Everyone’s talking about the Unknown Soldier this week… By PETER STONE The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery — which was thrust into the news this week — was originally the burial site of a World War I soldier whose remains were unidentifiable. The site now also includes the gravesites of two other unknowns, one from World War II and one from the Korean War. (A fallen Vietnam War soldier was once buried there but his remains were later identified and given to his family.) The concept of the Unknown Soldier stretches around the world and into popular culture. Longtime fans of DC Comics, for example, have followed the adventures of the publisher’s own version of the Unknown Soldier for 60 years, when the bandaged master of disguise debuted in April 1966’s Our Army at War #168. He’s been reinvented many times over the decades, and one of his most memorable versions was a four-issue 1997 Vertigo miniseries, Unknown Soldier, by Garth Ennis and Kilian Plunkett, with covers by Tim Bradstreet: This is a story about a young CIA agent and his journey through the history of the United States in conflict since World War II. Agent William Clyde, a goody-two-shoes and die-hard American, gets a name on a list he doesn’t recognize. No one knows where it came from, so he starts investigating Joshua Markeiwicz. Markeiwicz is an old man, a survivor of the Second World War. The old man mentions meeting “the Unknown Soldier.” “Where did you meet this soldier?” Clyde asks. The old man’s eyes go distant as he pauses for a long minute to recall the experience. “Where did I meet him? In Hell on earth. Dachau, post-freedom.” In his memory, Markeiwicz, 18 years old, sees “the Soldier” arrive in a jeep. “The Soldier” sees the mounds of Jewish bodies and loses his mind. He snatches a Thompson submachine gun and slaughters the captured Germans. Clyde checks his email list again and discovers three more names. Searching for them, he discovers two of them are already dead, thanks to the expert shooting of an assassin named Screwball. The last man on the list lives in Alaska, but Clyde tracks him down and hears a story about Vietnam and the “Unknown Soldier.” General William Westmoreland orders the air cavalry to liquidate all the men, women,...
AKA 1988’s Marvel Graphic Novel #35… By PETER STONE “WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN… THE SHADOW KNOWS. HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Neal Adams would say that any time the Shadow was mentioned. (And, yes, it became a bit exhausting, especially because Neal’s voice could be quite theatrical and would echo through Continuity Associates’ offices. He loved doing this… and who wouldn’t if they had a nice, booming voice that reminds you of Orson Welles.) Neal and I both had read the pulp-fiction novels, listened to the various radio personalities (Orson Welles being, of course, the best), and Neal even contributed to the Shadow mythos by drawing the licensing art for the Alec Baldwin movie. But this is about comics, not all the other stuff. DC published its first The Shadow series from 1973 to 1975. It ran for 12 issues, and the smartest decision they made was hiring Mike Kaluta as the initial artist. Denny O’Neil was the obvious choice as writer since he had made his reputation with Batman, drawn by many different artists, including (as we all know) Neal Adams. Kaluta pencilled five of the first six issues, and despite the fact that the Shadow as a character was dated, many art lovers believe this is some of the best work produced by DC Comics at the time. Other series followed, but Kaluta was not involved. In 1988, however, Lamont Cranston landed at Marvel for a standalone graphic novel, reuniting O’Neil and Kaluta, with inks by Russ Heath. Marvel Graphic Novel #35: The Shadow (1941: Hitler’s Astrologer) is based on a real-life Nazi “mystic” named Karl Ernst Krafft. The creative team brought its best work to the project and, artistically, the book is exceptional. The cast of characters features the upper leadership of the Nazi regime, carefully researched and rendered. The Shadow himself is shaped by the radio program, movies, and novels, with his network of aides: a taxi driver, a man-about-town, a technological genius, and a beautiful socialite, Margo Lane. Hitler’s Astrologer is full of actual events from before the United States got involved in World War II. The death of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia; Rudolph Hess’ journey to England; and Hitler’s decision to betray and attack Russia despite a non-aggression treaty. That’s where the fiction comes in: It turns out...
A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to the ace artist, who was born 66 years ago, on Feb. 7, 1958…
A new, recurring feature that spotlights great, lesser-known comics that demand your attention…
We kick off Pete Stone’s new feature with a three-issue Jonny Quest spinoff…