Our Army at War #223

Our Army at War #223 (On Sale: July 2, 1970) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "On Time" by Joe Kubert and Russ Heath. This is an unusual combination of Kubert writing and Heath drawing.

Next is "Pvt. Buck's Army" and we end with a U.S.S. Stevens tale, "The Kunko Warrior" by Sam Glanzman

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #220

Our Army at War #220 (On Sale: March 31, 1970) has an awesome Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

Our Sgt. Rock cover-story is "Stone-Age War" written and illustrated by Joe Kubert. This story was reprinted in Sgt. Rock #318. Next is "The Last Soldier" by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. We end with a U.S.S. Stevens story, "The Idiot" by Sam Glanzman.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #219

Our Army at War #219 (On Sale: March 3, 1970) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

This issue begins with our cover-story "Yesterday's Hero" drawn by Russ Heath. The new replacement in Easy Co. is Duncan, PFC, who is called the "Hero of Baker Co." Duncan was the first of his company to land at Omaha Beach. The last time his company went out of patrol he was the only one to return.

When Easy Co. goes out on their first mission. to hold a crossroads town, Duncan says the he will do his part, but that he, "won't be responsible for anybody else's skin!" In town they are attacked and Easy responds but Duncan holds back. Confronted by Rock, Duncan breaks down and says that he is no hero. He is too scared to think about others and is just trying to save his own skin.

Rock puts Duncan in a bell town to keep his eyes peeled for Nazis and later that night he sees their dust as they approach. two King Tiger tanks heading straight for the town. Rock tells Duncan to sit tight and stay low in the tower and Easy will take care of the tanks, but instead Duncan draws their fire allowing Easy to take them out. they find Duncan in the rubble of the tower, no worse for wear.

This story was interrupted by a Battle Album on the "Choppers of Viet Nam" drawn by Murphy Anderson.

The book ends with a story of the Civil war, "Follow Sgt. Gruggles" drawn by Fred Ray. Private Tom Cort is following Sgt. Gruggles into battle against the Confederates when he is whacked across the chest with a rifle barrel and about to be stabbed by a rebel. He is saved by Sgt. Gruggles. Hours later after they win the battle Cort says that he was wounded by the smack in the chest and needs to go back for medical help. Gruggles says that the only way he is going to the back of the lines is in a pine box and so he just better get ready for tomorrows assault on Missionary Ridge.

During the next day's assault, Sgt. Gruggles is shot and he and Cort and some of the others are captured by the Rebels and taken to Gray Valley Prison. there Gruggles hatches an escape plan, but they need a diversion and Cort knows that since he is not wounded he is the only one strong enough to "divert the rebs." Tom creates the diversion and holds the Rebels at bay as the men escape, but eventually the sound of his guns stop and he has proven that he did have courage after all.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #218

Our Army at War #218 (On Sale: February 3, 1970) has a cover by Joe Kubert.

This issue begins with our Sgt. Rock cover-story, "Medic" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath.

Next we have a reprint from Our Fighting Forces #5, "The Tortoise and the Hare Went to War" by John Reed, Sam Burlockoff, and Joe Giella.

Sam Burlockoff started out at DC in 1943 as an inker working on such strips as King, The Justice Society of America, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Around the same time he was working for MLJ on The Shield, The Web and Dusty. He later moved on to Quality where he inked Blackhawk, Captain Triumph and Plastic Man. He returned to DC in the 1950s to work on a number of mainly war stories, this time doing pencils or full art. His last DC story was this one from 1955.

After that final stint at DC he worked for Atlas and Eastman Color and on a number of newspaper strips, such as Flash Gordon, Apartment 3-G and The Saint. He worked on comics for overseas syndication and also drew illustrations for encyclopedias and coloring books. He retired in 1989.

The final story in this issue is "Frightened Boys... or Fighting Men?" written and drawn by Sam Glansman. This is the first of Glanzman's U.S.S. Stevens stories that he would write and draw for DC war comics for the next eight years. These stories were based on Glanzman's own experiences in World War II on the destroyer U.S.S. Stevens.

