So I stayed up entirely too late the other night reading a bunch of Garth Ennis's
War Stories, but I don't have scans of those, and for some this would be more terrifying anyway. From 1983,
Sgt. Rock #376, "The Dummy, part 2" Written by Bob Kanigher, art by Frank Redondo.
Sgt. Rock didn't traditionally have a lot of continuity or two-parters, and the first part of this one was in
#349, over two years prior! A replacement in Easy Company, a young
"B.A.R. man" as Rock describes him, never spoke, except through his ventriloquist dummy. This was novel, and probably not super, super creepy. Only like moderately creepy. When cut off, Easy couldn't get to him, but with the Dummy seemingly coaching him, he held his position against a Nazi advance--"the river was choked with
enemy dead"--before dying. Rock left the Dummy on his soldier's grave, even as it silently implores the Sarge to take him with them. Some time later, a couple new recruits have a package that had been forwarded for Rock: the returning Dummy!
The two new guys flip for him, and the lucky Carrot Top wins. He is then immediately killed, but the Dummy hadn't been too thrilled with his shave, so wasn't too broken up about that. The other new guy takes him, then gets killed by a boobytrap. Rock intended to leave the Dummy, as every guy that's carried it has
"bought it," but the voice of the Dummy appears to haunt him: hey, it wasn't his fault...right? Rock relents and takes the Dummy, and they immediately get ambushed, and Rock goes under the ice of a frozen lake. Rock manages to break through the ice--apparently with his fists, not smashing the Dummy's head on the ice--then is slammed back by an explosion, dropping the Dummy, who may or may not scream as it falls to a watery grave. Rock is pulled out by Bulldozer, and the war goes on...
This one doesn't make a helluva lot of sense: Rock acts like he had to take the Dummy, until he doesn't, and it just kinda ends; but it's got a great vibe. It was also reprinted in
Best of DC #52 digest, so you may have seen it there.
3 comments:
I like this one. I like how ambiguous it’s left that the Dummy’s alive. I mean he certainly could be & is depicted as such to an extent, but then it’s kinda dropped by the end…just like the Dummy, ha ha.
Idk, makes you think. I like the concept of him being a haunted object, but one that’s one good side though. A sequel to this where years later the Dummy’s somehow found and once again returned to Rock would’ve been cool.
Feels like at this point if the Dummy showed up, it would be for revenge.
Rock *hears wet, squishy footsteps, turns around to see the Dummy*
Dummy: Ya left me ta drown, Rock!
Rock: Aw crap.
Like something out of an issue of Tales from the Crypt or Goosebumps.
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