Battle Cry

    (Stanmor, 1952-1955)
™ and © Stanmor

In the early 1950s, EC Comics revolutionized the war comics genre with Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, two titles that set an unmatched standard for stylish storytelling and literate treatment of the grim details of warfare. Someone at Stanmor Publications was paying attention: Battle Cry looks like the layouts were picked out of Harvey Kurtzman’s trashcan, right down to the pages loaded down with text captions. The covers are expressly reminiscent of EC’s recognizable designs. Inside, the artwork is swiped from a gallery of impressive sources, from Wally Wood to Alex Toth to Milton Caniff (Steve Canyon). Unfortunately, the resemblance stops there. Instead of EC’s thoughtful analysis of the horrors of war, Battle Cry substitutes the shallow jingoism and hateful stereotypes of Korean War-era propaganda.
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist