The cover blurb sounds more suggestive out of context: "What is the fine line...between flesh and fantasy!" Apparently, it's today's book! From 1981, Weird War Tales #95.
Behind a Joe Kubert cover, we get four stories hosted by Death; because I think probably 95% of this title's stories ended with "...and then everyone died!" Death has a cheery little referee hat and whistle for "Come Play War with Me!" (Written by George Kashdan, art by Fred Carrillo.) Set in 1853, a Russian colonel relinquishes command of his battalion (and his hat!) to an alien visitor with fantastic weapons; reasoning he could use them to defeat the Turks. It doesn't occur to him the Turks might have the same weapons, until much too late. The alien visitors are a little disappointed in the earthlings, even if they just murdered a ton of them...
"The Way of the Horse" has a nice twist, but is a slight three pages. (Written by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, art by Nestor Infante.) "The 600 Heads of Death!" has Steve Ditko art that wouldn't have been been out of place in classic Marvel monster titles, except Robert Kanigher's story is a hair more violent. The cover story, "Between Flesh and Fantasy" is about a pair of WWII-era soldiers, Becker and Salgado, on a troopship to Europe. Becker is gung-ho, a fan of Conan-styled pulp barbarian Nokka, and looks down on gypsy Salgado, who doesn't think this 'glorious' war was just to prove Becker's manhood. After a brawl, Salgado decides to use "gypsy magic" to teach Becker a lesson: a lesson Becker might've learned for himself after his first exposure to battle, but he's visited by his idol Nokka. And it's a lesson Salgado maybe should've learned himself...(Written by J.M. DeMatteis, art by Noly Zamora.)
Who knew Death loved to play dress up.
ReplyDelete