Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot

[Stephane Garrelie]

I got it yesterday. I'm not a fan of war stories, even this kind of war stories. So i couldn't care less about Robert Kanigher's part. Even if in this sort of stories it seems to me that he does a good job. Thats just not my stuff.

But there's Ross Andru's art. He does 90% of the stories, inked by Mike Esposito. And there're two issues with art by Joe Kubert, and two by Gene Colan.

I' ve really read only 4 stories in this volume that i have watched from the first to the last page, with lot of pleasure. I am generaly more a fan of writer than of artists, because i am more a fan of stories than of art, but this book i bought for the art only, or close to it, and i don't regret it.

Cover:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBB.jpg
Andru:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBA.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBD.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JJBE.jpg

[Stephane Garrelie]

Kubert:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBE.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBEF.jpg
Colan:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBG.jpg
Back Cover:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBC.jpg

[david r]

I've been thinking about getting that book. But there's only so much I can spend.

How do you like the stories, Stephane? I like the premise, but I've heard the tales are very much the "same thing done over and over". Very repetitive.

[Stephane Garrelie]

I've been thinking about getting that book. But there's only so much I can spend.

How do you like the stories, Stephane? I like the premise, but I've heard the tales are very much the "same thing done over and over". Very repetitive.

Exact. But here it's the art that is great. like i said i may have really read only 4 stories, and for the rest i "wached" it as if it was silent issues, for the art.
I'm a huge fan of Ross Andru since his Spider-Man days.
Of course it goes quicker this way, and i finished the book earlier today. There's some other stories in it that interested me and that i plan to actually read beside the four i already read.
I always find war comics repetitive and boring, but when the art is done by favorite artists of mine, its still worth it.

[dan bailey]

I've heard the tales are very much the "same thing done over and over". Very repetitive.

I'd say that's a very fair assessment, & unlike Stephane I do like war comics in general (Sgt Fury, for instance, is my favorite comic ever).

I strongly suspect, though, that it wasn't a problem when the original comics were coming out only every 2 months. Spacing the stories out undoubtedly helps a lot.

[Scott Shaw!]

I was born in 1951, so I was the perfect age to enjoy "The War That Time Forgot" in SSWS, even though, at the time, I wasn't a fan of war comics. I bought every issue of the series -- from the first story onward -- right off the drug store racks and as a dinosaur-and-gorilla-obsessed kid, that repetition was actually a "plus". As long as Andru and Esposito (and others, but let's face it, A&E were like the Willis O'Briens of funnybooks; they LOVED dinosaurs and it really showed) kept throwing tons of dinosaurs at the readers, we were very, very happy. I even liked the fact that, in the original comics, the dinos were colored to more or less correspond with many of the plastic toy dinosaurs being manufactured at the time. There's even one issue -- search ODDBALL COMICS for my columns on "The War That Time Forgot" -- that featured a kid who was obsessed with toy dinosaurs (which really didn't exist at the time) who grew up to become a paleontologist who was drafted into WWII, only to wind up battling living dinosaurs on one of those "lost world" islands in the Pacific Ocean...boy, did I love THAT story!

And then there was KONA, MONARCH OF MONSTER ISLE...

Aloha,

Scott!

[T GUy]

David R.: I've been thinking about getting that book. But there's only so much I can spend.

How do you like the stories, Stephane? I like the premise, but I've heard the tales are very much the "same thing done over and over". Very repetitive.

How unlike any other comics around at the time.

As I've said before: I recommend people who aren't Kanigher fans avoid this like a rabid dog. You won't understand it and it will only serve to put you off. Dive into Rock or Von Hammer first and work your way slowly to the hard stuff.

[matt levin]

I was kinda sorry I got this, as I too am a writer-follower more than an artist-follower, and yeah, the stories sure are repetitive. BUT:

talking about it with a pal, he said, y'know, these were written to be read one a month-- suppose you try it that way. AND Y'KNOW?

Reading one a week, even, makes the whole thing fun! And oh yes, they're beautiful to look at! And at one per week... I've sure got a whole summer-long leisurely excursion in fun!

Matt

[david r]

I was born in 1951, so I was the perfect age to enjoy "The War That Time Forgot" in SSWS, even though, at the time, I wasn't a fan of war comics. I bought every issue of the series -- from the first story onward -- right off the drug store racks and as a dinosaur-and-gorilla-obsessed kid, that repetition was actually a "plus". As long as Andru and Esposito (and others, but let's face it, A&E were like the Willis O'Briens of funnybooks; they LOVED dinosaurs and it really showed) kept throwing tons of dinosaurs at the readers, we were very, very happy. I even liked the fact that, in the original comics, the dinos were colored to more or less correspond with many of the plastic toy dinosaurs being manufactured at the time. There's even one issue -- search ODDBALL COMICS for my columns on "The War That Time Forgot" -- that featured a kid who was obsessed with toy dinosaurs (which really didn't exist at the time) who grew up to become a paleontologist who was drafted into WWII, only to wind up battling living dinosaurs on one of those "lost world" islands in the Pacific Ocean...boy, did I love THAT story!

