Bomb Run and Other Stories

Bomb Run and Other Stories by John Severin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bomb Run and Other Stories collects 32 war tales written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by John Severin.

War comics aren't my thing and I mainly know John Severin from his decades working at Cracked Magazine but I'm inching closer to completing my Fantagraphics EC Library so I picked this up. I was pleasantly surprised.

War comics still aren't my thing but this was damn good. Harvey Kurtzman's stories run the full range of war stories, from dogfights to down and dirty combat in the trenches. While I'm used to seeing Severin's humor work, his style is well suited to the horrors of war as well. Will Elder handles the inking in a lot of the stories but Severin proves to be adept at inking himself as well.

Bomb Run, the titular story, was a good one but my favorite was Night Patrol, where Severin makes extensive use of shadows and rain to set the mood. Honestly, there wasn't really a dud in the bunch despite my lack of enthusiasm for war stories.

Bomb Run and Other Stories shows that Jaunty John Severin could hang with the big dogs at EC any day of the week. Four out of five stars.



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