Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Relase: September 9, 1965
Cover: November 1965
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, Army Vet!
Pencilled by Dick Ayers, Air Force Vet!
Inked by Frank Ray, Air Force Vet!
Lettered by S. Rosen, Teacher’s Pet!
20 pages
| Previous | #438 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| INTERLUDE | Modeling with Millie #44 | |
| Sgt. Fury #23 | Reading order | Avengers #23 |
| Sgt. Fury #23 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #25 |
Stan and Dick want to take this opportunity to give a heartfelt thanks and well done to the countless wonderful guys and gals who did so much under the banner of the U.S.O., to keep up the morale of lonely Allied fighting men, both near and far from home! We’ll never forget ’em!
Happy Sam orders the Howlers on a furlough back to the States, including Percy and Hans.
They all head to Brooklyn and are treated kindly by Izzy’s family. We meet his parents and sister and they have a nice dinner. Gabe enjoyed the gefilte fish.
Next stop is an uptown jazz nightclub owned by Gabe’s Uncle Bill. The club is excited to have Gabe perform again. Bill seems to own the nightclub, but I see literally no other black people amongst the patrons, performers, or staff.
Fury asks the zoot-suiters why they aren’t out serving their country.
Dino had a black book, presumably filled with ladies he was planning to call. When he rejoined the Howlers, they assumed he’d struck out. Really, he’d arranged for all his show business friends to come meet the Commandos. They get together at the USO-sponsored Stage-Door Canteen. I’m not an expert on 1940s stars, but I think we have Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, Groucho Marx, and Jimmy Durante. Am I missing anybody?
I honestly could have spent the whole issue just watching the team relax and meet family, but Stan insists there’s always some action. And sure enough their visit to the Ralston estate in Kentucky finds the family prisoners of Bundists. Members of the German-American organization this comic claims are just Nazi spies and saboteurs.
They are after a supply depot that may give Hitler clues to the secrets of the Manhattan Project.
The Bund is defeated, but Dugan is shot and badly injured in the finale. He can handle the bullet wounds, but not the news his wife and mother-in-law may visit him in the hospital.
The Howlers receive urgent orders to cut their furlough short for a secret mission we’ll see next issue. They’ll need to leave Dugan behind.
They can’t take young Hans Rooter on the mission either. The Ralstons kindly agree to take care of Hans until the war is over, when they’ll try to reunite him with his father. Hans is delighted to have a home again, especially one in America.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if we ever learn if Hans reunited with his father. I think this is the last we ever see of the character. I like to think Hans was able to go home after the war and be with his father again in peace.
Hey, is that a letter from future Marvel superstar writer Don McGregor at the age of 20? Let’s see what he has to say about Sgt. Fury #20.
Dear Stan and Jack,
Donald McGregor
“The Blitz Squad Strikes” was a swinging tale once the Howlers broke into that prison, and even the fact that Percy didn’t have a large part in the adventure failed to hinder it. By the way, I love the English accent that you guys give Percy. I can almost hear his words ringing in my ears as I read them. The same goes for Reb’s southern drawl. There were some excellent fight scenes in this issue, and the wise-cracks were very humorous. The one point that gave the story that extra zest was the way it zoomed back and forth from character to character. I’d like to ask one favor, and that is that you give the Howlers some interesting hobbies outside the battleground. Perhaps Percy can meet and English lady or Dum-Dum could have a battle with his mother-in-law. I don’t know if this is possible, but you do it enough in the F.F. and SPIDER-MAN, so why not do it in the Howlers, too? Well, I’ll be waiting for the next issue of SGT. FURY, and thanks for Nick’s new strip as a secret agent–it’s great!
Sounds like Don is hitting on exactly what makes the F.F. and Spidey stand out from the other titles, the character work. Hopefully this issue gave Don a bit more of what he was looking for.
We just read the August issue of Sgt. Fury last post, and we’ll get to the October issue of Avengers next post. Which means it’s currently September, and this comic seems to be the whole of our September reading. Every other character is involved in some complicated multi-issue arc which led me to read their September offering either early or late. So, for this issue only, it’s September. Next post, it will be October already.
We’ve covered the debut of the new company on the scene, Tower Comics, when we read THUNDER Agents #1. The company’s other premiere title is Tippy Teen, created by Samm Schwartz, with the issue featuring work by Dan DeCarlo.
Here’s a sampling of other September titles.
- Archie’s Pals and Gals #34, Archie
- Mighty Crusaders #1, Archie
- Army War Heroes #11, Charlton
- Special War Series #4, Charlton
- Teen Confessions #36, Charlton
- Batman #175, DC
- Detective Comics #345, DC
- Flash #156, DC
- Bewitched #4, Dell
- Jetsons #18, Gold Key
- Turok, Son of Stone #48, Gold Key
- Little Dot #102, Harvey
Check out Mike’s Amazing World for more!
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 52/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Characters:
- Captain “Happy” Sam Sawyer
- Percy Pinkerton
- Corporal Dum Dum Dugan
- Sgt. Nick Fury
- Dino Manelli
- Robert “Rebel” Ralston
- Gabriel “Gabe” Jones
- Izzy Cohen
- Hans Rooten
- Irving Cohen
- Mrs. Cohen
- Izzy’s sister
- Uncle Bill, Gabe’s uncle
- Jimmy Durante
- Bob Hope
- Groucho Marx
- Bing Crosby
- Glenn Miller
- Mr. Ralston
- Mrs. Ralston
- Adolf Hitler
It’s a little unclear who the celebrities are. Only Bing is named. I’m pretty certain of all of them but Glenn Miller. He says “Begorra”, so perhaps Pat O’Brien. Except he doesn’t wear glasses. It’s also possible the artist and writer weren’t on the same page. Maybe the artist drew Glenn Miller and the scripter wrote him as Pat O’Brien.
Story notes:
- Rebel catches train to Kentucky, and so unable to join gang at Gabe’s uncle’s nightclub.
- Dugan saw his wife; complained about his mother-in-law.
- Howlers head to Stage-Door Canteen, run by United Service Organizations (USO).
- Special thank you note from Stan to USO.
- Fury drinks his coffee black.
- Cohen dances the boogie-woogie.
- Ralston’s parents have lavish estate.
- Ralston was former jockey.
- Percy never knew Reb’s name was Robert.
| Previous | #438 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| INTERLUDE | Modeling with Millie #44 | |
| Sgt. Fury #23 | Reading order | Avengers #23 |
| Sgt. Fury #23 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #25 |
