BHOC: EC CLASSIC REPRINTS #9

If you were to ask me today about what constituted the best work that EC put out during its short but well-remembered time, I’d say without question the war titles edited and overseen by Harvey Kurtzman. They followed the EC tradition of tightly-plotted stories with punch endings, but they also had a point of view about war and the people who fight it that was refreshingly honest in an era when that wasn’t often the case. Additionally, they didn’t use the same Leroy lettering as the balance of the line, so their pages felt a bit more lively and alive consequently. All that having been said, i wasn’t much of a war comic reader at the time when I read this issue, and so it didn’t especially stand out for me. I can’t say that I have any understanding as to why these particular issues were the ones selected for reprinting, but there are some unfortunate choices among them.

This issue, in fact, was only partly worked on by editor and main writer Harvey Kurtzman. At the time, Kurtzman was hospitalized for a case of yellow jaundice, and assistant editor Jerry De Fuccio wound up completing most of the issue. That meant that in this rare instance, most of the stories were written by the artists rather than Kurtzman. So this opening feature illustrated by Jack Davis in fine form was also his handiwork from a writing point of view.

The story’s about Jiker Miller, an outlaw who had years before been sentenced to five years in prison by the people of a little town. But now the violent Jiker has returned to get his revenge, and he steamrollers into the place, first shooting and robbing old Dan Bagget and then terrorizing the denizens of the local saloon, including the judge that sentenced him and members of the jury. Eventually, the town sheriff shows up, and Miller proceeds to beat him to a bloody pulp. All the while, we’re cutting back to Dan Bagget, who is slowly making his way back to his homestead, talking about his girl Betsy and how she needs to straighten Jiker out. On the final page, with the townspeople cowed, it looks as though Miller has won. And then he’s suddenly killed by a shot from out of frame–and the final panel shows Bagget with his rifle, which he’s named Betsy. Davis’ art is excellent in this story, and the rhythm of it works well even if the end beat is a bit obvious.

The following story was written and illustrated in lush fashion by the great Wally Wood. Jerry De Fuccio provided most of the script and copy, but the story was Wood’s all the way, a reflection of his interest in medieval knights and the era of chivalry. Wood positively packs his panels full of period detail while still keeping his storytelling utterly clean. The story also features a terrific extended battle sequence between two combatants, a trial by combat that begins as a joust and then works its way down to the two men facing off with sword and flail. This battle is really the main set piece of the story, though it has a fun punch line as well.

The story is designed to put the lie to the concept of trial by arms as a true measure of determining the guilt or innocence of the accused. In it, a knight is accused of the murder of one of his fellows, with whom he’d argued two days earlier. The knight protests his innocence and demands trial by combat to prove his claim. Another knight takes up the challenge, and the two men battle brutally for literally hours. Finally, though, the accused knight is struck down, proving him without a doubt to be the murderer. Except that afterwards, the victim shows up, hale and hearty. The entire affair had been a mistake, a misunderstanding. But having killed the first knight for murder, there must be a victim, and as the story ends, it is clear that the “noble” knights are about to slay the original victim. Justice indeed.

The next story was illustrated by John Severin, whose sister Marie did the coloring for the issue and most of EC’s output. It was scripted and dialogued by Jerry De Fuccio. It’s about a deserter in the French Foreign Legion who is recaptured and punished by being hogtied in the blazing sun, a process known as En Crapaudine. As the deserter slowly dies, he recounts to himself the events of the preceding days, when half in a madness he stalked out from the camp and out into the desert in the middle of the night to face the leader of the Arab forces that were assaulting them. And of course, once the man has died, the other soldiers discover evidence on his person that he did just as he had claimed, and killed the Arab leader. A shame they didn’t think to search him before they staked him out for punishment.

The final story in this issue is the only one written by Harvey Kurtzman, and it’s illustrated by George Evans, who had an abiding love of airplanes. It’s a historical piece that tells the tale of the French aviator Georges Guynemer, including his near-misses with death, the manner in which he regained his nerve after being shot by seeking out an enemy plane and allowing it to empty its machine gun at him without returning fire, and ultimately how he disappeared, his final fate unknown. As was Kurtzman’s way, he researched the subject matter extensively and most of the details in this story jibe with the reality of Guynemer’s life. The real star here, though, is Evan’s polished artwork.