Tuesday, August 11, 2015

G.I. Combat #144


G.I. Combat #144 (On Sale: August 11, 1970) has an uneven cover by Joe Kubert. The logo is just too damn big, no pun intended, and the small pics on the left do nothing to make me want to purchase it. Also, the whole thing is just too dark making for an unusually unappealing effort from Kubert.

Also, the "Two Magazines in One!" blurb is really misleading. Yeah, there are two magazines for sure. One is a skimped on 19-page book of new material and the other is a 36-page reprint book. OK, by today's standards 18 pages of new material for 25 cents is a pretty good deal, particularly when 14 of those pages are by Russ Heath, but at the time, it seemed like a rip-off.

We begin with the Haunted Tank tale "Every Man a Fort" by
Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath. This accounts for 14 of the pages of new material.

Now we gt into the reprints starting with "Straw Pilot" a ten-pager by Hank Chapman and Joe Kubert. Originally produced for Our Army at War #147.

Next is "Something for the Sarge." This eight-pager from Our Army at War #85 is by Bob Haney and Russ Heath.

That is followed by "The Soldier on Four Wheels" a six-pager by the great Bill Finger and Mort Drucker from Star Spangled War Stories #59. A Mort Drucker war story is always a welcome treat.

The next story is "Shooting Gallery," a 12-page story by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, reprinted from Our Army at War #73.

The book ends with the other original story, "Liegnitz and the Mongol Tide," a four page tale drawn by Ric Estrada.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

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