Weird War Tales

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Weird War Tales
Cover of Weird War Tales #1 (September–October 1971), art by Joe Kubert.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
ScheduleMonthly
Format
List
  • (vol. 1): Ongoing
    (vol. 2): Limited series and a one-shot special
Genre
Publication date
List
  • (vol. 1)
    September–October 1971 – June 1983
    (vol. 2)
    June 1997 – September 1997
No. of issues
List
  • (vol. 1): 124
    (vol. 2): 4
Creative team
Written by
List
Penciller(s)
List
  • (vol. 1)
    Cully Hammer
Inker(s)

Weird War Tales is a war comic book title with supernatural overtones published by DC Comics. It was published from September - October 1971 to June 1983.

Publication history

The original title ran for 12 years and 124 issues.

Frank Miller's first collaboration was on a two-page story published in Weird War Tales #68 (October 1978).[6] Recurring characters began to appear late in the series run, notably the G.I. Robot, and the return of "The War that Time Forgot" which originally ran in Star Spangled War Stories. Writer J. M. DeMatteis and penciler Pat Broderick created the Creature Commandos in Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980).[7]

Several issues featured a series of short vignettes titled "The Day After Doomsday" featuring largely doomed characters dealing with various threats and harsh ironies of living in a post-nuclear war apocalyptic landscape. The first few stories dealt with a society reduced to medieval ways seven centuries after a war but most others dealt with the near-term aftermath, with the unexpected results of radiation or infrastructure damage almost always catching the characters by surprise.

Other stories featured robot soldiers, ghosts, the undead, and other paranormal characters from different eras of time.[2]

Revival

Cover of Weird War Tales (vol. 2) #1 (June 1997), art by Glenn Fabry.

Weird War Tales was revived for DC Comics'

Vertigo imprint in 1997. It was published as a four-issue limited series, followed by two one-shot special issues in 2000 and 2010.[1]

Collected editions

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ a b Don, Vaughan (February 2015). "The Horrors of Combat: DC's Weird War Tales". Back Issue! (78). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 31–40.
  3. . With the Comics Code Authority relaxing its decades-long stance on censoring the use of monsters and the undead in mainstream comics, DC placed an emphasis on the horror of combat with Weird War Tales.
  4. . 'Carmine Infantino and I found out that the word weird sold well', [editor Joe] Orlando recalls. 'So DC created Weird War and Weird Western'.
  5. ^ Cooke, Jon B. (October 2000). "Simonson Says The Man of Two Gods Recalls His 25+ Years in Comics". Comic Book Artist (10). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 18.
  6. ^ Weird War Tales #68 at the Grand Comics Database
  7. ^ Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 189: "A battalion of horror icons created by the U.S. government to aid the American war effort made its debut in an off-beat story by writer J. M. DeMatteis and penciler Pat Broderick".

External links