Judging a book by it's cover: Unknown Soldier (1977 - 1982)

With Veteran's day quickly approaching (it's November 8th as I write this), I was hoping to review the Unknown Solder ongoing series that ran from 1977 to 1982. Sitting in front of me I have nearly 65 Unknown Soldier comics to peruse in less than 3 days -- which is a daunting task, even for me. Instead, I'll be trying something new -- I'll take a look at the cover, decide if it's interesting enough to flip through, and review those ones -- essentially 'judging a book by it's cover'.

Who or What is the Unknown Solder?

Created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert in 1966, the Unknown Soldier first appeared in 1970s's Star-Spangled War Stories #151.

The Unknown Soldier [name never revealed] was a young American soldier who witnessed his older brother (also a soldier) sacrifice himself by jumping on a grenade thrown into their foxhole. Despite being wounded, the young American soldier managed to destroy the enemy patrol in an adrenaline rage before collapsing. When the young American soldier awoke in the hospital, he was informed that his face was damaged beyond repair. Rather than receive an honorable discharge, the young American solider decided to list himself "dead" on official records, but live on as "one man" who could make a difference. He mastered the art of disguise (he keeps a make-up kit on him at all times), hand-to-hand combat, the proficient use of almost any weapon and the ability to pilot almost any military vehicle. He became The Unknown Soldier -- he was the man that no one knew, but was known by everyone. He also had a few field operatives he relied on: Chat Noir, the Sparrow and Inge.

As Joe Kubert recalls, the initial inspiration for the Unknown Soldier came from the actual Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- located in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. The Tomb is a memorial to all of the U.S. service members who died, but who's remains were never identified. Kubert intended the Unknown Solider to be a living symbol representing this idea. Kubert raised this idea to Carmine Infantino (DC executive at the time), and it was green lit. In order to distinguish the Unknown Soldier from the other DC soldiers (such as Sgt Rock), it was decided that the Unknown Soldier would have no identity of his own -- his face was taken away from him -- and so his main symbol of identity would be stripped from him. Hence, the bandaged face.

There's a bit of a debate on whether or not 1966's Our Army at War #168 was the Unknown Soldier's FIRST appearance -- and here's the scoop on that: OAaW #168 was a story in which Sgt Rock is saved by a mysterious unknown soldier who saves his life and disappears. Four years later, in Star-Spangled War Stories #151, the Unknown Soldier is introduced.


Scott Harris, a regular on the CGC comics forum, explained it as such: "The Unknown Soldier as a character and series doesn't debut until 1970, with Star Spangled War Stories #151. This is where we are introduced to the character, and the concept - he's a secret agent whose face was blown off during a battle in the Pacific, and who now uses his amazing acting skill, mimicry, and special effects make-up talents to take the place of various people of different nationalities, allowing him to go undercover in any situation. None of this is remotely hinted at in OAaW #168, because this character had not yet been conceived of. "

"Where this gets tricky is Star Spangled War Stories #157, which reprints OAaW #168 and retcons that standalone story into being an official appearance of The Unknown Soldier; since you never see the soldier's face in the story, it's easy enough to do. As a result, in continuity, OAaW #168 is the first story with Unknown Soldier that was published, but in reality, the character wasn't created until SSWS #151 four years later. OAaW #168 is a very clever retcon, but still a retcon. So for me, SSWS #151 should be more expensive than OAaW #168, because it's much more important. OAaW #168 is an interesting curiosity, and most Unknown Soldier fans would probably want both issues - I have them both - but it's definitely of lesser importance." 
 

Left: Our Army at War #168 (1966), Right: Star-Spangled War Stories #151 (1970)

If you need more evidence, the letter column of Unknown Soldier #263 lists Star-Spangled War Stories #151 as the first appearance of the Unknown Soldier.

Why was DC comics still publishing comic books about World War II in the late 70s/early 80s?

In 1978, DC was still publishing: G.I. Combat, Men Of War, Our Fighting Forces, Sgt Rock, Unknown Soldier, and Weird War Tales (some of these were being printed bi-monthly). Recurring WWII characters appearing in these books included Sgt Rock, Unknown Soldier, the Haunted Tank, Dateline: Frontline, Enemy Ace, The Losers (Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm, Gunner and Sarge), Mademoiselle Marie, Fighting Devil Dog, Codename: Gravedigger, and Viking Commando.

As far as DC was concerned, it wasn't just soldiers fighting in WWII, super-heroes were also battling Hitler and his Nazis in the 1970s and 1980s. The All-Star Squadron and Seven Soldiers of Victory both formed in 1941 to assist with the war effort. The Young All-Stars operated during 1942 to battle Nazis. The Freedom Fighters fought on Earth-X -- an alternate reality where Germany won World War II.

World War II ended in 1945, why was DC still publishing stories about World War II? Haven't they strip-mined that era of history enough? Why not cover Vietnam, the Korean War or the Cold War?

Simply put: stories about World War II sell. World War II holds a very strong and favorable sentiment among (most) North Americans. Other factors for DC focusing on World War II tales:

1. There was a very specific enemy (Adolf Hitler and the Nazis) that nobody felt sympathy towards.
2. Unlike all the other wars you can think of, World War II was a war America actually won.
3. Nick Cardy, Bob Haney, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Robert Kanigher, Dan Spiegle, Bill Draut, Doug Wildey, Murray Boltinoff and Sam Glanzman regularly edited, wrote or drew the stories in DC's War anthology comics. They were also World War II veterans. Who would know the source material better than someone who was actually in WWII?
4. For an adventure/sci-fi writer, using World War II as a historical backdrop offers unlimited story possibilities. There were plenty of rumors that Germany was working on new technologies that could've changed the outcome of the war in their favor, and just about every crackpot theory has been put out there about the Nazi's involvement with mysticism, the occult, or aliens -- it's gotten to the point that we just kinda accept that it could be within the realm of possibility (see: Netflix specials about WWII Germany).