Sam Glansman broke into comics in 1939 working at Funnies, Inc. a "packager" that supplied comics to publishers. There, for Centaur Publications, he wrote text stories with some art for Amazing-Man Comics. Later for Harvey Comics, he created Fly-Man, writing and drawing the feature for at least two issues. He also contributed to Harvey's All-New Short Story Comics, Champ Comics (doing the Human Meteor) and Green Hornet Comics. His comics career was cut short by World War II, where he did indeed serve in the Navy on the U.S.S. Stevens. When it was over Glansman chose to not return to comics, as the pay was not to his liking and he took to working in cabinet shops, lumber mills and boat yards. In the 1950s he would work at Republic Aviation installing machine guns on military jets.

Glansman toyed with some comic work in 1950, but not until 1958 that he would return to the field in earnest, working at Charlton Comics. There he drew war stories in Attack, Battlefield Action, Fightin' Air Force, Fightin' Marines, Submarine Attack, U.S. Air Force Comics and War at Sea through 1961, when he switched to Dell Comics. At Dell he drew Combat and Kona, as well as movie adaptations such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the very similar book, Voyage to the Deep.

Beginning in 1964, Glansman worked regularly for both Dell and Charlton doing a ton of war books. At Charlton he was also drawing Tarzan and creating, with Joe Gill, Sarge Steel and Hercules, Adventures of the Man-God. With writer Willy Fran,z Glansman also created The Lonely War of Willy Schultz, about a U.S. Army captain conflicted by the war and his German heritage.

Once he made the shift to DC, Glansman never looked back. Besides his years on U.S.S. Stevens, Glansman drew the Haunted Tank feature in G.I. Combat from 1972 through 1986. In '86 he also started drawing Mercenaries in G.I. Combat and in 1988 he drew a few issues of Sgt. Rock. Beginning in 1993 Sam Glansman became the inker for a number of Jonah Hex mini-series drawn by Timothy Truman, his last being Jonah Hex Shadows West in 1999. His last work for DC was in the 9-ll book, DC published in 2002.

Sam Glansman did a handful of war stories for Marvel in the late 1980s and in the 1990s worked for Topps Comics inking Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Zorro. In 2003 Glansman began doing web-comics.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #217

Our Army at War #217 (On Sale: January 3, 1970) has a great Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert. I know the theme is a common one for DC war books, but in this case it is, 1) so masterfully drawn by Kubert and 2) an actual scene from the story. I love the way Kubert splits his cover between the above and below water shots.

This issue begins with Sgt. Rock in "Surprise Party" written and drawn by Joe Kubert. The men of Easy Co. are acting a little strange around Sgt. Rock but before he can get to the bottom of it they are given a mission. The progress into enemy country has been stopped for the last 48 hours by a company of Nazi soldiers on the other side of a river with some big guns waiting for the G.I.s to set foot on the only bridge in the area. Rock and his men are to "surprise" the enemy.

That night they quietly enter a raft and head out across the river. On the other side a group of enemy scuba divers to the same. Rock notices bubbles in the water getting thicker and they hurl grenades underneath them, killing the divers but also blowing up their raft and losing any element of surprise they might of had. They come ashore under the bridge and are met and captured by a platoon of Germans. Rock breaks down and tells the Germans that the rest of their men will be coming over the bridge soon and as they divert their attention solely to the bridge, the rest of Easy Co. comes up from behind them in the real "surprise" attack.

After the battle is over and won by Easy, the men come to Rock and wish him a "happy Birthday" complete with a gift. Noting the seedy nature of Rock's shirt and helmet they give him a bag with new clothes scrounged from "miles behind the lines" to replace his tattered duds. Only the shrapnel from the big guns they destroyed ripped through the bag and Rock's new clothes are in worse shape than the ones he is wearing.

Next is a beautiful one-page Warrior on William the Conqueror by the masterful Ken Barr.

The back-up "Come the Revolution" is by Mike Friedrich and Fred Ray and concerns Davy and Dan two pioneer settlers in early America. Returning home from a day of hunting they find their farms destroyed, burned to the ground. Dan is enraged by the "big city radicals" who think they can disobey the crown. He says when people start destroying what others have worked their lives for, then you have to defend it and he goes off to "get me a few rebels."

Joining up with group of the King's finest Dan is upset when he is not allowed to chase after the rebels. He decides to sneak off and kill a few rebels on his own, only he is shot by a sniper. Ducking behind a rock Dan sneaks up on the sniper and kills him. One of the King's men search the sniper for personal effects to be sent to his family and finds an unmailed letter. He gives it to Dan to see if there is an address to which they can send the body.

