Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories

The EC Artists' Library #1

by Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Groth (Series Editor)

The creation of MAD would have been enough to cement Harvey Kurtzman s reputation as one of the titans of American comics, but Kurtzman also created two other comics landmarks: the scrupulously-researched and superbly-crafted war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Here were finally war comics without heroic, cigar-chomping sergeants, wisecracking privates from Brooklyn, or cartoon Nazis and Japs to be mowed down by the Yank heroes, but an unflinching look at the horror and madness of combat throughout history.

Kurtzman employed some of the finest of the EC artists including Jack Davis, John Severin, and Wallace Wood, but his vision came through clearest in the dozen or so stories he both wrote and drew himself, in his uniquely bold, slashing, cartoony-but-dead-serious style ( Stonewall Jackson, Iwo Jima, Rubble, Big If, and Kurtzman s own favorite, Air Burst ) as well as his vividly colored, narratively-dense covers, all 23 of which are reproduced here in full color in a special portfolio.

Corpse on the Imjin! is rounded off with a dozen or so stories written and laid out by Kurtzman and drawn by short-timers, i.e. cartoonists whose contributions to his war books only comprised a story or two including such giants as designer extraordinaire Alex Toth, Marvel comics stalwart Gene Colan, and a pre-Sgt. Rock Joe Kubert... and such unexpected guests as The Lighter Side of... MAD artist Dave Berg and DC comics veteran Ric Estrada as well as a rarity: a story by EC regular John Severin inked by Kurtzman.

Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, Corpse on the Imjin! will feature extensive essays and notes on these classic stories by EC experts but Kurtzman s stories, as vital, powerful, affecting, and even, yes, modern today as when they were created 60 years ago, are what makes this collection a must-have for any comics reader.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, War, Fiction, Comic Book, Art, Anthologies

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2012

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corpse of the Imjin! collects stories by Harvey Kurtzman from Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat from EC Comics.

Like a lot of people, I mostly associated Harvey Kurtzman with Mad Magazine. As I chewed through Fantagraphics EC Artists Library, I kept avoiding it. War comics? Whatever. Anyway, I finally caved in and found this volume to be magnificent.

This book contains 11 war stories written and drawn by Harvey Kurtzman and 14 with scripts and layouts by Kurtzman with art by others, the others being future legends like Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Gene Colan. Kurtzman's covers are also collected here, live and in color.

First off, Kurtzman's scripts do a lot to strip away the heroism of war, making most of the tales bleak stories of men facing their doom. I wouldn't say they're anti-war exactly, more like realistic war. The tales feature poignant moments and some are actually touching. My three favorite tales were Air Burst, The Big If, and the title tale, Corpse on the Imjin, though I wouldn't say there was a dud in the bunch.

Kurtzman's art did a lot to elevate him in my esteem. I associated him more with humor but his cartoony style is equally adept at depicting the atrocities of war. Seriously, Harvey Kurtzman is now my favorite EC Artist not named Wally Wood. The guest artists knock it out of the part as well, particularly Alex Toth in his two tales.

Corpse on the Imjin shows why Harvey Kurtzman was a comics pioneer. The Harvey Awards are named after a fitting artist. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I catalogued this as WWII but it is really more of a general anti-war book by (to me, surprisingly) Mad Magazines's Harvey Kurtzman, who did these comics initially for EC (Educational Comics, that became Entertaining Comics, doing horror and other genres that got them in trouble enough to create a Comics Code in the Forbidding Fifties). Actually given the fact that it was done in the fifties, it has a lot to do with Korea. So this project became an in-your-face series political series in the light of McCarthyism, as it depicts many graphic images of war, including a war the right wanted support for. Who, Kurtzman, activist?! But indeed he was.

