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 by Michel Choquette Well, here's something you don't see everyday: a comics anthology that has been completed but unable to find a publisher for nearly forty years, finally being published! As readers of The Comics Journal #299 – the cover feature of which was an in-depth article on the history of this volume – already know, this volume had reached a legendary/mythical status. Robert Greenfield's introduction squarely situates the work contained in this volume as a document of "The Sixties," While comics critic/historian Jeet Heer's foreword provides ample context and background for the comics work the book contains as well as a chronology of its epic 40-year journey from inception to publication. We've barely dipped out toes in this majorly oversize – 11" x 17" – 216 page, full color hardcover volume containing 120 comic strips by 169 creators, so we're not going to say much about the contents at this time, but we will provide you with some of the contributors, and let you do the math: Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Wallace Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Arnold Roth, Don Martin, Gahan Wilson, Bobby London, Trina Robbins, Vaughn Bodé, Steve Englehart, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Ralph Reese, Alan Weiss, Herb Trimpe, Frank Zappa, Harlan Ellison, William S. Burroughs, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith (before he added Windsor) Guido Crepax, Ralph Steadman, Leo & Diane Dillon, Walter & Louise Simonson, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Red Grooms, Russ Heath, Jay Kinney, Denis Kitchen, (a very young) Art Spiegelman, (also very young) Stan Mack, Ever Meulen, Joost Swarte, Tom Wolfe, Federico Fellini, and many, many more! Also included is a "92-drawing take on Choquette's travels by Michael Fog" that parallels and brackets the comics the volumes contains. Surprisingly (at least to us), the intent to create an interweaving bracketing tale was a component of the original volume's conception, and blank spaces were deliberately left in many of the pages at Choquette's instruction.
The latest oversize, full color, hardcover volume in the Atlas Comics Library being published by Fantagraphics collects ten complete issues from the early 1950s: Amazing Detective Cases #11-14 and Men’s Adventures #21-26. These comics offer up a potent mix of crime and horror and are chock full of what-goes-around-comes-around karmic payback tales in the grand EC tradition.
The latest oversize, full color, hardcover volume in the Atlas Comics Library being published by Fantagraphics collects ten complete issues from the early 1950s: Amazing Detective Cases #11-14 and Men’s Adventures #21-26. These comics offer up a potent mix of crime and horror and are chock full of what-goes-around-comes-around karmic payback tales in the grand EC tradition. Shiver As You Read! includes great work by Bill Everett, B. Krigstein, Russ Heath, Gene Colan, John Romita, George Tuska, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers and more – including some of Fred Kida's best stories. And while almost none of the stories have writing credits, it's a fairly safe bet that many if not most are scripted by Stan Lee.
Fanta sez:
"The Eerie Escape" by B. Krigstein, "The Torture Master!" by Russ Heath, The Drowning Witch" by Reed Crandall and "The 3rd Corpse" by Bill Everett. Stories by Gene Colan, John Romita, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Jim Mooney, Paul Reinman and George Tuska, all of whom remained through the shift to Marvel Comics, additionally fill out these issues, along with Atlas regulars Fred Kida, Mort Lawrence, Mike Sekowsky and Myron Fass. Notably included is the first appearance of "Gorilla Man" by Robert Q. Sale, a character brought back in Marvel's contemporary Agents of Atlas series, and part of their ongoing continuity.
