Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!!

From 1958, this cover is tentatively credited to Dick Giordano.

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!

This 1961 cover is tentatively credited to Jack Abel.

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!!

From 1960, here's a Sam Glanzman cover.

Cover Cavalcade

NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!! 

A Jack Keller cover from 1970.

Cover Cavalcade

 SEPTEMBER IS FLINTSTONES & JETSONS MONTH!!

This Ray Dirgo cover is from 1972. Pebbles and Bam-Bam are snot-nosed little trouble-makers, aren't they?

Cover Cavalcade

 SEPTEMBER IS FLINTSTONES & JETSONS MONTH!!

A 1971 cover by Ray Dirgo.

Willy Schultz--Chapter 16

 

cover artist unknown

Fightin' Army #92 (July 1970) gave us the last chapter of the saga of Willy Schultz in its original run with magnificent Sam Glanzman art. It's not the very last chapter--when this series was reprinted by Dark Horse last year, writer Will Franz did provide a final chapter. Sam Glanzman is gone, but artist Wayne Vansant provided great art work. We will, in a couple of weeks, break the usual rule about covering anything other than pre-digital media to review that final chapter. But for now, we're looking at the final Charlton Comics chapter.

Willy is still serving with an Italian partisan unit and that unit is not having a good time. There's a trader in their midst and partisans waiting for a supply air-drop are ambushed and killed because the Germans knew they'd be there.

Most of this issue then moves to Willy and OSS agent Jon Daurio drinking together. Jon has just learned that his wife died in childbirth. Willy tries to comfort him as best he can. Jon, after getting more than a little drunk, pontificates on the brutality of war. He still believes that Willy is guilty of the murder of an American officer, but how is he any different from the rest of them, who kill their fellow human beings every day?

Willy also shares a very human moment with Elena. This is one of the strongest chapters in the series. It has only a little action and is very dialogue-heavy--something that can be a weakness in graphic storytelling. But Franz writes great dialogue. Willy, Jon and Elena all have distinctive personalities. It is simply a great scene.

Soon after, Jon and some partisans are gunned down by the traitor in their midst. Jon lives long enough to finger Elena's father as the traitor. The old man is quickly run down and killed, with the partisans promising that Elena need not know about him.

That leaves Willy in command of the partisans. And after this, Charlton pulled the plug on the series (though they did reprint portions of it in later years). Willy doesn't get a satisfying end to his saga for over fifty years. 

But he did get that ending eventually. As I said, we'll take a look at that finale in a few weeks. Next week, we'll check to see how Hulk is doing with his girlfriend Jarella. 

Willy Schultz, Part 15

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Fightin' Army #91 (May 1970) brings us another excellent chapter in "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz," written by Will Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman.

I really enjoy the way this story is constructed. It starts in the midst of action, with Willy being tracked by a trio of Germans. Willy kills one of them, but is himself wounded.

We then jump to a flashback--and a brief nightmare by Willy during that flashback--that together fill in the back story. Willy, Elena and a squad of other partisans are ambushed by Germans. Only Willy and Elena (who has some sharpnel in her leg) get away.

They take refuge in a farmhouse, but there's reason to suspect the husband and wife who live there may sell them out to the Germans. After all, the Germans would kill the family if its found they were hiding partisans AND the partisans have themselves stolen from farmers in the past. 

Still, there's no choice. Willy tries to stay away to watch the couple while Elena sleeps, but he drifts off. When he wakes up, he sees the husband has indeed led Germans to the house. Willy runs for it, trying to lead the Germans away from Elena. That's where we rejoin him, wounded with two more Germans still on his trail. 

He manages to take them out and return to the farm. More partisans have arrived and Elena is okay. But Willy isn't terribly happy with the farm couple.

In the end, though, he can't pull the trigger on them. Nor does he allow anyone else to kill them. He's simply had enough killing for the day.

It's a chapter that tells a suspensful story AND comments effectively on the brutality of war. As I mentioned before, I'm impressed by the combined use of flashback and nightmare to gradually give us necessary plot exposition. This chapter is a great example of just how exceptional as a whole this saga is. 

Next week, we'll dive into the ocean to visit with Aquaman.

Willy Schulz, Part 14

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

The next chapter of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" appears in Fightin' Army #90 (March 1970). Will Franz is still the writer and Sam Glanzman continues to provide the excellent artwork.

