Blazing Combat #4 - Warren

This is the fourth and final issue of Warren's superb Blazing Combat series; its unconventional approach to war comics cost it being carried in local PXs, sending its margin of profitability into the cellar, forcing Jim Warren to pull the plug.

As usual, BC is graced with a gorgeous cover by Frank Frazetta. Frazetta's covers for this series were striking, iconic, and classic. Jim Warren said in The Warren Companion "They belong in the National Gallery", and he's right.

First up is "Conflict", by Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan. It's a brutal tale of combat in Vietnam where racism still festers, even amid the flying bullets. Tough and unsentimental.

Next is "How It Began!" by Goodwin and George Evans, a two-page historical piece on WWI flying machines. Following that is "The Edge!" by Goodwin and Alex Toth, set in 1952 Korea. From what I understand, if an editor wanted to get Alex Toth for his book, he could do no better than send him a story about aircraft, so I bet editor/writer Goodwin wrote this one to spec. It's an exciting tale of one side trying to overcome the other miles up in the sky.

Fourth is "Give and Take" by Goodwin and Russ Heath, who turns in an exceptionally detailed, photo-realistic art job about a give-and-take battle for a small piece of land in World War II-era Italy.

Next is "ME-262!" by Goodwin and Wally Wood, a tribute to the kind of plane that helped defeat Hitler(who even makes an appearance here!). After that is "The Trench!" by Goodwin and John Severin, about brutal hand-to-hand combat in World War I. Severin, as usual, does an excellent job. His war comics work was cartoony yet grittily real at the same time.

"Thermopylae!" is courtesy Goodwin and Reed Crandall, about a small band of soliders fighting off Hitler's motorized divisions as they overran Greece. There's a flashback sequence in the story set in 480 b.c., and Crandall changes the look of the art for this section--everything is bright and classical-looking, and then the WWII stuff is grey and gritty. Nice touch.

Finally is "Night Drop!" by Goodwin and Angelo Torres, about the nerves-of-steel U.S. paratroopers and what happens when one is taken prisoner and is the victim of a Nazi "only following orders." A far cry from the grim, yet ultimately rah-rah action-adventure war comics that most other companies were putting out at this time.

It's a shame that the PXs dropped the book before they gave it a real chance, since anyone reading it can tell Blazing Combat was patriotic yet honest, and didn't try and put a happy face on the brutal hell of war.

I have not yet been able to find even a cheap reading copy of Blazing Combat #1, so this is it for the title...for now. But I really hope I can soon, since BC was just about the best Warren had to offer--managing to corral Frazetta, Colan, Evans, Toth, Wood, Heath, Severin, Crandall, and Torres all in one single issue? Unreal.