In contrast, Marvel Comics tried to keep things "fresh" by keeping things contemporary. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos became Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. The Nazis were now Hydra. The Punisher was a Vietnam War veteran. From 1986 to 1993, Marvel published The 'Nam -- a critically-acclaimed ongoing series about the U.S. War in Vietnam... and the list goes on and on.

Okay, so this isn't a REAL answer, but it's the best I've got. So...
 

Unknown Soldier issues #205 to #268

Star-Spangled War Stories was re-named to The Unknown Soldier in 1977. [This wasn't the first time this series had experienced a name change; it was originally called Star Spangled Comics and featured the Star Spangled Kid, and then at issue #131 was re-titled to Star-Spangled War Stories.] Another DC war comic, Our Army At War, had been re-named to Sgt. Rock in 1977 as well.

Also occurring around the same time as the title change from SSWS to The Unknown Soldier, David Michelinie -- who had been writing the Unknown Soldier feature in SSWS since issue #183 -- was being replaced by Bob Haney starting with issue #203. Haney had written Unknown Soldier stories before for SSWS in 1971 and 1972.

The Unknown Soldier had pretty much been the lead feature in SSWS since his introduction in issue #151. Why the sudden name change? Not sure, to be honest.

Staying true to our namesake (i,e.: DC in the 80s), we're going to start with the first 'official' The Unknown Soldier comic from 1977 -- issue #205:

Unknown Soldier #205 (1977)

It's really difficult to pass up a Joe Kubert-illustrated cover; he's the definitive Sgt Rock artist (he co-created Sgt Rock, dontcha know?) and has a distinct style that really encapsulates how miserable these soldiers are probably feeling running through the sleet and snow while getting mowed down by enemy fire. Also, it's got Sgt Rock's younger brother, Lawrence (aka: Fighting Devil Dog), in this issue. How could I resist?

This was a quick 11-page story about the Unknown Soldier impersonating a Colonel in order to give an American infantry unit the morale boost it needed to hold their location. This story was written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Dick Ayers and Gerry Talaoc. Joe Kubert only illustrated the cover of this issue. Haney made sure to take a moment to remind us that war isn't all sweeping victories and courageous moves on the battlefield -- many good soldiers died fighting for our freedom, too:

   
 
I skipped over Unknown Soldier #206 (the cover didn't really do anything for me), but decided to have a glance at DC Super Stars #15 thanks to another great Joe Kubert cover:

This cover got me interested in the story inside: two Sgt Rocks and one's trying to kill Mademoiselle Marie? Yeah, I couldn't pass on this one. The cover basically sells itself. Mlle Marie and the Unknown Soldier have a bit of a rivalry going on (aka: she wants to kill him) -- this would be a recurring theme throughout the regular series.


I skipped a few more issues, but these ones piqued my interest:

Both of these issues were very good. At 11 pages, issue #209 was a story about how resilient to enemy torture the Unknown Soldier is, and issue #211 contains an 11-page story about the Unknown Soldier persuading an American tank patrol from mutinying their crazy colonel (this was a reprint from an earlier issue of SSWS). Thanks to reader demand, The Unknown Soldier went from being a bi-monthly to a monthly series starting with issue #209. 

With Bob Haney as the new writer, the Unknown Soldier started off as more of a 'morale boost' for demoralized soldiers -- teaching them the valor of holding their position and that 'one man in the right place at the right time, can make the difference [in the war effort]'. Michelinie's Unknown Soldier mainly had him in spy/espionage tales. Readers noted that while Haney was good, Michelinie spent more time on characterization and gave more insight into what kind of person the Unknown Soldier was.

While the issue #211 of The Unknown Soldier story was good, what I really enjoyed was the "In Country" entry written by Larry Hama (Marvel's GI Joe) and illustrated by Russ Heath. It was an anecdote about a American soldier name Luthor who (I'm assuming) Larry knew personally. Either way, it was an interesting read:

  Two more Joe Kubert issues that jumped out at me (are we noticing a trend, yet?):

Issue #212 featured Unknown Soldier's ally, Chat Noir, in a 17-page story about the Unknown Soldier infiltrating a gang of Nazi saboteurs (with no back-up story). Issue #213 was a 12-page story about the Unknown Soldier capturing and rehabilitating a Hitler Youth who had been brainwashed. This issue has a back-up feature.


Gradually, the series started to do away with back-up features and start running full-length Unknown Soldier stories (some of them were even spanned multiple issues). They'd play with the format a bit throughout the course of the series. It was later explained by the editor that...

Issue #214 was a continuation of the events that occurred in DC Super Stars #15 (there's your continuity, folks). This was editor/writer Robert Kanigher's first Unknown Soldier story. This one's a bit heavy -- in this issue, the Unknown Soldier's mission is to rescue French Resistance leader, Mlle Marie, from the Auschwitz concentration camp. I had problems with this story -- while Kanigher took the time to mention the sheer terror of Auschwitz and how it was probably the closest thing to hell on earth...

...it all seemed to be down-played by how easily The Unknown Soldier and Mlle Marie were able to free themselves and coerce the prisoners to turn on their captors. Now, I realize this was only a 17-page story in a book targeted to young adults (and adults) that had to meet the Comics Code Authority's guidelines -- so Kanigher couldn't really delve into the horrors of Auschwitz or what it's prisoners experiences. My recommendation? Read Art Spiegelman's Maus at least once in your life.


I skimmed the next two issues. While the covers were nicely illustrated (Kubert again), there wasn't enough there to really make me want to read them:

Writer Bob Haney served in the Navy during World War II, so Unknown Soldier #215 (left) would've been right in his wheelhouse.