Willy is still fighting alongside Italian partisans and he's definitely not having an easy time of it. The story opens with Willy and some partisans trapped in a house, with a German tank outside about to blow them into oblivion.

While several wounded men provide covering fire, Willy and the others make a break for it, reaching a ditch with the hope of taking out the tank with grenades and molotov cocktails. This is a desperation tactic and it doesn't look like it will work.

Several men are killed when a molotov cocktail detonates in the trench. Others panic and run only to be machine gunned. In the meantime, the tank has destroyed the house and killed the wounded men there.

Willy's the only one left. He manages to blow a tread off the tank in the nick of time, then hit the tank with another molotov. But when a German crawls from the burning tank, Willy can't make himself shoot the man. He's saved by the arrival of Major Dario, the OSS man in charge of the partisans. Dario shoots the German just before the German shoots Willy.

So far, we've been given an intense battle scene. The story winds down with Willy and Dario discussing the situation. Dario reveals that he doesn't really believe Willy is innocent of the murder he was charged with so long ago. He also wonders why Willy would regret having to kill the Germans who just slaughtered the wounded men in the house. Willy counters this by saying the dead Germans had friends as well. 

And that's it. This chapter is one incident during Willy's time with the partisans. But, aside from the fantastic battle scene, it once again explores the moral uncertainty of war and does so intelligently. 

All the same, as I write these reviews, I do wish the saga had spent more time dealing with why it was necessary to fight the Nazis. We do get some of this in the last chapter of the saga and its obvious that both Will Franz and Sam Glanzman understood the evils of fascism. I think this superb series could have been a little better if that aspect of the war had been in the forefront more often.

On the other hand, the saga has been making the legitimate point that many individual German soldiers were not evil men. And no one work of fiction is obligated to examine every single moral aspect of the story being told. If Franz and Glanzman choose to concentrate on one aspect of war and do so with dramatic power and intelligence, then perhaps there's no reason to complain. This is something that must be left up to each individual reader. 

Also, the last chapter was written years after the original series was cancelled. Perhaps if Franz and Glanzman had been able to continue the series in the early 1970s, they would have spent more time on the evils of fascism. Who knows?

Willy Schulz, Part 13

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Will Franz and Sam Glanzman bring us the 13th chapter of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" in Fightin' Army #89 (January 1970). And it's a powerful chapter in the saga.

Willy is still fighting alongside partisans in Italy. As the story opens, they have some German soldiers trapped, with mortars sited to wipe them out.

But the German soldiers are all kids--a bunch of barely teenaged boys in uniforms and helmets too big for them.  I love the touch of ill-fitting helmets. It effectively emphasizes that this children are indeed... well, children.

Willy goes up to talk to them, urging them to surrender. He tells them they have families who want them to live. This backfires a little, as one of the kids point out that everyone in his family has already been killed. Willy promised his father he'd come back alive. The German kid promised instead to win an Iron Cross.

As is often the case in this series, Franz and Glanzman present us with a dialogue-heavy chapter, this time with very little action, but makes it work. The conversation is heart-rending and the tension--will the partisans be forced to kill child soldiers--is high.

But just as it seems that Willy has convinced the kids to surrender, a wounded sergeant pops out of a tent and shoots Willy. The bullet careens off Willy's helmet, knocking him out and sending him tumbling down the hill. But Major Dario, the OSS agent commanding the partisans, thinks he's dead. Enraged, he orders the Germans to be wiped out.

And that's it. Willy pins an Iron Cross on the corpse of the dead child he'd been speaking to, but knows that doesn't do any real good. It's war and in war, people die senselessly.

This is indeed a powerful chapter--one I might pick as the best of the series.

Next week, we'll return to the Hulk as he continues his journey through microscopic landscapes.

Willy Schultz, Part 12

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Fightin' Army #88 (November 1969) has writer Will Franz and artist Sam Glanzman tossing Willy Schultz into a new chapter in his complicated life.

Remember that Willy had escaped from the Germans while in Italy. In this chapter, he's found by Italian partisans fighting the Nazis. 

And this seems like a good thing. The leader of the partisans is an OSS officer named John Daurio, who knows about Willy's murder conviction. (By the way, its an effective ironic touch regarding the inherent confusion of war AND Willy's background fighting for both sides that Daurio is dressed in the uniform of an SS officer.)

