Featuring: Sgt. Fury Release: December 8, 1966 Cover: February 1967 12 cents Herculean editing by Stan Lee Halcyon scripting by Roy Thomas Heroic plotting and drawing by Dick Ayers Heavenly inking by John Tartaglione Homogenized lettering by Artie Simek 20 pages
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: November 10, 1966 Cover: January 1867 12 cents Editing– Stan Lee Script– Roy Thomas Art– Dick Ayers Inking– John Tartaglione Lettering– Bob Agnew Technical advisor this ish– Morrie (Super-samurai) Kuramoto 20 pages
I think you fellas must have me confused with the rats that bombed Pearl Harbor! Personally, I’ve never been west of San Francisco!
Bob Agnew is a new name to us. 99% of the comics we’ve read have been lettered by Sam Rosen or Artie Simek. The lettering here is by Agnew, in what is as best as I can tell his only Marvel work. His stint in comics seems to have been brief.
Morrie Kuramoto is credited with technical advising, with no more clarity offered as to what that entails. Kuramoto is Japanese-American who served the US in WWII, and this comic will introduce a Japanese-American soldier. The credit calls him a super-samurai, so it’s also possible he advised on the martial arts on display in this issue.
We’ve seen Kuramoto’s work occasionally as a letterer, under the pen name Sherigail.
Morrie Kuramoto was associated with Marvel on and off going back to 1946. He just joined back as a regular member of the Bullpen, and would be with Marvel continually for the next two decades. Morrie passed away in 1985 at the age of 64.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: October 11, 1966 Cover: December 1966 12 cents Editor: Smilin’ Stan Lee Scripter: Rascally Roy Thomas Artist: Darlin’ Dick Ayers Inker: Jivey John Tartaglione Letterer: Sandy Sammy Rosen Technical advisor in charge of parachuting: Jovial Johnny Hayes, ex-para-trooper, Marvel’s swingin’ circulation manager. 20 pages
Now, like the blamed fly-boys always say… Geronimo!
A credit to Johnny Hayes, a name we don’t see often. We did recently see his name because a Bullpen Bulletin made it a point to name some of the behind the scenes staff. Here he gets credit for offering some consulting based on his days parachuting in the military.
I’m going to say that Thomas is really finding his footing on this title. Under Kirby this had been one of Marvel’s best comics, but it fell quickly to mediocrity when he left, with thin cookie cutter plots.
Stan Lee had remained the writer, but in practice as he was “writing” 20 titles every month, most of the storytelling was left to Ayers, who wasn’t up to it. We’re 9 issues into Thomas’ run, who likely is providing more plotting and scripting guidance to Ayers. Thomas had a slow start, but more and more, the comic feels like somebody is writing it.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: September 8, 1966 Cover: November 1966 12 cents Block-buster editing by Stan Lee Bullet-scarred script by Roy Thomas Battle-ready art by Dick Ayers Bomb-happy inking by John Tartaglione Ballpoint-pen lettering by Sam Rosen 20 pages
A traitor? Nein, I think not! If there be any traitor to the Fatherland, it is rather those who would lead it to the brink of disaster for the sake of their own personal glory!
The stories from this title had fallen into a pattern. The premise was always location-based. The Howlers had some mission in a new location. They completed it and went home.
Since taking over, Thomas has been trying to tell actual stories and have character arcs.
This issue is location-based. The Howlers go to the neutral territory of Switzerland, breaking any number of laws and treaties.
But there’s a premise and a larger character arc as well.
We met Eric in Sgt. Fury #27, when he defected from the Germans and came to Britain. But last issue it was decided Eric (whose last name we learned was Koenig) should join the Howlers, since Manelli was injured and recovering back in the States. This is his first mission with the Howlers.
So Thomas writes about a couple things pertaining to that, ideas that are more than “the Howlers have a mission and succeed”. The first is that he’s eager to prove himself, sometimes too eager and to everyone’s detriment.
I must prove myself… show the Commandos I am as good as any of them! I must! For, only thus will I ever be certain that they look on me as a man… not as an ex-Nazi!
Berlin Breakout! Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: August 9, 1966 Cover: October 1966 12 cents Edited by Stan Lee Scripted by Roy Thomas Drawn by Dick Ayers Inked by John Tartaglione Lettered by Sam Rosen Picketed by Baron Strucker 20 pages
I am not a traitor to my homeland! I want to save it… to free it from the tyranny of a madman like Adolf Hitler!
The Howlers are in custody in Berlin, set to be executed. Nick Fury intends to rescue them, but he’ll need help.
Part of that help will come from Fury’s good friend, Bull McGiveney. As well as Corporal Rickets Johnson from the Maulers. We learned his name two issues back, but now we get to put a face to it.
The other person is Eric, a German we met in Sgt. Fury #27. He’d been an aide to Goering, but defected to join the Allies. We didn’t get his surname then, but we now learn his full name is Eric Koenig.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: December 9, 1965 Cover: February 1966 12 cents Script: Stan Lee Art: Dick Ayers Delineation: John Tartaglione Lettering: S. Rosen 20 pages
The guys who give me orders have what it takes! They’re my kinda Joes! I’m proud to salute ’em… to fight with ’em… an’ to die with ’em if I haveta!
This issue promises the origins of Fury’s eypatch. The idea is that he has an eyepatch in his modern 1960s adventures as Colonel Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, but not in these 1940s adventures as Sgt. Fury of the Howling Commandos. We have seen him fighting in Korea in the 1950s, and he didn’t have an eyepatch then. And we have seen him team up with the Fantastic Four in the 1960s, before the founding of SHIELD. And he didn’t have an eyepatch then either. So presumably this issue will tell us he got it some time in the 1960s. It would seem silly to tell us it happened in the 1940s, so I imagine that’s not what they’re about to do.
