BLAZING COMBAT #2 |
In addition to its successful horror and science fiction comics, EC had done two magnificent and innovative war titles. Since his own version of EC type horror had gotten such a good reaction, publisher Warren was willing to gamble on another EC type project. In 1966 Warren debuted BLAZING COMBAT. After CREEPY, it was the publisher's second regular b/w comics magazine. BLAZING COMBAT was a creative and artistic success. The stories; mostly written by Archie Goodwin; were acclaimed then and now as classic examples of storytelling. Unfortunately the gamble was not to pay off. BLAZING COMBAT was not a financial success and lasted only four issues. The stories took an anti-war stance before protest over the escalating Vietnam war became popular or accepted in the United States. The titles never managed to generate acceptable sales, due in large part to the fears of Warren's distributors, newsstands and drugstores to carry what they feared was controversial material. In addition to CREEPY regulars Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, Reed Crandall, George Evans and Joe Orlando; BLAZING COMBAT also attracted the services of John Severin, Alex Toth, Wallace Wood, Russ Heath and Eugene Colan, all of whom had an affinity for the material and managed to contribute some of their very best work to this short-lived title. Even Frank Frazetta; who is generally thought of as primarily a fantasy artist; contributed four very dynamic and striking covers that lent the book an especially unique look. |