Sunday Splash Page #402

"Ticket Punched," in Our Army at War #229, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist), colorist and letterer unknown

The Grand Comics Database says this story was originally published in Our Army at War #149, but the reprint is the issue I have, so that's what I'm going with.

The fourth 4 DC war title we've looked at - after Fighting Forces, G.I. Combat, Star-Spangled War Stories - Our Army at War is by far the one my dad had the most of. I don't know if that owes to a specific preference, or simply which series was on the spinner racks when he had a chance to buy comics.

It seems like Our Army at War was a war comic without a main feature for its first several years. Sgt. Rock shows up in issue 81's "The Rock of Easy Co.!", but it wasn't until #90, "Three Stripes Hill!" that the cover actually says "Sgt. Rock." After that, he's the lead feature up through #301, at which point the book was simply retitled Sgt. Rock (though maintaining its numbering), and continued for another 121 issues.

With one exception, all the issues I have are in the #200-240 range, by which time Joe Kubert is writing a lot - though not all - of the stories, and Russ Heath is artist. That said, and no offense to Russ Heath, who's excellent, if I'm posting a splash page of Sergeant Rock, it's going to be one Joe Kubert drew.

Because much of the character comes from the visuals Kubert provided. The stubble, the ragged uniform and battered helmet suggesting someone who sees combat constantly, so there's no time for a fresh uniform or a shave. Issue 217 even jokes about this, as the "combat happy Joes of Easy" try to surprise Rock with a fresh uniform, only to find it got torn up by the shrapnel in their latest battle and he looks rattier than ever.

There's also the fact that when I think of "tough" in comics, characters drawn by Joe Kubert are what I picture. They aren't teeth-gritting, one-liner spitting badasses, or guys with huge muscles. Rock is drawn as fit, and more than one Sgt. Rock story ends with hand-to-hand combat. No room for shooting, so club guys with rifle butts or just punch them, but win the fight. But he's almost wiry, Kubert's shading emphasizing the outline of Rock's ribs more than his abs. The way Rock's clothes and those ammo belts hang off him, he looks like he's not getting near enough food. I can't imagine k-rations were all that filling or nutritious.

Kubert's characters are tough because they look like they've survived some shit. Mountains where all the softest materials wore away over time, all that's left are the most resilient elements. Rock survives countless encounters with infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft, bombs, grenades, everything. He's inside a tank when it gets blown up more than once just in the issues I have, and if he has to be carried out, he's on his feet again before long.

And yet, Kanigher and Kubert and Heath all emphasize that Rock is still human and still capable of compassion. Even if he's a sergeant because he was the last guy alive on a 'certain hill he'd rather forget,' he takes the responsibility seriously. He looks after his guys, trying hard to keep them alive even when he knows there's gonna be casualties. If two wander off and get lost in the desert (issue #225), Rock goes out alone to track them down. If it's winter and everyone's exhausted, Rock handles the recon patrol himself rather than 'squeeze the last drop' from them (#228). If they get a new guy who acts like an army of one and gives Rock a lot of shit, Rock still leads the charge to save that guy when he gets captured (#214.) He lets them joke around when they're just marching, and will even toss some jabs back at them. He knows he's in a war, but hasn't let it steal his humanity.

Kanigher's stories tend to have some sort of hook that repeats. In "Surrender Ticket," it's that a Nazi officer has the idea of applying pressure to one specific unit of the GIs (freshly landed in North Africa), until they surrender without a shot, a demoralizing result. So we get repetitions of Easy Co. coming briefly under fire, a few guys (always introduced a page earlier) being killed, and then "surrender tickets" raining down, with more and more soldiers keeping them as the issue progresses. In "Easy's Had It!" Rock is worried the guys rely too much on him, that he's all that keeps them going. All his attempts to assert that he's a flesh-and-blood human like them, and that they have to keep going even if he falls, are undercut by him single-handedly saving Easy Co. from fighter planes or tanks. Until finally he does fall, and Easy has to take a hill without him.

(To be clear, it's not always this approach. Kanigher wrote issue 214, which focuses on the new guy, Private Hogan, and why he's so determined to be a one-man show.) 

Kubert doesn't necessarily shun this approach - we saw it in a Random Back Issue not long ago - but at least in the issues I have, more of his stories are a specific mission with some sort of twist ending. "Surprise Party" in 217 was one Kubert wrote and drew, "Dig In, Easy!" in issue #222 is another, where it's a question of what Easy Company will do once Rock is captured.

Regardless of the writer, there's always a sense war is an ugly business, and none of Easy are happy to be killing, or something has gone wrong. Issue 233 focuses on a new guy, Johnny Doe, who grew up in an orphanage, never adopted, and feels being a soldier is the first time he was ever wanted. So he kills (it's significant that Rock often talks of "fighting", but not "killing.") Kills Nazis surrendering, arguing Nazis have faked surrendering before (as Audie Murphy could attest). Kills farmers moving towards them with weapons, dismissing the possibility they might have been resistance fighters or just regular farmers.

Always quick on the trigger, always waving away Rock's questions or doubts with a lazy grin (afer one of Rock's questions, he says, 'If I'm wrong, Rock, I'll apologize.') The climax coming when Johnny is ready to drop a grenade into a house where the Nazis are holding hostages, because he's sure (or indifferent) that the woman at gunpoint is working with the Nazis. But he hesitates, and it's an open question whether Johnny dies because he held the grenade too long, or because Rock shot him to stop him. There's never doubt in the stories that the war needs to be fought, the Nazis need to be stopped, but Rock's written as someone convinced there are lines that shouldn't be crossed in the process. You can't take back killing someone, nor can you bring back one of your own that dies because you pushed the fight to a bloodier conclusion than necessary.