If only OMAC had continued on and Dr. Skuba and family became his main villainous foils. For me Skuba and his water bar's reminded me of the Underdog cartoon when Simon Bar Sinister sucked up all the water in the world. This was a fun little story here by Kirby and i especially liked his thoughts on how dense and heavy the water bars were. That Skuba also figured out a way to revert OMAC back to Buddy Blank was creative. With OMAC Kirby really did explore science fiction over science fantasy.

Starlin must have had Mohawk envy?!? Had such hopes for Starlin on Omac but it soured quickly for me as it just didn't feel like Omac. Starlin simplified the costume which wasn't nearly as good as the original and as you said suddenly there were alien participants as Starlin twisted a Kirby creation into the watered down Warlock version. Now boy would i have been all over a George Perez Omac though. If only.....

And can we please forget the whole Batman/Brother Eye/Omac crap fest? Pretty please?

Our Fighting Forces #151



The cover is a typical Joe Kubert war comic cover, soldiers unaware of lurking danger.

Kirby is in his element here. Many artists in WW2 found themselves in rear echelon jobs, creating artwork for information releases, drawing maps, decorating aircraft and similar jobs. When Jack Kirby's CO found out he was an artist, he figured he could draw maps and assigned him to be a scout. The job of a scout platoon was to go in advance of the rest of the unit and collect intel, prisoners, and bring back that info. Maps with enemy positions would help the COs direct their forces in achieving their objective. Scout platoons saw heavy combat and Kirby carried that with him the rest of his life.

Kirby had previously drawn Sgt. Fury; but, he hated the book. Stan's approach was to do a war comic in the same manner as the superhero books. It was lighthearted and brash. Kirby knew what combat was like; Stan didn't. Here, Kirby got to do his war book. Now, he would have rather created his own characters; but, DC wanted him to do The Losers, in Our Fighting Forces. The premise of the team is that former lead war comic feature characters, Johnny Cloud (The Navajo Ace), Capt. Storm (a PT-boat skipper, ala Lt. John F Kennedy), Gunner & Sarge (a pair of Marines) and their dog, Pooch. Their features had been cancelled and the initial Losers story finds each suffering some kind of tragedy and they are labelled as cursed. They are brought together as a special operations squad and assigned dangerous missions.

This issue finds the team dispatched to rendezvous with the Maquis, the French Resistance. They are in a forest, with a German patrol searching for them. Kirby's experience immediately shows itself as Kirby depicts the German's moving in skirmish lines.



The are reinforced by the Maquis, who lead them into town, though Gunner has been separated from the unit. We see that Gunner has been captured and is brought before a German major, who loves to play Wagner, on the piano. We then see an SS officer, who has rounded up female suspects. The Germans are looking for famed concert pianist Emma Klein, who happens to be the Losers objective. The Resistance has hidden her somewhere in town. Gunner is sent off to be cleaned up, and the Major sends his maid to show the SS where to go. meanwhile, the Losers are brought through tunnels to the major's house. the German major then questions Gunner, asking him to identify Klein. he puts a gun to a woman's head, when the Losers hit the room. The team works fast to get the women out as an artillery barrage is scheduled to hit the city. The major is hit and goes down. We see the maid go up to him and taunt him, then go over to the piano. She plays Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" as the artillery barrage begins. She is Emma Klein and has been under his nose the whole time!  Kirby juxtaposes the images of the Teutonic myths and the guns firing and buildings being hit.



The issue moves quickly and Kirby doesn't sentimentalize the war, nor does he glorify the soldiers. They are men doing a dirty job. Look at the narration at the top of a splash page...



"Go in fast! Do your job! Get out fast!" That was Kirby's job. Fighting is at close quarters and it is nasty. There are no John Wayne heroics, though the men take chances. Early on, Sarge surprises a German soldier and takes him out. That ends up leading the German patrol in their direction. Kirby knew that Hollywood heroics got you killed. Kirby's soldiers carry their weapons like a soldier, they use ground cover to get away or move into better firing position. Meanwhile, Kirby turns on its head the Nazi love of Wagner as a musician uses the work to accompany their doom, with artillery shells bursting in time with the Valkyries descending from Valhalla to collect the slain heroes.

