WWI in comics

[Breguet]

If you have time - what's the story behind "Old Pilots Never Die", with the juxtaposition of a/c from the two World Wars??

Battler Britain - a Spitfire Ace - is shot down and imprisoned by a German WW II ace who thinks of himself as a WWI 'Knight of the Air' who will entertain Battler before sending him off to a POW Camp. He introduces Battler to an old British WW1 ace whom it amuses him to keep on the airfield sweeping up around the hangers. It turns out the Ace was Battler's childhood hero who now is a broken man whose face only lights up when he sees the commander's Halberstadt CLIII that he keeps for his amusement. Battler and the old WWI Ace end up escaping in the Halberstadt with Battler as the gunner and the old Ace as the pilot. They are chased by 3 ME 109's with orders not to destroy the old plane but to force it down. However Battler manages to shoot them down with his parabellum as the ME's can not get slow enough and the CLIII is too maneuverable. They manage to land on an allied advanced airfield and the old Ace's humiliation is erased by 'his' three victories!

How's that for a yarn.

[Gregvan]

Hi Breguet,

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my query. Sounds like a fun story, and a bit more realistic than some of the pap that was fed to American comic readers. I was intrigued by that Teutonic two-seater on the cover - it's hardly a Halberstadt CL.II, and certainly seems to have several Austro-Hungarian aircraft features. A great cover, still!!

There were several DC comic tales which had WWI aircraft battling WW2 or even later machines, as noted earlier in this thread - but they usually involved goofy stories of mysterious time warps, etc.

Greg

[Breguet]

Here's some other shots of the offending Halberstadt CL II:

[Gregvan]

Heym Breguet,

Thanks very much for posting that! Hmmm...that's an 'interesting' Halberstadt, to say the least. However, to my inexperienced eyes, the Messerschmitts look good enough.

Certainly as good or better than most American comic art on the subject which I've seen.

Greg

[Roadhog]

Dear gang, Edward R. Hamiliton Bookseller, is selling a complete collection of Enemy Ace comics boung in a single volume for I believe around 11 bucks. VR, Scott

[Kirk R. Lowry]

Bonjour mes amis!

John Severin has long been a successful and admired creator of comic book art which consistently pictured violence with both an air of authenticity and grit on which to choke. He first attained celebrity in the field while working for E.C. Comics and writer Harvey Kurtzman was to remember "he knew airplanes, and he knew movement. See, that was essentially the difference between John and George Evans -if George reads this he'll have ten more shit-fits. ... He was just so good - - the movement, the planes moving away, or diving, or moving in formation. Now if George drew planes in formation they'd be mathematically spaced and poised, but when John drew a formation there was the imperfection of natural causes. I wish John has been able to do more of this stuff". Well, I am capable of admiring the works of both great artists and glad that Severin was able "to do more of this stuff".

Severin created one of the classic Great War aviation comic book works for SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS, which Greg has posted, and illustrated several tales of Enemy Ace in issues of THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER which, if one appreciates the depiction of aircraft rather than an artistic portrayal of action, must stand as the greatest pictorial representation of the aerial strife of Hans von Hammer.


From FRONTLINE COMBAT, No.6, ACE! (1952)


From SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS, 76, "HE FOUGHT THE RED BARON" (1970)


From THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, NO.253, HELL in the HEAVENS Part three: MIDNIGHT and MURDER (1981)


From THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, NO267, A VERY PRIVATE HELL PART THREE DEBT OF BLOOD (1982)

Salut!
Kirk

[Gregvan]

Hello Kirk,

Thanks so much for posting those - great memories! Like you, I am capable of admiring the work of both great artists. Sometime in the 1970's, John Severin did two WWI aviation tales for Warren's black and white horror comics, either Creepy or Eerie. I bought them just for those Severin stories, clipped them out and discarded the rest of the magazines!! It gives us a chance to see Severin do some more of 'this stuff'.

Anyway, here's a look at "Battle Rot", a story by Bill Dubay. It concerns German ace 'Sigfrid von Meuse". While he is recuperating from wounds in hospital, he hears wild-eyed tales of battlefield zombies from some of his shell-shocked fellow convalescents - infantrymen who claim to have seen the half-decomposed bodies of the dead rise up and walk from no-man's land. Naturally, he laughs off these stories, until....

Note Severin's careful attention to accurate details of uniform, weaponry and aircraft markings and outline. He obviously had seen the classic photos of Halberstadt CL.II's of Schlasta 27b being "bombed up". He also gets just the right 'period faces' on his characters, no matter what the historical setting.

[Ricardo Reis]

Originally Posted by Southside Bucky

And another superb Kubert 'Enemy Ace':

Someone saw "Hell Angels"...

[Ricardo Reis]

One of the volumes of the Corto Maltese series, by Hugo Pratt, deals with his adventures in WWI. One volume happening in Brasil but has this is a aviation forum the most interesting storys relate to a free-commando type operation, to steal some gold for the Irish Republicans (one of the free men is an Austrian balloon observer) and the other story is about the death of the Red Baron (one of the pages bellow). Search for Celticas and Corto Maltese or Hugo Pratt in the web.

[Balloon_Buster]

Some more George Evans art. If I remember right, John Severin's sister was Marie, who did some art for Marvel, notably "The Hulk".