Has anybody ever read Sgt. Rock comics

[Guest]

[Sam]

My dad owns a collection of old comics and one big amount he has are sgt. rock ones, has anyody else read these?

[savage727]

Hi Sam:

You bet I have read Sgt Rock comics.  Your Dad must be near my age!  Great stories and art work!  I grew up reading comics in the 1960's and 1970's.   I must have read almost all of the Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Capt. Johnny Cloud, Capt. Hook, The Haunted Tank, G.I. Combat, Our Army At War, and so many other classic war comics dealing with World War II. When I went away to College my Mother threw away all of my comics, I must have had over 500.  

I wish I had them today or had the foresight to collect and preserve them but I was very young and did not appreciate the value of what I had.  

How many war comic books does your Dad have?

[Roz]

And we often sit and wonder why you became a fighter pilot and also ponder why you are interested in WW2
 
Ha you and Mark should make a history book of WW2 in comic form...

tho it might be seen as making light of a very serious issue so you had best do a comic in pirates style drawing of women at home making up all those war time recipies.

We made mock crab sandwiches once - a war time recipe which were tomato and egg - they looked like crab sandwiches but didnt taste at all like them (and they were a hell of a lot of effort - yeah we had to peel the tomatoes - by putting them in hot water first). It was clearly all about keeping up appearances!

[savage727]

Yes it definately is interesting in the way people turn out when you look back on their interests when they were growing up.  I was always interested in anything military and flying from my earliest memories.

The War Comics I read growing up were in what was considered The Silver Age of Comics considered by many as the best years of art and storyline in comics.  I even remember reading historical comics about events in history.  They were both entertainment and educational at the same time.  As a matter of fact I have purchased a few of these historical comics off eBay that I once had when I was younger dealing with several of the battles in the Pacific my Dad fought in World War II.  The artwork and inking were great.

You know Roz that is not such a bad idea of your's working with Mark on a WW II comic!    I remember Mark telling me about your mock crab sandwiches episode!  

[Sam]

Lets see If i can remember (my dad is forty)


1. all the sgt. rock comics
2. I think three G.I Combat ones

there are lots more WWII ones I just cant remember

[savage727]

Hi Sam:

Well I am a bit older than your Dad.  Have you looked through them or have you read them all?  There really is nothing on the market today that equals some of those great comics for continued storyline and artwork unfortunately.  

Does your Dad collect comics or are these ones he had since he was growing up?

[Sam]

he doesnt collect them and he had them since he was a kid

[savage727]

Ok makes sense.  Ask your Dad if he watched these two TV series when he was growing up:

Combat and 12 O'Clock High  

Combat was a series that followed a squad of American soldiers from the Normandy invasion of France to the end of the war in Europe while 12 O'Clock high followed a B-17 Bomber Squardron flying missions from England against Germany.  Both outstanding TV shows for their time as they both started out in Black & White and then went to color when that technology became available.

[Roz]

Hmm let me guess ... the Americans save the day whilst the hapless UK soldiers get slaughtered by the bucketload

NICE

 

[Sam]

well... acually my dads came from a family of 8 six kids and 2 adults and they came to canadas with 300 dollars and ended up with alot more but when they first started they didnt have a tv for 12 years (when my dad was 12 they got one) and I just asked and he said the only show that was watchable without constant fuzz was rocket robinhoood....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[savage727]

Wow sounds like your family worked hard to get where they are today.  You should be very proud of your Dad and his family and I am sure you are.  

Roz - no both Combat and 12 O'Oclock High never depicted anything like what you said.  I remember when I was growing up my Dad who fought in the Pacific and his brother who fought in Europe would get together on Tuesday evenings when Combat came on to watch.  I sat there and listened and watched.  I recall that my Uncle said this was very close to what he saw and went through during the war.  It was very realistic and the story lines were interesting.  As a matter of fact the first season of Combat from 1964 was just released on DVD.  Back then a TV series was a series as Combat in its first year had 32 one hour episodes.  I purchased this yesterday and plan to start watching it tonight.  Both my Dad and Uncle have passed away but seeing this series is going to bring back those Tuesday evenings all over again.  

I know these were shown before your time but now with DVD technology people can experience these shows for themselves.  Bye the way if you want to see an outstanding movie of the D-Day Invasion rent "The Longest Day".  It was made in 1965 with an international cast to die for and covers both the Allied and German sides correctly.  I honestly cannot say that I have ever seen a war movie in which the English get treated like you posted and I have almost every World War II movie either on VHS or DVD.  

[Sam]

yeah, the american the british soldiers looked like the roughest guys on the front (no offense to the americans) but the british usually end up fighting in a war longer than most

[savage727]

Well that is true Sam as far as World War I & World War II is concerned because the English had declared war 3 years for WW I and 2 years for WW II before we Americans became involved. World War I - British entry 1914, U.S. entry 1917, World War II - British entry 1939, U.S. entry 1941.  Both times England had treaty obligations to come to the aid of countries that were allied to her if attacked.  The United States however did not have anything like that so we entered both wars when either we were attacked ourselves as the Japanese did to us at Pearl Harbor or the Germans in World War I sinking the Lusitania passenger liner killing many American civilians including women & children and trying to get Mexico to attack the United States.  

[Sam]

yeah, The americans came in WWI when the brithish were in a bad spot

[savage727]

Yep we did and the same in World War II but don't forget that the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and many others were also in the same boat and all helped to defeat evil and tyranny.  

[Roz]

How bad a spot were we in though guys?

What would REALLY have been the difference if the Americans had never entered? Please Ed I am not picking a fight, I really want to know what the US contribution was to the war, I know a LOT of US soldiers went to France, what else did they do?

As far as I remember the Americans spent the first 3 years of WW2 "patroling their side of the Atlantic" and ACTUALLY regarded that as an effort on our part! Sorry to be so synical but I really have heard this. Thanks guys t'was much appreciated that you kept West of the Azores nice and Nazi submarine free.  

Strangely enough the same thing happened with "the war on terrorism" - had anyone heard of such a thing in America on September the 10th 1999? Well we had been fighting attacks left right and centre on the streets of London - and rumours tell that the Americans were even FUNDING IRA TERRORISM!

Ooh we might be on for all out war on our own forum in a minute!

[ferdinand_the_yak]

Ack, I will have to dig out my school modern history notes on WW2 to clarify this What we all have to take into account is that historical opinion can be very, very one sided and depending on what you pick up you can form very different opinions about the same events. Take the mixed opinions of the 1944 Normandy landings for example

Off the top of my head, I remember that the Brits were in a very tough spot in WW1 and it was only with US intervention they could break through the 'inpenetrable' Hindenburg line and win the war. After the Somme and the Ypres massacres in 1916 and 1915, morale was rock bottom (60 000 British soldiers dead on the first day of the Somme alone! ). Who knows what would have happened if the US did not join in 1917... took 2 years after Lusitania but they did get there

[Roz]

It's very true FTY, whilst we all trust our own history books they are often hideously inaccurate and biased - you really need to read some from all participating countries to get a more hollistic impression.

For example I know that the Oz folk made a significant contribution to the Iraqui war with their troups but if you listen to the UK news there's rarely much of a mention except US and UK troups. I certainly had no idea until one was kidnapped that there were soldiers from the Phillippines out there!!!

[Sam]

I Know we cant leave out the australians and canadians (I am canadian)

[Roz]

Canadians?

Where are they? Somewhere in the Middle East?

LOL just kidding you - yeah we don't hear much about you either.

So who sold Alaska to America - it looks so odd on the map that Alaska is part of America!