The Unknown Soldier #217 is the beginning of a 3-issue story arc (written by Bob Haney) about the Unknown Soldier's failed assassination attempt on Hitler, getting killed and then having a Nazi imposter pretending to be the Unknown Soldier to assassinate Winston Churchill. This cover made me laugh because you don't typically expect to have explosives hidden in a painting.

The Unknown Solider #218 also had a cover that made me laugh. Without any context of who the Unknown Soldier was, it would appear that Hitler wants to allocate all of his resources into killing a fourth-degree burn victim. Like, it's bad enough that this guy has to walk around for the rest of his life with charred skin, but now Hitler wants him shot, too? Harsh. All kidding aside, this was a great issue and would pretty much cement the Unknown Soldier/Adolf Hitler rivalry that could only end one way at the end of the series. (hint hint)

Staring with issue #219, the price of the book went up (from 35 cents to 50 cents) and books now had 40 pages. Welcome to the 1978 'DC Explosion' (soon followed by the 1978 'DC Implosion' three months later).

For reasons I can't really explain, the cover of issue #221 intrigued me -- so I gave it a read. This issue's story is about a Tokyo Rose-type radio personality who is feeding Japanese military intel to American troops in coded messages during her radio programs. What struck me about this issue is that, contrary to what I'd normally expect, the Unknown Soldier was unable to prevent the pretty young radio announcer from getting discovered and murdered by her husband/Japanese colonel. Huh. These guys play for keeps.  


Alright, so the book prices have been re-adjusted: 40 cents now gets you 32 pages:

So this cover jumped out at me -- it appears that the Unknown Soldier is trying rescue allied soldiers on a German plane... that won't land! This cover was actually misleading -- it was about American aircrafts getting captured with with a Nazi "capture beam" and the allied aircraft crew being brainwashed into fighting for Germany. So, really, there was never any danger of the plane NOT landing. The Unknown Soldier thwarts their plans -- all within 13 pages. So far, this has felt like the most sci-fi/adventure/superhero story of them all.

On the cover of The Unknown Solider #232 is the Unknown Soldier and the closest thing he has to a comrade-in-arms, Chat Noir, securing a secret envelope with the name of a secret traitor. A 17-page story about the Unknown Solider using his detective skills to uncover who the traitor is in a French Resistance group. The story moved quickly and had plenty of action. Very enjoyable.

It's the Third Reich on a submarine... saluting the Unknown Solider? Also, it's a really nice cover with a high contrast between the oranges and grey/blues. The Unknown Soldier impersonates a German submarine captain in order to infiltrate an impregnable German naval base and blow it up. This was a quick 17-page story.

This cover reminded me of a scene from The Deer Hunter, and I remembered enjoying the film --so I had to give this one a read. The Unknown Soldier needs to convince an American being held in a Japanese-American internment camp to pose as an Imperial Ordnance Specialist to plant bombs in a Japanese army stronghold. There's a bit of suspense as we wonder if the American will betray his adopted homeland for his ancestral one. I applaud writer Bob Haney for not trying to pull the wool over our eyes and pretending like the Japanese-American internment camp "guests" had the best living conditions:
 

This was one of the sillier issues I read. The Germans are using children to stop the Allied forces from bombing a town, as they bide their time for their own Panzer squad to arrive to counter-strike against the Allied forces. The Unknown Soldier's solution? Dress up like the Pied Piper and lure the kids safely out of town so the Allied forces can attack:

Paul Levitz leaves as editor on The Unknown Soldier (to work on Batman and it's spin-off comics), and Len Wein comes in as the new editor.

It was hard to resist this cover: the Unknown Soldier hanging from the front of a charging locomotive while dodging a Nazi officer swinging a giant mallet. Don Heck illustrated this cover. This was a story that drew a lot of criticism from readers and sparked the whole 'Realistic vs Unrealistic war stories' debate in the letter column pages of The Unknown Soldier. Another misleading cover: at no point does the Unknown Soldier fight a guy carrying a giant hammer on the front of a train -- but this story does read a bit like Raiders of the Lost Ark as the Unknown Soldier is desperately trying to keep famous French artifact, The Hammer Martel, out of Nazi hands. Great read.



Around this time, GI Combat becomes a monthly book (it was previously a bi-monthly book).

 

It's the Unknown Solder guest-starring Captain Storm (of the Losers). Prior to this issue, I've never heard of Dateline: Frontline!, but in this issue it looks like we're getting 8 extra pages of it (and a ten cent price increase). In this issue, the Unknown Soldier and Captain Storm team-up to take out a mysterious 'ghost sub' that's blowing up Allied ships. It was a good story, but what really stood out for me was the 2-page 'Big Daddy' story written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Tom Yeates:

I was drawn to this issue because it kind of reminds me of the cover of that Punisher issue where Frank Castle is all chained up, but has a grenade hidden behind his back with the pin halfway out. "Like, ha, you guys think you have me beat? You have no clue what you're in for." There is no scene in this book where the Unknown Soldier hides in a sewer where a dozen Nazis march around him -- but he does meet his female German counterpart:

How were war comics doing around this point? Well, the Men Of War ongoing series was cancelled sometime between Unknown Soldier #246 and #247.

It's the Unknown Soldier, and he's leaving in a cart of dead people with a little red-haired girl [?] who is clearly alive. This was a great story about the Unknown Soldier trying to escape a Jewish ghetto with a secret formula to create the atomic bomb. This issue also contains part 2 of Cary Burkett's 'Ruptured Duck' feature.

