new comic

The first occasion that I am aware of on which comics addressed the issue of inter-racial strife within the US armed forces was in Two-Fisted Tales 30 (Nov-Dec 1952), in the story "Bunker!", written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by Ric Estrada, with colors by Marie Severin. The famous cover of this issue is by Jack Davis.

The plot of "Bunker!" is straightforward. There's some Chinese soldiers holed up in a very strategically placed bunker, pinning down two platoons of U.S. troops, one segregated African American and the other segregated white. The two groups of American men are on different sides of the bunker, each trying to take the hill on which it is located.


The death of one of the African American soldiers spurs his comrades at arms to a heightened state of military aggression and they succeed in taking out the bunker with grenades, to avenge the fallen man. Consequently the hill is taken by the Americans, only it is the all-white platoon that reaches the top first and claims credit for the victory. This sparks a racist quarrel that looks like it could get out of hand.


The senior officer steps in and sorts out the argument before any damage is done. In classic EC style, the last panel is used to reveal the wording on the sign that has had the effect of bringing the African and white Americans together.


Published towards the end of the Korean War, this story involves segregated units, which still existed at the time in the U.S. Army, although full integration was not far away. The inter-racial conflict shown here is more of the nature of a rivalry, although there was definitely a hint that it could get nasty.

The significance of New Heroic Comics 81 (March 1953), published by Famous Funnies, is that it contains a short true story about the bravery of Corporal Fred McGee in the Korean War. Corporal McGee is still alive today, and is a decorated veteran of the Korean War. In this two page story depicting the events on Hill 528 for which Corporal McGee received his honors, McGee is not shown as an African American, even though that is his identity. Personally I think it is unlikely that this omission was deliberate on the part of the comic book creators. It is more likely that it was simply assumed that McGee was white, because in the early 1950s institutional racism, if nothing else, tended to make society blind to the contributions of African Americans. It was as if a whole section of the population didn't exist, and you can see this by the absence of African American characters in comics throughout the 1950s especially. The error made on this comic is reminiscent of that made by the Marvel colorists on the cover of Sgt. Fury 1 in the early 60s - they simply assumed that all the characters were white, unaware of Lee and Kirby's intention to introduce diversity into the Marvel universe. Here then is "Hill 528". I wish that somebody who is a comic book creator would re-do this short story with McGee correctly depicted as an African American, and publish it somewhere while McGee is still alive.


As a special treat, here's the inside back cover of the comic, which features a Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree ad drawn by none other than Frank Frazetta!


Also, just to complete this short post, here's the cover of Sgt. Fury 1, showing the incorrectly colored Gabriel Jones:



Gabriel Jones is the famous African American horn-blowing member of the Howling Commandos.