Buz Sawyer: The War in the Pacific

    (Manuscript)
™ and © Manuscript

At the height of Wash Tubbs’ popularity in World War II, its creator, Roy Crane, left the comic strip to start the more realistic Buz Sawyer—and, after reading its first year reprinted here, the reader will see that he made the right move.

Basically, Buz is a variant of Tubbs’ partner Captain Easy, but with neither that character’s shadowy past nor edge. Buz is an amiable regular fighter pilot whose heroics are low-key enough to be believable. Which is for the good, since the implausible plots invariably have him and hapless sidekick Roscoe Sweeney encountering one of the artist’s signature magnificent lasses on an enemy-held Pacific island.

It’s easy to see how thrills and humor skillfully blended with convincing scenes both aboard ship and on the homefront would have provided civilians and servicemen of the time some much-needed wish fulfillment. And modern readers should note that, unlike many other comics creators of the time, Crane drew Japanese soldiers in a (mostly) non-stereotypical manner (though his Pacific Islanders tend to look like wooly Neanderthals).

— S. A. Bennett
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