Anyway, Daurio doesn't really care that Willy is a convicted murderer or whether Willy is actually guilty. He can use someone with Willy's skill in an upcoming mission. Also, he has (or at least claims he has) the pull to get Willy a pardon if Willy does help.

The mission? Willy will take command of a captured Tiger Tank, using this to get close enough to a German stronghold to blow it to pieces. Willy's knowledge of German and his experience in German tanks make him the perfect man for the job.

While preparing for the mission, Willy catches the eye of a pretty lady partisan named Elena. But is Willy tough and brutal enough to survive partisan warfare?

That's an open question. The mission is successful and a town is liberated from the Nazis, but only after brutal combat. Then the partisans start executing German prisoners. Willy is repulsed by this to the point where he is going to intervene, only to have Daurio stop him and explain that this is the way it is in partisan warfare. There's no prisoners taken.

Franz and Glanzman pile yet another irony on top of this. Elena is delighted not just that Willy survived, but that her father--a prisoner of the Nazis--was rescued. So the partisans are committing what can be defined as a war crime for killing prisoners. But an innocent man was saved from Nazis and a town was liberated. And, to be fair to everyone, is there a practical way to for partisans to take prisoners even if they wanted to do so?

This is yet another powerful chapter in Willy's saga. It's probably a bit of a stretch that the OSS officer happened to have been at Willy's trial, but it helps effectively give Willy a reason for agreeing to join up. He seems to be stuck being a soldier no matter what happens to him.

Next week, we'll begin a look at a three-part Incredible Hulk story.

Willy Schultz, Part 11

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Chapter 11 of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" (written by Will Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman) appeared in Fightin' Army #87 (September 1969). 

Willy has been a prisoner in Italy for the last few chapters. But when the prisoners are being transported north by train, British planes mistake it for an ammunition train and blow it up. Many of the POWs are killed, but Willy survives.

This leaves him free, but without food. In a brutal scene, he attacks a German soldier, killing the man for a piece of moldy bread.

He's ambushed soon after, but Lt. Newberry (another escaped POW) kills that German. 

The sequence is very powerful, with Franz and Glanzman using it to show how war brings out the most barbaric aspects of men. The story isn't condeming Willy or Newberry as heartless monsters--but it starkly shows that war can strip good men of a part of their humanity.

Soon after, Newberry steps on a mine. He's killed and Willy is wounded. Willy wakes up in an American aide station. When he sees a pair of MPs arrive, he assumes that he's been identified and is going to be arrested on the old murder charge. So he makes a break for it.

The irony is that the MPs weren't there to arrest him. They simply happened to be nearby and the medic caring for Willy had asked to give Willy a ride to the rear area. Willy had run for nothing.

In terms of the entire story arc, this is a gateway chapter taking Willy into the next phase of his life. But the scenes involving Willy and Newberry, succinctly but effectively examining the effects of war on people, makes it very powerful.

Next week, we'll leave behind war and take part in a fairy tale. 

Willy Schultz, Part 10

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Fightin' Army #86 (July 1969)  brings us the 10th chapter of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz," written by Will Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman.  It pickes up right where the previous chapter left off. Disguised in German uniforms, Willy and a slightly buggy British prisoner named Newberry are about to make a break for it, cutting through the wire during the night. Newberry's escape is essential--it won't be long before the Germans discover the body of a guard he killed. 

But things go wrong before the escape even begins. Willy's leg crashes through a rotten floorboard. His ankle is badly sprained and he's now out of it.

Another officer, MacRoberts, volunteers to step in. Unlike Schultz, his German isn't fluent, but he thinks he can bluff his way through a few sentences if necessary. The "forgery" depertment quickly makes up some documents for him as he shaves off his mustache and puts on the German uniform.

Before leaving, he gives Schultz a letter. MacRoberts and Newberry then cut through the wire and crawl out of the camp.

And that's as long as the escape attempt lasts. They're spotted almost immediately. MacRoberts is shot and killed, but the Germans take Newberry alive. 

The letter left by MacRoberts is a false confession, taking the blame for the murdered guard. That saves Newberry from being punished.

The story works well as a fast-paced escape tale with a lot of realistic detail. It works superbly in its emotional touches--the decision by a German not to kill Newberry because the German's conscience won't allow it; MacRoberts' decision to replace Schultz in the escape attempt because Newberry had once saved his life; Schultz's realization that if he hadn't hurt his ankle, he'd be dead. This is yet another strong chapter in this brilliant series. 