Opening the letter he finds it addressed to him and from his friend Davy, who says he has joined the revolution because there is something worth fighting for and that is freedom. Davy says how he was inspired to pick up his musket and use it by Dan.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #216

Our Army at War #216 (On Sale: December 18, 1969) has a cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "Doom Over Easy" from Our Army at War #107 by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. After Easy Company is shelled by enemy fire, Everett, a new member of Easy, begins having visions of the future. He tries to switch positions with Buster and Ice Cream Soldier after Rock has given them assignments. Rock refuses to make the switch, and the other soldiers die. When Rock goes on a mission himself, Everett comes along to prevent Rock from dying. Rock and Everett both survive, though another blast robs Everett of his precognition.

In the original printing of this story, Ice Cream Soldier dies in action. Here the name of the dead soldier is changed to Young Willy. Since Ice Cream Soldier went on to appear in later Sgt. Rock stories, this change makes sense.

Next is "Silver Star for a Tin Can" from Our Fighting Forces #33 by Bob Haney and Russ Heath. That is followed by "Last on a Match" by Hank Chapman, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito and reprinted from G.I. Combat #77. Next is "Unknown G.I." from Our Fighting Forces #41 and created by Bob Haney and Russ Heath. "Return to Beach Red" from Our Fighting Forces #11 is next and created by Bob Haney and Joe Kubert,

"Introducing -- the Haunted Tank" is reprinted from G.I. Combat #87 and the creation of Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. Jeb Stuart the commander of an M-3 tank and his crew assist a squad of heavier Pershing tanks. The Pershings are destroyed by enemy bombers, leaving only Stuart's tank to take on a squad of heavy German tanks.

The tiny tank is shelled by the heavy guns of a German "Tiger" tank, and it falls into a ravine. The crew is knocked out, leaving it an easy target for the enemy tank. However, the M-3 manages to fire a shot that destroys the enemy tank. When Jeb and the crew awaken, they are shocked to find the enemy tank destroyed, as they had not fired their gun.

The tank then continues on its mission to protect a squad of infantry. Using its better speed and maneuverability, the M-3 is able to take on and defeat an entire unit of German tanks. Jeb Stuart is the only one that can hear laughter which comes from the ghost of civil war General Jeb Stuart, who has protected his descendant and the tank.

Lastly we have Great Battles of History "Chaeronaea" written and drawn by Ric Estrada.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #215

Our Army at War #215 (On Sale: December 2, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "The Pied Piper of Peril" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. In a small French town Rock and Easy Co. are ambushed by a squad of SS Troopers. Through the use of slang terms Rock is able to communicate to his men without the Nazis understanding and is able to kill the entire squad, save their commander. The fighting over the women, children and old people of the town come out of hiding and thank Rock and his men for saving them.

Almost immediately the prisoner seems to have some strange power over the youngsters of the town. They sit and watch him while he whittles a flute and seem to spend all of there time around him. Bulldozer remarks how it reminds him of the Pied Piper story. The kids will have nothing to do with Rock or his men and actually seem to protect the Nazi from his captors.

Then next night the kids steal Easy's guns while they sleep and Rock and the SS Officer square off, where Rock finally takes him out. The kids then confess that the Nazi had told them they would never see their fathers alive and that their mothers would also be killed if they did not cooperate with him. A pretty silly story of not much consequence if you ask me.

Next is "The Face of Death" drawn by Fred Ray regarding Joel Kurt, an artist sent by newspapers to try and capture the feel of battle during the Civil War. Kurt keep getting closer and closer to the action, saying he wants to capture the "face of death" for his readers, but he always feels he is failing. Finally he disobeys orders and follows the men during a charge against the Confederates, where he is shot. After the battle they find him leaning up against a tree, where he asks for his paper and pencils. He says, "I've got it... got it at last! Now..eveyonel...will see...the real face of death!" He then dies and when they look at the paper there is nothing but a scribble on it. The only way to see the real face of death, is to die. This story I liked.

