Frontline Combat

Infobox comic book title
title=Frontline Combat


caption=Cover illustration by Harvey Kurtzman, 1952
schedule=Bi-monthly
format=Anthology
ongoing=n
publisher=EC Comics
date=July/August 1951 - January 1954
issues=15
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writers=
artists=
pencillers=
inkers=
letterers=
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"Frontline Combat" was a bi-monthly, anthology war comic edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by EC Comics. The first issue was cover dated July/August, 1951. Over a three-year span, the title ran for 15 issues, ending with the January, 1954 issue. Publication was discontinued following a decline in sales attributed to the end of the Korean War.

The title was a companion comic to Kurtzman's "Two-Fisted Tales", and stories Kurtzman wrote for both books often displayed an anti-war attitude.

Artists who contributed included Kurtzman and EC regulars such as John Severin, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, George Evans and Will Elder. Non-EC regulars that contributed to the comic included Alex Toth, Ric Estrada, Joe Kubert, and Russ Heath. Kurtzman wrote the majority of the comic's stories with Jerry De Fuccio contributing one page text stories and the occasional regular story as well. The last couple of issues of the title included writing contributions from artists Davis, Wood and Evans. [Von Bernewitz, Fred and Geissman, Grant "Tales of Terror: The EC Companion" (Gemstone Publishing and Fantagraphics Books, Timonium, MD & Seattle, WA, 2000) p. 150-3]

In addition to contemporary stories about the Korean War and World War II, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat contained a number of stories taking place in historical settings including the Civil War, Revolutionary War, Ancient Rome and other settings.

A series of special issues dedicated to the Civil War included issues 31 and 35 of Two-Fisted Tales and issue 9 of Frontine Combat. Although originally planned to be seven issues in total, the series was never completed. Other special issues of Frontline Combat included an issue dedicated to Iwo Jima (issue 7) and an issue dedicated to the Air Force (issue 12).

Kurtzman's editing approach to Two Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat was a stark contrast to fellow EC editor Al Feldstein's style. Whereas Feldstein allowed his artists to draw the story in any way that they desired, Kurtzman developed detailed layouts for each story and required his artists to follow them exactly. [Diehl, Digby "Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives" (St. Martin's Press, New York, NY 1996) p. 52] Kurtzman's writing tended to have a lot less text in them than Feldstein's, which enabled the two war titles to be hand lettered rather than machine lettered like the remainder of EC's titles. [Diehl, Digby "Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives" (St. Martin's Press, New York, NY 1996) p. 46] Kurtzman was also dedicated to making the stories as historically accurate as possible and along with assistant Jerry De Fuccio put a lot of research into each story. As a result, where Feldstein took generally about a week to complete each issue he edited, Kurtzman took approximately a month.

Issue Guide

Reprints

"Frontline Combat" was completely reprinted as part of the Complete EC Library in three black-and-white hardbacks by publisher Russ Cochran in 1982. Between August 1995 and February 1999, Cochran (in association with Gemstone Publishing) reprinted the full 15 individual issues in comic book form.

Footnotes

References

*Goulart, Ron. "Great American Comic Books." Publications International, Ltd., 2001. ISBN 0785355901.
*Overstreet, Robert M.. "Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide." House of Collectibles, 2004.

Listen to

* [http://goldenagecomics.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=49362 The Golden Age of Comic Books podcast: "Frontline Combat"]

External links

* [http://www.linesonpaper.com/about_combat.html Commentary on "Frontline Combat" #10]