One thing that had me confused when I first read these comics was that Captain Storm is taking orders from Johnny Cloud, who is an Army Captain. A Navy "captain" is equivalent in rank to an Army colonel. A little research showed where the problem lay. Capt. Storm was originally a PT boat skipper. They were generally commanded by lieutenant JGs (junior grade=Army 1st lieutenant) and lieutenants (equal to an Army captain). He was not a captain in rank, he was the captain of a ship. When the Losers debuted, he had been injured in a battle and his ship sunk.  He had a wooden prosthetic leg and lost an eye. Now, he would have been retired from a combat role and probably medically discharged, though an experienced officer might be kept in the service in a rear echelon job. So, he and Cloud are equivalent in rank, though Cloud appears to be the senior of the two. Thing is, Cloud was a fighter pilot, not an infantry officer, so he is no more experienced in these kind of missions than Storm. The concept doesn't really work when you apply real world logic to it. Kirby dispensed with most of that (as did Kanigher) and just treats everyone like they are infantry. Kirby is stuck with Storm wearing his white combination cover (his cap) even though no one is going to wear that into combat. It's a minor concern and the war comics had bigger sins. Again, had Kirby created his own characters, they would have been more technically correct.

Kirby is off to a good start and serves notice to to war comic fans, an audience that was often exclusive to war comics. He was definitely a change from the usual stable of DC war artists (Kubert, Russ Heath, Jerry Grandinetti, Sam Glanzman); less interested in "realistic" art but more interested in realistic combat.

Our Fighting Forces #152



Kirby gets the cover and the boys are in desperate close quarters combat; something Kirby had experienced.

The Losers have themselves a 3 Day Pass and are headed into a town for some R & R. The town was supposedly taken and pacified; but, something isn't right...



The Germans open up and the boys hunt cover, returning fire. Sarge gets off a lucky shot that hits a "potato masher" grenade, in a German soldier's belt. The firing gets heavier, so the squad takes it on the lam and runs right smack into a panzer. They duck in a house and try to hide. The Germans know they have them cornered in this street and start making a house-to-house sweep...



The boys try to stay down and quiet, but, the Germans are on their roof. Standard tactics for this kind of operation is to try to clear the building from the top down, driving the enemy out at ground level, into a waiting ambush. The Losers start returning fire and throw grenades at troops on an adjoining rooftop. More Wehrmacht soldiers are moving in and an MG-44 is set up, which begins to mercilessly rake the house. Grenades come in and Capt. Storm almost buys it...



The Losers have nowhere to go but up. They encounter more troops and a flammenwerfer (flame-thrower). Cloud and Sarge immediately unload. Fighting turns to hand-to-hand, knife against knife. Sarge rescues Gunner, telling him not to play with "stick-specialists." They flee the burning roof and fight their way to another and to the edge. They improvise an escape, down a drainpipe...



The streets are still filled with Wehrmacht soldiers; but, the sounds of explosions come closer. The Germans go down and hit the bricks. Eventually, the Losers see their saviors...



The Losers start to move out, when they run into an officer in a jeep. It turns out that it is a general's jeep and he calls them Losers, foul-ups; but, they did good job. The men are stunned by who they are seeing, as they take in ivory-handled revolvers and the 4 stars on his helmet...



They move along, wondering if they can find medics and maybe still get their 3 Day Pass.

