Dollar Comics: G. I. Combat #201

 G. I. Combat #201 was one of the second wave of Dollar Comics, released on January 13th, 1977. This issue has a pretty great cover by Russ Heath and Neal Adams. DC's cover game was much improved from the Ernie Chan days, when the covers were both embarrassingly dialogue heavy and filled with bizarre anatomy and composition.

I was not a regular reader of DC's war comics back in the day. I was not even an irregular reader of them, although I had one or two vintage 60's war comics that were pretty OK.  This one, however, is kind of a drag. At 80 pages (64 of which are comics) it all kind of grinds into one big blur of blazing combat action.  

We start off with "The Rocking Chair Soldiers", a Haunted Tank story by Robert Kanigher and Sam Glanzman. This is also the first Haunted Tank story I have read outside of their cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Haunted Tank and their squadron are ordered to meet a French squadron of tanks at Brecy and take the combined squadron to wipe out the Casse Dam.

Sadly, their squadron is destroyed by a whole mess of Messerschmitts and the tanks and men are all gone save for The Haunted Tank and its crew.

Also, this is just an odd premise for the series. The ghost of a Confederate general, J.E.B. Stuart, haunts an American tank and gives out cryptic advice to the tank's commander, one Lt. Jeb Stuart. Also, the Haunted Tank flies a Confederate flag. Which, well, I just can't even. Even back in the 1970's we knew the Confederate flag was for racist losers. And the Dukes of Hazard.

The only advice I would want from a Confederate General is about the best way to surrender. Because that's what the Confederacy was good at.

The Haunted Tank joins up with the French tanks, and a tank on tank battle ensues in which The Haunted Tank is the only survivor. Again. 

Also, we meet some French villagers who fought in the last war. They congratulate the crew of the Haunted Tank for their victory and celebrate their heroism. Jeb (or maybe J.E.B.) promises to the last surviving French soldier that he will continue their mission, even though he only has the one tank.

But wait! The old guys from a couple pages ago just happen to have kept some World War I era tanks in perfect operating order in the local museum. They bust the tanks out and offer to help Jeb Stuart on his mission. Somehow he can hear them talk above the noise of the tanks.

Many pages of story happen, and the old French tankers eventually sacrifice themselves to blow the dam.

Lt. Stuart decides to add a French flag to his tank, which also might not be regulation. The Haunted Tank clanks off to its next mission. Will that French flag be there the next time we see the Haunted Tank? Who knows?

Next up is "The Human Flare" a "Tale of the O.S.S." by Bart Regan and Ric Estrada. It's got a twist ending, which I won't spoil for you. Ric Estrada's art here is pretty nice, a lot better than on his superhero work for DC.

After that is "The Sniper in Skirts". It's an uncredited "Battling WAC Special". It's perfectly fine, I guess. And vaguely tries to deal with the sexism of the day. Sort of.

Next is "Open the Grave-- and Fire", a Weird War Story by Bart Regan and John Calnan. It's pretty silly with a "twist ending" that I won't spoil for you. 

Bart Regan and E.R. Cruz give us "The Hawk Who Saved D-Day",  a pretty implausible O.S.S. story. It's nicely illustrated, though. E.R. Cruz gives us by far the nicest art we have seen inside this funnybook.

There's another Haunted Tank story, this time by Bart Regan and Dick Ayers. The story is titled "The Preacher Is A Gun" and features Gus, the African-American crewman. Gus goes off in search of well, something. And he definitely finds something.

In this story we learned that Gus is an ordained Baptist Minister. I don't know if this ever comes up again.

For that matter, it looks like the Haunted Tank has forsaken the French flag they swore they would fly forever in the lead story. Still flying the loser Confederate flag, though.

We get some more delightful E.R. Cruz art in "The 3-In-1 Soldier" written by Bart Regan. This story takes place in the Pacific theater, which is a nice change of pace. In this story, a group of soldiers survive an artillery blast. One is blinded, one loses the use of his legs, and one is deaf and also gets his arm broken. Together they improbably defeat some Japanese soldiers and make their way back to their comrades.

And there's one last Haunted Tank story by Robert Kanigher and Sam Glanzman. In "What's the Price of a G.I.?" the Haunted Tank crew rescues a wounded soldier and the nurses attending him. The Haunted Tank crew all get wounded in the process and the nurses manage to drive the tank, fire the main gun, and kill some Nazis. It's perfectly fine, the best story in the bunch.

I found this issue pretty dreary. I didn't read the DC War comics back in the day, and slogging through this issue makes it seem like that was the right decision on my part. I was hoping to cover all of the Dollar Comics on this blog, but this issue of G.I. Combat makes me want to skip the war comics. Or maybe what we need is some "War That Time Forgot" stories. Or maybe 80 (well, 64) pages of juvenile war comics is too much to read at one sitting.