Back to reading again!

I've taken a bit of a vacation from comics. Reading them, anyway. I've never been far from the hobby- I've read Back Issue and Alter Ego regularly, and I'm on the Back Issue Facebook group on a daily basis, so I've been reading about comics...just not actual comics. It isn't as bad as the lack of posts for 14 months would show- I did read quite a few back in June when I brought home a whole bunch from the Albany Comic Con. I just never got around to writing about them here. I kept saying to myself "don't forget to post them" but I kept putting it off and off some more and eventually I ended up forgetting whatever it was I planned to say.

So, now that I'm back to reading again, I knew I couldn't let that happen this time and I needed to write about what I read. And so, without further blabbering, here's the five comics I read on October 19th, 2018:

Hot Rods & Racing Cars #31

I began with an old favorite series- Hot Rods and Racing Cars is my favorite of the Charlton Car Comics. It's also the longest tenured, as the series began all the way back in the early 1950s, 1951 to be exact! It ran to #120, in 1973- but #31, dated July 1957, is now my oldest Charlton produced book. And not just of this series, but overall! It is, in fact, my first Charlton comic from the 1950s.

I have to say, the later issues were better. This issue had multiple stories and they were all pretty formulaic- guy has a car, guy fights with other guy with a fancier car, guy beats other guy and then they make plans to work together in the future. Most of the stories also focused on "The Girl" who initially was with the guy, spurned him for the other guy, and then gets back with the original guy. In one of the stories the girl was the sister of other guy. It did feature the standard stereotype of the girl not knowing anything about cars, too.

The shortest story in the book was a three page tale of the 1955 Monte Carlo Grand Prix (F1 race). It was truly the best of the three, even if everyone in the book spoke in typical Charlton style dialog, already present at this date.

The later issues in the series, they were much more entertaining. The  series did eventually develop continuity, although slightly loose, and that era is lots of fun. With that said, I would gladly collect other issues from this earlier time, but this is the first one I've ever seen.

By the way, there are no stories with motorcycles in the book.  The Grand Comics Database notes that the cover art may be an early effort by Dick Giordano, but it's not known for sure.

I followed that up with a quartet of military comics, something I've been on a kick of as of late:

Combat #36

Combat #40

Combat #35

Although War-Stories appears on the covers, the title of this publication is just "Combat"

The painted covers here are fantastic! The stories inside are pretty decent, as well. What's interesting is that two of them were true stories with real people as the feature, while the third- the Midway issue- tells a true story but appears to have "prototypical" people, not specific real people. It didn't hurt the quality of the story. Midway is my favorite battle of the war to read about, so there was little doubt in my mind that I would enjoy it. The art is good as well. Each issue featured a long lead story, a short backup that didn't feature real, documented events and a text page. The text pages all carried copyrights from the 1960s so they must be reprints but I don't yet know enough about military comics to know from where.  Issues #35 and 36 are from 1972, while #40 is from 1973.

Unfortunately, the issue number does not appear on the covers. That's one of my pet peeves in comics.

I also find it interesting that the indica states that the book does not feature any persons living or dead, yet, it clearly DID. Various personalities of WWII are mentioned by name, and have very clear images that could not be mistaken for anyone else- the fifth page of the first issue I read (#35) is mostly presented as word bubbles spoken by Winston Churchill, for example.

I'm pretty sure that these are the first books I've ever read from Dell. Certainly the first that originated from Dell and not licensed books, as I know I have some Hanna-Barbera comics published by Dell. The question is, Have I read them? I don't know. Hopefully that question can be put to bed in the not too distant future, but that's a topic for another time.

As I just learned while researching this post, #40 is the final issue in the series. According to the GCD, #40 is a reprint of #14, while #35 reprints #9 and #36 reprints number 10. That explains the dated text pieces!  Also, most of the art was done by Sam Glanzman, so that explains why it felt like I recognized it...I did!

I finished up with a DC book, of course.

Blitzkrieg #4

Blitzkrieg was unusual in that it was told from the German point of view. I have to wonder if this sprung from the success of Enemy Ace, but it didn't quite resonate as much- Baron von Hammer is a sympathetic character, the Nazis are not.  That might explain why Enemy Ace has been popular for years, and this title ran for only 5 issues, all contained in 1976.

There doesn't appear to be any continuity to the series, with each story being standalone and and featured German not even surviving in each case.

The cover "kinda-sorta" happens in the issue, not something guaranteed, especially in the 1970s.

This is only the second issue of the series I've read, as I didn't begin to collect military comics until very recently, having focused almost solely on superheroes for most of my life.

Honestly, I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the Combat issues that I read, but I can't say it was bad. Not something I'd list as a favorite though.

Hopefully, I will actually remember to keep posting when I read, although I can't guarantee detailed reviews every time, especially if I start reading a whole bunch in one day- it's not uncommon for me for me to go on a reading streak and read more than 10 or even 20 books in one day. (my personal record is 53 comics in a day)