Did you ever read Devil Dinosaur?

[Slam_Bradley]

I was kinda sorry I got this, as I too am a writer-follower more than an artist-follower, and yeah, the stories sure are repetitive. BUT:

talking about it with a pal, he said, y'know, these were written to be read one a month-- suppose you try it that way. AND Y'KNOW?

Reading one a week, even, makes the whole thing fun! And oh yes, they're beautiful to look at! And at one per week... I've sure got a whole summer-long leisurely excursion in fun!

Matt

I find that many, if not most, of DC's Showcase output is better in smaller doses. They were written to be read a month apart. And the prevailing wisdom was that you were turning over readers completely about every five years. So if they were repetitive when published, who really cared.

[Cash Lone]

G.I. Robot! Sweet!

[Scott Shaw!]

Did you ever read Devil Dinosaur?

Kid, I've read just about everything.

And by the time Jack was doing DEVIL DINOSAUR, we'd already been friends for about a decade.

So, my answer is "YES". And of course, I dug it. (I've loved just about everything Jack EVER did!) But by that time, I was an adult, and recovering from my first marriage. So DEVIL DINOSAUR never made the same kind of impression on me that "The War That Time Forgot" did, back when I was about eight years old or so.

But it certainly remains one of my favorite ODDBALL COMICS!

Aloha,

Scott!

[Stephane Garrelie]

Another page, giant japanese soldat robot:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/StephaneGarrelie/JBFile0059.jpg

[Scott Shaw!]

DC didn't include it in this SHOWCASE collection, but STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES No. 91 cover-features a giant NAZI robot using its helmet to capture US troops.

Kanigher may have been a talented loon, but he sure knew what boys liked back then!

Aloha,

Scott!

[spoon_jenkins]

G.I. Robot! Sweet!
G.I. Robot didn't appear until the 80s (in Weird War Tales), so that's just some other robot.

[Scott Shaw!]

G.I. Robot didn't appear until the 80s (in Weird War Tales), so that's just some other robot.

Sorry, Grasshopper, but the G.I. Robot first starred in the original "The War That Time Forgot", in at least three or four stories. Here's one of his best appearances there:

http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2001-03-28&query=G.I.%2BRobot

Aloha,

Scott!

[Stephane Garrelie]

In this Showcase alone there's two GI Robots, members of the Suicide Squad:
Joe (2 story-arcs in 3 issues: 1 issue [Star Spangled War Stories #101] for the first arc, 2 issues [Star Spangled War Stories #102-#103] for the second) art by Ross Andru
&
Mac (Star Spangled War Stories #125, art by Joe Kubert)

[T GUy]

In this Showcase alone there's two GI Robots, members of the Suicide Squad:
Joe (2 story-arcs in 3 issues: 1 issue [Star Spangled War Stories #101]

Could you check that, Stephane? My memory tells me that 'Joe' in SSWS 101 pre-dates the first appearance of the Suicide Squad (112? 116?).

[Stephane Garrelie]

Could you check that, Stephane? My memory tells me that 'Joe' in SSWS 101 pre-dates the first appearance of the Suicide Squad (112? 116?).After reading your post i quickly browsed the 3 issues with Joe and didn't see the words Suicide Squad. I think i did assume he was a member of the Squad because of the talk about him in #125.
More about the suicide squad in the 4rth post of this page 2 in the WTTF thread i started on the JBF:
http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18821&PN=2&TPN=2

[MWGallaher]

They were really struggling to find the hook on this one, weren't they? "The War That Time Forgot", "The Battlefield That Time Forgot" "The Flying Boots", "G.I. Robot", "The Suicide Squad"!? I'm enjoying it, but the fact is, it's got some of Kanigher's most obnoxious and tone-deaf scripting; especially the "Flying Boots" stories! "Flying Boots" alone makes for a painful pairing of words, but combine that with the continuing references to the unharmonious "Zig-Zag Zack" with his repeated entreaty "Show Me!"? It hurts, it hurts. The "Flying Boots" stories were definitely overloading the premise: soldiers fighting dinosaurs in WWII isn't quite enough; let's do trapeze artist soldiers fighting dinosaurs in WWII!

[spoon_jenkins]

Sorry, Grasshopper, but the G.I. Robot first starred in the original "The War That Time Forgot", in at least three or four stories. Here's one of his best appearances there:

http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2001-03-28&query=G.I.%2BRobot

Aloha,

Scott!
Wow. I was relying on info from the original edition of Who's Who. I didn't realize the character was a revived from years back.

[Lex]

Soldiers. Dinosaurs. G. I. Robots. Man, this collection is sounding more and more awesome.

[MWGallaher]

Soldiers. Dinosaurs. G. I. Robots. Man, this collection is sounding more and more awesome.
And not just dinosaurs, but giant albino gorillas, and the aforementioned giant Japanese robot, too.