War Comics

Soldier Comics
America has a long and rich tradition of producing compelling war comics. War comic books have been around almost as long as comic books themselves, which began being published in the 1930s. Like most comic genres, war comics started in the popular anthology titles of the time. The most famous war comic is probably CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1, which was published in 1941, shortly before the United States entered into World War II. This is famous for the cover that depicts Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in the face. Many more war comics began being published during the 1950s. o­ne popular o­ne of the time was FRONTLINE COMBAT by EC Comics. However, Charlton Comics published more war comics than any other publishing house. Their most popular war title was BATTLEFIELD ACTION. DC Comics also published its own selection of popular war comics. Most of DC's titles focused o­n tales of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Our Army at War
Starting around the end of the 1950s, DC began featuring recognizable characters that would recur throughout their war comics. These included SGT. ROCK and THE HUNTED TANK. SGT. ROCK is a classic strip that was drawn by the legendary artist Joe Kubert, who recently brought the strip back as a feature in the limited series WEDNESDAY COMICS, which is now available in a lush hardcover edition. The Hunted Tank was possessed by the soul of a soldier killed in the Civil War. Starting in the anthologies WEIRD WAR TALES and OUR ARMY AT WAR, these characters soon got their own series. Marvel Comics had its own classic war series like SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS and Michael Golden's classic series THE 'NAM.

Although there aren't many war comics still being published, their influence is strongly felt in modern comics with DC Comics even planning a to release a plethora of revival o­ne-shots.