Doug: To all who serve and have served, the Bronze Age Babies say "thanks" on this Veterans' Day (formerly Armistice Day in commemoration of the end of World War I). Joe Kubert's Sgt. Rock perhaps says it best:
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Indeed; heartfelt thanks to all who have answered the call.
ReplyDeleteWe call it Remembrance Day up here in Canada and there are all sorts of ceremonies (some going on as I type this).
ReplyDeleteMike Wilson
And BBC World News (on NPR this morning) referred to it as Armistice Day.
ReplyDeleteGreat Sgt Rock image, Doug. Wonderfully appropriate.
My late Father-in-law, who has sadly been gone for a number of years now, was a full-bird Colonel in the Air Force when he retired, and flew missions in both Korea and early Viet Nam. He was a quiet, gentle, easy-natured man who never put himself ahead of others, and was beloved by his family. The very image of a veteran who ably and willingly served his country very well, and was clearly sustained by that knowledge. My wife and her siblings have since come to the conclusion that he was almost certainly involved in bombing missions during his service-- but he never talked to them about it when they were kids. I've no doubt that it had more to do with not burdening them with that level of difficult knowledge rather than any sort of image-preservation.
Ah, I liked him so much-- such a good and admirable man.
HB
You can't mention comics on Veterans Day without thinking of this guy, who stormed the beaches of Normandy:
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Even though I was born and raised in the U.S., I always think of it more as Armistice Day as they do in Europe; mainly that's because I'll never forget this story my mom told me, about her dad and grandad (my grandfather and great-grandfather) who were both serving as conscripts in the Austo-Hungarian army on the Galician front. When the armistice went into effect on 11/11/1918, the Habsburg Monarchy was no more, and they had to walk back home to Croatia from somewhere in what is today western Ukraine. That story always struck me: what a reward for surviving that hellish war...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, sorry for that digression. By the way, J.A., I really like that portrait sketch of Kirby.
The American Civil War has a lot of stories like that, too, edo. Geeze-- thank goodness they were survivors, though, yes? What a strange state of mind they must have been in-- relieved that the war was over (which they'd been conscripted into), and then carrying the burden of knowing they'd been effectively abandoned in spite of their service. There's a great story to be written about that father & son walking all the way back home from the battlefront, I daresay.
ReplyDeleteOn a side-but-related topic-- while we're all familiar and appreciative of the serious war comics out there, which were very capable of portraying combat and battle, does anyone know whether or not the humorous comics like Beetle Bailey or Sad Sack ever showed their title characters in actual combat situations? It seems like it would be inappropriate-- yet kind of unavoidable. The closest thing I can think of is Bill Mauldin's running characters Willie & Joe who he used frequently in his cartoons throughout the second world war. Pretty sure we saw them on the battlefield a few times-- though usually they were simply enduring the brain-destroying mundanities of GI life. . .
HB
Thanks for the post, Doug. It's not easy handing two 'seemingly' full time jobs (besides my IT position at the VA, I'm also a division-level logistics manager in charge of a dozen soldiers and civilians..), but its all good. I'll retire with 32yrs in from the Reserves in 2018, after 3yrs serving in Germany and a few over in Kuwait and Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI could share stories of meeting Soviet Artillery counterparts in German borders during the Cold War back in 1989, knowing that if the balloon went up, they'd be who we'd be at nuclear war with. Absent of any political ideology, there was a keen, yet eerie sense of camaraderie and professional respect between us, both highly proficient at what we did, but on opposing sides. Only two years later I spent Christmas over in Moscow and St Petersburg as a tourist.
As for now.., it's all in the history books.
Thank you to all that serve and have served. Very grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteHB, I believe there were some comics that had Sad Sack in battle along enemy lines (particularly in the very early issues), but I cannot put my hands on any now. If you ever get a chance, try to see a "Private Snafu" cartoon. They were made for the U.S. Army during WWII by Warner Brothers and other production companies, directed by the likes of Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, voiced by Mel Blanc, and written by Dr. Seuss. Private Snafu was very much in the Sad Sack vein (with a bit of Warner Brothers' wackiness thrown in); he was always doing the wrong thing. But in these cartoons it was almost always in battle situations, and in some of the cartoons Snafu ended up dying because of his stupid actions or poor attention to details. Very much worth seeking out. At times hilarious and dramatic. I believe Sad Sack and Private Snafu films debuted very close to each other and in terms of characterization and themes were very similar.
Happy Remembrance Day!
ReplyDeleteYes thank you to all the veterans young and old who have served in the armed forces worldwide.
- Mike from Trinidad & Tobago.