Our Army at War - Darwyn Cooke, Billy Tucci, et al.

Don't let that Joe Kubert cover fool you. The stories in this trade paperback collection aren't reprints of classic yarns from the heyday of DC war comics. No, back in 2011, somebody came up with the idea of publishing single issues of the iconic titles OUR ARMY AT WAR, OUR FIGHTING FORCES, G.I. COMBAT, STAR-SPANGLED WAR STORIES, and WEIRD WAR TALES, featuring new stories by today's comics creators about the characters who starred in those comics 'way back when.

The results are, shall we say, a mixed bag. While it's always good to see Sgt. Rock and the other combat-happy joes of Easy Company, telling a story that cuts back and forth between World War II and post-9/11 Afghanistan just didn't work very well for me. I only liked one of the three stories from WEIRD WAR TALES, which was about a malfunctioning submarine trapped on the bottom after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I thought that was an intriguing idea, and it ended well. The story from the new version of OUR FIGHTING FORCES features The Losers, a team-up series from late in the original title's run that includes Marine riflemen Gunner and Sarge (the long-time stars of that book), one-legged P.T. boat commander Captain Storm, and Navajo flying ace Johnny Cloud. (Both of those latter two had their own series at times, as well.) I don't dislike any of these characters, but I never thought they worked well together and that their original incarnation was a little too forced.

But the Mademoiselle Marie series from STAR-SPANGLED WAR STORIES, about a beautiful French resistance fighter, was usually pretty good, and the new story featuring her in this collection is okay. The real high point of this volume, though, is the Haunted Tank story from G.I. COMBAT. I always enjoyed the original series, with stories by Robert Kanigher and great art by Russ Heath and Irv Novick. I've read reprints of some of those and they hold up very well. If you're not familiar with the concept, Sgt. Jeb Stuart (named after the legendary Civil War cavalry commander General J.E.B. Stuart) is a tank commander in North Africa assigned to an M3 Stuart tank (also named after the general). And it just so happens that the World War II sergeant is haunted by the ghost of the Civil War general, who often appears to him during battle to offer advice and philosophy. Now, you never really know for sure if Jeb is actually seeing the general's ghost or if he's just nuts, but that's part of the appeal of the series and that element appears in Matthew Sturges's new story, too. It's an excellent yarn with art by Phil Winslade, and it wouldn't have been out of place in the old G.I. COMBAT book.

Even though I was more of a superhero fan back in those days, I read a lot of those war comics, too, and surprisingly, they've stayed with me more than some of the superhero stuff has, and they hold up better on rereading, too. (The Essentials collection of SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS makes you realize just how really, really good that comic was in its early issues. Jack Kirby's art is fantastic, and Stan Lee's scripts are some of his best writing from that era. But I was talking about DC...) It's good to see new stories from that genre, and while I can't give this version of OUR ARMY AT WAR an unqualified recommendation, I think it's worth picking up if you're a long time fan like I am. (It appears to be out of print, but Amazon has used copies.)

Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion - Billy Tucci

My fondness for the comics character Sgt. Rock has been discussed here before. I recently picked up a trade paperback reprinting a mini-series called SGT. ROCK: THE LOST BATTALION. If you know your World War II history, you already know how the 141st Infantry – the T-Patchers, a unit assembled and trained at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas – was surrounded and trapped by the German army in the Vosges Mountains in the fall of 1944. Vastly outnumbered, low on supplies and ammunition, the members of the 141st, who dubbed themselves the Alamo Boys because of their Texas background, held out for a week against overwhelming odds until the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (made up of Japanese-American soldiers, the Nisei) broke through the German lines and rescued them.


That’s the bare bones of the history. In SGT. ROCK: THE LOST BATTALION, writer/artist Billy Tucci comes up with a feasible way for Rock and the other men of Easy Company to be trapped on that wooded hill with the 141st. With great historical accuracy, well-documented in the extra material in this reprint, Tucci follows the events of the next week, switching back and forth between the trapped soldiers and the Japanese-American GIs trying to rescue them.


The result is a well-written graphic novel that achieves a considerable amount of suspense despite the historical outcome being known ahead of time. Tucci’s portrayals of Rock, Ice Cream Soldier, Wildman, Bulldozer, and Little Sure Shot are consistent with the characters established by Robert Kanigher in decades worth of stories. I also enjoyed the cameos by other DC war comics characters such as The Unknown Soldier, Lt. Jeb Stuart and the crew of the Haunted Tank, and Johnny Cloud. For a long-time fan like me, this is great stuff.


I like Tucci’s art as well, with a few quibbles. Everybody in Easy Company looks right except Rock. I had trouble picking him out from all the other GIs. In fact, too many of the characters looked too much alike, so that I had trouble following the story at times. I’d think that a particular character had been killed, but then a few pages later he’d still be alive, so I had to go back and try to figure out what happened earlier and who really got killed. The fact that much of the story takes place in rain and fog probably doesn’t help this problem, but that’s historically accurate so I can’t blame Tucci for that. And a lot of the individual panels are outstanding. I guess being the old codger that I am, any artist would have a hard time living up to the standards set by Joe Kubert.


So if you’re a fan of war comics or a student of World War II, SGT. ROCK: THE LOST BATTALION gets a high recommendation from me. Billy Tucci’s done a good job on an iconic character, and I’ll certainly read anything else he wants to do featuring Sgt. Rock and the combat-happy joes of Easy Company.