Well, I'm a sucker for 'secret origin' issues, so I couldn't resist reading this issue. This was actually part 1 of a 2 part story in which a top SS espionage agent learns of the Unknown Soldier's true identity and seeks to hold his dad hostage. It does re-tell the Unknown Soldier's origin. It's continued in the following issue... and the Unknown Soldier retcons his own origin -- it turns out that he was inspired by a Battle God to become the 'Immortal GI':

How could anyone pass on a cover like this? Guest-starring Sgt Rock and Easy Company, Mlle Marie, the Haunted Tank and the Losers... and they're all trying to kill the Unknown Soldier. In this issue, the Unknown Soldier pretends to defect to the Nazis and become Hitler's right-hand man, so of course there's a giant target on his head. This issue gives you exactly what it professes -- all of these characters are trying to kill the Unknown Soldier, only to realize it was a giant scheme at the end. A really fun issue.

Mike W Barr (Batman and the Outsiders) becomes the editor of the title starting with issue #256.

The cover of this issue looked intriguing, so I gave it a shot. In issue #261, The Unknown Soldier goes on a secret mission to a French Chateau to rescue his paramour, Lady Jade, who is being tortured by Nazis. [Lady Jade was introduced in issue #254]. This issue has plenty of supernatural overtones, and probably should've been a Weird War Tales story. Still a fun read, however.   

I liked this cover because it introduces a mystery: what is the secret of the Death Sub? This easily could've been a Weird War Tales or House of Mystery cover. Unfortunately, this was not a submarine piloted by zombies, but a bunch of crew members who were sick with an experimental Japanese virus. It was a quick read, and the cover definitely drew me in.

Another whodunit cover. Who murdered the general? This was part 1 of a 2-part story that finished in issue #266. In typical DC fashion, we discover that the person who first confessed to the murder was only trying to protect his squad from being court-martialed, and that the REAL killer was actually a German soldier posing as an American soldier. Great story -- a quick and easy read.

Okay, so this is the LAST issue of the series. It's set on April 30th 1945 --  the day of the Gotterdammerung -- the day Adolf Hitler dies. It's a 23-page story. This is how you end a series. The Unknown Soldier is in Berlin, hot on Hitler's trail. All of his supporting characters are getting wiped out: Sparrow is discovered and killed by an SS firing squad, Inge sacrifices herself for the Unknown Soldier and trips on a seemingly inert bomb, and Chat Noir is gunned down while trying to rescue the Unknown Soldier from a tight situation. With the fall of Berlin looming, Hitler has one crazy scheme left up his sleeve: blood-sucking octopi that are to be dropped on Allied forces from the sky.

The Unknown Soldier manages to infiltrate Hitler's bunker, and shoots Hitler (making it look like a suicide). Throughout the course of their struggle, Eva Braun accidentally swallows her cyanide tablet. The Unknown Soldier uses his skills as a master of disguise to impersonate Hitler and shuts down the crazy Nazi 'octopi from the sky' scheme. While leaving Hitler's bunker, in one last selfless act of heroism, the Unknown Solider sacrifices his life to save an innocent child:

 
...and that's the end of the Unknown Soldier, folks. Or is it? The final panels allude that he may have dodged death and disguised himself as a GI. It kinda leaves the ending open for interpretation.

-----

This series was cancelled due to low sales. I don't have an accurate number of how many issues they were selling by the end, but in issue #249 (1981) they estimated that they had more 100,000 readers. It's really hard to make sense of the then-current war comic landscape since some war titles were getting cancelled, and some were going from a bi-monthly to a monthly schedule. Sgt Rock would outlast them all.  

A popular demand among readers who wrote in were for longer Unknown Soldier stories. Most readers wanted more than 13-page Unknown Soldier stories since he was the lead feature. It was explained by editorial that it simply wasn't possible since the regular inkers, Romeo Tanghal and Gerry Talaoc, lived in the Phillipines and that more than 13 pages would be too big of a workload on them.

It was later revealed by editorial that the back-up features were meant to expand their audience and (hopefully) bring in new readers. Popular back-up features included Enemy Ace by Robert Kanigher and John Severin, Dateline: Frontline! by Cary Burkett and Rick Estrada, and pretty much anything Robert Kanigher and Tom Yeates were cooking up. Unpopular back-up features included Andy Stewart: Combat Nurse and Fighting Devil Dog. Somewhere in the middle was Mlle Marie, the Losers, Balloon Buster and Viking Prince.

What's interesting about this series is that it doesn't pull any punches -- while the Unknown Soldier always wins at the end, many American soldiers are killed in the process. Often the scenes are grim -- Nazi (and Allied) soldiers are stabbed, hung, having their necks broken or shot. It's not just limited to men in uniform, either -- civilians and bystanders are captured, shot, blown up or tortured. That's war.

When I was a pre-teen, I could not stand war comics. I had a whole pile of Sgt Rock comics and the odd issue of Charlton Comics' Fightin' Army thrown into the mix, and I absolutely did not care for them. To this effect, I feel that war comics are an acquired taste -- since I love reading them now. I would definitely recommend the Unknown Soldier.

-Justin

A Decade in the Life of Jonah Hex (1977 - 1978)

With a comics career spanning nearly 45 years, multiple cartoon appearances, a feature film, plus a guest-shot on the CW's television show Legends of Tomorrow (April 14th, see local listings), Jonah Hex is the highest-profile character in DC's Western stable. Created by writer John Albano & artist Tony DeZuniga (both of whom wanted to bring the aesthetic of "spaghetti Western" movies to comics), Jonah debuted in 1972's All-Star Western #10 (which was re-titled Weird Western Tales by issue #12) and quickly became a fan favorite. Albano parted ways with his creation after penning only ten issues, leaving him in the very capable hands of Michael Fleisher, who would accompany the scar-faced bounty hunter over to his first self-titled series, Jonah Hex, three years later.