We end with a Great Battles of History story, "Liegnitz and the Mongol Tide" written and drawn by Ric Estrada. It is more of a history lesson than a story of the battle where Duke Henry of Sliesia was defeated by the Mongol hoard.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #214

Our Army at War #214 (On Sale: November 4, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "Easy Co... Where Are You?" drawn by Russ Heath. That is followed by a Great Battles of History story, "The Bastille" written and drawn by Ric Estrada. We end with "My Coffin, the Tank" drawn by Sid Greene.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #213

Our Army at War #213 (On Sale: October 2, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "A Letter for Bulldozer" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. that is followed by "The Ghost Bayonets" by Robert Kanigher and Sid Greene. We end with Great Battles in History, "Kadesh" written and drawn by Ric Estrada.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #212

Our Army at War #212 (On Sale: Sept 2, 1969) has a cover by Joe Kubert.

Inside we begin with Sgt. Rock in "The Quiet War" drawn by Russ Heath and I would guess written by Robert Kanigher. While waiting for a squad of specially-trained British paratroopers, Easy Co. is hit by a barrage of Nazi shells, resulting in Rock losing his hearing. Not wanting to be a burden on his men and their mission Rock doesn't let on that he can't hear, telling his men "No more yakkin', you guys! We sit tight and wait!" Rock watches Easy, using them as his ears.

The British squad arrives and Easy learns that the job is to disrupt a meeting of the German High Command in a castle not too far away. Rock can't read lips and has no idea what the mission is and the British think he is rather a bore for not even seeming to listen to them. As they near the castle the British leader warns everyone of booby traps, but Rock can't hear and takes the lead, somehow managing to avoid all of the traps by shear luck.

When they reach the castle Rock leads the men into an ambush they all heard coming and after the men are pinned down in a crossfire Rock leads them through a hole blown in the floor, which leads them to a way out of the castle and up to its roof where they burst in on the meeting of the German High Command. On the Nazis throws a self-destruct switch and it is a mad race out of the castle as it explodes around them. the resulting explosions returns Rock's hearing.

Next is a one-page Warrior on Patton by Ken Barr and a two-page Battle Album on machine guns also by Ken Barr.

The back-up is a reprint from Star Spangled War Stories #78, "Medal for a Marine" by Robert Kanigher and Mort Drucker, who before Mad Magazine, was a hell of a good war artist. The work on this strip being just excellent; look at the page here at how well Drucker told the story with his choice of shots and angles. Some of the figures in this story look a lot like Frazetta. This is great stuff. The story concerns a Marine in the Pacific theater awaiting his Medal of Honor and another Marine whose job it was to deliver the medal to the ceremony.

Edited by Joe Kubert

Our Army at War #211

Our Army at War #211 (On Sale: August 5, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "The Treasure of St. Daniel" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. The back-up story is "Dragon with Wings" by Ken Barr.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #210

Our Army at War #210 (On Sale: July 1, 1969) has another interesting Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "I'm Kilroy" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. This was reprinted in the Sgt. Rock Special #9.

The back-up story is "Death's Promise" drawn by Fred Ray.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #209

Our Army at War #209 (On Sale: June 3, 1969) has another cool cover by Joe Kubert. The "we think we are OK but the Nazis are about to attack us" cover might be a cliche of DC war books, but nobody does this cliche better than Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "I'm Still Alive" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. While on patrol in Nazi country, the new replacement in Easy Co., Tiny Tim, wants to buddy up with Rock, telling Rock, "M-my old buddy g-got killed!" Before Rock can answer Easy is awash with Nazis in close hand-to-had and gun-butt to face combat. When the Nazis take off, Tiny Tim seems dazed and amazed that he is still alive.

He relates to Easy the fate of his last four-man squad, guys he had been through basic with, as they hit the beach at Normandy and how they came face-to-face with a Panzer. Tim loaded their bazooka, but before his buddy Charlie could fire, the Panzer ripped into them. Charlie was the only survivor and used the bazooka to take out the Panzer, but his friends were still dead. Just then Easy is attacked by two Focke-Wulf 190's and as they come in for a strafing run Tim screams that he is a jinx and so he runs off into the strafing, pulling the F.W.'s attention and making them easy pickings for Easy.

They find Tim lying face down in the dirt, but he's OK. A bullet had punctured his helmet, but missed his head. They leave his helmet as a signpost reading, "I walked away from this one! Tiny Tim" Rock remarks how none of them know when he is going to meet the bullet with his name on it and it is best just not to worry about it.

