My latest Nexus Graphica, where I discuss Blazing Combat and Jack Kirby’s The Losers, is now available for your reading pleasure.
| Quote: |
| Following the success of their EC-inspired horror anthology Creepy, publisher James Warren and editor Archie Goodwin began Blazing Combat in 1965. The new magazine employed a similar format, using many of the same artists of the previous Warren publication — Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, Russ Heath, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood. Like Creepy, Blazing Combat also featured Frank Frazetta covers, and Goodwin scripts in a magazine format. But unlike its predecessor, Blazing Combat died an ignoble death after just four issues. Fantagraphics collects the complete run and outlines the whole sordid history via interviews with Warren and Goodwin in the handsome hardback Blazing Combat. |
| Quote: |
| Following the 1973 cancellation of his Fourth World titles (New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen), Jack Kirby created several new titles for DC (Kamandi, The Demon, and OMAC). In 1974, he also assumed the mantle on one existing title: Our Fighting Forces. Beginning with issue #151, Kirby rendered the chronicles of a dysfunctional WWII fighting troop, code-named the Losers. |
I also review Jan’s Atomic Heart, Chicken with Plums, and Showcase Presents Ambush Bug.