Between 1977 and 1987, Fleisher fleshed out virtually every aspect of the character's life, giving readers details about Jonah's childhood and his wartime experiences, having him settle down and start a family, even revealing his final fate at the dawn of the 20th Century, as well as the possible nightmare to come in the mid-21st Century. In this series of articles, we're going to present you with a "highlight reel" of this ten-year period under Fleisher's tenure, showing you how Jonah Hex went from being a mere four-color cowboy to a legend that would survive the deterioration of the genre that birthed him.

When Jonah Hex #1 (March/April 1977) debuted, there were only a handful of Western comics still being printed, many of which either featured more than one character or were padded out with reprints. Starting up a brand-new Western comic based around one solitary character with a new story each and every issue may have been seen by some in the industry as a huge mistake, but both Fleisher and Hex were more than up to the task.


For his first self-titled issue, Michael Fleisher and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (who'd joined Hex's rotating stable of artists the previous year) have Jonah tracking down Tommy Royden, the young son of a wealthy plantation owner. Tommy had been kidnapped over six months ago, yet there’s been no ransom and no trace of the boy has surfaced. After two weeks of westward tracking, Hex comes across a boy-fighting troupe run by a man named Blackie LeClerc, and eventually learns that Tommy hadn’t been kidnapped for ransom, but to replace another boy who’d died in a fight. Sadly, Tommy himself died in the same manner not long before Hex's arrival, and since he doesn’t know whether LeClerc or his partner did the actual kidnapping, decides the best way to settle it is have them participate in "a little friendly fight! You know, like the kind you make those boys have!" The two men duke it out until they stumble off a cliff, and though LeClerc manages to hang on for dear life, his victory doesn’t last long:

The story perfectly illustrates some key facets of Jonah's personality: his black sense of humor, his unspoken need to protect the weak (especially children), and his determination to see that criminals get the punishment they deserve no matter what. It was a good way to introduce the character to potential new readers, especially since Jonah was about to embark on his longest storyline to date. Jonah Hex #2 begins with Jonah accepting a job from a man claiming to be with the U.S. Secret Service, but in truth, he works for Quentin Turnbull, a Southern plantation owner who wrongly blames Jonah for the death of his son during the Civil War. Turnbull was last seen back in Weird Western Tales #29-30 [1975] -- where we learned of the Fort Charlotte Massacre -- and though he appeared to have died at the end of that story, Fleisher brought him back to menace Jonah once more. Turnbull arranges this phony job wherein Jonah is supposed to win the confidence of a Mexican bandito known as El Papagayo, then spy on the man for the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the guns Jonah gave El Papagayo as a show of good faith turn out to be useless, and Jonah barely escapes the furious banditos by the skin of his teeth.

Turnbull must've known there was a chance the bounty hunter might get out of that mess alive, because he also arranges for Jonah to be framed for the murder of three lawmen, thereby placing a $10,000 bounty on his head...but even that isn't enough to satisfy Turnbull's lust for revenge. In Jonah Hex #4 -- the first issue of Jonah Hex to go monthly -- we're introduced to the Chameleon, a master of disguise hired by Turnbull in order to further discredit our hero. Masquerading as Hex, the Chameleon robs a stagecoach and murders one of the passengers, then later ambushes the real Hex and shoots him off his horse. Jonah is eventually found by a young lady named Joanna Mosby, who takes him back to her cabin. Though they get a mite amorous, it's soon revealed she's really in cahoots with the Chameleon, an alliance that turns sour when the Chameleon tells Joanna that, since she's seen his face, he's going to set the cabin on fire to kill both her and Hex. Too bad he didn't count on Jonah’s fancy footwork (take note of where the gun hits...owie!):

Hex and Joanna escape the blazing cabin, and though she says that she genuinely loves him, the man ain't buyin' it, giving her a good slap in the kisser before riding off. Moments later, we find that Jonah's been cleared of the stagecoach-robbing charge: an artist on the stage did a sketch of the robber, and while the Chameleon made himself up to look like Hex, he put the scar on the wrong side of his face, therefore confirming that he was an imposter. Hex is still wanted for murder, though, and worst of all, the Chameleon survives the fire, horribly burned and swearing vengeance upon Hex!

After this issue, the crazy Turnbull-backed shenanigans suddenly drop off, though Jonah’s “fugitive on the run” status still gets worked into each story. To that end, Jonah Hex #5 (a reprint of All-Star Western v2 #10 [1972]) gets a new framing sequence by Garcia-Lopez. The opener shows a posse in pursuit of Hex crossing paths with a woman on a buckboard. Turns out this is the same lady Jonah helped in his very first appearance, and when they ask if she’s seen him, she replies, “Ah ain’t laid eyes on thet man in more’n five years, sheriff!” The comic then rolls into “Welcome to Paradise” proper, and with the exception of some coloring changes, it's exactly as it was the first time around (complete with credits for Albano & DeZuniga). When the tale is through, we get a final page with the sheriff saying that Hex is now a wanted killer, and he tells the woman, “You see any sign of him, you let out a loud holler, hear?” before riding off. Cut to Jonah poking his head out from beneath the tarp covering the buckboard -- he’d been hiding there the whole time -- and thanking the woman for the assist. She in turn thanks him for what he did all those years ago: saving her life and paying off the farm. After the anger she’d shown him when they parted ways originally, this scene is rather touching, especially in light of the mess his life had become. It’s a reminder for both us and himself that he is a good man, he just has very rotten luck.

