Comics that deserve more press - DC Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock 1-3
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 11:37PM 
The third volume of DC Showcase's classic Sgt. Rock reprints have come out, so this is a great time for me to tell you just how amazing they are. Throw out everything you think you know about them, the original Sgt. Rock as written by Robert Kanigher for Our Army At War will knock your socks off. Well, it knocked my socks off, I can't speak to yours.
What you need to know is this: Sergeant Rock is not the simple bluff and weathered sergeant of song and screen. Kanigher's Sergeant Rock is a master storyteller trying to hold his men and their morale together with the stories he tells them about themselves. Each issue* generally begins with Rock introducing the events taking place, and the entire issue is narrated as a story told by Rock, often explicitly to his men. Those over the top heroic feats? They're all in story-space, and who knows to what degree, if at all, they "actually" happened. But again and again the emotional truth of them speaks to the beaten down soldiers of Easy Company.
Some of the most loudly, obviously brave men are driven by their own pride and insecurity. Petty interpersonal politics can turn almost deadly on the battlefield. Insane bravery can sometimes hurt more than it helps.
Rock's the best kind of unreliable narrator, you get the impression that he doesn't expect you to believe every word is the literal truth. That's not the point. And they aren't the easy jingo-istic soft soap of lesser war comics and movies, either. The men of Easy Company are frequently mutinous, angry, burned-out and dead by the end of the story. More often than not, despite death at every turn, the most important struggle of the tale is keeping the men from falling apart under the incredible strain, a problem Rock himself admits he has a less than 100% success rate with.
Context is everything. These comics were coming out at the height of the Silver Age, at the same time Wonder Girl had a pigtail-pulling romance with a Mer-Boy, Iron Man was contemplating the color of Captain America's eyes in purple prose and Lois Lane was having her ill-advised encounter with a Black Like Me machine. Teen angst was the very definition of revolutionary and edgey.
And yet, in the middle of it, here's Sgt. Rock. These very same comics could come out today, changed in no way except for the coloring style, and no one would blink. In fact, they'd probably be hailed as deeply modern and a reflection of current social trends, a new generation of writers unlike the last, etc etc etc. Vintage Sgt. Rock is so perfectly itself that there is literally nothing you could do to improve upon it.
No offense to Joe Kubert or any of the newer creators who have taken up the title, but if all you've seen of Sgt. Rock are the beautifully illustrated deluxe format nostalgia-exercise modern Sgt. Rock comics, you don't know what you're missing. Kubert's art is amazing, and remains as great as it ever was but it takes the addition of Robert Kanigher's sharp, layered writing to take it over the line into legendary. If any of this sounds remotely interesting, do yourself a favor and pick up one of these thick, 500 page Showcase phone book editions. It's the best $12 - $20** you can spend.
*Starting only six issues in, with Kanigher's" The Ice Cream Soldier".
**Depending on whether you go by Amazon price or cover price
Reader Comments (3)
I'll admit that these are the Kubert Sgt. Rock comics that I read first as a kid in the 1960s. They made me a permanent fan of both the comic and Kubert. the Showcase B&W format is perfect for these Sgt. Rock comics, in fact the lack of color is perfect works and works well for Kubert's gritty and extraordinary artwork. Great post and congrats on the new blog
The article is very good! I like it very much,but If you can add more video and pictures can be much better, I have never read such a lovely article and I am coming back tomorrow to continue reading. vintage mido watches
Saints Jersey
Patriots Jersey
Tedy Bruschi Jersey
Tom Brady Jersey
Wes Welker Jersey
Drew Brees Jersey
Lance Moore Jersey
BenJarvus Green-Ellis Jersey
Archie Manning Jersey
Bobby Hebert Jersey
Darren Sharper Jersey
Deuce McAllister Jersey
Devery Henderson Jersey
Garrett Hartley Jersey
Jeremy Shockey Jersey
Jonathan Vilma Jersey
Malcolm Jenkins Jersey
Marques Colston Jersey
Mike Bell Jersey
Morten Andersen Jersey
Patrick Robinson Jersey
Pierre Thomas Jersey
Reggie Bush Jersey
Rickey Jackson Jersey
Robert Meachem Jersey
Scott Fujita Jersey
Sedrick Ellis Jersey
Tracy Porter Jersey
Andre Tippett Jersey
Danny Woodhead Jersey
Deion Branch Jersey
Devin McCourty Jersey
Fred Taylor Jersey
Irving Fryar Jersey
Jerod Mayo Jersey
John Hannah Jersey
Julian Edelman Jersey
Laurence Maroney Jersey
Leigh Bodden Jersey
Randy Moss Jersey
Saints-Jersey-Shop.com Shop featuring Sports Apparel and Fan Gear
An New Orleans Saints fan? Then our New Orleans Saints shop can help you make your dream come true. Here you can find New Orleans Saints jerseys you want with all kinds of styles and colors. It's easy to get, just click your mouse. Here you can choose many types of Saints jerseys, such as authentic jerseys, premier jerseys, and replica jerseys, they are all of high quality. They are made of high-quality polyester two-way stretch pique fabric and has solid mesh inserts for ventilation. You can also see many jerseys of hot players such as Drew Brees, Jonathan Vilma and so on; you can choose what you like best from them. They are all free shipping and not tax.