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The EC Archives
The EC Archives: Two-Fisted Tales, Vol. 2
Writer-artist-editor (and all-around comics visionary) Harvey Kurtzman teamed up with legendary artists Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Al Feldstein, John Severin, Will Elder, and Dave Berg to create these powerful stories of struggle and humanity that are considered to be among the best war stories ever told. Reprints six complete issues (24 stories), #7-12.
212 pages, Hardcover
Published August 8, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 4, 2020
Great art from some of the rising stars early comic industry and some really nice stories to read. Entertaining and fun read. Recommended
February 7, 2021
Is there anything rarer than a collection of comic book stories that rate the highest ranking? This book is up there is flying pigs and pink elephant territory, but it actually exists. Yep, that good.
April 8, 2008
The EC artists who regularly illustrated stories for Two Fisted Tales (Davis, Wood, Severin, Elder) along with editor/writer/artist Harvey Kurtzman hit their creative stride by the second year of the magazine (Dec 1951 - Oct 1952). That's why this second volume enters my "essential books" list.
Because of Kurtzman's editing duties during this period, he wasn't able to continue illustrating stories in every issue (although he continued writing and laying out every single story along with doing the spectacular covers), but his final illustrated stories are classic anti-war stories, visually and narratively. I first saw the story "Corpse on the Imjin" serialized as part of a Kurtzman interview back in the early 90's and it blew me away then. Now, I'm simply in awe of it. You can add to this "Rubble", which views the Korean war from the POV of a civilian Korean farmer building a home for his family only to have the war intrude and destroy (literally) his dreams.
One entire issue was devoted to the Marine's hard fought retreat from the Korean Changin Reservoir, which had occurred only a year earlier (can anyone imagine a mainstream comic book taking on a recent, non-glamorous, non-victorious event in the Iraq war today?). Four different inter-connected stories, each with a different narrative POV, each tracking the surrounded marines fighting their way back to the North Korean port of Hungnam to be evacuated. The final story is from the POV of a stray dog, left stranded on a deserted dock, watching the U.N. convoy leaving as the entire port, which has been wired for demolition, goes up in flames around it. Wow, once again, hard to believe this was all done in a ten cent comic book published in the early 50's.
Besides the Korean war stories, Kurtzman and his artists do a brilliant job deconstructing war, and the men fighting it, throughout history (and the level of accurate research done for these stories are insane for the juvenile medium they were created for). "Custer's Last Stand" shows a sensitivity to the subjugation of the Native American (as well as the political agenda and sheer insanity of Custer) well before it was in fashion to do so. "Washington" gives an all too human, beaten-down face to the man early in the Revolutionary war, long before the heroic Washington emerged. "Buzz Bomb" follows a group of German soldier operating behind allied lines late in WWII, bedeviled by their own country's war technology (the German buzz bombs of the title).
Kurtzman's themes emerge in this volume of stories when taken as a whole: That war is not glamorous and never black and white, that there's a human story on both sides of any war, that a human life is sacred, no matter the ideology, race, or country of origin, and that the technology and machinery of war dehumanizes everyone. Heady, sophisticated, controversial, and even somewhat subversive stuff for it's time (Kurtzman would take subversive humor to a new level when he created MAD magazine for EC in 1953). The fact that these "comic book" stories from the 50's still stand up to any modern graphic novels dealing with war (and probably even influenced their authors) makes the case for them and for the prescient brilliance of Kurtzman and his stable of artists.
Because of Kurtzman's editing duties during this period, he wasn't able to continue illustrating stories in every issue (although he continued writing and laying out every single story along with doing the spectacular covers), but his final illustrated stories are classic anti-war stories, visually and narratively. I first saw the story "Corpse on the Imjin" serialized as part of a Kurtzman interview back in the early 90's and it blew me away then. Now, I'm simply in awe of it. You can add to this "Rubble", which views the Korean war from the POV of a civilian Korean farmer building a home for his family only to have the war intrude and destroy (literally) his dreams.
One entire issue was devoted to the Marine's hard fought retreat from the Korean Changin Reservoir, which had occurred only a year earlier (can anyone imagine a mainstream comic book taking on a recent, non-glamorous, non-victorious event in the Iraq war today?). Four different inter-connected stories, each with a different narrative POV, each tracking the surrounded marines fighting their way back to the North Korean port of Hungnam to be evacuated. The final story is from the POV of a stray dog, left stranded on a deserted dock, watching the U.N. convoy leaving as the entire port, which has been wired for demolition, goes up in flames around it. Wow, once again, hard to believe this was all done in a ten cent comic book published in the early 50's.
Besides the Korean war stories, Kurtzman and his artists do a brilliant job deconstructing war, and the men fighting it, throughout history (and the level of accurate research done for these stories are insane for the juvenile medium they were created for). "Custer's Last Stand" shows a sensitivity to the subjugation of the Native American (as well as the political agenda and sheer insanity of Custer) well before it was in fashion to do so. "Washington" gives an all too human, beaten-down face to the man early in the Revolutionary war, long before the heroic Washington emerged. "Buzz Bomb" follows a group of German soldier operating behind allied lines late in WWII, bedeviled by their own country's war technology (the German buzz bombs of the title).
Kurtzman's themes emerge in this volume of stories when taken as a whole: That war is not glamorous and never black and white, that there's a human story on both sides of any war, that a human life is sacred, no matter the ideology, race, or country of origin, and that the technology and machinery of war dehumanizes everyone. Heady, sophisticated, controversial, and even somewhat subversive stuff for it's time (Kurtzman would take subversive humor to a new level when he created MAD magazine for EC in 1953). The fact that these "comic book" stories from the 50's still stand up to any modern graphic novels dealing with war (and probably even influenced their authors) makes the case for them and for the prescient brilliance of Kurtzman and his stable of artists.