This is an impressive volume of work, in part because of scholarly essays that are placed throughout, including interviews with Kurtzman, who never seemed to be satisfied with the kind of art that accompanied his writing. He was more curmudgeon and perfectionist in the interviews than you imagine from reading the lighthearted Mad. You think of Kurtzman and Mad as silly, but in the light of this volume of anti-war stories, you realize he was a demanding, serious, and not merely lighthearted guy. He had integrity, and high standards for art-making and storytelling. It makes you even rethink Mad's satire, which of course has forever shaped satire of American culture ever since. Mad in retrospect seems like serious comedy with rich insights. Corpse, too, is a great volume to have as part of comics history and as reflections on American history and war. Impressive work I had not really known much about.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurtz man pretty much did it all in terms of comic and magazine cover art, writing, inside pencil and ink work, editing and even ended up having a major award named after him “The Harvey”
He did it his way and had little care or patience for those, especially artists, who didn’t follow what he asked for or sketched out to a tee.
This book has both his written/drawn stories from Frontline Comics and Two-Fisted Tales and his collaborations as writer and use of various EC greats such as Jack Davis, Alex Toth, Johnny Craig and others. Standout stories IMHO: “Rubble!”, “Corpse on the Imjin!”, and “F-86 Sabre Jet!”

[EC Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential, really some of the best comics ever drawn. Maybe some of the best drawings period. The first eleven stories here are the most emotionally expressive work of one of the mediums greatest creators, Harvey Kurtzman. The style grows almost abstract in it's minimalism as the tales go along, complimenting the bare bones, fable-like plots of war and violence that feel truly timeless.
The rest of the book goes on with one and two-off stories from a whole gang of artists with a broad variety of styles, all really complimenting one another and giving this book the epic scope of that the legacy of Frontline Combat and Two Fisted Tales deserve. Which is to say, simply, it rules.

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

090915: if you want a sense of the possibilities of graphic work: this is an excellent text, in art, in articles, in a sense of history. as i never much read comics as a child or youth, this work has revelatory effect. other reviewers offer more extensive, educated, appraisal, all i can say is thanks to riley, my graphics illustrator friend who gave me this...

[Charles Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classic comic books published by EC in the early 1950s have been reprinted time and again. What sets these new volumes from Fantagraphics apart is that they are artist-centered, with individual titles devoted to individual artists (Kurtzman, Wallace Wood, Al Williamson, Jack Davis). That policy works very well in the case of Kurtzman, the result being a extraordinary collection of his war comics from 1950 to 1953.

These are some of the smartest, most robust, most elegant, and rhythmically irresistible comics of their era. Among them are some enduring Kurtzman solo jobs that are rightfully called masterpieces: "Contact," "Air Burst," "Big 'If'," and of course the title story. There are also some Kurtzman-scripted (and laid out) jobs that showcase other ace artists like Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, John Severin, and Russ Heath (and surprises like Dave Berg and Gene Colan). In every case—I mean in every single case, emphatically, without fail—Kurtzman's control of breakdown, layout, and image/text interplay imparts a inexorable, hypnotic rhythm, his signature. Some of the stories have dated badly—and all of them warrant a tougher ideological criticism than they have thus far received from within comics fandom—but it is undeniable that these are masterworks of their era, important historical signposts, and powerful demonstrations of formalism yoked to seriousness of purpose.

The book's format, designed by Fantagraphics stalwart Jacob Covey, showcases the comics very well. (Artfully placed blowups of Kurtzman's vigorous brushwork punctuate the text.) I haven't seen a better-looking EC reprint. The comics are well reproduced and crisp (though a few stray pages in my copy unfortunately have washed-out blacks that look more like grays). The several text features put Kurtzman, the war comics, and EC into historical context; particularly good are essays by Jared Gardner and Frank Stack. These essays are brief, meant to frame the comics but not overwhelm them, and are essentially summative, not pursuing original research agendas but simply distilling the necessary historical facts and commonest ways of reading and appreciating the comics. Some of the essays fall into hyperbole: the finest examples of comic art on the planet, the only comics of the day aimed at an older, more discerning readership, the most "honest" war comics ever, etc., all of it reinforcing the standard EC narrative (the tendency to place EC at the center of all that was important about pre-Code comics continues here, unabashedly—see Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men for a useful counter perspective). But the fact remains that, yes, these are excellent comics, some of them landmarks in the field, and Fantagraphics has reprinted them in high style, the result being as potent a collection of vintage comic book stories as I've ever seen.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a bit of time to recalibrate my own opinions of Harvey Kurtzman's work when I've typically associated with light-hearted humor publications. So with this collection of war comics from EC publications like Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, it was immensely intriguing to get exposure to a very different side of Kurtzman. Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories collects a series of Harvey Kurtzman written and/or illustrated war comics, with some artistic contributions from Alex Toth, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert, Dave Berg, Ric Estrada and John Severin to name a few. To say these war comics were hard-hitting would be an understatement - Kurtzman very capably navigates to the heart of darkness that lies in the center of conflict. The stories are from all different theaters of war, with some having a bit of a jingoistic flair to them but most depicting war as ugly and brutal. Though most of these stories are a few pages in length, the harrowing consequences are made abundantly clear.

