|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 3, 2017 12:39:56 GMT -5
After reading all the 1960s Mlle. Marie stories I could find, I moved over to Sgt. Fury #31 to #40. I'm up to #34 ... which features the origin of the Howling Commandos! As I'm mostly reading late Silver Age Marvels right now, I'm used to the stories being more spread out, four or five panels per page, you can read them pretty quickly. But I'm still in the mid-1960s on Sgt. Fury, and there's so much dialogue! Sheesh! It seems to take forever! I love it when I have the time to march through, but sometimes, knowing it will take 30 minutes to read it, I'll skip Sgt. Fury and read a few issues of 1970 Iron Man and Sub-Mariner. #34 is awesome, despite all that!
|
|
|
Post by Rob Allen on Oct 3, 2017 16:01:45 GMT -5
After reading all the 1960s Mlle. Marie stories I could find, I moved over to Sgt. Fury #31 to #40. I'm up to #34 ... which features the origin of the Howling Commandos! Did it involve a Chinese guy named Hao Ling?
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 3, 2017 22:37:21 GMT -5
It is a great story and Ed Brubaker included the major elements in The Marvels Project, with Nick, Red, and Happy Sam's mission to get Abraham Erskine out of Europe, leading to Project: Rebirth.
The original story is fun, though their running into Dum-Dum, while he is with the circus, in Europe, is a bit much (though pretty cool).
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 4, 2017 13:00:57 GMT -5
I'm reading Sub-Mariner #25 and I came across the Mighty Marvel Checklist and it summarizes Sgt. Fury #77 like this: That sounds pretty cool. I may have to skip ahead and read it soon.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 7, 2017 16:29:58 GMT -5
I'm up to Sgt. Fury #37 (but I posted the cover to #36 because ... well, look at it! Van Fury's Express!). I really liked the structure of #33 to #35. #33 and #35 are a two-part story. In order to complete a mission to Greece, Fury has to leave the rest of the Howlers behind at the end of #33! In #34, while he's back at the base and waiting for the brass to give him the OK to rescue the Howlers (who have been captured and are being transported to Berlin where they will be personally executed by Hitler!), we get a flashback to the origin of the Howlers! In the years between the invasion of Poland and Pearl Harbor, Fury is a civilian (a former wing-walker in a barnstorming act) training paratroopers for the RAF. Lt. Sam Sawyer talks Fury and Red (his barnstorming buddy) into going on a mission into Occupied Europe. Where they run into an American circus stranded by the war! And Dum Dum Dugan is the circus strong man! After the mission, they go back to the states, join the army and Red is killed at Pearl Harbor. In #35, Fury leads a small elite group made up of himself, Bull McGiveney (ugh!), McGiveney's corporal (also ugh!) and reformed Nazi Eric Koenig. They go to Berlin and rescue the Howlers just as Hitler is about to kill them! Josef Goebbels puts in a cameo appearance as well. At the end, Koenig is officially assigned to the Howlers on a permanent basis!
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 7, 2017 21:44:54 GMT -5
I'm up to Sgt. Fury #37 (but I posted the cover to #36 because ... well, look at it! Van Fury's Express!). I really liked the structure of #33 to #35. #33 and #35 are a two-part story. In order to complete a mission to Greece, Fury has to leave the rest of the Howlers behind at the end of #33! In #34, while he's back at the base and waiting for the brass to give him the OK to rescue the Howlers (who have been captured and are being transported to Berlin where they will be personally executed by Hitler!), we get a flashback to the origin of the Howlers! In the years between the invasion of Poland and Pearl Harbor, Fury is a civilian (a former wing-walker in a barnstorming act) training paratroopers for the RAF. Lt. Sam Sawyer talks Fury and Red (his barnstorming buddy) into going on a mission into Occupied Europe. Where they run into an American circus stranded by the war! And Dum Dum Dugan is the circus strong man! After the mission, they go back to the states, join the army and Red is killed at Pearl Harbor. In #35, Fury leads a small elite group made up of himself, Bull McGiveney (ugh!), McGiveney's corporal (also ugh!) and reformed Nazi Eric Koenig. They go to Berlin and rescue the Howlers just as Hitler is about to kill them! Josef Goebbels puts in a cameo appearance as well. At the end, Koenig is officially assigned to the Howlers on a permanent basis! Funny thing about the impending Howler execution story; Hitler actually issued the so-called Commando Order. Any commando or similar special units that were captured were to be summarily executed as spies and saboteurs, regardless of whether they were in uniform and regardless of the Geneva Convention. However, the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe rarely carried it out, for fear of reprisals to their own troops taken prisoner. Probably the biggest case of ignoring the order was at Arnhem, during Operation Market Garden, where the British paras were cut off from the ground troops that were trying to get to them and reinforce them. The surviving paras were taken as POWs and the wounded were treated by German medics. The Greek story was a good one. There is a later one where Fury has been captured and Dum-Dum and the Howlers hae been ordered to sit tight, when they want to go rescue him. I believe it was one of Gary friederichs, with the Dick Ayers and John Severin team on the art.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 14, 2017 15:40:43 GMT -5
