Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock, Vol. 2

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4 star:		(1)
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Sgt. Rock and the happy Joes of Easy Co. fight Nazis on European soil. Every story is action-packed. Many scenes of bazooka men facing an enemy tank, Sgt. Rock's constantly facing Nazi buzzards in one to one combat, and situations where Easy is always running against all odds. Kanigher has great command of the language. His use of figurative language, especially the constant use of similes, and a rich war-related vocabulary makes reading these texts an adventure into war poetry. Just one excellent example is "Easy's T.N.T Crop! (June 1964)" where growing a plant becomes a metaphor that justifies fighting the Nazis. Kanigher misses no chance in using words related to farming to weave a poetic narrative with every battle scene. It is this handling of vocabulary and deft use of figurative language that makes these stories a challenging reading for teenagers. Kubert's art also deserves praise for its poetic and hyperbolic imagery which no doubt are meant to entice the reader immediately. The only weakness that often occur in the early years of 1962-1964 is that most Rock stories are about replacements who have an inner conflict that always gets to be resolved at Easy. Most of the times the replacements get killed in some surprising heroic action (these plot twists at the end of a Rock story echo any O'Henry story) which makes the stories repetitive. The most surrealistic stories, and perhaps absurd, in this line were the ones with the guy who always walks around with a chess game (August 1962), the story about the insurance guy who is always walking around with a book on probabilities and percentages (September 1963), and the most far-fetched story (in my opinion, a terrible story) is The Fighting Guns of Easy (September 1964) where Sgt. Rock's tommy gun, a carbine, and a .30 gun are actually telling the story. I know that many things in Easy are incredible, but weapons narrating a story is quite preposterous. It is funny to read the balloons right above the mouths of each weapon. This is the only story I find deletable from this extraordinary collection. In spite of this, Kanigher shows imaginative prowess in telling these war tales that deal with heroism, fear, camaraderie, and death, although in a unidimensional way. After all Sgt. Rock is a romance of war.

Ice cream soldier, Bulldozer, and Wildman already appear in these early issues. Little sure shot, the Apache soldier makes his debut appearance on February 1963. These are e only soldiers in Easy who always make it.

DC Comics Showcase presents Sgt. Rock is a great collection of black-and-white episodes originally penned in the early 1960s in the magazine Our Army At War. The absence of color seems to highlight the artwork. Joe Kubert's art is stunning and the individual stories give the reader a sense of what it might have been like to be an infantryman in Easy Company during WWII under the leadership of the gallant and courageous Sgt. Rock. There are 62 tales packed with non-stop action. This makes for an excellent coffee table book as you can pick it up every evening and enjoy great storytelling. Also recommend Showcase Presents: Haunted Tank, Vol. 2.

Another 500+ page collection of SGT. ROCK stories from the Silver Age of DC Comics. Nearly every page of this volume is drawn by legendary artist Joe Kubert (Russ Heath, who's no slouch either, fills in on a few stories). I think this is an amazing value for the shear amount of stories you get, not to mention the high quality of art and storytelling. Most stories are in the 12 to 15 page range but there are a few 20+ pagers. These might be the best war stories ever done in comicbook form. I can hardly wait to read volume three!