The next notable issues are Jonah Hex #7-8 (drawn by Ernie Chan, Noly Panaligan, and Vicente Alcazar), which reveal via flashback the origin of Jonah's facial scar. Back in July 1851, Jonah was a boy of thirteen and living with his abusive, drunken father. The elder Hex sells booze illegally to a local Apache tribe, and one day, in order to raise a grubstake so he can get in on the California gold rush, he decides to sell his son to them as well so they can use him for slave labor -- he claims that he’ll come back for the boy, but this is clearly a load of hooey. After two years of living with the Apache, Jonah rescues the tribe’s chief from a vicious puma, and they accept him as a full member of the tribe. Unfortunately, the chief’s son, Noh-Tante, isn’t so happy about this, nor about the fact that Jonah keeps making eyes at a girl named White Fawn. When they’re both sent out on a test of manhood -- stealing horses from a nearby Kiowa camp -- Noh-Tante betrays Jonah and leaves him to be killed by the Kiowa. Though he survives, the Apache have moved on by the time Jonah returns to where they'd set up camp. There’s a quickie glossing over of the next 12 years, taking us up to 1866, a year after the Civil War ended: discharged from the Confederate Army and wandering the West, Jonah stumbles across his old tribe. He tells the chief of how Noh-Tante betrayed him, and the chief decides this must be settled by trial-by-combat. Armed with tomahawks, Jonah and Noh-Tante go at it, but Jonah’s weapon was rigged to break. Deciding that one dishonorable move deserves another, Jonah pulls out the knife he keeps hidden beneath his coat collar and stabs Noh-Tante. Not knowing about the rigged tomahawk, the chief sides with his dead son and punishes Jonah for cheating:

So now you know: Jonah’s scar is the result of a red-hot tomahawk to the face. As with the Fort Charlotte Massacre and the "fugitive" storyline this tale is embedded in, it all boils down to yet another false accusation, as well as rejection by a father figure (in this case, his actual father is part of the equation), and in the long run, events like this have to color how Jonah thinks of himself. Michael Fleisher once commented that someone like Hex must have a certain amount of self-hatred to do what he does because, as a bounty hunter, he’s putting his life on the line constantly. To be sure, coming from an abusive household isn’t the best start for a boy, and suffering through the indignity of slavery would just lower his opinion of himself even further. But Jonah did manage take away one very important lesson from all this: he learned how to endure. Between what the Apache did to him and the torture his father already put him through, there’s little the world can throw at Jonah that he hasn’t already experienced. And there’s the more practical lessons in the form of hunting, tracking, and fighting skills that he picked up during his years with the Apache. So much of what makes Jonah Hex the man he is can be traced back to his Pa trading him away for a stack of pelts. Without that event, he’s nothing.

El Papagayo returns to get revenge on Hex in Jonah Hex #9-10, and in Jonah Hex #11, Jonah runs into Joanna Mosby again (sadly, she dies trying to protect him from some fellas that busted him up pretty bad earlier in the story, and Jonah shows that he indeed had feelings for Joanna by giving her one last kiss before she passes away). While all three issues reference the "fugitive" storyline in one way or another, there’s not even a brief mention of Jonah’s troubles in Jonah Hex #12, which focuses instead on Hex looking for a friend lost in the Louisiana bayou. It’s possible this tale may have been written before the current storyline was cooked up and held in reserve in case Fleisher fell behind, a theory lent credence by the fact that Jonah Hex #13-15 were written by David Michelinie, who Fleisher had brought to DC after coming across his writing samples in editor Joe Orlando’s slush pile. With the exception of the John Albano-penned reprint pages in Jonah Hex #5, those issues were the only ones not written by Michael Fleisher during the title's entire run.

When Fleisher returned for JH#16, he finally brought the "fugitive" storyline to a close. Jonah crosses paths with an inventor named Nostrum, who just happens to be familiar with the still-nascent science of fingerprinting, as well as the process of identifying the distinctive marks left on bullets when fired by certain guns. He can prove Jonah Hex is innocent! Unfortunately, the Chameleon has managed to track Jonah down and tips off local law enforcement (in disguise, of course) as to the wanted man's whereabouts. As the town prepares to put Jonah on trial, Nostrum continues to gather evidence to free him, so the Chameleon stabs Nostrum and impersonates the inventor in the courtroom. He gets on the stand and tries to convict Jonah with a damning testimony, but the real Nostrum stumbles in and manages to blow the Chameleon’s cover before dropping dead of his wounds. Furious, the Chameleon pulls a gun and rips off his makeup, ranting like a madman until Jonah whips out his handy-dandy hidden knife and shuts him up:

And that's it. After fifteen issues of non-stop action, Jonah’s troubles are all resolved rather succinctly in one page. Overall, the "fugitive" storyline is burdened somewhat by too much padding -- about half of the issues in this arc could be removed without affecting the plot -- but on the other hand, we did get Jonah’s "origin story" in the midst of all this craziness, along with a new bad guy in El Papagayo, who will turn up to menace Hex for years to come.

With its opening scene of Jonah getting trapped in a hot-air balloon and floating out to sea, readers of Jonah Hex #17 back in the day might've thought Fleisher was setting up another long-term storyline, but in truth, it was just a brief side-trip. The bounty hunter eventually ends up off the coast of Brazil, where we runs afoul of both illegal slavers and cannibals (he manages to survive both). By Jonah Hex #18, he's found a small patch of civilization in the form of a rubber plantation, and it's there that Jonah acquires something that would later be considered part of the "classic" Jonah Hex look: a matched pair of ivory-handled Dragoons.

Though there are errors in both the text and the art this first time out, it’s specified in the letter column of Jonah Hex #31 that these guns are meant to be Whitneyville-Hartford .44-caliber Dragoon pistols, manufactured by Colt Firearms back in 1848, with a limited run of only 240 (only a few dozen still exist). It’s not only a rare handgun, but deadly as well, with a firing power that wasn’t surpassed until the invention of the .357 Magnum in the 1930s, so you know Jonah didn’t just pluck those things off the wall at random. He uses the Dragoons to great effect later on in the story, and would continue to do so long after he left Brazil. How exactly he got back Stateside is unknown, as Jonah Hex #19 (December 1978) makes no mention of it.

