Same Difference

Wednesday Advertising Day.

So it's one day later and I am already breaking my own rules. Because my book on Mad magazine imitations is coming out shortly I am sharing some stuff that is in there to attract attention. Today I have an advertising satire from Zany #3 by Paul Reinman. It is NOT in the book for several reasons. One is, that a proposed advertising section was scrapped due to the length of the book. Some ads did make it in, in another section, like one with Frankenstein by Howie Post in the Big Name Talent section. Another reason not to iclude it, is because although the book is not solely aimed at collectors I did not want to include material that was available elsewhere and this ad is one of the few samples from Zany that have been reused (and reprinted) in Cracked, also owned by Zany publisher Bob Sproul. In the book I go further into the relation between these two magazines and I offer an explenation why Cracked succeded where Zany didn't.

Anyway, the reason to show it here, is that I am currently selling a lot of Sunday Section magazines, including some late fifties issues of This Week. While photographic them I saw the original inspiration to the parody and I jsut had to share it here.

War Is Hell (But Necessary) Extra

Saturday Leftover Day.

I am glad to see my Hank Chapman posts garnered so many positive responses. I hope I have played a smal part in bringing this unknown creator to the light. Of course Chapman was not functioning in a vacuum. At the same time he was doing his pessimistic war sories, other writers were struggling with a losing and possibly unwinnable war as well. Although none so graphicly or so well told. Apart for a couple of samples, which I am showing today.

The first is a story that could have been written by Chapman himself, except for the fact that he signed all his work. The story itself shows no signs of having been written by him either, except for the brutal ending. The second story is a typical bit of Stan Lee sentimentality, but the basic idea is just as bleak as Chapman's stories and together with Joe maneely, Lee creates a nice little package.

War Is Hell (But Necessary) 20

Chapter 20

This all culminated in what many considered Chapman's best (and most negative) masterpiece.  It appeared in Battlefield #2 and was drawn by Jewish artist Paul Reinman.I accidentally showed this last saturday as well, but here it is with commentary. On the Saturday I have posted another Chapman story from the period before this one.

Using all the tricks in his book, Chapman examines the cruelty of the communists in the Korean war.

He compares them to other cruelties, in other wars, such as (most famously) the plight of the jews in the concentration camps.

He uses headlines all the way through, but cleverly asks the question if we should believe them at the end of the story. If we should, what would be the answer to these new atrocities? Should it be the same way we ended the Second World War, by throwing an atamic bomb on the enemy?

I believe this story goes to the heart of what drove Hank Chapman as a writer. He was not a liberal, he had lived through a war and knew how necessary it could be. But he also knew how terrible it could be and by showing that he may have made the most anti-war and off-putting comics of his time.

I am still looking for evidence that the army banned these books, because I can't believe any army would want their soldiers to read them. In the end his logical approach leads him to a conclusion even he thought was horrific. I don't know if throwing a boms was commonly discussed in newspapers at that time (I certainly haven't found any proof of that), but suggesting it in a comic book story takes an author who is either very talented or very driven. Most probably, Hank Chapman was both.

War Is Hell (But Necessary) 13

Chapter 13

The reality of the war weigh heavily on CHapman. For him no soft humanistic vaguely anti-war comics, but nothing but grim reality in a strong documentary style.

War Is Hell (But Necessary) 7

 Chapter 7

Yesterday I looked in some more detail at the story Truck Convoy. What this story shows, is not only Chapman's grim pessimism about the war. It is also extremely well told. I don't know if Chapman saw or read Harvey Kurtzman's war comics. But his use of sequential panels with little more than sound effects is similar and disproves the numerous claims that this device as unique to Kurtzman and that he was the only one using it. Of course, one could try to argue that it was not Chapman doing this, the he was merely the writer. Harvey Kurtzman sketched his lay-out and his artists followed them meticuously. Hank Chapman merely worked with a typewriter.

He did this sort of tiers with Joe Maneely.

Russ Heath.

George Tuska.

Werner Roth.

Joe Sinnott.

Paul Reinman.

Robert Sale.

Dave Berg.

Bernie Krigstein.

Syd Shores.

 Sam Kweskin.

And (probably) Mort Meskin.

If you follow the link you will find more from each of these artists.

Wonderous Women

Friday Comic Book Day.

These days, Jill Lapore's Secret History of Wonder Woman is grabbing all the headlines. Her biography of the female Superman, her creator, his wife and his girlfriend is certainly fascinating. Of course, Wonder Woman wasn't the only female heroine in comics at that time. Not even in her own magazine, where Carmine Infantino drew Dr. Pat, Gil Kane drew Astra and Emil Gershwn Lady Danger. Also, in (almost) every later issue of Sensation Comics (the home of Wonder Woman) there was a short story about some significant female hero of history. The first few are drawn by Paul Reinman, but among the later lot there is also a very special one by Joe Kubert.