Dying One by One

When people remember the EC comics of the 1950s, their thoughts seem to most often jump to Tales from the Crypt and the other horror books. This is really too bad, since looking back over a half-century, the horror books are somewhat overrated, while EC's other comics were always good and often excellent. From science fiction to adventure to suspense to aviation stories--EC offered some of the best non-superhero stories ever produced. Their stable of artists included Wally Wood, John Severin, Reed Crandall and other greats of the era.

Two-Fisted Tales concentrated on adventure stories. It featured four 8-page stories each issue, compactly and effectively telling stories with settings that ran the gamut from ancient Rome to pirates to spies to the Old West. These stories were short, but they had a coherent beginning, middle and ending, and usually included some really nice bits of characterizations.

For much of its 24-issue run, TFT (along with another EC book, Frontline Combat) concentrated on war stories, usually set in the then-contemporary Korean conflict. "Ambush" (In issue #21; May-June 1951) is one of these stories, following a squad of American soldiers as they are ambushed and pinned down by North Korean troops.

If you examine just the plot, you find a well-constructed but fairly basic last-stand story. The Americans are gradually whittled down as they defend themselves against a superior force. One of them tries to go for help, but doesn't make it. Several others fall one-by-one. Finally, the last two men must take a desperate gamble in order to survive. There's an ironic twist in the last panel involving one of the soldier's good luck charm. (Editors Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines were hopelessly in love with ironic twists.)

What lifts this story above the merely good is Jack Davis’ art work. Davis is now best remembered for his many years on Mad Magazine, but he had a good eye for adventure stories as well. He begins the story with a panel taking up two-thirds of the page--an establishing shot that show the American jeeps driving towards enemy troops occupying the high-ground along the side of the road. Immediately, we understand the tactical situation, which creates a sense of real danger.

After a couple of panels to allow one soldier to explain his good luck charm (thus setting up the twist at the end), the ambush begins. Pages 2 and 3 are non-stop, with both jeeps damaged and three of the eight men killed. This sequence includes another long shot, updating the overall tactical situation for the reader. We understand that these men are in it deep, pinned down with no practical way of fighting back.

Pages 4, 5 and 6 each end with the death of one more soldier; each page is essentially a mini-story within the larger one. It's a neat little trick that gives the story an effective sense of pacing. It keeps the suspense high as everything builds to the conclusion.

The last two pages cover the action-packed finale and includes the twist about the good luck charm. Once

again, Davis expertly choreographs the fight scenes, giving us a sense of desperation while still providing us with the information we need to follow the action logically. It's fast-moving without seeming as if it's suffering from ADD--everything we need to know is there. The EC comics of the 1950s were models of the short-story format for comic books, with "Ambush" being one of many good examples of this.

Making a six-gun the star

In 1951, Jack Davis was working for EC Comics. In the March/April issue of Two-Fisted Tales (issue number 20) that year, Jack penciled a fun Western called “Army Revolver.”

It’s a story that centered on the titular pistol rather than any one character. A prospector uses the gun to back-shoot his partner. Later, he loses it to a saloon gambler.

Violent events continue, causing the gun to change hands several more times, until it ends up back in the hands of the prospector, who is now lost in the desert and dying of thirst. Fortunately, the revolver still has one bullet left in it…

It’s not the best of the Two-Fisted Tales stories, but it’s still a strong story. Tales took an issue or two to find its footing, but during its all-too-short run it regularly contained well-constructed adventure and war stories—usually ending with an ironic or unexpected twist. “Army Revolver” is a good example of this.

Now let’s jump ahead a decade or so. Jack Davis is doing some work for Marvel and is about to become the regular artist on Rawhide Kid.

Rawhide Kid usually featured two or three short tales involving the Kid and one random Western story. The random western in Rawhide Kid #30 (October 1962) featured a story called “This is… a Gun.” It revolves around the titular weapon rather than one single character.

A guy buys a high-quality six-gun. He figures the gun makes him a big man and becomes an outlaw, but the law soon catches up with him.

The gun is lost in the woods, where it’s found by a cowboy, who uses it as a useful tool and in legitimate self-defense while he works for a living. The moral, of course, is that a gun is a tool that can be used for good or evil depending on who owns it.

It’s not as strong a story as “Army Revolver” and the moral—though perfectly legitimate—comes across as a bit heavy-handed. All the same, it has a very strong thematic similarity to “Army Revolver.”

“This is… a Gun” was drawn by Dick Ayers, but Davis was already doing some work on Rawhide Kid and would be the regular artist by the next issue. It makes me wonder if he and Stan Lee weren’t trading ideas and perhaps Davis mentioned a Western he’d done for EC back in the day. Stan then may have used the general idea to craft a new story.

I have no idea if this is true. If you asked Stan Lee about it, I doubt he’d remember one minor story out of the literally hundreds of tales he churned out during the 1950s and 1960s. And, as usual, I don’t really have a point. It’s simply kind of fun to recognize the similarity in the two stories possibly linked together by Jack Davis. 

DECADE BY DECADE, Part 14: No super-heroes need apply

During the 1950s, comic books remained a popular medium, but the superheroes that dominated the scene through the 1940s had pretty much faded away.

Only Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman bucked the trend and remained in print. Most comics dived into other genres. There were Western, crime, science fiction, horror, romance, and humor comics. A lot of the output was mediocre, but there were some real gems popping up as well.

EC Comics was a source of a lot of these gems. EC employed some of the best artists working in comics at that time and experimented with a wide range of genres. Pirates, soldiers, cops, and even psychologists all got their turn within the pages of EC's comic books.

Today, EC is best remembered for their horror comics such as Tales from the Crypt. But I think the horror books are actually overrated. If I had to pick EC's best stuff, I'd turn to Two-Fisted Tales.

Two-Fisted Tales started out as an adventure strip. Soon, they began to specialize in war stories--with most of them set in the then-current Korean War. But every once in awhile, the book would jump a little farther back in history to tell tales of past conflicts.

Two-Fisted Tales #32 (1952) concentrated on Civil War stories. Like most EC comics of the time, it contained four 6- to 8-page stories, each of which was a superbly illustrated and well-told story set during America's bloodiest-ever conflict.

The first story, "Blockade," was illustrated by Wally Wood and recounted the clash between the Monitor and the Merrimac from perspective of the average crewmen.

"Campaign," with art by John Severin and Will Elder, follows a platoon of Union troops as they slog and fight their way through the 1862 Peninsular campaign.

"Donalson" (art by Jack Davis) details the fight to capture Fort Donalson from the Confederates, recounting both the land and the river fighting. Once again, the story gives us the perspective of the average soldier.

It's the last story--"Grant!" (art by John Severin)--that gives us the point-0f-view of a high-ranking officer. It's a short but effective biography of U.S. Grant, describing what was pretty much a failed life as a civilian before re-entering the Army to fight in the Civil War, thus placing him back in his natural element.

All the stories are excellent--historically accurate with solid characterizations and well-choreographed action.

Superheroes resurged to take over the market again a few years later. By itself, this wasn't a bad thing, since many excellent stories and characters came out of this genre. It's kind of a pity, though, that the variety in storytelling comics gave us in the 1950s seems to have disappeared forever. It must have been nice to stop at the newstand and have the option of returning to 1862 to fight the Rebs; or take a trip into deep space; or face off against a gunslinger on a dusty, tumbleweed-strewn street; or fight a giant crab deep under the sea; or even accompany Little Lulu on an 8-page slapstick adventure. Good times, indeed.

This'll be the last of the Decade by Decade series. I originally planned to take it into the 1970s, but I'm ready to move on to something else. I've no idea what yet, but I'll think of something.