In our next installment, we'll take a look at another comic that hit the stands around the same time Jonah was having his South American adventures. It presented a wholly different view of the bounty hunter, and would have an impact on Hex history for decades to come. 




Recommended reading:

• Matching Dragoons: The Many Phases of Jonah Hex - The Historical Hex

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All content in this article entry written by Susan Hillwig. If you want to attribute any of this work, please credit Susan Hillwig. For more of Susan, check out her One Fangirl's Opinion blog.

DC in the 80s interviews Fred Hembeck

If you were reading DC comics from 1979 to 1981, you'll probably recall the 'Daily Planet' news pages found in the monthly issues. It was normally set up to look like a 'faux' newspaper front page complete with a lead article, a few bylines, short teasers about that month's releases and (depending on the month) a two-to-three panel gag-strip by Fred Hembeck. Fred Hembeck has a very distinct 'cartoony' style that is immediately recognizable (mostly in part due to the swirls on his characters' knees and elbows).

What you probably don't know is that during 1977 to 1981, Hembeck was also writing/drawing a feature for The Comic Buyer's Guide called Dateline:@#$% which was basically a place for Hembeck to wave his 'FanBoy Flag' and discuss/comment/criticize on whatever was happening in comics at the time. In essence, Fred Hembeck - with his unique combination of illustrations and words - was the first 'blogger' on comic fandom. This is pretty significant since, prior to the internet, there wasn't much of a way to find out what was going on in comicdom unless you read it in on the letters page of whatever comic you were reading, your local comic book shop employee was giving you the 'inside scoop' or you picked up one of the few hard-to-find 'comic book news' magazines that were being printed (it would still be another decade before Wizard Magazine would begin publication). Mr Hembeck was cool enough to answer some of our questions we had about his time at DC comics (and then some) during the 1980s...

DCinthe80s: Before you became a cartoonist/humorist for The Comic Buyer's Guide, you tried to break into the biz as a 'real comic book artist'. You compared your style to Neal Adams. Through my searches, I've only seen one of these images: a wash and line drawing of Abbott and Costello with the Andrew Sisters (circa 1976). I'm really curious if you have any more of these kickin' around (especially of DC characters). I'm somewhat curious to see what the art of the "Fred Hembeck the world never knew" looked like. Also, why Neal Adams? Were you highly influenced by his books or was he the current 'artist du jour' that all of the kids were trying to imitate?

Fred Hembeck: In one of my early Fantaco books (reprinted in the Omnibus, I did a feature reproducing several of the pages I unsuccessfully shopped around before transitioning to my cartoony style. And many years later, as a lark, I was invited to illustrate, in a straight style, an 8 page Brother Voodoo story written by Scott Lobdell in Marvel Super-Heroes #1 - Spring Special (1990). Unfortunately, they assigned a Filipino inker to finish it, and as is the case with many of artists from that part of the world, the inks totally overwhelmed my pencils, which in some cases were totally redrawn. Not that they weren't made better for the effort, but it sorta defeated the purpose of taking a shot at seeing what serious Hembeck art would look like. While I'm mildly disappointed that experiment failed, I'm perfectly happy with the way things have turned out overall. Had I stayed on my original track, I may've worked my way up to being a totally forgettable mediocre penciller, and that would've been that. As it is, while I'm still well aware there are plenty of folks who do the cartoony thing way better than I do, somehow my style--coupled with my writing (I never planned to be a writer)--managed to strike some sort of chord. And as for Neal Adams, I still have full sketchbooks of my copies of his classic late sixties work, mostly rendered in brush! I primarily picked up how to draw gritted teeth from him--my actual storytelling sense is more Kirby and Ditko. But when you're in high school circa 1970, Neal was the man to aspire to! I finally met him at a con about three years ago, and told him about my full sketchbooks copying his work done while I was in high school, and he quickly changed the subject--I guess being told how devoted to his work I was in my teen years while standing before him sporting a white Gabby Hayes beard unnerved him a bit!...


DCinthe80s: Based on all of the research I've done, you lived in New York while you were illustrating the Daily Planet comic strips for DC Comics from 1979 to 1981. Were you actually working in the office as a full-time staffer or were you just dropping off your strips and leaving? How involved were you with the 'DC comics office culture' of that time? I'm kind of wondering if anything happened at DC that made you want to disassociate with them, since after leaving DC - other than Fantaco publishing your work - you pretty much became exclusive to Marvel Comics from then on (Marvel Age, FF roast, etc)? I also know that you did a Zoot Sputnik backup feature in 'Mazing Man in 1986, but I'm thinking that may have had more to do with the fact that your pal Bob Rozakis was manning the project.

Hembeck: I've NEVER worked in a comics office environment--even back then, slipping art into the mail did the trick. I WAS offered a chance to be an assistant editor at DC over the phone once, round abouts 1980, but my wife had just started a good job at IBM, and it made no sense for us to move 90 miles down to NYC instead. Plus, I'm just not boss material, and I knew it. There was no particular reason for my leaving DC, save for the fact that the Daily Planet page went from appearing all across the line to only in their limited number of Dollar Comics--and then, when they were gone, so was I. Marvel recruited me for Marvel Age, and I soon became so identified with them, DC (someone once told me--don't recall who) was reluctant to use me. But no big conspiracy, as best I can tell. 

