G.I. Combat comics

They just don't make grenades like they used to...

Jack G.

Remember the RAT PATROL? The .50 cals on the jeeps used to destroy Tiger 1s.

Cheers from Peter

You want to do some odd diorama ideas from comics, get your hands on "Weird War Tales":

you can do a diorama of a Sherman tank fighting dinosaurs, a P-51 taking on the ghost of The Red Baron, or the 101st Airborne Division fighting Nazi Abominable Snowmen during The Battle Of The Bulge.

Pat

You throw five of these at it:

Pat

In the UK we used to have Commando comics.

Dunno if they are still published as they would no doubt now be considered

*extremely* politically incorrect.

Aha! Apparently they *are* still in print, although I haven't seen them for years.

My favourite one was called "Mark of the Cobra".

The bad guy was a German called Kurt von Schlange. "Schlange" is German for "snake". The story was somewhat more complex than the average Commando comic as the introduction occurred before the second world war. Our Hero and his Best Mate were private pilots who had entered an air race in France. Von Schlange had also entered. Our Hero won all the heats and was a threat to von Schlange. So, the night before the final race, Our Hero was beaten up by von Schlange's sidekicks and his aircraft was sabotaged. The final knockout blow is delivered by von Schlange. As he falls unconscious, Our Hero snatches the silk scarf from around von Schlange's neck. He later finds that it is embroidered with a picture of a cobra.

Fast forward to the Battle of Britain. Our Hero and Best Mate are now fighter pilots in the RAF. There is a German fighter ace known as "The Cobra" due to the marking on his "kite" who is racking up an impressive list of kills. The Cobra (who we all know is von Schlange) always flies with two wingmen. The wingmen (who we all know are his sidekicks from the previous incident) are the ones who cripple the target and then von Schlange moves in for the kill. Although a competent pilot, von Schlange is a coward and never takes any risks himself.

Our Hero and Best Mate are set upon by von Schlange and his gang. Best Mate's aircraft is damaged by the sidekicks and while they keep Our Hero busy, von Schlange moves in for the kill. Best Mate bails out safely but, while he is hanging in his chute, von Schlange fires at him and kills him. Our Hero is also shot down and badly injured but survives.

The story then becomes a story of one man's obsessive revenge. Our Hero fights his way back to fitness and is posted to a number of different squadrons, each time with different aircraft (Mustang, Tempest). Every time he flies, he wears the cobra scarf that he snatched from von Schlange's neck. Each time he has an encounter with the Snake Gang, who always seem to have aircraft that are equal in capability to his own.

Finally, Our Hero is posted to a trials unit for the Meteor and he goes in search of the Snake Gang. The Snake Gang are equipped with FW-190Ds but they are no match for a British Pilot in a jet! Our Hero shoots down the sidekicks and finally has his confrontation with von Schlange. Deprived of his protection, von Schlange proves that although he is a competent pilot, he certainly isn't a *fighter* pilot. Our Hero eventually shoots him down in flames. Flying low over the crash site, Our Hero opens his canopy and throws the cobra scarf into the funeral pyre.

Sometimes the artwork in Commando comics could be a bit dodgy. However it was clear to me that the artist who did the artwork for "Mark of the Cobra" was an aircraft enthusiast. His depictions of the aircraft involved were absolutely spot-on.

yeah, super. what a way to use up all those misc models hanging around. and no rivets to count on the old Tamiya stegosaurus!

Craig

Yabbut there's always the discussion about the plates on a Stegosaur. Were they purely for defence from predators? In that case they would be a dun colour to aid in camouflage.

Or... were they part of the animal's heat regulatory system? In that case there would be a lot of blood vessels near the surface which would mean that when the animal was stressed the plates would blush!

There are still a lot of things to consider. Dinosaurs didn't have rivets, but there are still dinosaur river counters! ;-)

You can buy them now in collections:

?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196897398&sr=8-2 and so on.

Apparently each collection is the twelve-best ever! Just, you know, a different twelve-best each time.

Bruce Melbourne, Australia

"and 25 per cent bigger than the originals, so old guys can read the strips without their glasses! "

LOL

ian hogg said that they were much more dangerous to the users than the recipients....as always, he was right. churchill said they scared the hell out of him.....

My state has a dinosaur mummy, nah-nah-nah-nuh nuh-nuh!:

's a odd aspect about hadrosaurs; they don't have any obvious means of defending themselves, but they are always being found in a very complete condition, like they hadn't been fed on after death (this one has all the main muscles intact), even by scavengers. I've got a theory about this...from what we know about their diet, they ate coniferous tree foliage; pine needles have been found in their stomachs...I think there's a real possibility that the turpentine produced in the coniferous foliage as it fermented in their stomachs and gizzards permeated their flesh, and made them so toxic that nothing wanted to eat them. In that case, they may have been very brightly colored (yellows and reds) to warn a predator that they didn't want to bite one.

Pat

nah,,,,, I was going to have a soldier putting a sticky bomb on the tail. hopefully he will have better success than that poor soldier in Saving Private Ryan..

Craig

As I recall, the Tamiya Stegosaurus is from the 'old school', ie. a tail-dragger. To be more up-to-date, much reconstruction needs to occur to the tail.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

"Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos"? I remember that one as the neighbour kid was wild about them.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I was always rather fond of "Star-Spangled War Stories" myself.

It's amazing how many islands in the Pacific were populated with dinosaurs during WW II.

;^)

Martin

Here's someof the covers for them:

Pat

goddam, i remember 2/3 of them. had forgotten the name but those covers jumped out and said hey, we know you! i should say hi to sgt rock.