EC again made changes to the industry with a two War titles. The titles were called Two Fisted Tales (#18) and Front Line Combat (#1). They started in December of 1950 and July of 1951 respectively. These two titles were edited by Harvey Kurtzman who also contributed his writing and artistic talents to them. They featured stories of War from a variety of different time periods and points of view. Only constant in these tales was the moral. War is ugly. Unlike previous war comics, Kurtzman did not produce jingoistic propaganda supporting the war effort. Kurtzman was very focused on getting the itty bitty details correct on these tales of war. He often took his freelancers to museums so they could see uniforms, equipment and weapons for themselves. When the United States began its police action in Korea (also known as the Korean War) the old style War Comics came back with little success. The comics that were successful were those that followed, in part, the Kurtzman titles.

          The rest of 1951 saw many other publishers do horror and sci-fi comics to compete with EC Comics. Among the longest of these titles were DC’s Mystery in Space (May 1951), House of Mystery (December 1951), Marvels Strange Tales (June 1951) and Journey Into Mystery (June 1952). Mystery in Space would go 117 issues, ending in 1981. It should be said that issue #110 was released in 1966 and #111 in 1980. House of Mystery had a very impressive run, going 30 years and ending with issue #321 in 1983. This title would be more like the EC horror comics in that it had a host by the name of Cain that introduced the stories. It would be filled with a variety of suspense/horror stories. Strange Tales would go 168 issues ending in 1968, then continuing with #169 to #188 between 1973 and 1976. Journey Into Mystery would go 125 issues before changing it's title to reflect the superhero that took over the main feature. These titles would have a mix of stories going from weird/suspense/horror and sci-fi. They were done by a variety of talent, with nothing remaining the same. Superheroes would be used in these titles in the 60’s and remain in them until they ended.

          In 1951 Timely Comics owner Martin Goodman decided to cut out his distributor Kable News and form his own distribution company. He called it Atlas and that was the name that went on all his comic books as well. It should be said that many titles went under different company names for tax purposes. But from here on out, Timely Comics are now typically called Atlas Comics within the comic book community. The real name for the company was Magazine Management Inc. The comic books were a small part of what Martin Goodman published. He also published a lot of magazines and pulp books. The company name would later change again to Marvel Comics.

          Something odd happened in 1951, DC did Strange Adventures #8 which had a gorilla on the cover. The sales on the title did a major spike. DC figured it had to be the gorilla and it was. Other covers were done with a gorilla on them and their sales spiked too. Suddenly every editor wanted to have a gorilla on their cover every month. DC’s management had to put their foot down and limit the company to a 1 gorilla cover a month. Along the way the company found that if the gorilla was either A) talking or B) purple the sales spiked even more. This would later inspire a super villain called Gorilla Grodd who was a super smart talking purple Gorilla. He regularly appeared in Flash Comics. Other cover elements that caused sales to jump would be either young boys or superheroes crying.

          EC also tackled serious social issues within comic books. They did this with a February 1952 title called Shock SuspenStories. Starting with issue #1 it went 55 issues until EC decided to quit publishing comic books due to the comic industry forcing him out of business. Among the topics covered were racism and drug addition, often done with shocking covers. While this title made these types of stories their focus, you could find similar stories sprinkled throughout EC's line of comics.

          In 1952 other publishers also got involved with War Comics again. This was partially because of the Korean Police Action (i.e. Korean War) and the success of EC’s war titles. The most successful War Comic to come out in this year would be DC Comics Our Army At War, which first appeared in August 1952. This title would be responsible for introducing several popular war characters among them Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace and Unknown Soldier. The two people most associated with this title are editor/writer Robert Kanigher and writer/artist Joe Kubert. Robert was a very gruff, in your face, blunt editor. He believed if you asked the talent to do the impossible they’d kill themselves trying to do it and he’d get the best work out of them. His personality was perfect for the War titles that DC was doing as those characteristics were popular in war heroes at the time. Joe Kubert is a great artist who would influence and continue to work in the comic industry for many years to come. He would set up a comic book school in the 70’s that many creators would go to and then head off for professional work. Kubert would also continue to produce critically acclaimed graphic novels.

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