Fred Hembeck

DCinthe80s: Your work is very familiar to me. Your comedic strips always served as a juxtaposition to whatever serious plot line was happening in whatever comic book I was reading at the moment. Your style of drawing is iconic in a sense that someone can immediately recognize it as 'hey, that's a Hembeck' and can be immediately associated with 'ha, comics can be fun and shouldn't always be taken so seriously'. That being said, has there ever been any favorite titles/characters you were super-serious about and felt very protective over (ex:"Nobody better mess with my X-Men")?

Hembeck: There was a time when I'd get my panties into a knot over some radical change to characters I'd grown up reading, but eventually, I realized that everyone is entitled to "their" version of these icons--if I don't like what they're doing with 'em currently, well, no matter; I still have all my old comics where everybody's acting the way they should, don't I? I mean, I never swallowed the notion that Mary Jane (and later, Aunt May) knew Peter was Spider-Man pretty much from day one. It's a good thing I gave up reading the title before the Clone Saga  commenced! Pretty much the last "truth" I cling to is that Bucky is dead, though from all reports, the Winter Soldier storyline is a top-notch one.

 
DCinthe80s: In your interview with Pronto Comics, you mentioned Don Martin (among many many others) as one of your indirect influences for your cartooning style. One of your blog entries has you gushing rhetorically about your love of MAD Magazine and it's 'copycat' mags (Sick, Cracked, etc) and you even go so far as to review Mark Evanier's 'MAD art' book. All that being said, how did you NOT end up being a writer/artist for MAD magazine - was there no interest there? I know that you wrote a story for Marvel's WHAT THE--?! lampooning Nick Fury...

Hembeck: When I was growing up--and right into the first couple of decades of my career--MAD magazine seemed to have the exact same list of contributors every single issue. It seemed to be an extremely closed shop, so I just never even gave attempting wrangling my way inside a thought. Plus, I feel my writing isn't quite on the same wavelength as their usual approach. (I also wrote and drew Daredevil and Dr. Strange parodies in two other early issues of WHAT THE? as well.)


DCinthe80s: I've read your story about you having dinner with Dave Sims and Chris Claremont in the mid-80s. You revealed that you couldn't really participate in the Sims/Claremont convo because you'd only read the first dozen issues or so of Cerebus. Were you a big fan of any other titles from the 80s? (DC/Marvel/Eclipse/Pacific/etc)

Hembeck: My daughter was born in 1990--I didn't realize it then, but that's when my comics reading began to decline (though it'd be a little over a full decade later before I totally gave up the ghost). In the eighties I was a big fan of anything by Frank Miller, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Alan Moore; also Nexus, American Flagg--I read EVERYTHING in the eighties, and enjoyed a lot of it. Even--yup--US 1!

DCinthe80s: The first appearance of Lobo (in 1983's Omega Men v1 #3) has him killing a character named 'Humbeck' who seems to be a parody of you. Is there a story there? Did you know the late Roger Slifer and/or the current Keith Giffen?


Hembeck: No story there. Done with no prior knowledge on my part. Just a little tribute--at least, that's how I took it! (I believe I'd met Roger in passing previously; I never have met Keith face to face, but we did speak on the phone a few times concerning me contributing story and art to an origin page in an Ambush Bug issue, and, later, 2 pages of art only in his Epic series, Video Jack).

Humbeck

DCinthe80s: I know that you slowed down for a while in the mid-80s. I've got a quote from the Tom Spurgeon interview: "It was just a matter of feeling like I was kind of getting redundant that point. Plus I was doing more work for Marvel and DC, and I was hoping to branch out a bit more with the big companies at that point." My question to you - which direction were you hoping to go? Did you have plans for a more 'serious' series? I read that you enjoyed working on children's titles and that KIDZ was a project you were eager to launch - were you talking about branching out from single strips and one-pagers into an entire ongoing series?

Hembeck: Yeah, well, the best laid plans and all that. A big ol' definitive NO on "serious" series, but I DID spend way too much time on that big ol white whale of mine, KIDZ. I've got just over 300 pages of the story done in finished layouts, with the story's end nowhere in sight! Sigh. Well, live and learn. 


DCinthe80s: I'm really thankful for the internet age. I think it's fantastic that someone can basically e-mail you, request a commission, pay you online and have that commission delivered to their door. It takes the sting out of missing you at a convention because I couldn't miss my niece's birthday on that particular day or etc. I read that you do a lot of silver age classic cover redos as well as single character commissions. Which DC character is your most frequently requested commission?


Hembeck: I'd say Batman is the most requested DC character that comes my way, which should come as no big surprise. In an addendum to my answer to the last question, it's much more practical for me to work on commissions and/or eBay offerings than to devote time to strips done on spec, which is why I've been doing so much of that over the last several years. But I really would like to get back to doing strips, and hope to carve out some time for that in the year upcoming.

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So that concludes our interview with Fred Hembeck. I just wanted to mention that Hembeck is a pretty cool cat, really likes the Beatles, has his own website with a very entertaining blog, and is super-approachable and modest. Thank you for answering our questions, Mr Hembeck. Once again, in case it was missed the first time, all of Hembeck's Dateline:@#$% strips as well as his early 80s Fantaco books are reprinted in the 912 page THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS.

A lot of the basic questions (ex: "How did you get into comics?") weren't asked because they've been covered so many times by other interviewers. If you liked this interview with Fred Hembeck, here are a few other interviews we recommend (not to mention the ones we linked to in our interview):

• GutterGeek interviews Fred Hembeck
• 13th Dimension's Mighty Q&A with Fred Hembeck
• Pop Culture Safari! interviews Fred Hembeck 
• 20th Century Danny Boy: Looking Back with Fred Hembeck
• Panel Bound: Interview with Fred Hembeck by Darrick Patrick

[Special thanks to Rob Perry for helping me prep the interview questions. - J]