Impressive as the stories themselves are, Kurtzman's layouts are impressively inventive. Despite the relatively compact nature of these comics, Kurtzman demonstrates a level of decompression with respect to the artwork. Action is drawn out over numerous panels, with only the ongoing narration allowing the story to push forward. It can be a bit of a dizzying effect at first, but undeniably effective at delivering the sprawling nature of warfare. The decompression of the artwork is easily seen in the titular "Corpse on the Imjin!" tale where panels showing increasing shading is used to depict the growing darkness behind it all. The Alex Toth drawn story "Thunder Jet" likely followed Kurtzman's layouts given the use of repeating but slightly altered panels to demonstrate the awe of an aerial dogfight in action. Every story here has impressive use of layouts to supplement the crisp scripts.

This is a quality way to sample Kurtzman's work, even if it is a side of an artist that isn't what he was more well known for. I typically find these older war comics to be unappealing, but Kurtzman finds unique angles to approach each story that makes this collection a riveting read.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful stories that focus on the the futility of war. If you never never read anything by Harvey Kurtzman you are in for a big treat: I often wish there were more writers in comics today that tackled issues that made the reader feel uncomfortable with their ideology and perspective on issues connected with war.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantagraphics recently acquired rights to publish the EC library. Their first volume, devoted to Harvey Kurtzman, focuses on the war tales he created for Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales. Kurtzman's war stories--at least the ones he wrote and drew himself--tend to focus on the Korean War, which for a number of veterans of World War II (like Kurtzman) became difficult to justify. Eschewing the rampant and jingoistic patriotism of the 40s, Kurtzman mires his readers in the sensory reality of war. Never quite questioning American imperialism or anti-communism, Kurtzman nevertheless manages to portray combat as horrific--a brutal ordeal that dehumanizes the enemy and our own soldiers. The title story, for example, reduces the Korean contest to a very ugly--and very personal--case of murder--a folie a deux between the sides that results in no victory.

EC comics, which were ferociously repressed by the establishment of the 50s--were about as radical as you could get--far more so than any other popular media outlet. Kurtzman, however, was no pacifist or leftist. Stories like "Thunderjet" uphold the Eisenhower-era ethic of containment and Cold War competition. When a Korean dies in a story--it's tragic not just because he's a human being but rather because he's a communist--the implied logic being, "Don't bother to have a revolution or resist US imperialism--it's just better for everyone that way." Citizens of the Third World might disagree. Then there are stories like "Rubble" which humanize Koreans even more, showing the pointlessness of war and the destruction of civilian lives--of the family itself--by the American military. What this reflects, I think, is the profound ambiguity toward war from a generation that was heavily propagandized to believe in the justness of our cause and who had also seen the horrible results of that cause enacted.

From the artistic angle, Fantagraphics collects a number of stories Kurtzman drew, reflecting his expressive, cartoonish style of brushwork. About two thirds of the book is devoted to other artists illustrating his work--John Severin, Reed Crandall, and Alex Toth, and others. My only complaint is a Wally Wood story should've been included--he did some great work on these titles. However, Fantagraphics has another volume of his work.

While their art is in many cases impressive, it's Kurtzman's storytelling that's center focus here. His expressive, cartoonish approach to art and his gritty, unflinching portrayal of reality would influence the underground comix movement. Modern graphic novelists owe him a great debt for showing--perhaps for the first time--the serious potential of comics as an art form.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Most Kurtzman fans will be familiar with these stories from the myriad EC reprints available. But rereading stories like "Air Burst" and "Corpse On the Imjin" for the eleventeenth time is not exactly a hardship. There are also some excellent historical essays and an interview--reprinted from the Ross Cochran reprints of Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, but nice to read as a whole rather than interspersed between reprints--to round out the volume. There are better stories written by Kurtzman but featuring someone else's art than some of the choices reprinted here, and interested parties are encouraged to seek out further reprints, particularly the Cochran volumes if they can be found. All in all, a nice introduction to Kurtzman's legacy.

[Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fundamental reading for anyone interested in comics.

[Skjam! · Rating 5 out of 5]

In later years, Harvey Kurtzman was better known for his humor work, among other things being the first editor of MAD. But while he worked at EC Comics in the early Fifties, Mr. Kurtzman was also known for some very impressive tales of action and warfare in Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. He was a pioneer in the area of more “realistic” war comics, ones that didn’t treat the enemy as subhuman or inherently evil.

This book reprints many of those stories, divided into two sections, those Mr. Kurtzman illustrated himself, and those done by other artists from his layouts. (He was notoriously unhappy when those artists deviated from his vision, and as he was also the editor of the books, those artists usually didn’t get invited to work with him again.)

The volume opens with “Conquest!”, a story set during Spain’s expansion of its empire into Central and South America. Captain Juan Alvarado and his conquistadors initially have great success against their under-gunned native opponents, but their lust for gold undoes them.

The final story (with art by Reed Crandall) is “Memphis!” about a battle between Union and Confederate gunships on the Mississippi River during the Civil War. The enthusiasm of the spectators, especially the children, is contrasted to the horrific cost of the battle.

The Korean War was going on during the run of these comic books, and the majority of the stories concern that conflict. Several of these are top-rate. “Rubble!” is about a Korean farmer building a doomed house, with step-by-step coverage of the hard labor he puts in–the art in some panels reminds me of WPA heroic friezes. “Air Burst!” is the tale of a Chinese mortar squad as they try to survive a UN attack, their numbers dwindling. “Corpse on the Imjin!” was one of Mr. Kurtzman’s favorites, about two soldiers fighting to the death near the title river, with narration that’s deliberately poetic. And “Big ‘If’!” is a meditation on the randomness of death that focuses on one soldier considering the choices that have led him to this place, sitting facing five “devil sticks.”

Some of the stories are not quite as good–“Contact!” about a U.S. patrol looking for the North Koreans and finding them ends with a patriotic speech straight out of Hollywood propaganda. And “Bunker!” (art by Ric Estrada) about two disparate units trying to take a heavily-defended hill, has some unfortunate exaggerated features on the black soldiers that would not fly today, despite the well-meant message of the story. But overall, most of the stories are solid to excellent.

The stories are reprinted in black and white, which favors the strong inking skills of Mr. Kurtzman, but there is also a color cover gallery that shows off his sense of color design and the work of Marie Severin as a colorist.

The volume is completed with several essays about Mr. Kurtzman’s work and EC Comics in general.

While the violence level is high as you might expect from war stories, these tales don’t lean on the gore as some of EC’s horror titles did–even visible blood is rare.

Highly recommended to EC fans, war comics buffs and those studying the Korean War and how it was seen at the time.

[Bart Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of Harvey Kurtzman's war comics created in the early 1950s. This collection wasn't all about "Blood, guts and Glory" as most American movies and lesser quality comics were during the same time period, or even later. Kurtzman's stories often showed the bitter reality of combat. Occasionally, the stories even portrayed the casualty of war from the enemy's perspective. I should add that the majority of the stores presented in this collection are of the Korean Conflict, with a small scattering of WW II and other military actions. Being that we were embroiled in Korea at the time these stories were produced, Kurtzman portrays the US's weariness toward armed conflict, and shows a bit of insight into our reluctance to label Korea as a war, but instead called it a UN-supported conflict.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good news and bad news about these new Fantagraphics EC Comics Library books. The good news is they are awesome, well-made books with excellent artwork and stories, meaningful interviews and discussions, and they look phenomenal on a shelf. The bad news is I now have to buy all of them. This volume is especially good with work by the legendary Harvey Kurtzman, an EC mainstay in the 1950s and the originator of Mad. It contains all of Kurtzman's war stories from Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. If you like the old EC Comics, you own this already.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best argument against war is war. This is a collection of tales from Kurtzman. Some great stories here. The background information around how he got some of his stories and the artists he works with are a great insight into what was happening at the time.

And EC... the history is fascinating to see pre-code comics and how it happened. Having lived through Tipper Gore, it is a comparison to how the comics were (mis)handled. Alternative comics flow through this history.

