Willy Schultz--Chapter 16

 

cover artist unknown

Fightin' Army #92 (July 1970) gave us the last chapter of the saga of Willy Schultz in its original run with magnificent Sam Glanzman art. It's not the very last chapter--when this series was reprinted by Dark Horse last year, writer Will Franz did provide a final chapter. Sam Glanzman is gone, but artist Wayne Vansant provided great art work. We will, in a couple of weeks, break the usual rule about covering anything other than pre-digital media to review that final chapter. But for now, we're looking at the final Charlton Comics chapter.

Willy is still serving with an Italian partisan unit and that unit is not having a good time. There's a trader in their midst and partisans waiting for a supply air-drop are ambushed and killed because the Germans knew they'd be there.

Most of this issue then moves to Willy and OSS agent Jon Daurio drinking together. Jon has just learned that his wife died in childbirth. Willy tries to comfort him as best he can. Jon, after getting more than a little drunk, pontificates on the brutality of war. He still believes that Willy is guilty of the murder of an American officer, but how is he any different from the rest of them, who kill their fellow human beings every day?

Willy also shares a very human moment with Elena. This is one of the strongest chapters in the series. It has only a little action and is very dialogue-heavy--something that can be a weakness in graphic storytelling. But Franz writes great dialogue. Willy, Jon and Elena all have distinctive personalities. It is simply a great scene.

Soon after, Jon and some partisans are gunned down by the traitor in their midst. Jon lives long enough to finger Elena's father as the traitor. The old man is quickly run down and killed, with the partisans promising that Elena need not know about him.

That leaves Willy in command of the partisans. And after this, Charlton pulled the plug on the series (though they did reprint portions of it in later years). Willy doesn't get a satisfying end to his saga for over fifty years. 

But he did get that ending eventually. As I said, we'll take a look at that finale in a few weeks. Next week, we'll check to see how Hulk is doing with his girlfriend Jarella.