Writer: Robert Kanigher
Artists: Ross, Andru (p), Mike Esposito (i), Russ Heath, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert
Publisher: DC Comics
Sigh. They just don’t make comics like these anymore.
Some would say that’s a good thing; that there’s no place in today’s more mature comic market for improbable stories about soldiers fighting dinosaurs and giant sea turtles on an uncharted island. They’d be wrong. There’s always room for an imaginative, well-told story on the shelves. And Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot is full of them.
Over the course of 550+ pages collected from issues #90-128 of Star Spangled War Stories, readers enter a world where soldiers are sent out to discover what’s happened to lost units only to meet “armored giant[s] from the Ice Age!”
Yes, if you read a dozen of the stories in one sitting, there’s a possibility you’ll burn out on the basic plot and begin to notice the stock scenes used issue after issue; but the same thing can happen when reading too many J.D. Robb’s in a row. Remember, these were written to be read in monthly installments, not at one sitting. If you take your time, you’ll be rewarded with some interesting variations on a theme. Robert Kanigher showed a great deal of creativity and ingenuity working within the limited framework of the series. For instance in “The Frogmen and the Dinosaur,” two clumsy frogmen must earn the respect of their commander while trying to complete their mission and deal with giant crabs, giant eels, and dinos. Or there’s the paleontologist who’s so excited about seeing living dinosaurs on “The Island of Thunder” that he forgets to focus on the mission. “Doom Came at Noon” features three skiing brothers on a mission to find a secret arctic submarine pen. Guess what they find instead? Or “Dinosaur D-Day,” featuring the most unusual troop carrier landing in history. For comic book historians, there’s early Suicide Squad and G.I. Robot appearances to enjoy.
Part of the joy of the tightly-knit stories is the pulp style first person narration in most of the captions. They both move the story along and give the characters some color. “Suddenly…when I felt my eyes rolling around like balls in a roulette wheel….” “Hitting that monster was like hitting the side of a barn door –all I had to do was stop my teeth from chattering, my eyeballs from rolling, my knees from knocking—and fire!” “But my G.I. Robot buddy and I were in worse trouble than the guy who had caught the tail of a tiger—because our ‘tiger’s’ tail had caught us--.”
Even if you’re not fond of the soldier versus dinosaur genre, War is worth checking out for the art alone. The black and white format is a perfect showcase (pardon the pun) for Andru, Heath, Colan, and Kubert’s work. Without color to obscure the effect, you can enjoy every line these masters have drawn. Not only do they design great looking hardware, scenery, monsters and dinosaurs (though the latter don’t exactly match current paleontological theories), but their men are good-looking too. These characters have a look of maturity about them that most comic book characters lack. They could all be extras off the sets of The Fighting Seabees or The Flying Tigers.
Quirky, entertaining stories. Beautiful art. And at about .03 a page, a great bargain. Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot is a package worth looking into.
What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!