Next week, we'll head off-world to visit the Herculoids.

Willy Schultz, Part 9

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Fightin' Army #85 (May 1969) gives us the ninth chapter in "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz," written by Will Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman.

There's a time jump of several months, taking us to September 1943. The Nazis have been driven out of North Africa and Sicily. The Allies have invaded Italy. And Willy Schultz, in the meantime, is in a prison camp in Italy, sharing the facility with British prisoners.

As we rejoin Willy, he's stopping a wire-happy officer named Newberry from trying to scale the fence in broad daylight, preventing him from being gunned down by the German guards. Newberry, Schulz learns, was once a well-liked joker in his outfit, keeping up morale. But the death of a good friend put him over the edge.

Later, the ranking British officer (Major MacRoberts) brings Willy a proposition. The escape committee has made two German uniforms and its known that Willy speaks fluent German. MacRoberts wants Willy to take Newberry out through a blind spot in the wire one night. It'll be risky, because Newberry might break and give the show away. But if he stays in the camp, he'll definitely break. 

Also, Willy learns that Newberry killed a German guard a few nights earlier. The Brits have hidden the body and the Germans think the guy deserted. But its only a matter of time before the body is found. Newberry could not stand up under questioning and the Germans would be likely to execute him.

So there's several reasons Newberry HAS to get out. But doing so will be dangerous. Willy isn't sure he wants to accept that risk. After all, he tells MacRoberts, he's safe here. He can live out the war in a relatively risk-free environment. Why should he stick his neck out?

This reasoning doesn't go over well with MacRoberts, who calls Willy and out-and-out coward. This shames Willy into changing his mind. He'll escape with Newberry--an event that will be saved for the next issue.

This chapter in Willy's life is almost entirely expository, with very little action. It's essentially all background information to set up the escape attempt in the next chapter. So it is a little slow. All the same, the dialogue flows naturally, Newberry's backstory is interesting and Glanzman's shifting "camera" from panel to panel keeps it visually interesting. In a story arc where each chapter is just 8 or 9 pages, there's room to pause for exposition without slowing the story down, especially when one is reading the saga in a single collected volume, as I am. I suppose it may be that readers in 1969, who would have to wait 2 months for the next chapter, might have wished for a little more. But I'm okay with it.

Next week, we'll head out West for a visit with Annie Oakley.

Willy Schultz, Part 8

cover artist uncredited

Fightin' Army #84 (March 1969) picks up right where the last issue left off, with writer Will Franz and artist Sam Glanzman putting Willy Schultz in front of a German firing squad. 

He's soon joined by the surviving British commandoes, who have been forced to surrender. What follows is a very dialogue-heavy scene. This can be a detriment in a medium that is a platform for visual storytelling. But, as I've mentioned before, Franz' scripts can make this work. The British commander gives us a powerful and thought-provoking speech on the nature of war--how it drives men to commit increasingly brutal acts. It's a speech that sets aside larger issues (such as the clear lack of choice in fightng the Nazis), but that's okay. This is commentary on what war forces men to do--what it forces them to become--which is an important point beyond the larger issues of when it may be right to go to war. 

This issue depends on Franz' skill as a writer to make his points clearly and dramatically. It is, after all, a little unlikely that soldiers about to get shot will take the time to give philosophical dissertations. But Franz succeeds in fitting this in to the natural flow of the story he's telling.

Anyway, Ilse, the German nurse Willy met two issues earlier, sees him. That she recognizes him might be a bit of a stretch, since she was recovering from temporary blindness and only sees a blurry image of his face in their earlier meeting. But that's a minor point. It turns out her dad is a general, so she has some pull. She has Willy pulled out from in front of the firing squad and send to a POW camp in Italy. 

Willy feels bad about leaving the commandos to die, but the commander points out it would do no good for Willy to die with them. The issue ends with Willy on a transport plane to Italy.

It's another great issue. Franz, backed by Glanzman's great art, continues to explore important aspects of the effect of war on people and the inherent tragedy of war. It also tells a slambang story and moves Willy out of North Africa and into an important new phase of his lonely war. We'll return to him soon.

Next week, we'll travel back to the Wild West and see how a blind woman helped catch some evil twins.
 