Outstanding issue from combat veteran Kirby. There is no glorious commando mission, no grandstanding with German soldiers, no Dirty Dozen heroics; just experienced soldiers in a desperate fight to stay alive. This is the kind of fighting Kirby experienced. Notice in the opening splash page that the men are wearing their wool great coats. It is obviously in the late fall or winter and the men are cold and tired. Kirby knew about that, too. He spent freezing nights in wet and muddy foxholes and contracted a bad case of frostbite on his feet. It was touch and go as to whether he would lose them. He survived and kept his toes; but had problems with cold weather from then on.

This issue, probably more than any of the others of Kirby's run, matches his experiences in combat (heightened for drama, certainly). In this excerpt from a 1983 conversation, Kirby relates some of his wartime experiences...



Think about that for a moment, this Memorial Day, and remember those artists and writers of our favorite books who lived through this, as well as all of those other men and women, soldiers and civilians, who suffered through the horror, pain, and loss. No matter who wins or how noble the cause may have seemed, there is no glory in war; only death and destruction. Many combat veterans would tell you that they hoped they would be the last to live through this.

If only...

Our Fighting Forces #154




The Losers are in the South Pacific and they have snuck into a Japanese compound...





(Notice that Kirby is educating the readers on some of the equipment? There were also end pages with various military facts, like unit insignia, hats & helmets, small arms, artillery, and vehicles).

Cloud and the boys have snatched Col. Yamashita and are taking him away, though he doesn't make it easy. The steal away with a French guide and insults fly at Yamashita. He eventually is able to escape and link up with one of his patrols. he then turns the tide on the Losers, capturing Frenchy and Gunner, threatening to kill them unless Cloud faces him in hand-to-hand combat. Cloud agrees and a desperate fight ensues.



Cloud is outclassed, but hangs on. We soon learn why he went through with this...



Yamashita has no option left to him, according to the code of bushido (as interpreted by Kirby). He leads his men in a suicidal "banzai" charge against the invading enemy.

An excellent little piece from Kirby and one that fits quite well with the typical DC war comic, under Robert Kanigher. The enemy is given a face, and we get what seems like a special mission that turns bad; but, it turns out it was a diversion. The twist is that bushido was used against Yamashita, to get him to make mistakes that made the invasion of his area easier.

The Japanese were a formidable enemy in the Pacific. They lacked the armaments to compete with America, especially by 1944, when the Japanese had suffered heavy losses and US industry was churning out weapons by the shipload. However, Japanese soldiers often fought to the last man, living by the traditions of bushido. Suicidal charges were seen as an honorable death, compared to capture. An account I read of the fighting in the Aleutian Islands talked about how when the Japanese could see that their positions were endangered and they had little hope of victory, many actually committed suicide by pulling the pins from grenades and clamping them into their neck, with their lower jaw, where the resulting explosion would blow their heads off. Eyewitnesses spoke of dozens of soldiers taking their lives via this method. This is why casualties were so high in the Pacific, as troops would continue fighting until they had nothing left to fight with but bare hands and steel bayonets. It is why the US Marines revere the names Tarawa, Kwajalein, Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Those islands were paid for with blood. It is why many thought that dropping the Atomic Bomb was more merciful for all than an invasion of the Japanese home islands. That will be the subject of debate for generations to come. In the end, the dead are just as dead. "Merciful" and "noble" deaths are in the eyes of the beholder.

Biggest Gun in WW2



Great Information about the Gun

It's need 500 Soldiers and it's headed by a Major General of the Nazi Army to use it. I've seen movies in Germany showcasing this monster and seen a half size mockup of it and I was stunned by it.

Our Fighting Forces #156



Our story begins stateside, on the waters of the Hudson River, as we see a Liberty Ship headed out to see. However, there is a predator out there and it launches a trio of "fish":



However, the ship is just bait, as there are hunters waiting for the predator:



PBY Catalina patrol craft spot the submarine and alert the Coast Guard, who drop depth charges on the U-boat, damaging its pressure hull and forcing the men to abandon ship. Survivors are rounded up, which is where the Losers come into the story.




