Military Comics

This 1941 series trumpeted itself as “stories of military action on land and at sea.” It contained an assortment of war strips along those lines, ranging from the naval adventure “PT Boat” to the air/sea flight team of the Atlantic Patrol. A comic piece with the unlikely name of “Death Patrol” painted the Japanese as a collection of goggle-eyed, buck-toothed stooges that were easily routed by a kid-led flight squad. Another long-running feature, The Sniper, was practically a prototype of the later Green Arrow, albeit armed with a rifle instead of a bow and arrow.

The best-known feature of Military Comics was the elite flight squadron known as the Blackhawks. The strip eschewed the normal superheroics and fantasy plots for grim war adventures—a difference that helped account for its huge and long-running popularity. After running through every issue of Military (later Modern Comics), they starred in several incarnations of their own series.

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#1 Variation A

2024 Facsimile Edition with Cover A by Chuck Cuidera

Jul 2024

Cover: $6.99

W: Will Eisner, Bob Powell, Klaus Nordling, Jack Cole, Dick Scopes · A: Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell, Fred Guardineer, Klaus Nordling, John Stewart, Jack Cole, Ed Wexler, Henry C. Kiefer

1st appearance of Loops McCann; 1st appearance of Archie Atkins; 1st appearance of Banks Barrows; 1st appearance of Blackhawk (Janos Prohaska); 1st appearance of Blue Tracer (Capt. Bill Dunn); 1st appearance of Boomerang Jones; 1st appearance of Col. Sam Shot; 1st appearance of Death Patrol (Del Van Dyne; 1st appearance of Miss America (Joan Dale); 1st appearance of Q-Boat (Capt. Foghorn; 1st appearance of Slim Shell; 1st appearance of Yankee Eagle (Jerry Noble); Origin of Blackhawk (Janos Prohaska); Bob Wayne); Butch O’Keefe; Dick Martin; Gramps); Hank; Marmaduke Van Weyden; Peewee; Slick Ward; Stories of the Army and Navy

3 copies from $6.98