DC War Comics -- Part Two

This week I continue with a brief history of DC War Comics ...

Despite the shift away from superheroes and soldiers in the late 1940s, the fervor for war comics did not die; rather, it was shuffled to the back burner – overlooked actually – but not for long. War stories were selling. 

The Entertaining Comics group (or just EC) introduced two titles in 1950 and 1951 with enough success to ring the bell. Two-Fisted Tales began in December 1950, spinning off from the horror title Haunt of Fear (which itself replaced a western titled Gunfighter) – clearly EC was searching for an audience. Frontline Combat was introduced in August 1951 as a totally new book. These war comics were gruesome with high body counts. They tended to focus on the Korean War but included adventures from earlier conflicts including WW2. They enjoyed short runs (24 and 15 issues respectively) ending in the mid-1950s.

Intent on catching this wave, the DC Comics war machine started rolling (and flying) in late 1952 with their most prolific writer/editor, Robert Kanigher, calling the shots. Our Army at War (OAAW) hit the newsstands in August 1952, followed by a retitled Star Spangled War Stories (SSWS) in the same month – the latter was formerly an adventure book named Star Spangled Comics featuring Batman and Robin (mostly Robin) among others.

Next in the lineup was Johnny Cloud’s book. The revamped All American Western was retitled to All American Men of War (AAMOW) in August 1952. All told, DC had three new war titles (OAAW, SSWS, and AAMOW) by the end of the year, all with a primary focus on WW2.

In October 1954, Our Fighting Forces (OFF) was added to the fray. And two years later, DC acquired GI Combat (GIC) – a Quality Comics publication that began in October 1952. With these two additions, the Big Five as the war comic group is affectionately known was complete – quite a turnaround as DC did not have a single book devoted to war (and titled as such) before 1952.

Next up ... The Big Five and the resurgence of the Serial Warrior ...

Image Credit:

AAMOW#8 (December-January 1953-54); Cover Art: I.Novick (P) & Giella (I); Writer: D.Kahn.

Sgt. Storm Cloud TM DC Comics.