Monthly Archives: February 2007

Foxhole #3 had a new development, S&K started to provide a credit box. It really appears that even before this S&K would encourage their artists to sign their work. Well at least artist signatures were not unusual in Simon and Kirby productions. Credit boxes were something else and these appear in no other Simon and Kirby comics. Actually credits were rather unusual in the industry before the Silver Age of comics. There were some special exceptions such as Bob Kane for Batman (of course his credits was for work that was mostly ghosted by other artists). Even Simon and Kirby often got credits when working for Timely or DC. But these were special cases. Bob Kane’s credit was part of the deal he made with DC when he created Batman. While Simon and Kirby’s comics were so successful that their name alone could help sell a comic. Most artists at that time would never get such credit.

The credits now provided in Foxhole were not present to highlight the artist. In fact the credit box does not identify what the cited individual did. In some cases he was the artist, in others the writer. You cannot tell this from the credit box. The information the credit box does supply is what military service the individual had performed. The premise behind Foxhole was that the creators were actual veterans and these credits were used to show that this was actually true. Even so these Foxhole credits provide a window into contributors to Simon and Kirby productions that we may not otherwise have. As far as I know the artist Bob McCarty never signed any of his work for S&K. The credits in Foxhole was the only method I had to help identify his work. We know some of the writers that work for Simon and Kirby but generally we have no idea who did what. But Foxhole provides some stories written by one of them, Jack Oleck. Even more surprising we have some stories written (but not drawn) by Jack Kirby.

Foxhole Comics #3 (February 1955) “Chicken” page 3 art by Bob McCarty

You might think you know what to expect from a story with a title like “Chicken” in a war comic book. You would expect a story about bravery and overcoming fear during battle. But this is Foxhole and what you get is something else entirely. Instead we meet Mac, a soldier who has been fighting the Nazis for eighteen days and now finds himself close to Paris. His daydreams of a visit to that city seemed destroyed when he is told that they will not be going to Paris because they are going to let the French underground take it. A chance encounter with a guy in a jeep named Freddy leads Mac to go to Paris despite orders. Freddy tells Mac to ditch his stripes because it will be safer if M.P.s show up. Well Mac and Freddy have a great time in Paris; beer, girls, dancing, the works. That is until the M.P.s show up. But Mack and Freddy are not about to be taken in. They split up and Mac makes it back to his company. There he finds that he is about to go on another campaign. As he prepares Mac sees Freddy only to be surprised at who Freddy really is and we learn what the meaning of the title was.

I like Bob McCarty. He may not have a style as distinct as Draut, Meskin or Prentice but he draws a good story. He does not seem strong in artistic effects like the use of chiaroscuro but knows how to adjust his panel compositions so as to keep the story interesting. His lines are clean and sensitive with a flair and not dry. Simon and Kirby generally used good talent and Bob McCarty is no exception. The credits tell us that Bob served in the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force was part of the Army and not a separate branch of the military during the war.

Foxhole Comics #3 (February 1955) “Listen To Me, Sam” page 1 art by Art Gates

This is a story of Joey a young man who desires to revenge the death of his brother who was killed in Korea. Joey switches places with Sam who recently got his draft notice. Joey becomes a good soldier, so good in fact that he becomes a hero. Unfortunately for Sam this leads to deception being discovered.

Foxhole Comics #3 (February 1955) G.I. Yaks art by Art Gates

The credits tells us that Art Gates was a Field Correspondent for Yank Magazine. Yank Magazine’s motto was “written by the men… for the men in the service” Art is a bit of a surprise to me. His forte really seems to be gags comics. Yet he also is able, as “Listen To Me, Sam” shows, to draw standard comic book stories. I do not think there were many artists who like Art did both. Art also did some “realistic” pieces for some of Simon and Kirby’s romance comics but those were all very short, generally single page works.

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Foxhole Comics #2 (December 1954) “Walkie-Talkie” page 3 by Bill Draut

The Commies cut a communication line and later kill the man sent to repair it. They then use the dead soldier’s walkie-talkie to contact the Americans pretending to be the soldier. The fake soldier reports that he is lost and will use the signal strength as a means of finding his way back to headquarters. Of course what the Commies are really doing is using this as a means of locating the American headquarters so that they can attack it.

