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1st appearance of SGT.ROCK
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Quick answer today is Our Army at War 83.  Used to be 81 until a decade ago… as the hobby settled on 83.  DC war books were anthologies, 3 unrelated stories in each comic, with no repeat characters or continuity.  Plus, the US defense dept coinage Able, Baker, Charlie divisions (Easy Company?  Not sure if Easy was real or. made up…) led to a lot of stories of Easy Company featuring its sergeant.  These have been considered “prototypes”.  

There are a lot of discussions here about the slight differences in 81, 82 and 83 as Sgt Rocky “coalesced” into one main character plus individual soldiers in Easy Company for the remainder of their adventures. 

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On 11/11/2021 at 9:49 AM, Aman619 said:

Quick answer today is Our Army at War 83.  Used to be 81 until a decade ago… as the hobby settled on 83.  DC war books were anthologies, 3 unrelated stories in each comic, with no repeat characters or continuity.  Plus, the US defense dept coinage Able, Baker, Charlie divisions (Easy Company?  Not sure if Easy was real or. made up…) led to a lot of stories of Easy Company featuring its sergeant.  These have been considered “prototypes”.  

There are a lot of discussions here about the slight differences in 81, 82 and 83 as Sgt Rocky “coalesced” into one main character plus individual soldiers in Easy Company for the remainder of their adventures. 

Thanks for the info! I actually prefer OAAW #81 since it has a better looking cover over #83.

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DC announced the introduction a recurring character to headline Our Army At War in #81, and that stood as the first appearance for a long time. 

But as Aman stated, that changed. The collectors who really knew the series worked to shift the focus to 83. It was there that all the elements of Sgt. Rock came together. The market certainly agrees.

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Thanks for the info. This is proving to be very interesting to me. So for decades it was considered that OWAW #81 was the agreed 1st appearance of Sgt.Rock and I can see that. It has "Rock" on the cover and it even says "THE ROCK OF EASY COMPANY". DC even reprinted that issue but NOT #83. Why would they do that if issue 81 was not considered the "first appearance". Who decided that issue 83 was the first appearance? Was it just a general consensus? Did the market decide? 

 s-l300.jpg.947fae0484f15086f876c32d8fe7b5c3.jpg

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On 11/13/2021 at 8:53 AM, APDallas said:

Thanks for the info. This is proving to be very interesting to me. So for decades it was considered that OWAW #81 was the agreed 1st appearance of Sgt.Rock and I can see that. It has "Rock" on the cover and it even says "THE ROCK OF EASY COMPANY". DC even reprinted that issue but NOT #83. Why would they do that if issue 81 was not considered the "first appearance". Who decided that issue 83 was the first appearance? Was it just a general consensus? Did the market decide? 

 s-l300.jpg.947fae0484f15086f876c32d8fe7b5c3.jpg

War comics collectors decided that OAAW 83 is Sgt. Rock’s first true appearance and corrected DC’s mistake. DC does make mistakes from time to time. That reprint is one example of an error made on the part of someone in DC who wasn’t Kanigher or Kubert. Again, the first appearance of Sgt. Rock is no longer a debatable issue. Recommend you read the Rock prototype issues: G.I. Combat 68 and Our Army at War 81 & 82. Then you can see for yourself how clear it is that OAAW 83 is the first true appearance of the Sgt. Rock we grew up reading and know today. 

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On 11/13/2021 at 5:53 AM, APDallas said:

Thanks for the info. This is proving to be very interesting to me. So for decades it was considered that OWAW #81 was the agreed 1st appearance of Sgt.Rock and I can see that. It has "Rock" on the cover and it even says "THE ROCK OF EASY COMPANY". DC even reprinted that issue but NOT #83. Why would they do that if issue 81 was not considered the "first appearance". Who decided that issue 83 was the first appearance? Was it just a general consensus? Did the market decide? 

 s-l300.jpg.947fae0484f15086f876c32d8fe7b5c3.jpg

Normally, you'd think the actual owners of the character would get to say what his first appearance was, and if they said 81, that should be that.  It certainly looks as if issue 81 was the first time they first thought this guy would be a continuing character, and that they finessed details of that character in 83. 

 

 

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