Number 1214: Russ Heath's “Devil Dinosaur”

Last Friday in Pappy's #1211 I showed a story the late Joe Kubert drew when he was in his teens, and today a Russ Heath story, drawn in 1967. I link Heath and Kubert in my mind, if only because they shared space for so long in DC's war comics. But also because I love Heath for the same reasons I love Kubert: mastery of the comic art form, and one hell of a great storyteller.

Star Spangled War Stories finds Heath doing another dinosaur tale for editor/writer Bob Kanigher. For several years at DC it wasn't enough for American GI's in World War II to fight tenacious enemies like the Germans and Japanese...they also had to fight dinosaurs. At the time I thought it was just hokum, but nowadays I see it in a different light. In the words of Bob Dylan, “I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.” At my current age I'm just right mentally for the stuff I was too mature for at twenty.

The Tyrannosaurus on the cover and splash page is a big red dino, like the big red Devil Dinosaur that ten years later Jack Kirby drew for Marvel. The resemblance ends there, though. While at one point I might have scoffed at a red dinosaur, now I'm not so sure. Some recent news I read said that T. Rex might have had feathers, which could mean he may have had various bright colors to attract a female. Just imagine T. Rex showing off for Tee Hee Rex!

From Star Spangled War Stories #132 (1967):

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Number 1192: A Kubert critter: Sergeant Gorilla

I don't need to introduce Joe Kubert to anyone who has read comics at any time in the past seven decades. But I might need to introduce to new readers of Pappy's the thing I have for gorillas and apes in comic books. As the story goes, told by none other than Irwin Donenfield, DC Comics' business manager for years, when DC published a comic with a simian on the cover sales went up. So that's why so many hairy, tree-swinging types showed up in DC Comics. And like so many other comic book buyers I was drawn to them. Ooook, ook!

“You Can't Pin A Medal On A Gorilla!” was scripted by editor/writer Robert Kanigher, who was no stranger to wild premises for his stories. Looking at this story as I cleaned up the scans once again renewed my sense of awe at Kubert's ability. His storytelling and artwork are both perfect. It's fun to study his technique, which was to outline his pencils with a pen, then go back in with a brush. This story was drawn just five years before Joe took over the greatest “ape comic” of them all, Tarzan of the Apes!

From Star Spangled War Stories #126 (1967):

The DC house ad after the end of the story claims DC Comics sold “twice as many comics as any other competitor, and almost as many comics as all other comic book publishers combined.” Whether that's true or an exaggeration I'm not sure (Marvel was doing very well at the time this was published in 1967, and as I recall the Walt Disney titles from Gold Key were perennial best sellers), but there was no doubt that for many years DC, with its excellent distribution, iconic superheroes, and multiple titles covering all comic book genres, was the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of the comic book business.

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