Frontline Combat #5

(March-April 1952)

The EC Artists of the Issue - Severin & Elder (Table of Contents: 1)

text article / 1 page (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

? (photograph)

Inks

? (photograph)

Letters

typeset

Genre

biography

Characters

Johnny Severin; Bill Elder

Reprints

• in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #7 (Fall 1999)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #18 - The Million Year Picnic and Other Stories (January 2017)

Indexer Notes

Biographies of Severin and Elder, with photo.

442nd Combat Team (Table of Contents: 2)

comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils

Harvey Kurtzman (layouts); John Severin (signed as Severin)

Inks

Bill Elder (signed as Elder)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Ben Oda

Genre

war

Characters

Japanese-American soldiers [Harry; Sergeant Hayashi; others unnamed] (some die); The Nazis [unnamed Medic officer; others unnamed] (villains, all die)

Synopsis

A story about the experience of a combat unit composed of Japanese-Americans during the war. The enemy attempts to get them to come over to their side, but they attack and win, and when questioned, they give a thumbs up and say "The enemy forgot that we're Americans!"

Reprints

• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 1995 series) #5 (August 1996)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #10 - Bomb Run and Other Stories (August 2014) [page 1, panel 1], #10 - Bomb Run and Other Stories (August 2014) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Keywords

Vosges Mountains

Indexer Notes

Kurtzman layout credit added by Craig Delich 2013-8-1, per Michael Gilbert in Alter Ego #119 (August 2013).

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team won a total of 3,915 awards, 10 unit citations and 3600 Purple Hearts while fighting in Europe in WW2.

Stonewall Jackson! (Table of Contents: 3)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils

Jack Davis (signed)

Inks

Jack Davis (signed)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Ben Oda

Genre

war

Characters

unnamed Confederate soldier (narrator); General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (death); General Robert E. Lee (cameo); Jesse (Confederate soldier)

Synopsis

The Confederate soldier who accidentally shot General Stonewall Jackson during nighttime battle conditions relates the story of Jackson and the brigade he was a part of, and the conditions that led to the Gedneral's demise.

Reprints

• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 1995 series) #5 (August 1996)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #22 - Death Stand and Other Stories (August 2018) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Keywords

American Civil War; Chancellorsville; Perry Carbine

Indexer Notes

Much of the story is told in flashback.

The King's Spy (Table of Contents: 4)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils

Harvey Kurtzman

Inks

Harvey Kurtzman

Colors

Marie Severin ?

Letters

typeset

Genre

war

Characters

Colin Dawkins (owner of a grogshop, member of the Sons of Liberty); Ron Aston (villain, British spy)

Synopsis

As Aston drank his grog, the owner, secretly a militant member of the Sons of Liberty, bent over the bar to impart some secret information to him, all in the midst of protesting the hated Stamp Act issued by the British Parliament. The info given to Aston revealed the plan to board British ships the next evening to dump all the tea overboard, and Aston assured Dawkins he would be there. However, Dawkins did not know that Aston was a British spy who had cleverly destroyed all evidence of his true birth. But before Aston could impart the tea party plans, he was keelhauled aboard a British ship.

Reprints

• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)

Keywords

American Revolution; Colin Dawkins Grogshop; H.M.S London Queen (British ship)

Indexer Notes

Story occurs on December 15, 1773.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 5)

Front Lines / letters page / 1 page (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Letters

typeset

Reprints

• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)

Indexer Notes

Letter from (Miss) Margaret M. Credie (who does not like Frontline Combat at all) with extensive point by point rebuttal by Kurtzman.

War Machines! (Table of Contents: 6)

comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils

John Severin (signed as J. Severin)

Inks

John Severin (signed as J. Severin)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Ben Oda

Genre

war

Characters

U.S. Army infantrymen; North Korean soldiers (villains, all die)

Synopsis

The story describes the efforts of American planes and tanks to dig Koreans out of their cave hill fortifications. The Koreans survive the efforts of the war machines, but they are killed when the infantrymen are sent in to finish the job.

Reprints

• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 1995 series) #5 (August 1996)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #10 - Bomb Run and Other Stories (August 2014) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Keywords

Korean War

Big 'If'! (Table of Contents: 7)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils

Harvey Kurtzman

Inks

Harvey Kurtzman

Colors

Marie Severin ?; Harvey Kurtzman ?

Letters

Ben Oda

Genre

war

Characters

Paul Maynard (death); Max (flashback)

Synopsis

A soldier who is dying by the roadside after taking a piece of shrapnel in the chest thinks about how his life might have gone differently if he was only standing a little to the left when the explosive had gone off.

Reprints

• in Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Bonanza, 1971 series) (1971)
• in Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1971 series) (1971)
• in The Complete Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 (1982)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #8 [1988] (uke 48 1988)
• in From Aargh! to Zap! Harvey Kurtzman’s Visual History of the Comics (Simon and Schuster, 1991 series) (1991) [Pages reduced in size.]
• in Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 1995 series) #5 (August 1996)
• in EC Archives: Frontline Combat (Gemstone, 2008 series) #1 (2008)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #1 - Corpse on the Imjin and Other Stories (August 2012) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Keywords

devil posts; Korean War

Indexer Notes

Some of the story is told in flashback.

Marie Severin’s statement that “[Harvey] Kurtzman colored his own art, especially on covers...” (see Indexer Notes for this issue’s cover) suggests that Kurtzman colored stories that he drew, albeit perhaps less consistently than he colored his cover art.