November 14, 2019
In his forward, Rocco Versaci makes the claim that “the entire body of the EC war comics stands as the most sophisticated, complete, and daring representation of war that has ever appeared in any medium.” I’m not in a position to judge this claim. I haven’t even read All Quiet on the Western Front or watched Ken Burns' The Civil War. Could all the great books, movies and paintings of war, in some sense, be upstaged by 10c comics which sold on U.S. newsstands in the early 1950s? I don’t know. But there is no doubt that Harvey Kurtzman, who wrote all of these stories and illustrated some of them, along with his fellow artists, achieved something truly remarkable within the comic book form.
While most of the stories look at war from the perspective of the soldiers, the larger context is established by stories like Rubble!, in which a Korean farmer slowly and laboriously builds a house for his family, an effort and a dream which will all go to waste with the arrival of war. And in Hungnam! the destruction of that city is presented from the perspective of a stray dog, an embodiment of life’s intrinsic sanity silenced by the madness of war. As for the soldiers, we have a cross-section of the human condition - the brave, the defeated, the vengeful, the fear-driven and the fool-hardy, in conflicts which range from the American Revolution and Custer’s Last Stand up until the Korean War. The latter is the setting for the majority of the stories. It was being fought at the time they were being written.
A highlight of this volume is issue No. 26, - March/April 1952 which presents an account of the retreat from the Changjin Reservoir over a series of four stories, each presented from a different perspective. The last story here is the one of the lost dog in Hungnam. This issue really highlights Kurtzmann’s dedication to accuracy, to using the comic book form to inform as well as entertain. And from time to time, if he did get some small detail wrong, men who actually fought in those battles would point out the error on the letters page.
I was led to the EC war comics via my love of their horror and science fiction titles, I was surprised to find that I love them just as much as those more fanciful creations. If you love comics but generally don’t read war comics, or you are fascinated by war but don’t generally read comics at all, you won’t regret dipping into the work of Kurtzmann et al.
While most of the stories look at war from the perspective of the soldiers, the larger context is established by stories like Rubble!, in which a Korean farmer slowly and laboriously builds a house for his family, an effort and a dream which will all go to waste with the arrival of war. And in Hungnam! the destruction of that city is presented from the perspective of a stray dog, an embodiment of life’s intrinsic sanity silenced by the madness of war. As for the soldiers, we have a cross-section of the human condition - the brave, the defeated, the vengeful, the fear-driven and the fool-hardy, in conflicts which range from the American Revolution and Custer’s Last Stand up until the Korean War. The latter is the setting for the majority of the stories. It was being fought at the time they were being written.
A highlight of this volume is issue No. 26, - March/April 1952 which presents an account of the retreat from the Changjin Reservoir over a series of four stories, each presented from a different perspective. The last story here is the one of the lost dog in Hungnam. This issue really highlights Kurtzmann’s dedication to accuracy, to using the comic book form to inform as well as entertain. And from time to time, if he did get some small detail wrong, men who actually fought in those battles would point out the error on the letters page.
I was led to the EC war comics via my love of their horror and science fiction titles, I was surprised to find that I love them just as much as those more fanciful creations. If you love comics but generally don’t read war comics, or you are fascinated by war but don’t generally read comics at all, you won’t regret dipping into the work of Kurtzmann et al.
March 26, 2018
Brilliant. Shock SuspenStories jumped out as my early favorite among the EC titles, but Two-Fisted has made up ground in a hurry. This book is superb.
My favorite was the powerfully structured "Rubble," which Kurtzman draws himself. It's about a Korean farmer building a sturdy, warm home for his family. Kurtzman details the entire building process, using a very formal grid structure on each page to reinforce the stability of the building. Then the home, the wall surrounding it and the farmer and his family inside the house are completely obliterated by a bomb in the space of a single panel. Horrifically brutal.
My favorite was the powerfully structured "Rubble," which Kurtzman draws himself. It's about a Korean farmer building a sturdy, warm home for his family. Kurtzman details the entire building process, using a very formal grid structure on each page to reinforce the stability of the building. Then the home, the wall surrounding it and the farmer and his family inside the house are completely obliterated by a bomb in the space of a single panel. Horrifically brutal.
July 4, 2019
More great stories, every single story well drawn and written. If I could complain about anything, it's that the 20th century stories are far better than those depicting the Civil or Revolutionary Wars. The more modern stories have an authentic flavor, whereas the more historical stories are just moral fables. Anyway, even the weakest stories in this collection are still a fun read.
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July 29, 2011The horror books are famous, but this is a far cry from being second tier work. amazing story telling that remains timeless, thought provoking and current today. The stories are still sticking with me, truly great work.
December 7, 2013
While EC comics is famous for their horror comics, I was always a bigger fan of their historical adventure comics and Two-fisted Tales is the best of those.
Great adventure stories with a sprinkling of real history.
Solidly written, entertaining stuff.
Great adventure stories with a sprinkling of real history.
Solidly written, entertaining stuff.
May 31, 2012
I read "Corpse on the Imjin!" for class, and it was one of the best examples of sequential art I've ever encountered. Has all the quality elements of a short story (the turn, etc). Gritty.
October 8, 2015
This is another volume of war stories, though badly drawn, they were quite interesting in comparison to the previous volume.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews