Thread by @jeffs_comics

In 1976, DC "Dared to be Different" with a WWII comic where the protagonists were a trio of Nazi infantry.

The comic is written by Robert Kanigher, someone who merits a discussion on his own, but its worth mentioning Kanigher was Jewish.

The first issue of Blitzkrieg find three German WWII infantry in the invasion of Warsaw in 1939. Its block by block fighting, with both German soldiers and Polish civilians being killed (and pretty graphically for 1976 approved by the CCA comic)

The first issue of DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg includes a "Why of Blitzkrieg", by Allan Asherman, an archivist-historian for DC. Asherman talks about "The Enemy!" and those caught between "Us" and "Them", and the horrors of war

Recall the US withdrew from Vietnam in March of 1973

The first issue of Blitzkrieg (DC 1976), which says its going to depict both pro and anti-Nazi Germans, has a back up story called The Huns, also by Kanigher

The backup story, where Attila is depicted as a savage, could be seen as an accusation against all Germans through time

The second issue of DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg concludes the story in the Seige of Warsaw. Joe Kubert also wanted credit with Kanigher on this tale.

Issue 2 of DC's 1976 comic Blitzkrieg gives us images of starvation, executions and gas chambers, and the beginnings of one German soldier's questioning it.

Issue 2 also includes another page by Asherman, the DC archivist-historian on the Warsaw Ghetto

Tales of Treblinka, where peop;e were suffocated to death on diesel fumes, and of the survivors fighting back, and how few survived

The 2nd issue of DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg summarizes the fighting in the Warsaw ghetto, and gives us a moment of hope with a single surviving boy (no, young man) escaping through the sewers.

The gritty disturbing cover of DC Comics Blitzkrieg #3, by Joe Kubert. who was born into a Polish Jewish family (but grew up in Brooklyn).

This is the face of the ENEMY!

Can we send this to Bill Maher and say "You're right, comics are for kids - and for adults"

DC Comics 1976 Blitzkrieg #3 is about the December 1944 massacre of 84 POWs in Malmedy, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.

It takes a few months for comics to get letters pages, so issue 3 of Blitzkrieg has another Asherman page - this one is mostly which Nazis might still be alive in 1976 (even Hitler), but also on the rise of Nazi memorabilia sales being troubling

Issue 3 of DC's 1976 comic Blitzkrieg changes out Atilla the Hun backup for more of the Germans in WWII - this time fighting partisans in the Urals of Russia.

The people standing up to tanks and machine guns - children.

How many dead children have you seen in comics?

Here is the cover of DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg #4 where a woman, fleeing the Gestapo, kills herself by jumping in front of an oncoming train. Its also brings to mind the famous comic Master Race, done 20 years earlier, where's that is another person's fate as well

Blitzkrieg #4 is about the Nazi occupation of Paris. Here we see various Parisians resisting, often at the cost of their lives, while the Germans act like tourists.

Blitzkrieg #4 is a succession of violent episodes - usually of civilians using cunning to sell their lives as dearly as possible. In one instance, a boy kills his own sister (who may have been a sympathizer) to take out a table of Germans.

The effect is unrelenting horror

DC 1976's Blitzkrieg comic only lasted five issues. Possibly because its functionally an anthology series with 'everyman' German soldiers.

Here is the final Kubert cover, showing the recurring theme of the one German who never gets enough violence and the one who's had enough

The last issue of DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg comic is set in German occupied France. We've seen children fight the Germans and die, this time its the old men.

Issue 5 of Blitzkrieg shows either the strength or weakness of the comic. The rhythm of the comic is one of civilians (children, women, old men) fighting and dying against German soldiers. Its a collage of bravery, death, futility and horror

The short lived DC Blitzkrieg comic is during the US Bicentennial celebrations, two years after the end of the long and costly US involvement in Vietnam, and shortly before the ACLU's defense of a pro-Nazi group marching in Skokie, Illinois.

Not everything was Charlies Angels

Finishing up the thread, issue #5 of Blitzkrieg gets a letters page.

The selected letters point show a confused audience. It may be because Kanigher and Kubert had no intention of doing a WWII form of Enemy Ace (a noble opponent).

Hope you enjoyed the thread

I had a few people ask about reprints. I do know that Blitzkrieg #2 is reprinted in very high quality in We Spoke Out, available on Amazon.

We Spoke Out also reprints issues like War is Hell #14 (1975) and Captain America 237.

If Kubert's Blitzkrieg #3 seems familiar, its similar to the famous 1942 WWII propaganda poster "He's Watching YOU".

Kubert takes it to the elevens. Where the WWII poster is about "Loose Lips Sink Ships", Kuberts German is a direct threat, emblazoned over death and fire

I also wonder if there was discussion by the Comics Code Authority on DC's 1976 Blitzkrieg comics

The comic books do violate sections, including gruesome illustrations. However, the 1971 preamble does mention 'social commentary' (not in the 1954 original)

@threadreaderapp unroll