I am quite fond of all Fantagraphics has done in this vein and will continue to read more of these particular titles.

[Xisix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciated the seriousness and attention to grim accounts of war (primarily World War II). There is a bit of the twist-a-roo for dramatic effect though part and parcel of these short stories. Particularly enjoyed beginning stories of volume with art remiscent of woodcuts almost in stark contrasts between light and dark. In a way this fits E(ducational) of EC. Soldiers die suddenly. Glamour is bleached from account.
War is Hell !

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurtzman's art is the ultimate eye candy, even when it's showing intensely gruesome situations. As my second time reading these stories, I was surprised to discover "Big 'If'!", which instantly became my favorite. So heart-wrenching and cruel, it's still amazing that Kurtzman could tell a story like that in only seven pages.

[Kim]

the rhythm and facing of art in Kurtzman's comics are great. but his words are too redundant.

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, these are fantastic. I am a sucker for this era of EC Comics and have never checked out any of the publications these were taken from. That was a mistake! I never thought that war stories were my “thing.” But between how strongly I reacted to this and the impact that Shaun Hutson’s pulpy war fiction has had on me, I feel I may need to re-evaluate my position. Maybe I’ve just been under-read on war books, or maybe wrongly-read.

Anyhow, the art is absolutely wonderful and the stories are spare and hard hitting. Kurtzman was cool as hell. This comes strongly recommended from me. I will be certainly be buying a copy.

Read on a library hardcover.

[Jorge Schumacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 estrelas

[Aussiescribbler Aussiescribbler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been delving into the reprints of classic EC comics from the 1950s. I began with some of the science fiction and horror comics and the early issues of Mad. After reading some of the supplementary material about the history of the company and the career of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman I was curious to read some of the war comics which were his other specialty. I wasn’t expecting to like them as much as the others as war comics are not a particular interest of mine, but I was very impressed and would definitely seek out more of these stories.

When Kurtzman created the title Two-Fisted Tales for publisher William Gaines the idea was that it would feature swashbuckling adventure yarns. Almost immediately, however, the U.S. began fighting in Korea and the focus shifted to contemporary war stories. The first three stories in this collection deal with a conquistador, jewel thieves in South America and a pirate, but they have the same sense of dark irony and of vicious acts punished by fate that can be found in many of the classic EC horror stories. From there we are plunged into the grim realities of combat in Korea.

Two-Fisted Tales would soon be accompanied by another war title - Frontline Combat. The focus would not remain exclusively on Korea. Wake! deals with the battle to defend Wake Island during World War II. And Tide! is set on D-Day. O.P. and Lost Battalion! deal with the First World War. Bonhomme Richard! goes back to a naval battle which took place in 1779. Rough Riders! deals with the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. And Memphis! deals with a naval battle during the American Civil War. Eventually, each title would have an issue solely focussed on the American Civil War.

None of these are shallow unrealistic wartime adventure stories. They are carefully researched and sensitively told accounts of the human cost of war. They are, in the main, tales of tragedy not triumph. A wounded soldier crawls away to die, reflecting on the ways he has seen his comrades meet their ends. A Korean farmer slowly and proudly builds a home for his family, only to see it destroyed in the combat between the North Koreans and the Americans. A young boy proudly brags that his father is going off to fight the Yankees on a riverboat, unaware that he will never return. The heroism of ordinary men holding firm in the face of near certain death is honoured, but within a wider sense of the waste and futility of war itself.

Many of the stories are masterpieces of the comic form, beautifully drawn and laid out in a way which allows you to see the action and hear the crack of the bullets and the dull thud of exploding mortars.

I would recommend this book to connoisseurs of the comic art form, but also to anyone with an interest in military history or literary engagement with the reality of men at war.

Along with the stories, which are reproduced in black and white, rather than the original colour, to emphasise the drawing of Kurtzman and his fellow artists, there are colour reproductions of all of the covers drawn by Kurtzman (powerful works of art in their own right) and plenty of background information on Kurtzman and EC comics.

[David James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvey Kurtzman is best known as the founder of Mad Magazine and the man behind the long-running soft porn comic "Little Annie Fanny." Prior to that, however, he wrote and edited the line of war comics at E.C., and as this collection makes clear, he was operating on an entirely different level than his colegues.

