Here's the official Fanta hype: THE LEGENDARY ANTI-WAR COMIC COLLECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS ENTIRETY. Written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by such luminaries as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, and Gene Colan, Blazing Combat was originally published by independent comics publisher James Warren in 1965 and ’66. Following in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Goodwin’s stories reflected the human realities and personal costs of war rather than exploiting the clichés of the traditional men’s adventure genre. They were among the best comics stories about war ever published. Blazing Combat ended after its fourth issue when military post exchanges refused to sell the title due to their perception that it was an anti-war comic. Their hostility was fueled by the depiction of the then-current Vietnam War, especially a story entitled “Landscape,” which follows the thoughts of a simple Vietnamese peasant rice-farmer who pays the ultimate price simply for living where he does — and which was considered anti-war agitprop by the more hawkish members of the business community. Get a better idea of what's going on here with this generous 19-page PDF preview that contains three complete stories!  Writer Archie Goodwin and the original publisher James Warren discuss the death of Blazing Combat and market censorship as well as the creative gestation of the series in exclusive interviews.   208 page hardcover  ONE COPY IN STOCK (remainder mark across top page edge) 

edited, and largely written, by Archie Goodwin Yes, you are correct:  this is yet another softcover edition of a previously released hardcover from Fantagraphics.  Featuring the art of EC (and Two-Fisted Tales) alumni like Wally Wood and John Severin, along with heavy hitters like Alex Toth and Gene Colan, this hefty softcover collects the entirety of Warren's Blazing Combat series that was originally published in 1965 and 1966.  This hard hitting series took an unvarnished look at the hard realities of war just as the protests against the Vietnam were gaining traction and so is an important historical document at the same time that it offers up some spectacular comics work.  See what mean by reading this 19-page PDF preview.

We missed this when it was released late last year, but this is definitely a case of better late than never!   This massive 8" x 11" hardcover presents readers with a complete, full color collection of the John Severin (often with Will Elder) stories featuring American Eagle that ran in the the difficult to track down issues of Prize Comics Western back in the 1950s.  Great stuff – 488 pages worth!

 

Here's the Fanta hype-up:

John Severin's 1950s Western masterpiece, American Eagle, is collected for the first time in a gorgeous hardcover Fantagraphics edition.

In the 1950s, between his legendary EC work and his celebrated Marvel comics, John Severin joined with Mad artist Will Elder and Two-Fisted Tales writer Colin Dawkins to introduce a new level of historical accuracy to the comic-book Western. While Native Americans had generally been vilified or left in the shadows of gun-slinging cowboy heroes, the American Eagle stories featured in Prize Comics Western were built around action-packed tribal intrigues and a heroic Crow warrior.

Collected here for the first time are all of the American Eagle stories drawn by Severin from Prize Comics Western #85-#113. Plus Severin-drawn stories featuring The Fargo Kid, Black Bull and The Lazo Kid. More than 55 exciting, gorgeous, Western tales of bullets vs. arrows, stampedes, tribal warfare, prospectors, buffalo hunters, broken treaties, gun battles, cavalry charges, wagon trains, and warriors on horseback. Thanks to Severin’s famously exacting art, you’ll be able to smell the leather and gunpowder.

With commentary by comics historian Howard Leroy Davis.