Willy Schultz, part 7

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

In regards to Willy Schultz's wartime career, there's a time jump between the last issue of Fightin' Army and this one (#83--January 1969). When we left him at the end of the last issue, he was still wandering in the Sahara and wanted for murder by the U.S. Army. This one picks up in the middle of a commando raid on a German supply base. The commandos are British, but Willy, dressed again in a German uniform, is helping them.

At first, it seems like there's a missing chapter. The change in story direction is pretty abrupt and I  am tempted to argue that there SHOULD have been a chapter detailing how Willy hooked up with the commandos. But writer Will Franz explains in a sentence that Willy met them by chance and joined with them pretty much because he has nowhere else to go. And, to be fair, that is enough to tell us what is going on.

Sam Glanzman's art, as always, looks great. As I said, we join the action in the middle of the raid. Willy is in a German uniform, presumably, because they were making use of his knowledge of German to gain access to the base. But everything is out in the open now. Guns are blazing, stuff is blowing up and the commandos are outnumbered & in trouble.

Willy has accepted his role as a soldier, though he still regrets having to shoot Germans in the back to save a few commandos. The British are trying to regroup and retreat when disaster strikes. One of the commandos, mortally wounded, throughs an explosive charge into a nearby tent before he dies. He doesn't realize its a hospital tent. 

Both the art and the narration don't stint on the ensuing horror, as wounded men and medical personnel die in the spreading flames. One dying man stumbles into Willy's arms. He realizes its one of his friends from his time with the German army. There's nothing he can do but watch him die. Willy is then captured and discovered to be one of the commandos.

This chapter ends with Willy about to be executed by a firing squad.

What makes this story work so well is the simple touch of the hospital tent being destroyed by accident. Willy seems to have accepted that his role as a soldier can't be ignored. But we see that no matter what a soldier's intentions, innocent people are going to die in a war. You might be the good guys (and there's no question about the Allies being the good guys during World War II), but war itself is always going to be dirty and horrific. 

Also, the cliffhanger ending is a good one. Altogether, we have yet another strong chapter in this superb series. 

Next week, I think we'll visit with one of Marvel's classic What If tales.

Willy Schultz, Part 6

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman with alterations tentatively credited to Charles Nicolas

When we looked at Part 5 of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" a few weeks ago, I complained about what I felt was a contrived plot element. But with Part 6 (published in Fightin' Army #82 (November 1968), writer Will Franz and artist Sam Glanzman are back on track. This chapter is superb.

Schultz has been switching back and forth between American and German uniforms quite often. For the last couple of issues, he's been back in U.S. duds. So when he's picked up by the crew of a German halftrack (after a month of wandering around the Sahara), they take him prisoner. There's another American prisoner--General Stenik, the father of the man Willy was falsely accused of murdering.

At this point, the story becomes very dialogue-heavy. Often, that's a problem in a storytelling medium that is largely visual. But here, Will Franz writes absolutely fantastic dialogue, giving us insight into both Schultz and Stenik. 

Schultz tells a story of having recently killed a German to get some food and was sickened by the experience. Between that and the fact that his experiences have forced him to see both Americans and Germans as human beings--well, he's convinced he's no longer able to kill.

Stenik, we learn, no longer believes Schultz killed his son. But he had a problem of his own. He knows about future American troop movements and doesn't feel strong enough to stand up against torture should it come to that. Torture is very possible, as the troops holding the two of them are S.S.

Schultz is adamant in refusing to help, even when Stenik reminds him that Americans could be killed uselessly if he (Stenik) is forced to talk. But when an opportunity comes to slug a German officer and grab his pistol, Schultz does so without thinking. There's "no middle ground," he has realized. Duty, morality, self-defense--all of this is muddled together in his head and boils down to "kill or be killed."

There's a shootout, with Schulz bagging a couple of the Germans before they start to toss hand grenades. Stenik takes the brunt of a grenade blast to save Schultz's life.

Schultz is able to finish off the Germans and is once again wandering the desert alone. The general might have been able to clear him of the murder charge, but that chance is now lost. He once again has no place to go.

As I said, this issue is very dialogue-heavy, but this is made to work. Schultz's account of his moral journey in the desert is heart-rending--all the more so because his final conclusion is he can't escape the necessity of killing others. General Stenik's short but powerful character arc complements this and is in of itself heart-rending. "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schulz" continues to one of the finest examples of graphic storytelling I've ever read.