Blazing Combat SC

by Wayne Markley

Normally, in response to the question posed above, I would say absolutely nothing. But I would be wrong. Because Fantagraphics recently published the complete Blazing Combat in paperback, and it’s also available in hardcover. For those who may not be familiar with Blazing Combat, it was a magazine published by Warren Magazines back in 1965. It only lasted four issues, but it was four issues of the best comics you will ever read.

A little history first. Warren was publishing Famous Monsters of Filmland and Creepy in the early sixties, (and Dark Horse is currently collecting the early Creepys in beautiful hardcover collections). Jim Warren wanted to expand his publishing line and war was a subject he was interested in, so he decided to publish Blazing Combat. He had his assistant at the time, Archie Goodwin, take over the project. Archie ended up writing just about all the stories that appeared in the four issues. Archie loved the old EC Frontline Combat stories and set out to do something along those lines. He wanted to tell a realistic story about war in eight pages with the best artists you can find.

A self portrait of Archie Goodwin as a wrestler, courtesy of Wayne Markley

What came out of this was a who’s who of artists in these four issues. Each issue of Blazing Combat had a stunning cover by the late Frank Frazetta, which are reproduced in this collection in full color. The stories cover the whole history of war from the Ancient Romans to the American Civil War to World War One and World War Two to the Vietnam War. There are interviews with Jim Warren and Archie Goodwin about the series and how it was put together and why it had such a short lifespan. There is also a fascinating discussion on the impact the Vietnam stories had on the future of the magazine. I found it interesting reading the portions of the interviews and background pertaining to the power the newsstand distributors had back in 1965. This was long before there was a direct comic book market, but it’s amazing how similar they are. But that is another discussion.

Blazing Combat HC

One of the best reasons to buy this book, aside from the great storytelling, is over 200 pages of the most beautiful art you will ever see in one book. There are stories here from the likes of Angelo Torres, Gene Colan, Russ Heath (in one of the most beautiful stories ever drawn), Al Williamson, George Evans, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, the always underrated Alex Toth, and many, many more. These stories are solidly in the EC vein, as the stories do not always have happy endings, and war is very brutal. But these four lost treasures are a high point of comic book storytelling. If you have never read any of these, you are in for such a treat. It is art and storytelling at its best.

Annihilation Book 1

Also, this time I would like to recommend Marvel space opera books. There is a wide range of these ranging from Annihilation to War of Kings to Nova. All of these books are great science fiction and they are building a whole intergalactic mythos with what at one time would have been considered B or even C level characters. At some point in the future I will write a full article on these books, but for now, if you have a chance, give a collection a try.

As always, anything said here is my opinion, and comments, review copies, corrections and insults are welcome at MFBWAY@AOL.COM and none of my recommendations reflect the opinions of Westfield Comics.

Be Sociable, Share!

•