Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 14, 2025 | 7 comments

A SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS birthday salute: 13 COVERS from Star Spangled War Stories…

By SCOTT SHAW!

Regarding “realistic” comic books, my favorite artist was Ross Andru – born 98 years ago Sunday, on June 15, 1927 — until I discovered the work of Jack Kirby (but not yet his name). I did know Ross and his inker Mike Esposito’s names because their primary editor in the late ’50s and early ’60s, Robert Kanigher, allowed them to sign many of their covers.

When I was that young – I turned 9 in September 1960 – I wasn’t interested in war comics, although like all boys back then, I had some military green plastic “army guys.” I liked to “feed” them to my plastic dinosaurs.

I was obsessed with dinosaurs. Gorillas, too. I didn’t realize it, but I had become a marionette for DC’s Irwin Donenfeld, the company’s onetime owner (1948-67), editorial director (1952-57), and executive vice president (1958-68). He realized that DC’s young male readership was always fascinated gorillas and dinosaurs: 1933’s King Kong, which had been released to television in 1956, had a massive effect on my generation, much like 1970s kids were blown away by Star Wars. Therefore, like a zombie controlled by Irwin, if I had the dime, I’d buy any “funnybook” that featured a dinosaur or a gorilla on its cover.

When I was with my mom at one of her favorite drug stores, my eyes bugged out in a Tex Avery stare at Star Spangled War Stories #90, which featured a flaming red Tyrannosaurus rex trashing an army tank. (As a kid, I noticed that the coloring of SSWS‘s prehistoric animals matched those of their hobby shops’ counterparts.) Suddenly, I was more-than- interested in war comics… or at least, one of ’em. In fact, I was able to acquire every issue of SSWS that featured “The War That Time Forgot,” as well as a few with one-shot themes that were equally Oddball.

Other cover artists included Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, and Russ Heath. The series within a series added up to 47 issues, a surprising longevity until it finally went extinct and the end of 1967, replaced by a unique character, WWI aviator Enemy Ace.

Anyway, let’s work our way through 13 COVERS that I really love (all by Andru and Esposito)…

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Star Spangled War Stories #90 (April – May, 1960). This launched “The War That Time Forgot,” although the next issue was a typical war comic, just in case it flopped.

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Star Spangled War Stories #93 (October – November, 1960). This one features a Transformer-size robot that the Nazis created. The helmet gag is good, but the interior’s menacing mechanism is impressive.

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Star Spangled War Stories #96 (April – May, 1961). Prehistoric turtles were big, but not this big, as if any of this could be called “realistic.”

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Star Spangled War Stories #97 (June-July, 1961). Thanks to the flaming pink Ceratosaurus, this cover really stood out on the spinner rack, although the dinosaur eyeing a PT boat like a submarine sandwich kinda seals the deal.

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Star Spangled War Stories #98 (August – September, 1961). This is one of my favorite covers of the entire run. Triceratops have never looked so dangerous. Good thing it’s just lines on paper.

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Star Spangled War Stories #99 (October – November, 1961). The gimmick here is that three brothers — a team of tightrope walkers, acrobats, and trapeze performers — join the military only to wind up trying to avoid becoming monster fodder.

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Star Spangled War Stories #101 (February-March, 1962). Here’s my other fave, introducing a robot soldier who can face off against prehistoric reptiles, including another pesky Ceratosaurus, this time purple. Robots were also very popular at the time.

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Star Spangled War Stories #102 (April – May, 1962). The robot soldier is back and, apparently, 20,000 leagues under the sea.

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Star Spangled War Stories #107 (February – March, 1963). You don’t often see a giant horse shoe crab, so please don’t make the mistake of referring to it as a “dinosaur.” But I love this setup is referred to as an “aquarium.”

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Star Spangled War Stories #108 (April – May, 1963). This issue is one of the Oddball-est in the series, with a ridiculous concept based on June 6, 1944, where over 2,000 soldiers died in WWII. If any of your relatives were over there, I hope you didn’t show them this comic.

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Star Spangled War Stories #109 (June – July, 1963). So exactly HOW did that tank wind up on the back of the sinister Ankylosaurus? It’s time to go eBay and purchase a cheap copy of this Oddball Comic.

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Star Spangled War Stories #111 (October – November, 1963). If you were wondering if there would be a gorilla on one of these covers, here’s one of ’em, and it’s King King’s albino cousin. The second ape cover was drawn by Joe Kubert, so he won’t be part of this article… but soon, I promise.

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Star Spangled War Stories #125 (DC, February – March, 1966). OK, this one wins the prize for No. 1 Oddball “The War That Time Forgot.” Check out the cover copy: “A battle-tale shocker from the ‘SECRET WAR’ that no one will admit is being fought!” Then note the date, 1966. Was editor/writer Kanigher trying to convince his readership that there were prehistoric monsters running loose in Vietnam???

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Thirty-ish years after the demise of “The War That Time Forgot,” Roy Thomas and I cooked up a pitch for a new DC comic based on the concept: “What if Jack Kirby drew Mighty Mouse?” It wound up as Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, which Roy introduced to DC readers by teaming up Captain Carrot with Superman. And who drew Superman on this cover? The great Ross Andru, who did the layouts on the pages that were on Earth-One, wherein I penciled Captain Carrot, and I did the layouts for the pages set on Earth-C, with Ross working off my poses of Superman. It was like a dream come true.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! #1 (March 1982). Cover art of Superman penciled by Andru, the rest of the cover art and layout by me. Inking by Bob Smith, logo by Todd Klein.

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MORE

— ODDBALL COMICS: Joe Simon’s BROTHER POWER, THE GEEK. Click here.

— ODDBALL COMICS: If You’re MAD, Get PSYCHOANALYSIS! Click here.

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For over half a century, SCOTT SHAW! has been a pro cartoonist/writer/designer of comic books, animation, advertising and toys. He is also a historian of all forms of cartooning. Scott has worked on many underground comix and mainstream comic books, including: Fear and Laughter (Kitchen Sink); Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie); Simpsons Comics (Bongo); Weird Tales of the Ramones (Rhino); and his co-creation with Roy Thomas, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! (DC).

Scott also worked on numerous animated cartoons, including producing/directing John Candy’s Camp Candy (NBC/DIC/Saban); Martin Short’s The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley (NBC/Hanna-Barbera Productions); Garfield and Friends (CBS/Film Roman); and the Emmy-winning Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies (CBS/Marvel Productions), among many others. As senior art director for the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, Scott worked on dozens of commercials for Post Pebbles cereals with the Flintstones. He also designed a line of Hanna-Barbera action figures for McFarlane Toys.

Scott was one of the comics fans who organized the first San Diego Comic-Con, where he has become known for performing his hilarious Oddball Comics Live! slide shows.

Need funny cartoons for any and all media? Click here! Scott does commissions!