I'm up to Sgt. Fury #40 and I think it's time for a little break from the Commandos. I like these stories, but they get a little repetitive. Fury is insolent to Sawyer, they get a mission, they make a bunch of wisecracks - Reb always wants to play poker, Dum Dum says being tortured by Nazis is better than spending the weekend with his mother-in-law, Pinky throws in a totally gratuitous comment about his umbrella or bumbershoot or brolly, Gabe does the same thing with his trumpet, Izzy says something his mom in Flatbush - they fight a bunch of ineffectual German soldiers and then back to England. And because I'm still in the middle 1960s, words WORDS WORDS!! I can read three issues of 1970 Captain America, Sub-Mariner or Iron Man in the time it takes to read one 1967 issue of Sgt. Fury. I really liked #38 because the guest star was Jim Morita, a Japanese-American on the base, waiting for the rest of his all-Nisei unit (possible the 442nd but it isn't explicitly stated) to show up. Bigoted soldiers (not the Howlers!) give him a hard time but Jim beats them up with judo! Jim goes AWOL to go on a mission with the Howlers. He hides on the plane taking them to a concentration camp on an island in the Baltic where a certain surgeon is being held captive. This surgeon is the only one who can perform the operation that will enable Dino (injured a few issues ago) to walk again and rejoin the Howlers! (And he has to have that operation because the second Sgt. Fury annual has already shown Dino taking part in D-Day, which hasn't happened yet as of #38.) The mission is successful and fortunately, the top brass is very understanding about Jim wanting to ignore orders just to go on a mission with the Howlers. So it all ends happily! It's too bad Jim didn't become a regular Howler! Then he could inject how much he likes (insert stereotypical Japanese food or object here; I prefer pachinko) into every issue in a most arbitrary manner. "You can't kill me, Fritz! I have to get back to the states alive to play pachinko!"
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 14, 2017 18:59:53 GMT -5
That's part of the reason Kirby hated that book. It just wasn't real, written by guys who were either stateside (Stan) or two young and never in the army (Roy Thomas and others). The war was all to real to Kirby and the Losers reflected more of what he thought Fury should be (though he hated the name Losers).
I love Sgt Fury for what it is (the comic book equivalent of 60s war/action movies); but, it never had the depth that the DC or EC war comics did.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 14, 2017 20:01:55 GMT -5
That's part of the reason Kirby hated that book. It just wasn't real, written by guys who were either stateside (Stan) or two young and never in the army (Roy Thomas and others). The war was all to real to Kirby and the Losers reflected more of what he thought Fury should be (though he hated the name Losers). I love Sgt Fury for what it is (the comic book equivalent of 60s war/action movies); but, it never had the depth that the DC or EC war comics did. The Wikipedia article (which I read today to see what was coming up in the next batch) says that Mike Friedrich wrote some stories that are very highly regarded, starting with (I think) "The War Lover" in #45 and then over the years a few others with titles like "The Assassin" and ... I forget the others. Sgt. Fury is pretty great! but the formula gets a bit shopworn when you read ten issues over just two or three weeks. I hope that changes in #41 to #50. As much as I like John Tartaglione's inks, I admit I'm looking forward to John Severin, which starts in the 40s.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 14, 2017 20:19:29 GMT -5
That's part of the reason Kirby hated that book. It just wasn't real, written by guys who were either stateside (Stan) or two young and never in the army (Roy Thomas and others). The war was all to real to Kirby and the Losers reflected more of what he thought Fury should be (though he hated the name Losers). I love Sgt Fury for what it is (the comic book equivalent of 60s war/action movies); but, it never had the depth that the DC or EC war comics did. The Wikipedia article (which I read today to see what was coming up in the next batch) says that Mike Friedrich wrote some stories that are very highly regarded, starting with (I think) "The War Lover" in #45 and then over the years a few others with titles like "The Assassin" and ... I forget the others. Sgt. Fury is pretty great! but the formula gets a bit shopworn when you read ten issues over just two or three weeks. I hope that changes in #41 to #50. As much as I like John Tartaglione's inks, I admit I'm looking forward to John Severin, which starts in the 40s. Actually, that's Gary Friedrich. He did write some fine stories, with the superlative art team of Dick Ayers and John Severin. Severin added a lot, as he was a veteran of the Pacific theater. Ayers always got the look of the soldiers and gear right, having been in the Army Air Force; but, Severin added even more. The expressions were sharper, the body language conveyed more. there were little character touches. friedrich definitely had a better handle on things than Roy and he was trying to do more than war yarns on paper. It was never quite as good as Sgt Rock or Enemy Ace, or as original as the Unknown Soldier; but, Friedrich/Ayers/and Severin kept the book