They are there to identify one Helmut Steger, an Abwehr (German military intelligence) agent, who is supposed to make contact with an agent in New York. he is not among the survivors and the Losers are released to go on furlough, subject to the authority of G-2. In other words, their mission comes first. They know Steger was to make contact with an "old man" on Broadway, which is teaming with crowds. The Losers prowl in a taxi, searching futilely through the theater-going crowds. When all seems pointless, Capt. Storm spots an old man dropping a newspaper, ...



They have their man and give chase. Steger whips out a Luger and fires into the crowd, when FBI or G-2 agents get the drop on him and arrest him. They find a message hidden in Steger's hatband. As Steger is pulled away, he gloats that they will all soon be dead. The agent relays the content of the message and the Losers head off to find another U-boat!

This second submarine is about to launch a deadly weapon...



...when the Losers show up and board the submarine, launching havoc along the way. The German Kriegsmarine sailors fight back and the missile is launched. Gunner and Sarge fight over to the sub's deck gun and target the missile.



They are able to knock it down before it can fully accelerate, stopping it from hitting New York City.

This is a great "mystery" issue from Kirby, with realistic overtones. German U-boats operated off the coast of the Atlantic seaboard (as well as in the Caribbean and Panama Canal Zone), targeting convoys. There were even attacks on ships in harbors. However, patrol efforts by the military and the Coast Guard eventually put an end to these attacks, using patrol aircraft (like the PBY Catalina), naval blimps, destroyers and land-based bombers. Kirby also includes the Henschel HS 293, a radio-controlled glider bomb, which was used as an anti-ship weapon.


m
The weapon was used to attack Allied ships at the Anzio landings, though countermeasures were soon developed, which jammed the signals to the bomb. The British developed the most effective, which were then used during the Normandy and Operation Dragoon landings, adding to the success of those operations. Shooting one down with a deck gun is a bit far fetched, though not out of the realm of possibility. The modern Close In Weapon System (CIWS) is used by the US Navy to shoot down incoming missiles. It consists of a 20 mm radar-controlled Gatling Gun, which fires spent uranium (which is extremely dense) projectiles, which cause the missile to disintegrate when they impact. The HS 93 was designed to be launched by bombers; so, a submarine launch would require a propellant, making it vulnerable at launch.

Anyway, Kirby is in his element, as he has plenty of action to throw at the reader, with the bomber and Coast Guard attack on the first U-Boat, the fight on the Broadway street, and the boarding of the second U-boat. he also gets to indulge in showcasing his hometown, in his younger days. Kirby goes to town with New York, packing the images with theater marquees, newspapers, authentic streetlamps, cars, posters; everything you would have seen on Broadway, in the 1940s. Kirby also adds to my puzzlement over why Capt. Storm is subordinate to Capt. Johnny Cloud. originally, Capt. Storm is a naval lieutenant, skipper of a PT Boat. Captain refers to captaining the PT boat, not a naval rank (the Navy was good for this dual use of "captain"). A naval lieutenant is the equivalent in rank of an Army captain. Kirby draws Storm wearing his Service Dress Khakis, which includes "shoulderboard" rank insignia. Kirby draws 4 stripes, which indicates a naval captain, as the name would suggest. In some panels, it appears to be three, which suggests a commander or lieutenant commander (commander is thee solid stripes. LCDR has two solid and one half stripe). Either way, Storm outranks Cloud and shouldn't be taking orders from him. But, comics....

Since most of you don't care about that, back to the art. Kirby crafts a story that is up there with the best of DC's classic war comic work, while adding the exciting elements that Marvel had with Sgt Fury (without the real silliness that tended to remove that book from the stark reality of war). Apart from the 4th World, in my opinion, these stories are Kirby's best DC work. They do the job of fitting in with DC's legacy, while adding a more dynamic element to that tradition; and, an authenticity that someone like Robert Kanigher didn't quite have, no matter how good his research.

Next up, Kirby's only multi-part tale, as we look at issues 157 and 158, and Panama Fattie!