1st Gunner & Sarge

[Philreal]

If this has been discussed prior I apologize.

Overstreet has Our Fighting Forces #45 with a May '59 cover date as 1st app. of Gunner & Sarge, and All American Men of War #67 with a March '59 cover date as 1st Gunner & Sarge by Audru & Esposito. Obviously the cover date would put AAMOW as the 1st app. but maybe there is something I'm not aware of that someone can shed some light on?

[comick1]

We had some discussion on JUST this topic but I can't seem to locate it. I think we came to a relatively definitive answer. If anybody finds it, can you post a link?

[MusterMark]

It's in the War Comics thread, pages 782-783 (if you have the standard default number of messages per page).

[HouseofComics.Com]

From that thread:

 

OFF 45 is where Gunner and Sarge "begin" the long run that it had in that series.

 

AAMOW 67 is the 1st appearance for sure.

[Philreal]

Thanks folks, appreciate the info!

[comick1]

Thanks to Muster Mark. That was about a year ago on 1/14/13 when we started talking about it in the war comics forum. Here's what I wrote earlier:

 

Unlike Sgt. Rock, Gunner and Sarge don't really suffer from the whole prototype problem. That is to say, G&S prototypes haven't been documented to my knowledge. That's not to say they don't exist. It wouldn't be a huge shock if there were a few. Anyway, AAMOW 67 and 68 are the first and second apps of Gunner and Sarge. Speaking for myself, though, I've always been partial to that OFF 45. In at least one way, there's a parallel between AAMOW 67 and OAAW 81. I'm not going to say that G&S are prototypes or that they aren't fully formed in AAMOW 67, but I will say that they were drawn by Andru and Esposito which aren't the quintessential artists associated with the characters long tenure in OFF. Interestingly, Kanigher DID write AAMOW 67, but apparently it took him an issue [a single issue] to figure out that Grandenetti was a better fit for the characters than A&E. In 67, credits go to Kanigher and A&E. But in 68, it's Kanigher and Grandenetti. I have to agree with Kanigher's choice. Grandenetti's gritty abstract approach makes the whole series one of my favorites. It took me some time to get excited about Grandenetti, but I figured out that his thick lines gave the series a darker and moodier feel. Kanigher must've noticed this because he stuck Grandenetti on the title for the long haul starting with OFF 45.

 

Another interesting thing about AAMOW 67 is that the G&S story isn't the lead story, but rather, the last one. In this same time period, Kanigher was experimenting with other characters like Tank Killer (GIC 67, AAMOW 69, 71) and more notably, Sgt. Rock. Some of these ideas were moving out of the "formative" stages (Rock), but it's interesting to note that all of this was happening right around the same time. By AAMOW 68, G&S get the lead story and that's the way it stayed through the OFF series for MANY issues thereafter.