Our Army at War #20 Poster (1954) by Irv Novick U.S. Navy WWII Kamikaze

Description

Comic books and combat had a rich history before the 1950s. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had done their part to help America battle the “Japanazis” during World War II. But the eruption of armed conflict in Korea in 1950 sparked a golden age of war comics like nothing the industry had seen up until that point. William Gaines’ EC Comics led the way, with the often overtly antiwar titles Frontline Combat and Two-First Tales, launched in 1950. DC quickly jumped on the bandwagon, serving up a panoply of patriotic tub-thumpers with titles like Star-Spangled War Stories, All-American Men of War, Our Fighting Forces and G.I. Combat. By far the most popular and longest-running of these series was Our Army at War, a rip-roaring combat anthology that lasted twenty-five years and 301 issues, spanning the Korean and Vietnam eras. Despite its title, the series featured all four services engaging in “explosive battle action” on a variety of fronts. In this issue, a Navy man untested by enemy fire earns the respect of his merchant-marine comrades when he personally repels a strafing formation of enemy planes with a single anti-aircraft machine gun. Our Army at War was an American comic book published by DC Comics that featured war themed stories and featured the first appearances of Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace. The series started in August 1952 and ended in February 1977. Our Army at War was launched in August 1952 as part of a wave of war comics. The stories were often followed by tag lines such as “Explosive Battle Action”. Irv Novick (April 11, 1916 – October 15, 2004) was an American comic book artist who worked almost continuously from 1939 until the late 1990s. From 1946 to 1951, Novick worked in advertising and for the largely unsuccessful comic strips Cynthia and The Scarlet Avenger. His long association with DC Comics began when he was hired by editor Robert Kanigher, who had previously written Novick-illustrated comics for MLJ. Novick and Kanigher would be friends and colleagues for many years. Initially, Novick was primarily artist on war comics like Our Army at War and occasionally romance titles.