I'd agree on The Nam, possibly through the third year.  I did feel it didn't have the same scope or complexity that Vietnam Journal had, but Lomax worked without restrictions, while The Nam was a Code-approved book.  Lomax even did some writing on the series, after Murray left (can't remember if he was before or after Chuck Dixon) and Wayne Vanzant was doing a lot of the art.  They certainly tried.

I really need to track down Vietnam Journal. A number of trustworthy folks here have recommended it to me, based on my love of the 'Nam comic.

Joachim Peiper



was born in Berlin, in 1915, the son of middle class German parents, from the Silesian region of Germany (parts of which stretched into Poland and Czechoslovakia). His father had been a hauptmann (captain) in the Imperial German Army, serving in the East African Territories. Joachim did not achieve grades to go to university and followed his older brother, Horst, into scouting and the SS. He worked his way up the SS and became an adjutant to Himmler, which put him in close proximity to many senior SS. he was a favorite adjutant of Himmler. he accompanied Himmler on trips into Poland and France, after the German invasions, and witnessed the execution of Poles and the gassing of inmates at concentration camps. He was later transferred to a combat unit and became noted for aggressive tactics, which earned praise from superiors but resulted in high casualties. He led the relief of German troops at the Third Battle of Kharkov. During that operation, he is alleged to have ordered the massacre of civilians, in response to the deaths of some of his medical personnel. He was awarded the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest military order. He eventually commanded troops in Italy and Belgium. When the Germans launched their assault, which led to the Battle of the Bulge, Peiper was put in command of a Kampfgruppe, with most of the SS armor, including the King Tiger Tank, which was all but impervious to Allied anti-tank weapons. The group became known as Kampfgruppe Peiper, or Battle Group peiper.



The comic is written and drawn by Wayne Vansant. Vansant had submitted stories to Marvel's Savage Tales (the revived version), which led to becoming Michael Golden's replacement on The Nam. He also freelanced stories, with work appearing in The New Two-Fisted Tales, Semper Fi and some others, including this one-shot, for Caliber. Since then, he has specialized in historical comics, particularly military history.

Our story opens when Peiper's commander, Oberfuhrer Monke asks him to help with a bet, to see if a tank can cover 80 km, on narrow roads and at night. Peiper suspects something is up and accomplishes it in a Panther tank. He doesn't get the money, but, he gets command of the armored spearhead of the German advance through the Ardennes forest, with the objectives of capturing the bridges on the River Meuse and seize Antwerp, splitting the Allies in two. The SS men are not told until just prior to the attack, but are in high spirits, as they are back on the offensive.

On Dec 16, at 0500, an artillery barrage was launched. When it ceased, spotlights were turned on low clouds, creating artificial moonlight and the infantry advanced, stunning the green 106th Infantry and 14th Cavalry. They easily pushed through these untested men and sped onward. Peiper pushed slow traffic off the road and dragooned other troops into his advance, such as turning fallschirmjaeger (paratroops) into panzer grenadiers. When he came across an area that wasn't fully cleared of American mines, he rolled armored vehicles over it to clear a path, sacrificing a few vehicles to keep up the speed of the advance. At a crossroads in Belgium, they overwhelmed the 7th Cavalry and took 150 men prisoner. A Belgian farmer atched as troops pulled up in armored trucks and a single shot rang out into the crowd of prisoners, soon followed by others, cutting them all down. The crossroads was the intersection of routes to St Vith and malmedy, and became known as the Malmedy Massacre. By Dec 18, they had seized one major bridge and the town of Stavlot. Then, they ran into Allied counter-attacks. Maj Paul Solis, of the 526 Armored Infantry Battalion noticed Peiper's untis racing on and recognized they were headed for fuel dumps. he raced ahead in a jeep and organized the destruction of the fuel, turning back Peiper's men. They then moved on another bridge, only for the Army engineers to blow it and unload on his tanks with an anti-tank gun. Peiper's men changed course and were attacked by air support. Back in Stavlot, his men went on a rampage, killing 8 prisoners and 100+ civilians.

On Dec 19, peiper ran into the 30 Infantry Division, who stopped him cold. he and his men formed a defensive perimeter, to wait for supplies, but, they never came. The counter attack at Stavlot drove off the SS and supplies never made it. Attempts to airdrop supplies mostly landed in Allied hands. The SS men used captured weapons, but had been fighting for 3 days, with little rest. On Dec 23, after communications with his superiors, Peiper left behind his wounded and medical personnel and marched the remainder of his forces back towards their lines. they linked up with the retreating 1st panzer and his command was effectively over, by Dec 26.

