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Infinite Bronze War Thread
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3,132 posts in this topic

While going through a newly recovered box of comics, I ran across a group of

70's DC War Comics...this OUR ARMY AT WAR being the oldest.

 

<a  href=https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/462/18024275974_e6450266aa_z.jpg' alt='18024275974_e6450266aa_z.jpg'>IMG OUR ARMY AT WAR #223

 

mm

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I remember buying those WWT issues off the shelf at my local convenience store.

 

Some good stuff in the last dozen or so issues. It was like they were really trying to turn that book around, trying new things. Sadly, sales continued to plummet. I have a list of the circulation numbers from that period (1980-82) and the sell-through was something like 35% of the run, which for the time was very low indeed.

 

Shep

 

 

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You know, I like Kanigher, some of his stories are great, some are pretty good, others just kind of rote or so-so, especially, I think, as he career was winding down.

 

And then he gets WWT and starts doing all this gonzo stuff with G.I. Robot and the Creature Commandos.

 

I wonder if he was just enjoying himself, being unconstrained by the demands of trying to write a semi-believable war scenario (say, for Sgt. Rock), or if he was desperately throwing anything against the wall to see what would stick?

 

(I seem to remember some pretty gonzo Haunted Tanks stories from Kanigher in the early 80s as well...)

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You know, I like Kanigher, some of his stories are great, some are pretty good, others just kind of rote or so-so, especially, I think, as he career was winding down.

 

And then he gets WWT and starts doing all this gonzo stuff with G.I. Robot and the Creature Commandos.

 

I wonder if he was just enjoying himself, being unconstrained by the demands of trying to write a semi-believable war scenario (say, for Sgt. Rock), or if he was desperately throwing anything against the wall to see what would stick?

 

(I seem to remember some pretty gonzo Haunted Tanks stories from Kanigher in the early 80s as well...)

 

You raise a great question - what were Kanigher's motivations late in his career?

 

From what I know of him - from what I have heard from others, and from what I have gleaned from my own short correspondence with him - I would think he genuinely put his all into these pieces... with a leaven of what all of the old comic pros knew, namely that you have to try a lot of stuff to see what works.

 

Creature Commandos and GI Robot (in particular) were outgrowths of previous themes that Kanigher had explored.

 

Creature Commandos were just a more extreme (and weird) manifestation of his central themes of isolation in war, most closely related to the Unknown Solider, but certainly also part of the Von Hammer and Sgt. Rock characters.

 

Minute Commandos and even Metal Men also echo the 'odd collection of characters' in CC.

 

There are several Robot stories in the DC war Cannon from Kanigher (Giant of the Western Front in particular). Weird War Tales #6 was devoted entirely to robots.

 

So I think that for Kanigher, these were just expressions of some of the themes and tropes he fancied.

 

I never really liked Creature Commandos, but I think G.I. Robot was great. Remember buying them off the shelf as a kid...

 

 

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You know, I like Kanigher, some of his stories are great, some are pretty good, others just kind of rote or so-so, especially, I think, as he career was winding down.

 

And then he gets WWT and starts doing all this gonzo stuff with G.I. Robot and the Creature Commandos.

 

I wonder if he was just enjoying himself, being unconstrained by the demands of trying to write a semi-believable war scenario (say, for Sgt. Rock), or if he was desperately throwing anything against the wall to see what would stick?

 

(I seem to remember some pretty gonzo Haunted Tanks stories from Kanigher in the early 80s as well...)

 

You raise a great question - what were Kanigher's motivations late in his career?

 

From what I know of him - from what I have heard from others, and from what I have gleaned from my own short correspondence with him - I would think he genuinely put his all into these pieces... with a leaven of what all of the old comic pros knew, namely that you have to try a lot of stuff to see what works.

 

Creature Commandos and GI Robot (in particular) were outgrowths of previous themes that Kanigher had explored.

 

Creature Commandos were just a more extreme (and weird) manifestation of his central themes of isolation in war, most closely related to the Unknown Solider, but certainly also part of the Von Hammer and Sgt. Rock characters.

 

Minute Commandos and even Metal Men also echo the 'odd collection of characters' in CC.

 

There are several Robot stories in the DC war Cannon from Kanigher (Giant of the Western Front in particular). Weird War Tales #6 was devoted entirely to robots.

 

So I think that for Kanigher, these were just expressions of some of the themes and tropes he fancied.

 

I never really liked Creature Commandos, but I think G.I. Robot was great. Remember buying them off the shelf as a kid...

 

 

Some interesting thoughts there, Shep. You're right about there being a precedent for all that weirdness. I kinda forgot about some of those earlier SA stories.

 

Kanigher would probably know how many copies his books were selling monthly, and again, like you said, may have been experimenting to goose-up sales.

 

I confess that I love the Creature Commandos. Their tortured souls, the way their LT utterly despises and abuses them, the way the later stories just kept getting more and more outrageous...

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One thing to keep in mind was that Kanigher never edited WWT - he was 'just' a writer!

 

In fact, I have always contended that after he have up editing the war books full time in the late 1960's, he actually did his best writing while under other editors. Archie Goodwin in particular got the very best out of Kanigher on The Unknown Solider in SSWS and the Losers in OFF. His Galley of War, Sgt. Rock and Blitzkrieg tales weren't too bad either!!

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So I was checking out some completed sales on eBay the other day, and I came across this --

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-3-Pack-1977-Sgt-Rock-315-Weird-War-Tales-62-Unknown-Soldier-214-CGC-IT-/272016575094?hash=item3f55738a76:g:9Y4AAOSwA4dWHmYM

 

A sealed DC BA war 3-pack (!!!), containing Sgt Rock 315, Weird War Tales 62 and Unknown Soldier 214.

 

If I had known about it at the time, I totally would have bid. But, I didn't...

 

This is the first time I've ever seen a sealed 3-pack with DC BA war inside.

 

Do any of you guys have any of these DC BA war 3-packs?

 

Anyone remember seeing them back in the day? I sure don't, even though I clearly remember seeing Gold Key, Marvel and DC superhero 3-packs.

 

I wonder how many they made for BA war?

Edited by MisterX
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So I was checking out some completed sales on eBay the other day, and I came across this --

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-3-Pack-1977-Sgt-Rock-315-Weird-War-Tales-62-Unknown-Soldier-214-CGC-IT-/272016575094?hash=item3f55738a76:g:9Y4AAOSwA4dWHmYM

 

A sealed DC BA war 3-pack (!!!), containing Sgt Rock 315, Weird War Tales 62 and Unknown Soldier 214.

 

If I had known about it at the time, I totally would have bid. But, I didn't...

 

This is the first time I've ever seen a sealed 3-pack with DC BA war inside.

 

Do any of you guys have any of these DC BA war 3-packs?

 

Anyone remember seeing them back in the day? I sure don't, even though I clearly remember seeing Gold Key, Marvel and DC superhero 3-packs.

 

I wonder how many they made for BA war?

 

Don't remember them from back in the day. I do have one though. Bought it here a few years ago from Tupenny . It has a Weird War Tales 42, a OFF 161 (I think), and another issue that's slipping my mind right now.

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Don't remember them from back in the day. I do have one though. Bought it here a few years ago from Tupenny . It has a Weird War Tales 42, a OFF 161 (I think), and another issue that's slipping my mind right now.

 

Cool! Do you have any pix?

 

Maybe the third comic is OAAW 285?

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