Like he did in “The Replacement”, here Bill Draut uses an bird’s eye view at the start of the action before zooming in. I find this a very un-Kirby way of telling the story so I am convinced once again that Bill is not working from Kirby layouts. Another nicely done effort by Draut, particularly considering that the story is only three pages long.

Foxhole Comics #2 (December 1954) “Hot Box” page 1 by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby only provided the covers for most issues of Foxhole. However for Foxhole #2 Jack penciled two of the stories. I previously discussed “Booby Trap”. The second Kirby contribution is “Hot Box” a real gem despite its short length of only two pages. What a splash panel! Despite it being a close-up, because of the head gear all you can see of the man are his eyes. Only part of the gun that he is firing is visible and we cannot see his target. But with the low angle viewpoint, the empty cartridges flying about and the effective use of perspective this is one of Kirby’s most exciting splashes. Jack keeps this sort of visual impact in each of the panels that follow. Only two pages, but Kirby makes the most of them. The story itself is rather simple. We are told that the plane was hit by flak during a raid. The aircraft was still flying but a fire had developed. The crew was trying to make it back but the effects from the fire was growing, hence the title for the story. Jack provides a dramatic end, it is almost another splash panel.

Jack Kirby did not draw many stories for Foxhole. Those that he did provide are just so incredible. I suspect that many artists would not give their best effort for such a short story as “Hot Box”. Jack on the other hand seemed to take this shortness as a challenge. He wanted to provide the all excitement of a fuller length story. I believe he was completely successful and that “Hot Box” was the best piece from Foxhole.

Foxhole Comics #2 (December 1954) “Dishonorable Discharge” page 1 by unidentified artist

“Dishonorable Discharge” seems a little out of place in Foxhole. For one thing most Foxhole stories are three to six pages long. If we discount Foxhole #7 (which was not a Simon and Kirby production) only “Dishonorable Discharge” is longer having ten pages. I do not know who the artist was but I do not think he did anything else for Foxhole or the other Mainline titles. Further the story itself seem more appropriate for a crime magazine then a war one.

The story takes place in ’36 and ’37 well before the U.S. entered the war. At the start we find Socker Bates doing deep sea diving for the navy. Socker wants to show a girl a good night on the town and he does, spending money like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately it turns out he stole it from the navy paymaster. Socker is apprehended, sentenced to serve a year in prison and then given a dishonorable discharge. With his bad discharge, Socker has trouble finding work. Eventually he teams up with a down and out character who has a diving suit. Together they do salvage operations. A girl comes between them and Socker finds out that his partner is planning to run off with the girl and the money. That is until Socker Bates decides to take revenge.

Like I said it sounds more like crime genre then war. It is not even appropriate for Police Trap, Mainline’s crime comic. Police Trap focuses on the police angle not the criminal but the police are nowhere to be seen in “Dishonorable Discharge”. This story is so out of place for Mainline that I really do not believe that S&K had it made. Rather I suspect that S&K picked it up, probable at a bargain price, from some failed comic book line. Or perhaps from the artist when the story was rejected by its intended publisher. S&K did something similar when they bought some romance work from the failed publishing company of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. That romance work ended up in some of the Prize romance comics that S&K were producing at this same time. In any case “Dishonorable Discharge” is one the poorer efforts from the entire Foxhile comics.

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Foxhole Comics #2 (December 1954) “Booby Trap” page 3 by Jack Kirby

Most Foxhole stories are very short yet they have no feeling of being rushed. Jack Kirby’s story, “Booby Trap” is only six pages long but look at page 3 where he spends four panels on the approach of a Korean farmhouse. What a masterpiece this page is. The distant view of the farmhouse with the troops safely concealed by trees. The silent but exposed crossing of the field. The arrival at the farmhouse and the preparation for the use of a grenade. Ending with a sudden reprieve and the revelation about the presence of a female civilian. Kirby is renown for his handling of action but on this page he shows he can also be the master of suspense. He does it so well that it is a side of Kirby that you wished he did more often. As for real action there is plenty of that to follow. But for Jack action is up close and personal. His soldiers are real warriors who fight with knives or hand-to-hand. Even when a rifle is fired it is not from a distance but so close that there will be no second try if the first does not hit its mark.

