from Quality's Plastic Man #43 (1953) was typical for the era, emphasizing Commies and monsters over the surreal humor Jack Cole had embedded into the series' concept!
BTW, when the story was reprinted only a couple of years later in Quality's Plastic Man #60 (1956), the newly-created Comics Code Authority insisted on a title change...

...as well as minor alterations in a couple of panels renaming the FBI the "NBI" and cutting back on violence and name-calling!

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Monday, April 29, 2024

Russkie-Smashers DANGER "Duke Douglas in 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' "

He's the Snazzy Spy we Introduced HERE...

...and now he's returned to rescue a woman from the confines of the Kremlin and...are you ready for this...kill Stalin! 
Whatta guy!
Scripted by Duke's co-creator Ken Fitch and illustrated by Pete Morisi, this never-reprinted tale from Comic Media's Danger #8 (1954) takes a recent historical fact and offers a far different explanation for it!
For the record, according to Marvel, the original Human Torch french-fried Hitler...
...who with his dying breath made sure history would report he commited suicide in Atlas' Young Men #24 (1953).
AFAIK, no comic character has been given credit for killing Benito Mussolini!