#frontline combat

Those first two, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, were anthologies of war stories. What made them stand out was how seriously he took the subject. He did tons of research and he avoided the "adventure" cliches of unstoppable heroes in favor of harsh, clear-eyed short stories that were honest about much war sucks for everyone it touches. And his stories always hit *hard.* A big part of that was his unique understanding of the rhythm of how words and pictures interact. He always did thumbnail layouts to go with his scripts when he was writing for other artists. Even monster talents like Jack Davis and Wally Wood would stick to his suggestions when they drew his stories. But you can see his mastery in its purest form on the stories he wrote and drew himself. Look online for scans of his black and white line art for BIG IF or CORPSE ON THE IMJIN and pay attention to how he gets impact from holding the camera in one place, zooming in, pulling out, or tracking along with something moving. How he uses sudden or gradual changes from light to dark. How careful he is about the size of subjects from one panel to the next. How he creates depth with clearly-defined zones of light and darkness in each panel. Anyone who wants to make comics will benefit from looking at Harvey Kurtzman's work in the 1950s.

Wally Wood (1927–1981) Frontline Combat #15 (1954) & Weird Science #20 (1953) Source

Remembering the late Harvey Kurtzman on his birthday.

by Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and Bill Elder

Harvey Kurtzman's "Big If", one of the greatest comics ever created. It was published in Frontline Combat #5, by EC Comics in March of 1952. Every page a treasure, every panel a masterwork.

Wally Wood

Envelope used for the EC Comics Frontline Combat cover portfolio featuring Jack Davis’s artwork, 1983.