While most E.C. comics glorified in blood, gore, fantasy, horror, and the always predictable shock ending (this should not be read as a criticism; they were great), Kurtzman took a realistic approach that was unusual for comics of the era. Most of these stories are set in the Korean War, which was in full swing at the time they were written. Unlike most war comics of the time however, they weren't jingoistic cheers for the home team. It would be a mistake to call Kurtzman's approach antiwar. That would be too simplistic. Existentialist is the description that fits best. Kurtzman paid close attention to news accounts and interviewed military members from grunt level to brass in an effort at making his work as realistic as possible, and it shows.

This is dark material, decidedly hopeless, and sympathetic primarily to the men in the trenches, regardless of what side they are on (in fact, high level officers are noticeably absent for the most part). It's uneven work for certain (a few of the stories here are so bad they're cringe worthy). But the best stuff shows a level of maturity that one rarely sees in comics of the time and that Kurtzman himself would soon largely retreat from.

It's good to see this material back in print. It reminds us that the Korean War was unpopular from the start (in fact, it had less public support than Vietnam did until the very end). It also points out that the stereotype of the fifties as an era of mass conformity and blind support of US power is a misguided. There was in fact considerable dissent. Kurtzamn's war stories are far more challenging to the status quo than anything he produced later for Mad or Playboy. And they were aimed at kids. You can't get more subversive than that.

[Sasha Boersma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This got on my list thanks to a random recommendation from somewhere. Did not expect it to be what it was! It's a collection of comic stories by Harvey Kurtzman during the 50s/60s. While about war, he looked beyond the idea of winning and told stories of the men themselves. Of their thoughts, reflections, and experiences. He also represented the other side fairly and thoughtfully - breaking war down away from politics and race and about the people affected. Like many war stories, it gets numbing to read story after story (it's a sizeable anthology). It is a valuable collection of literature on war.

[Adan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent time capsule featuring all of Kurtzman’s “Two-Fisted Tales” and “Frontline Combat” comics, along with all his covers on the two titles and a bunch of essays about Kurtzman, his collaborators, and EC Comics. I preferred the more modern war stories (Korean War, WWII, and even WWI) over the more historical stuff (Conquest of Mexico, American Civil War, American Revolution, Spanish-American War, and even some pirate stuff), and my favorite story was the titular “Corpse on the Imjin”. “Rubble” and “Big ‘If’” we’re also quite good, as well as his collaborations with Alex Toth in “Thunderjet” and “F-86 Sabre Jet”, but really, everything in here is pretty good.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

War comics as written by a committed pacifist, and as a result each story is a short lesson in the absolute stupidity and waste of war. I grew up with the classic Mad and the occasional Kurtzman's war story reprinted in some collection, as a result this collection was both familiar and enlightening. The essays are entirely optional. For me, knowing more about an author/artist is almost always a mistake.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

No le doy cinco estrellas porque algunas de las historietas no dibujadas por Kurtzman tienen un dibujo bastante pobre y el material complementario se come demasiadas páginas. Aun así, sólo por sus cien páginas donde figura como autor completo y la galería de portadas de Two Fisted Tales y Frontline Combat ya merece la pena. Tebeos Clásicos con C mayúscula (no con A de antiguo)

[Frank McGirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it's pretty a-typical of Kurtzman's work for the series I really liked Jivaro Death. And better than even the title work, the "Big 'If'" was a solid piece.

Love Kurtzman's art, and the interviews printed in the back were illuminating as well.

Good stuff!

[Alexander Petretich · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork is really beautiful in black & white. But think I actually prefer to see these stories with the crude '50's coloring. Overall, a really nice presentation of the best war comics ever made. Belongs on the bookshelf next to Fantagraphics' reprint of Warren's Blazing Combat. Great stuff.

[Russell Mark Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvey Kurtzman was the best at comics. His drawing style is just so beautifuly lucid, fluid and dynamic. His scripts are perfectly timed and expertly layed out. It just doesn't get any better. My only complaint for this collected edition is that it doesn't go on forever. I need more Harvey!

[Matt Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential collection of Harvey Kurtzman's art and writing from Fantagraphics. You want to learn how to write short stories? Read these.