Books: War Stories

[woodwardiocom]

The Enemy Ace Archives, v1 by Kanigher & Kubert

Arguably DC Comics' second-most-popular war title, Enemy Ace is unusual for being a World War One story about a German character. (And his early appearances were mostly in Our Army At War, and Star-Spangled War Stories, for extra irony.) Ace pilot Von Hammer is clearly modeled on the Red Baron, down to his red triplane. He is presented as a man driven by duty and honor to do a job he hates: killing men much like himself. His fellow Germans consider him a brutal, unfeeling killing machine. His only friend is a wolf of the Black Forest who listens to his rambling, self-loathing monologues. The closest he gets to a human friend is a French pilot, the Hangman, who saves his life and gives him the hospitality of his home, but who Von Hammer is forced to kill mere days later. While these stories often have a strict formula, they excel both in their accurate depiction of WW1 air combat, and as grim character studies of a man whose field of excellence dooms him to loneliness. Recommended.

The Sgt. Rock Archives, v1 by Kanigher, Kubert, et al

Unquestionably DC's most-popular war comic, Sgt. Rock stars the titular sergeant and the "combat-happy joes" of Easy Company, an infantry company of World War Two. Unlike the Ace, Easy Company did not appear full-formed in its first story, but rather incrementally over a handful of stories about soliders named "Rock" and companies named "Easy", by a variety of creators. Under the powerhouse team of Kanigher & Kubert, however, Sgt. Rock achieved fame and durability, running for the bulk of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Unlike Enemy Ace, these stories are less about character, and more vignettes which happen to be consistently about the same company. While a few of the recurring joes are introduced here (Ice Cream Soldier and Bulldozer), this volume is mostly Rock's. The stories are about making men (and boys) into soldiers, and giving them the education they need to survive the hard life of an infantryman. The virtues of teamwork, bravery, watching each other's back, and sheer stubborness are emphasized. In many ways, the Sgt. Rock stories lie dead center of the myth of the American solider. It's interesting that (like Enemy Ace) they never glamorize war, while always honoring the soliders who fight it. (Of course, Truffaut Was Right, but you can't do much about that without going straight into opening-scene-of-Saving-Private-Ryan territory, which you couldn't do in 1950s comics books.) Recommended

The Best Of Preventive Maintenance Monthly by Will Eisner at al

Here's something I never expected to see. Between the end of The Spirit, and the writing of A Contract With God, twenty years passed, during which Will Eisner's primary comics work was for the U.S. Army, in the form of strips and spot art for its preventive maintenance magazine. That's two decades during which one of the great comics creators worked almost solely on instructional comics. This smart little hardcover collects a sampling. It is, of course, almost devoid of story (though not entirely), and instructions on how to grease a 1953 Jeep, or which regs permit cannibalization of parts, are only going to be of interest to a certain kind of mind. The art, however, is a delight in its vibrancy, richness, and depth of character in the face of Army bureaucracy. Recommended to Eisner fans.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I was a bit boggled myself to find out that Eisner had worked on Preventive Maintenance (which you can still read online as a PDF periodical)

I'll have to look for Enemy Ace now.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

The single best Enemy Ace story is much more recent, having appeared in 1988. It's called "Silent Night", and it's available in the DC Universe Christmas trade.