Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: June 9, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, editor
Roy Thomas, writer
Dick Ayers, artist
John Tartaglione, inker
Sam Rosen, letterer
Irving Forbush, camp mascot
20 pages
| Previous | #606 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #88, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #34 |
| Sgt. Fury #32 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #34 |
My countrymen, the much-vaunted invincibility of our so-called Aryan conquerors is but a myth! They can be stopped… but only by a united front! Do not let petty jealousies divide you in this time of crisis!
Greece. You get the sense these stories are written by looking at a map of where the Howlers haven’t been yet.
We open with a fight between the Howlers and Maulers. A typical Tuesday.
Besides Sgt. McGiveney, we’ve not learned the names of any of the Maulers; we first met the group in issue 7. We now learn that one of them is named “Rickets” Johnson. It’s not clearly identified which one. Izzy claims he started the fight by slugging Rickets.
I don’t have the original, but lots of issues of Sgt. Fury reprint old issues. We’ll talk about the changes below, but I’ll note here that in the reprint Sgt. Fury refers to the Skipper by a weird name. He should simply say, “The Skipper!” As that is the Skipper’s name.
The story is that a popular Greek leader–Kazantis is his name– needs to be snuck into Greece in the hopes he can unite the various factions of the Greek underground.
The Skipper’s sub runs afoul of a Nazi boat and we get some submarine action.
The Howlers and Greek partisans get an ambush at a classical ampitheatre.
The politician, who turned out to be royalty, pretends to submit to the Nazis to make a radio broadcast encouraging Greece to submit. Instead, he uses the opportunity to rally Greece into uniting against the Nazis.
Fury gets Kazantis to safety, but the Howlers have to stay behind to cover his escape.
The Skipper picks up Fury, but Fury vows to find the Howlers.
This is the rare issue of Sgt. Fury to end without a resolution, so we’ll go ahead and read the next two issues to make sure the Howling Commandos are all right.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 52/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Images above (except for the cover which comes from the GCD) taken from a reprint in Sgt. Fury #99, from 1972.
There are some changes.
On the first page, the opening narration is changed to tie the issue into Sgt. Fury #98, claiming this reprint is an injured Nick Fury flashing back to an old mission. The original opening narration was some banter from Roy in his best Stan Lee voice:
Just for the heck of it, let’s start or soul-stirring saga at the beginning, as the First and Second Attack Squads hold a strategic conference…
As we noted above, the name of the Skipper is changed, for example on page 5.
And on the final page, the “next issue” blurb is changed to tell us about Sgt. Fury #100 instead of Sgt. Fury #34. It should read, simply, “Next issue: The pay-off!”
Even though next issue features no pay-off that I can see.
Characters:
- Sgt. Nick Fury
- Dum Dum Dugan
- Izzy Cohen
- Dino Manelli
- Rebel Ralston
- Percy Pinkerton
- Gabe Jones
- Sgt. Bull McGiveney
- “Rickets” Johnson
- Captain Happy Sam Sawyer
- The Skipper
- Peter Kazantis
- Mr. Stone
- Michael Skouras
- Ravonne
Story notes:
- Opens with fight between Howlers and Maulers. Sawyer breaks it up.
- Peter Kazantis was a political leader in Greece before it fell to Germany. The Skipper to sail Kazantis and the Howlers through the Mediterranean to a landing point in Greece, where the Howlers will protect Kazantis and get him to the Greek Underground. The hope is he will unite the various guerilla factions in Greece.
- Submarine runs into Nazi sub-chaser and has to dive.
- The Skipper needs to risk firing torpedoes blind, which will expose their location.
- Kazantis and Howlers meet up with Michael Skouras and the partisans.
- We learn Kazantis is royalty.
- The partisans have a traitor amongst them, named Ravonne.
- Dugan recalls performing before European kings as a circus strong man.
- Partisans meet at ancient theatre, but it’s a Nazi trap.
- Ampitheatre echoes give away Nazi footsteps.
- Germans call for heavy artillery.
- Germans will use the ancient ruin as hostage, trusting the Greeks won’t see their heritage destroyed.
- Ravonne gets no reward; the Nazis out him and turn him over to the Greeks.
- Kazantis agrees to do a broadcast for the Nazis. The Nazis agree to let the Howlers listen before they die.
- Kazantis denounces the Nazis on their own radio and calls for Greece to unite against them.
- The Commandos hold off the Nazis while Nick escapes with Kazantis.
- Fury gets Kazantis to a trusted farmhouse and makes his way to the sub to be taken home by the Skipper. He doesn’t know what became of the Howlers.
| Previous | #606 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #88, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #34 |
| Sgt. Fury #32 | Sgt. Fury | Sgt. Fury #34 |
As a curious aside, a relatively recent Nick Fury comic reveals that one of the characters appearing in a flashback in Sgt Fury 34 is actually a member of the Sky Devils, a team of pilots who had their own stories in Daring Mystery Comics. Perhaps it’s a good excuse for a Prelude?
Perhaps. I don’t think I’m quite ready or even knowledgeable enough to talk about the Sky Devils. Are you referring to the Marvels Project or something more recent? Either way, I’m about to post issue 34. Where Nick, Red, and Sam fly into Europe on what later sources say won’t be their last such mission.
Unrelated, it is about time for a bunch of preludes. But because it’s time to get to know the Human Torch a bit better.
It’s the 2023 “Fury” one-shot, which chronicles Nick Fury’s various eras. An interesting read, though Project Marvels also links Fury and the Sky Devils in a fun way, jaja.
Ah. I have not read that. I’ll look into it.
Evidently, the Crisis happened to Marvel history also, leaving the Howlers trapped behind enemy lines. They died and thus SHIELD was led by the girl from Seinfeld. Worlds died and so did Ted Kord. The end.