rockman2008

Atlas published three series that appeared around the same time with jingoistic, anti-commie themes, started under the same writer Hank Chapman. The characters and their adventures are nearly interchangeable: a.) Combat Kelly and his best bud Cookie Novak, had art by Joe Maneely. b.) Combat Casey and his pal, Pvt. Penny P. Pennington had art by R. Q. Sale. c.) Battle Brady and Sgt. Socko Swenski by Syd Shores. At best the stories are "guilty pleasures" bolstered by their slapstick violence and their dated attitudes against commies. At worst they are really dopey comics. I'll post something about Robert Sale later. I'm curious, what is it about Sale's artwork you like?

Thanks for posting this thread; found it by accident. This looks to be my buddy Rory Root, retailer/former owner of the Comics Relief, who passed away in 2008. Good memories.

I think that is the first picture I have seen of you NOT holding a drink. I almost didn't recognize you ! No worries. Tilt the Cat-Man slab and liquor pours out.

Kurtzman's "tryout" to Stan for more strips to compete with Archie.

By the late-40's/early-50's, Stan was asking his staff for more pages to fill his teen titles on the coattails of the successful Archie. One result was a collaboration with Kurtzman on a Blondie knockoff...which Harvey hated but Stan spotlighted the strip in its own book, Rusty and Her Family. On his own, Kurtzman produced the charming Egghead Doodle one of his last new features published by Stan. The strip was under-appreciated as it got buried in various Atlas titles including this one.

In other western covers, bystanders might skedaddle to the side during onset of a gunfight. But in a Jack Kirby western, folks typically climb up the walls of a building to avoid getting hurt!

my non super hero "cool cover" and good guts books are ones like pep 34 zip 22 (and several other zips are good) love CDNP 22 and 23 there are others, but I need to pull my box out first to remember what they are You and Betty White.

Here's a portrayal of the gunfighter as "superhero" in this cover from the one-shot Black Rider. If a real cowboy dressed like this in the wild west, he'd be "rode out of town on a rail." Here's John Severin again with a one-page gag from the Kurtzman-edited Help! reconciling between comic book gunfighters and the ones in real-life.

I was going to post more Atlas war but... Here's a cleaner copy of your Maneely cover. Among the Atlas bullpen, Maneely had a good grasp for western cover dynamics without overly falling into cliché. His covers capture tension that communicate sudden violence (or the promise of violence)...and his outlaws really look ornery, necessary elements in a good western cover.

Battle Action 3. That story is a classic! Given a three-act format, Chapman dispenses with Act 1, starts the story in Act 2 and cuts it short in Act 3 without resolution. It's not so much a narrative as a description of a cyclic process and cataloging of death and the toll of war. The writing conveys a lot but done with economy. Oh, one other thing about Heath. It's fascinating how over a short two years or so (from the Love Trails example), he really matured as an artist. Heath was a real prodigy and hit the ground running.

Here's Russ Heath in a complete Atlas war classic by Hank Chapman. He really hits his stride here.

Certainly puts my scanner to shame.

The 29 is a Schomburg cover. (thumbs u

(thumbs u Harry Anderson?

AmazingSaul, let's just say by posting the link your book has gotten from the "more" affordable range to the "less" affordable range. *gulp*

Smash 1, what's not to love? 1939 book? (thumbs u 1st robot cover in comics? (thumbs u Gorilla cover? (thumbs u Eisner story? (thumbs u Abdul the Arab? Better than Madam Fatal in the sister title. Thanks Bill and everyone for some rarely seen gold. (thumbs u

You love it. I love it. The bird loved it.