American Update: The Atlas Explosion! War Adventures – Complete Pre-Code Battle Series
*War: One of the myriad war anthologies issued during the 1950s, War Adventures centred almost entirely around the then-current Korean conflict, but did feature some stories that were a bit more thoughtful than the average fare, addressing, or at least acknowledging, issues like battle fatigue, cowardice, or racial prejudgement – though, regrettably, the solution to these thorny problems was always presented as: ‘More violence!’, and violence a’plenty there was in this Pre-Code battlefest! Krigstein, Pakula, Maneely, Heath, Robinson and Romita were prime contributors, and the covers, while lurid and violent, were vivid and imaginative – a change of pace being #12’s rather poignant after-the-skirmish scene. This series gave up the ghost rather than be bowdlerised by the Comics Code censors, and the complete set of 13 issues, 1952 to 1953, is now in stock; pictured is #1 VG £51.