Description

The Atlas Comics Library No. 4: War Comics Vol. 1 edited by Michael J Vassallo

Hardcover – Fantagraphics Books – November 2024 – 180 pages

Forged in the crucible of the Korean War, and produced by veterans of the Second World War, this volume’s eight issues present the brutality and grimness of armed combat by some of Atlas’ most notable war artists and future comics stars including Gene Colan, Russ Heath, Joe Maneely, Dave Berg, Jay Scott Pike, Mike Sekowsky, Vern Henkel, Allen Bellman, Pete Morisi and Norman Steinberg.

Propaganda abounds from the very first story, published in War Comics #1 in September 1950: “Peril in Korea,” a primer explaining why the USA joined the conflict. Other highlights include Colan’s “The Chips are Down” and “Victory,” Heath’s “Alone” and “No Survivors,” Maneely’s “Stormy Weather,” Henkel’s “Total Destruction,” and Berg’s “The Infantry’s War.”

Originally a trial spun off from the publisher’s “Men’s Adventure” publications, in the nine years to follow, Atlas went on to produce 533 comic book issues with war content, across 34 different titles. War Comics is where it all began — unseen in decades, scanned from the original books, restored and packaged as one large, beautiful hardcover volume.