Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 27, 2024 | 3 comments

Featuring the classic series COMBAT…

By PETER BOSCH

Memorial Day is a day in which we honor those who have fallen in the service of the United States. Different countries have different days and different names for doing this, but all are heartfelt reminders of those who sacrificed themselves in order that we remain free. In the United States, we hold it on the last Monday in May.

No one war is held above another on this Federal holiday, but for this article I am focusing on World War II because my father rode in a tank during that time, fighting Adolf Hitler. (June 6 will also be the 80th anniversary of D-Day.) And while there are any number of comic book series that can be used to illustrate the American fighter of the first half of the 1940s, I (mostly) chose the exceptional, but unfairly neglected, Dell Comics series, Combat (not to be confused with the TV series Combat!).

There were a total of 40 issues printed from 1961 to 1973, but only the first 26 were originals. The stories were factually based retellings of actual events during the war and each story in the series was drawn by the amazing Sam Glanzman, himself a combat veteran of World War II. Many of the covers were magnificently painted, but the artists responsible have not been properly credited. Same, too, for the writing of the majority of the early issues, with only Paul S. Newman being determined for later ones.

Here are 13 COVERS of this excellent comic book series, listed in chronological order (with dates) of the historical events of the Second World War, not the comic-published order. Artists noted where identified.

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The Battle at Dunkirk (May 26, 1940 to June 4, 1940)

Combat #15 (Jan.-Mar. 1965). Painting by George Wilson.

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The Battle of Britain (July 10, 1940 to October 31, 1940)

Combat #17 (July-Sept. 1965). Art by Sam Glanzman.

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Sinking the Bismarck (May 26-27, 1941)

Combat #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1961)

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Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)

Combat #2 (Dec. 1961-Jan. 1962)

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Wake Island (December 8-23, 1941)

Combat #18 (Oct.-Dec. 1965). Cover art by Gene Colan.

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Death March of Bataan (April 9-17, 1942)

Combat #3 (Mar.-May 1962). Painted portrait portion by Earl Mayan.

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The Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942)

Combat #10 (Oct.-Dec. 1963)

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Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943)

Combat #12 (Apr.-June 1964)

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The Sinking of the PT 109 (August 2, 1943)

Combat #4 (June 1962).

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D-Day (June 6, 1944)

Combat #11 (Jan.-Mar. 1964)

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Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945)

Combat #20 (June 1966). Art by Sam Glanzman.

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Iwo Jima (February 19, 1945 to March 26, 1945)

 Combat #22 (Dec. 1966). Art by Sam Glanzman.

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U.S.S. Stevens. Sam Glanzman served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Stevens during World War II. Starting in 1970, he wrote and drew short tales of the Stevens for DC Comics’ war comics. Later he wrote and drew two graphic novels for Marvel, further relating his time on the Stevens.

Marvel Graphic Novel: A Sailor’s Story (1987)

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MORE

— 13 COVERS: A MEMORIAL DAY Salute: THE LOSERS. Click here.

— 13 COVERS: A MEMORIAL DAY Salute — THE ’NAM. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. He is currently at work on a sequel, about movie comics. Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.