going for a long time. Marvel's other attempts at war comics (Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders, Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen, War is Hell) died quick deaths. I still wish DC and Marvel were cordial enough to continue doing crossovers. I have long held an idea for a Sgt Fury/Sgt Rock team-up, set during the Siege of Bastogne, during the Battle of the Bulge. Rock and Easy Company would be part of the cut off, defending troops. Fury and the Howlers would defy orders and undertake a daring parachute jump in impossible conditions, with the only pilot crazy and skilled enough to fly in the weather (a Polish exile pilot, of some note). They would harass the Germans and link up with Easy. They would conduct defensive patrols and keep the Germans off balance until Patton's forces arrived, with the Haunted Tank in the vanguard.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 15, 2017 0:42:32 GMT -5
The Wikipedia article (which I read today to see what was coming up in the next batch) says that Mike Friedrich wrote some stories that are very highly regarded, starting with (I think) "The War Lover" in #45 and then over the years a few others with titles like "The Assassin" and ... I forget the others. Sgt. Fury is pretty great! but the formula gets a bit shopworn when you read ten issues over just two or three weeks. I hope that changes in #41 to #50. As much as I like John Tartaglione's inks, I admit I'm looking forward to John Severin, which starts in the 40s. Actually, that's Gary Friedrich. He did write some fine stories, with the superlative art team of Dick Ayers and John Severin. Severin added a lot, as he was a veteran of the Pacific theater. Ayers always got the look of the soldiers and gear right, having been in the Army Air Force; but, Severin added even more. The expressions were sharper, the body language conveyed more. there were little character touches. friedrich definitely had a better handle on things than Roy and he was trying to do more than war yarns on paper. It was never quite as good as Sgt Rock or Enemy Ace, or as original as the Unknown Soldier; but, Friedrich/Ayers/and Severin kept the book going for a long time. Marvel's other attempts at war comics (Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders, Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen, War is Hell) died quick deaths. I still wish DC and Marvel were cordial enough to continue doing crossovers. I have long held an idea for a Sgt Fury/Sgt Rock team-up, set during the Siege of Bastogne, during the Battle of the Bulge. Rock and Easy Company would be part of the cut off, defending troops. Fury and the Howlers would defy orders and undertake a daring parachute jump in impossible conditions, with the only pilot crazy and skilled enough to fly in the weather (a Polish exile pilot, of some note). They would harass the Germans and link up with Easy. They would conduct defensive patrols and keep the Germans off balance until Patton's forces arrived, with the Haunted Tank in the vanguard. That sounds great! I forgot to mention that the next DC war comic that I'm going to read for a few weeks is ... "The War That Time Forgot" in Star-Spangled War Stories!
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 16, 2017 2:24:50 GMT -5
Star-Spangled War Stories #93 did not have an installment of "The War that Time Forgot." Instead you got "The Terror of Giant Mecha-Nazi!" Actually, its called "Goliath of the Western Front!" but you can't tell from the cover that it's a robot. Its totally whacked!
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 23, 2017 13:43:19 GMT -5
I'm up to Star Spangled War Stories #97, and I'm reading them a bit slower than I wanted. I still love the Silver Age Insanity of "The War that Time Forgot," but I think it's better in small doses. I've been reading the series in scattered reprints and the occasional beat-up back issue for many years. Now that I can read them online, I think I've read more stories form "The War that Time Forgot" in the last ten days than I've read in the previous 20 years! (And that include a couple of stories I read a few weeks ago.) But reading one a day for a few days ... well, you realize how repetitious it is. This is not a series that's conducive for binge-reading. Not for me anyway! I'm taking a break for a few days and then I'm going to read up to #100 because it's just three more issues and one of them is this one: I've been wanting to read this for DECADES! Triceratops vs. tank! And then after I read #100, I'll just read one story from "The War that Time Forgot" every once in a while, when 'm in the mood for it.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 26, 2017 0:30:46 GMT -5
Here's just what "The War that Time Forgot" needed to spice things up: Soldiers who used to be trapeze artists before joining up to fight the Japanese.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 26, 2017 17:47:11 GMT -5
Well. Star Spangled War Stories #100 features the return of the trapeze-artist soldiers in "The War that Time Forgot"!
In the circus, they were known as "The Flying Franks." But in that special theater of the War in the Pacific where the most persistent and destructive foes were pterodactyls, giant turtles and stegosauruses, they are know as "The Flying Boots," and it is unknown for them to give encore performances for their fellow troops while being attacked by a Zero kamikaze! They're just warming up for their next little fracas with an Ichthyosaur or a Diplodocus.
|
|