Peiper was captured in May of 1945, though not identified until August. he was put on trial at Dachau, along with three other SS officers. No evidence could produce written orders for the execution of prisoners and civilians and the Belgian farmer who witnessed the Malmedy shooting said he saw no one who matched Peiper. Peiper was imprisoned but spared the death penalty. he was released in 1957 and then tried to live a quiet life, with his past often catching up to him. In 1976, he was living in a quiet French village, when he was identified and threatened. After sending his wife and daughter back to Germany (after French police declined to aid him) he fought an attack on July 14, Bastille Day, inflicting heavy casualties until he ran out of ammo for a hunting rifle. The house was burnt down and he was later found dead, in the ruins, with the empty rifle.

Vansant does a tremendous job of condensing a complex series of events into a coherent narrative. He is noted for his attention to detail and it is here, though never overwhelming the story. He seems to show some sympathy to peiper, as a soldier; but, never shirks away from the reality that the SS men under his command committed atrocities. The Waffen SS had a fearsome and well earned reputation for violence and cruelty and were responsible for some of the worst attacks on civilians in the war. Unlike the Wehrmacht, who tended to adhere more to the Geneva convention, the SS were notorious for their contempt for it. They were fanatics and fought like it. Vansant is a little soft on this point, though he doesn't ignore it. His art is in black and white, with zip-a-tones added for shading effects. His figures aren't the bold, heroic men of Russ heath and Joe Kubert, but more in keeping with people like Harvey Kurtzman and Sam Glanzman.

The comic, like many from Caliber, flew under the radar. It was probably the rare shop that ordered it, as Caliber was a small outfit and war comics had long since lost their audience. However, it is a fine piece of graphic history.

Joachim Peiper would be the basis for at least two characters in movies. In the film The Battle of the Bulge, he is the template for Robert Shaw's Martin hessler, who leads the advance on the Allies, complete with a scene of the SS men singing, when told of the attack (something Vansant shows, though while on the march).



However, Shaw's character is depicted as a Wehrmacht panzer commander, not a Waffen SS Kampfgruppe commander. he is shown to be more noble than the more fanatical peiper, though Peiper's men were fiercely loyal to him.

He was also the basis for Peter O'Toole's character in Night of the Generals. Again, the character is a Wehrmacht officer, not SS. He is one of three suspects in the killing of a prostitute, with the other two involved in plots to kill Hitler. The inspiration was based more on Peiper's infamy than actual history.



Battle of the Bulge is a decent, if unspectacular film and it gets the main strategy of the offensive correct, even if it takes big liberties with actual incidents. It starts out spectacularly, they kind of meanders for a bit, before building to the climax.

I met Vansant at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, around the time the comic came out. There were a pair of re-enactors there, representing their group, who spent a lot of time talking to vansant. These weren't Civil War re-enactors, as you would expect, in Atlanta; they acted as German soldiers in WW2 and were decked out in primarily SS gear (though there was a mix). To me, they came across as way too into it and looked more like these bozos...



At the time, I was a serving naval officer and thought they looked more than a little pathetic. Looking back, they seemed like the types who actually joined the SA and the SS; usually failures at everything else, with an axe to grind with the world, seeking glory and status.

I do have to amend my statement above; the Wehrmacht did commit some atrocities, though in a far smaller proportion than the SS. Then again, our hands weren't entirely clean, given things like the fire-bombing of Dresden. There is no such thing as a clean war.

And that's a story (details). Surely it doesn't have twist and turns like Ernie Pike which is compiled out of many sources, or TV show Band of Brothers which follows several threads, but it's not a bit less interesting, it's just different type of storytelling. 1st person point of view, reads like well illustrated letters.

You mentioned USS Stevens, for those interested there are 32 4-page installments of USS Stevens, published as backup stories in Our Army at War (28), Sgt. Rock (2) and Weird War Tales (1).

The series was always focused on the mission; but, with Gary Friedrich, there is more character development; plus, you have the excellent art team of Dick Ayers and John Severin.  The earlier stuff, from Stan Lee and Roy Thomas is very much the wild free-wheeling missions where they buzz through goosesteppers.  It had a lot in common with things like Rat Patrol and 60s military action films.  With Friedrich, it gits a little more moralistic, though not to the same extent as either Archie Goodwin's Blazing Combat or the DC books, under Kubert.  However, there is less of the wisecracking for the sake of comedy, and more of the tense missions, with dark humor as a release.