Tuesday, April 29, 2014

At Lee's Comic Rack: Bill Molno war comic splash pages



One of my favorite Bill Molno splash pages, from a March, 1958 Charlton Fightin' Air Force comic.  Molno likely did his own inks for this one.  Looks like it, anyway.


Yes, nowadays I read war comics, mostly musty Charltons (Army War Heroes, Battlefield Action, Fightin' NavyWar at Sea, and so on).  I love the art, and the stories are fun so long as you accept them as good-guys-vs.-bad-guys wish-fulfillment fare and refrain from reading too much political meaning into them.  They were for young male readers in search of a lot of Taka Taka!  Budda! Budda! and Vooosh!  (I think that's how "Vooosh" was spelled.)  It's hard to logically fault the war comics of my youth for being 1) one-dimensional, 2) pro-U.S., or 3) not very dovish.  People died in them.  Things blew up.  Nazis and "Commies" were depicted in a less than favorable light.  Macho behavior abounded.  Everything was over in about five or six pages, counting the "splash."  At Charlton, the close of a piece was marked by "End."  They saved money by leaving out the "The."

Lee

P.S.--Oh, and I forgot Screeecchhh!

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