Next is a two-page Battle Album spread by Ken Barr on the Dive-Bombers of Midway.

Our back-up story is "Fill a Dead Man's Boots" by Howard Liss and Fred Ray. Fred Ray is not one of my favorite artists, but he has some fairly nice figures and composition in this story of the Civil War. The Confederates are getting blasted in battle and Sgt. Mal Walker carries his wounded Captain to safety only to realize that the Captain has died. Walker's boot are a mess, so he takes the boots off of his dead Captain, before crawling back behind his own lines.. There he is ordered to take charge of the company and head off whit his men, taking Cedar Mountain from the Union. All the while Walker is just trying to "fill a dead man's boots."

Walker gets order from Stonewall Jackson to destroy the supply depot at Manassas. Using his men as back-up and cover Walker sneaks into the depot and sets fire to the power dump, blowing the depot sky high. When Jackson congratulates Walker he just offers that he is trying to "fill the boots of a good man." Walker's boots are now as tattered and worn as his old pair and Stonewall remarks that "Boots don't lead armies...men do."

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #208

Our Army at War #208 (On Sale: May 1, 1969) has another nice Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with our Sgt. Rock cover-story, "A Piece of Rag... a Hank of Hair" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. This has been reprinted in Sgt. Rock #396 and Sgt. Rock Special #10. Next is "I Love a Spitfire" written and drawn by Ken Barr. This is the only story the Scottish Barr wrote for DC and his second providing artwork. We end the issue with "Move On" a reprint from All-American Men of War #56 by Bob Haney and Joe Kubert.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #207

Our Army at War #207 (On Sale: April 1, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "A Sparrow's Prayer" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. The back-ups are "Top of the World" drawn by Sid Greene and "SOS Send Our Food" by Mike Friedrich and Ed Robbins. This is the second of Ed Robbins' 1969 DC stories.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #206

Our Army at War #206 (On Sale: March 4, 1969) has an interesting split cover by Joe Kubert.

We start with Sgt. Rock in "There's a War On" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. That's followed by "The Wall" a reprint from All-American Men of War #7 by France Herron, Jerry Grandenetti and Sy Barry. Lastly is "Death Crowns an Ace" by Robert Kanigher and Ken Barr.

This is Scottish artist Ken Barr's first work for DC. Ken would draw twelve stories for DC in all, eleven of them between 1969 and 1974 and a final one in 1981. Barr would also write one of the stories and he would draw four war covers for DC as well. Ken's style lent itself to war books, though two of his stories were for the horror/mystery line.

Comic fans most likely remember Ken Barr for his paintings. He did a couple of covers for Warren's Creepy and for the fanzines Phase 1 and Hot Stuf but his real workload was for Marvel. Ken painted the covers of their black and white Doc Savage book from issue 2-8. He also did covers for The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, The Rampaging Hulk, Marvel Preview, The Savage Sword of Conan, Planet of the Apes and Savage Tales.

According to his website, Ken is currently working on a fully painted Dracula graphic novel.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #205

Our Army at War #205 (On Sale: February 4, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert. declaring this to be a "Special Issue," a DC code word for "Reprint Book!"

We have three tales here wrapped around by a Sgt. Rock framing sequence by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert: "Medal for a War Dog" from All-American Men of War #38 by Robert Kanigher , Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, "The Tank with a Memory" from Star Spangled War Stories #34 by France Herron and Russ Heath and "Battle Zoo" from Our Army at War #59 by Jack Miller and Joe Kubert.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Our Army at War #204

Our Army at War #204 (On Sale: January 2, 1969) begin s the books of 1969 with a cover by Joe Kubert proclaiming a "Special Issue!"

Now by "Special Issue!" DC really meant "Reprint Book!" Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert created a framing sequence around a number of reprints, beginning with "Battle of the Bugles" by Nat Barnett, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito from Our Army At War #16. Next was "Trench Battle" by Jack Miller and Joe Kubert from Star Spangled War Stories #48 and "Stand-In Soldier" written and drawn by Fred Ray from Our Army At War #19.

This was followed by "The Golden Gladiators" by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito and reprinted from Our Army At War #52. The book ends with "Sword for a Statue" by Nat Barnett, Gene Colan and Joe Giella and reprinted from Our Army At War #17.

Edited by Joe Kubert.