But a comment about page 3 is in order particularly since I am showing it out of context from the rest of the story. Today with our post-Mi Lai concern about non-combatant casualties the soldier who stopped the throwing of the grenade would be viewed as the hero and the grenade owner as being callous at best. But this is the ’50s and the rest of the story makes it abundantly clear that the man who stops the grenade attack is actually a screw-up who does not take sufficient care while in enemy territory. As the “real” hero says in the text from panel 4

We had to be sure about the place! But, that’s what grenades were for… to help make sure!

This is the equivalent of shoot first and ask questions later.

I do not know if Kirby actually wrote the script. My impression of how Jack worked at the time was he and Joe provided a plot outline to a writer. When the writer returned with a script that Kirby would draw Jack would then make whatever alterations that he saw fit. Certain phrasing used in the story seem pure Kirby to me. Such as this gem from the last panel of page 3:

A dame! First dame I seen in months.. and not bad!

So what! So what! You’ve got no time to ask her for the next waltz! We’re gonna give this place a fast shuffle!

Before leaving my discussion about “Booby Trap” perhaps I should point out that the B.A.R. referred to in the first panel of page 3 is short for Browning Automatic Rifle. The B.A.R. man is shown in that panel as the one on the left in the foreground. In the story this acronym is used without any explanation. They just assumed that the reader would be familiar with the term. Although the B.A.R. man would show up again in the story and we will get a better view of his rifle, we will never get to see him fire it.

Foxhole Comics #2 (December 1954) “Replacement” page 3 by Bill Draut

From the same issue there is a story by Bill Draut that makes a good comparison piece to Kirby’s “Booby Trap”. “Replacement” is an even shorter work being only four pages long. In a previous discussion about Bill Draut I had commented that I thought Bill was a little uncomfortable with drawing action. I had come to that conclusion because in his early work Draut really did seem to have a little problem with things such as fight scenes. Most of the work that Bill did later was for romance comics and would not require action. But as this story shows (and at least one other in Police Trap) I was incorrect. Actually it should have been obvious that Bill would know how to handle action scenes, after all he served as a combat artist for the Marines during the war. His early shortcomings in this area probably was due to his then-inexperience in comic book art.

Foxhole Comics #2 (Decemberr 1954) “Replacement” part of page 4 by Bill Draut

I am sure there will be those who say that the reason that Draut handled the fight scenes in this story so well was due to having worked from Kirby layouts. But I do not at all believe that to be the case. Kirby likes to handle fighting “up close and personal”. Even the advance on the farmhouse that is imaged at the start of the post is done as if the viewer was actually a part of the operation. Bill on the other hand gives a bird eye view of the fight before he zooms into the thick of things. To me these are two very different ways of telling the stories. In “Replacement” The fight does becomes hand-to-hand on the next page, but even there Draut’s technique seems very different then that used by Kirby. Everything indicates to me that this story was not done using Kirby layouts.

As for the writing, I do not find any of those “pure Kirby-isms” like I see in “Booby Trap” and so many other S&K stories drawn by Jack. I still believe that Jack and Joe were involved in the providing plots to their writers. That would explain why, despite all the different artists that worked for Simon and Kirby, their productions have their own unique flavor. But when the script returned from the writers, Kirby was more apt to re-write material he was going to pencil then he was for stories to be drawn by other artists.

There is something special about the fight scene presented by Bill. Notice that the last four panels have no text, and this actually extends to the first three panels of the next page. Such a sequence of panels without text was quite unusual at the time, I cannot thing of another S&K production that has one. Years later Jim Steranko would cause a bit of a stir when he did something similar over two pages. After Steranko this technique has become more common.

My purpose in comparing Bill Draut’s story with the Jack Kirby piece is to show differences in approach. It is not a rating of one artist over another. Such a comparison really would be unfair to Draut. After all there really are not many artist in the same league as Kirby. Actually the only one I consider an equal to Jack is Will Eisner. But I feel that stories such as “Replacement” show how really fine an artist Bill Draut was.

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