War comics are a genre of comics that gained popularity in English-speaking countries following the Second World War. Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

American War Comics

War comics began gaining popularity in the 1950s, and several anthologies by various publishers began to appear, such as Frontline Combat by EC. The most prolific publisher of war comics was Charlton Comics who produced a wide variety of titles beginning in the 1950s, such as Battlefield Action, though the mainstream publishers such as DC also began to produce war titles, which gained in popularity in the United States and Canada even during the Vietnam War. The titles tended to concentrate on US military depictions, generally in World War Two, the Korean War or the Vietnam War. An anthology, literally a garland or collection of flowers, is a collection of literary works, originally of poems, but in recent years its usage has broadened to be applied to collections of short stories and comic strips. ... Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ... Big C logo, used from Sept. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 230,000 South Vietnamese wounded: 300,000 US dead... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Combatants Western Allied/UN combatants: South Korea, United States, United Kingdom Communist combatants: North Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Soviet Union Commanders Douglas MacArthur Kim Il-sung, (Peng Dehuai de facto) Strength Note: All figures may vary according to source. ...

In the 1960s, several recurring characters began to appear in mainstream comic lines, including Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank in the DC line. These recurring characters began as regular "guests" of anthology titles such as Our Army At War and later graduated to their own titles. Marvel Comics also produced war titles, notably Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. One of Joe Kuberts evocative covers for Sgt. ... The Haunted Tank featured on the cover of G.I. Combat issue no. ... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ... Nick Fury is a fictional army hero and spy, featured in Marvel Comics. ...

End of the silver age

By the late 1980s, a great number of venerable war titles (most of which were either anthologies or else World War II themed titles) from the "Silver Age of Comic Books" had died out, though newer titles were still debuting. Notable among these was Marvel's the 'Nam which debuted in 1987 and was based during the first year on writer Doug Murray's actual Vietnam experiences (though it followed fictional character Ed Marks) and written in "real time" following a single character through his tour of duty and then progressing through every month of the Vietnam conflict from 1966 to 1972. Showcase #4 (Oct. ... The Nam was an historical fiction serial published in comic book form, detailing the U.S. War in Viet Nam from the perspective of active-duty soldiers involved in the conflict. ...

Writer Doug Murray opined that his proposal for a Vietnam-war themed comic did not look promising in this period: "I never expected anything to come of it because war books were already pretty much dead at that point in 1985."^[1]

Also from Marvel in the 1980s was the toy tie-in GI Joe: A Real American Hero which focused on a fictional counter-terrorist team in a contemporary setting, and a limited run of Tales of the Marine Corps, similar in tone and style to Charlton's Fightin' line of war anthologies.

Popular titles which ended long runs (over 100 issues) in the 1980s included:

• Sgt. Rock (DC - includes a retitling of the earlier Our Army At War, the combined run was over 400 issues from 1952 to 1988)^[2]
• G.I. Combat (DC)
• The Unknown Soldier (DC - a retitling of Star Spangled War Stories that ran from 1952 to 1977, then continued as The Unknown Soldier from 1977-1982,with number 268 the final issue).
• Fightin' Army^[3], (Charlton, 157 issues from 1956-1984)^[4]
• Fightin' Marines (Charlton, 163 issues from 1955-1984)^[5]
• Weird War Tales (DC, 124 issues from 1971-1983)^[6]

One of Joe Kuberts evocative covers for Sgt. ... Cover of issue #168 of G.I. Combat is a long-running comic book series published first by Quality Comics and later by National Periodical Publications or NCC, which was the primary company of those that evolved to become DC Comics. ... Unknown Soldier #250 with the title character in center. ... Weird War Tales was a comic book title published by DC Comics which ran from September 1971 to June 1983, numbering 124 issues. ...

Format

American war comics tended to be of the standard full-color newsprint format, though in the 1980s slick paper began to appear with more vibrant colors. DC and Marvel both also produced "Digest" in reduced paperback form to repackage older stories.

British War Comics

Black and white anthology stories were popular in Britain in the 1960s.

Notes