Fightin’ Navy

(Charlton, 1956-1966, 1983-1984)
™ and © Charlton Publications, Inc.

It only took five years to fight the battles of World War II, but they’ve been providing fodder for war comics for nearly half a century. Fightin’ Navy, as the title indicates, focuses on the exploits of sea-borne forces during the “last good war,” featuring the usual assortment of PT boat adventures, frogmen, tense submarine duels, and epic battleship slugfests in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. The Charlton house artist “borrows” his style extensively from war comics masters like Russ Heath and Sam Glanzman, but unfortunately the writing does not rise to the same level. Fightin’ Navy was previously Don Winslow of the Navy, changing over in the mid-fifties presumably to add some versatility to the range of stories (or perhaps because Charlton’s license on Winslow, a newspaper strip, had expired). Fightin’ Navy went down in 1966, but resurfaced for a few perfunctory issues in the mid-80s.

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