The War that Time Forgot
| The War that Time Forgot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Publication date | April/May 1960 |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Robert Kanigher Ross Andru |
The War that Time Forgot is a comic book feature published by DC Comics beginning in 1960 in the title Star Spangled War Stories, created by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. It ran for eight years, ending in 1968 and returned as a limited series in 2008.
Featuring a combination of science fantasy and World War II comic motifs, the stories featured a group of American soldiers, stranded on an uncharted island during the Pacific War which they discover is populated by dinosaurs. This location was later named Dinosaur Island.
Publication history
The War that Time Forgot was created by writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artists Ross Andru[1] and Mike Esposito in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (May 1960). They continued to compose most of the stories during the comic's run. During its time, it was the main feature of the title.
The title and some of the premises might have been influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Land That Time Forgot, in which soldiers and sailors of World War I are stranded on a dinosaur-haunted land near Antarctica.
The protagonists of the early adventures were not usually recurring, but a few of them appeared more than once. Among them are two soldiers named Larry and Charlie (Star Spangled War Stories #90, 92), the airborne brothers Henry, Steve and Tommy Frank a.k.a. "The Flying Boots" (Star Spangled War Stories #99–100, 104–105), early prototypes of the
The series ran in Star Spangled War Stories from issues #90-137 (although issues #91, 93 and 126 did not feature The War That Time Forgot stories). The final story was in the Feb.-March 1968 issue of Star Spangled War Stories; afterwards, the Enemy Ace, a German World War I pilot, became the focus of the book and the dinosaur storyline was retired. In 1973, some of these stories were reprinted in Four Star Battle Tales #3 and G.I. War Tales #1 and 2.[2] The War That Time Forgot re-appeared in the October 1976 issue (#195) of G.I. Combat, featuring the Haunted Tank.
In the 1980s, DC briefly revisited The War that Time Forgot in a run as one of the features in Weird War Tales (#100). During the series run in Weird War Tales, Dinosaur Island was visited by the Creature Commandos and the G.I. Robot. This was the World War II version of the Commandos.
Dinosaur Island was also featured in
In Darwyn Cooke's 2003 alternate-universe mini-series DC: The New Frontier, Dinosaur Island was revisited yet again as part of its opening prelude. Here, it is visited by the military team known as The Losers.
In May
Collections
A DC Showcase Presents black and white trade paperback collection, The War that Time Forgot, was published in 2007. It reprints the stories that originally appeared between 1960 and 1966.[3]
The 2008 series was collected in two volumes:
- The War That Time Forgot Vol. 1 (collects The War That Time Forgot #1-6)
- The War That Time Forgot Vol. 2 (collects The War That Time Forgot #7-12)
In other media
Television
- Dinosaur Island appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. This version is located in the Caribbean and was home to one of Gorilla Grodd's bases.
- A variation of Dinosaur Island appears in the Justice League Action episode "Booster's Gold". This version is located in the Bermuda Triangle and was home to a theme park built by Booster Gold, who was inspired to bring dinosaurs from the past after watching Jurassic Park. However, he did not see the film past the first ten minutes due to his short attention span, leading him to be unaware of the potential consequences of doing so. Eventually, he and Green Arrow time travel to stop him from ever watching the film, preventing the park's creation.
- Dinosaur Island appears in DC Showcase: The Losers.
Film
The Centre, a character inspired by Dinosaur Island, appears in
References
- ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9.
What was most memorable about the initial installment of "The War that Time Forgot" by writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru was that it was the first cross-genre story to blend war comics with science-fiction."
- ISBN 978-1605490564.
- ^ Showcase Presents The War That Time Forgot at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- ^ "The Centre Voice - Justice League: The New Frontier (Movie)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved March 28, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.
External links
- Review of The War that Time Forgot #1, Comic Book Resources
- Sunday Slugfest: The War that Time Forgot #1, Comics Bulletin
- The War That Time Forgot (2008) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)