Never Again!

The face of the world-weary soldier on the cover of the debut issue of Never Again says more almost than the stories inside. Ross Andru and his longtime associate Mike Esposito crafted a masterpiece of mood with this image worth well more than a thousand words. Each issue features two stories, each story narrated by the ghostly WWI-era "Unknown Soldier".

The first issue has a tale called "The Beginning of the End" about Indian wars in the United States and the attempt by Chief Joseph and his tribe's to escape into Canada and the U.S. Cavalry's efforts to capture them before that happened. The second story titled "Battle of the Bows!" reaches back to the One Hundred Years War and follows two lowly archers as they try to make sense of the larger strategy which will hopefully end the fighting at long last. Both stories are drawn by Bob Forgione.

Forgione is also the artist of both stories in the second issue. The first is titled "Career Man" and focuses on a stalwart sailor who has been serving since WWI and now finds himself on the edge of a new conflict of sorts in the Cold War of the late 50's. It's a pretty compelling tale of how life and war just seems to tumble along. The second tale is titled "Two Men in the Sky" and gives alternate perspectives of two WWI flyers -- one an American and the other German. It's an interesting way to show that war is something that happens to most people, that they are swept up in it.

Both issues are pretty good. The first one is numbered one and weirdly is numbered eight. That makes no sense but it is a Charlton comic.  Never Again was an unusual comic, not unique, but different.

Rip Off

Nifty Presents - Anti-War Comics!

The Unknown Anti-War Comics is a tome I wanted the moment I saw it. The books that come Craig Yoe's operation can vary in quality, but this looked to be one that offered a wide range of material. I was a bit disappointed in that we have basically two types of stories here -- classic war yarns and vintage sci-fi stories. I don't object either and I don't object to seeing them together I just expected a bit more variation.

That said, what do get are two issues of a weird little book called Never Again, which is spot on with the theme of the collection. The comic just had two issues, with work by Ross Andru among others -- the offbeat thing is the two issues are numbered one and eight. These are Charlton comics, so numbering is always eccentric to say the least.

The majority of the collection is old-fashioned sci-fi tales and pretty good ones too, the kind with lots of ready space travel and twisty endings. It's neat to see a collection with so much of Bill Molno's work in it, as he's often seen as a hack and most of the time gets no mention when his stuff is reprinted. Other Charlton mainstays like "Nicholas Alascia" (two guys -- Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia), Sal Trapani, and Dick Giordano are represented.

The collection closes with what might be Charlton's most famous single story -- "Children of Doom" by Denny O'Neil and Pat Boyette. It's a weird and wack view of a war-torn future, one  in which mankind is not necessarily the winner. This is a fun collection, but maybe a western or a romance thrown in to make the collection feel a bit more well-rounded.

Rip Off