Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

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Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963). Cover art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers.

Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Ongoing
Publication dates	May 1963 - Dec. 1981
Number of issues	167
Main character(s)	Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

Creative team
Writer(s)	Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich
Penciller(s)	Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers
Inker(s)	Dick Ayers, George Roussos, John Severin
Creator(s)	Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos are a fictional World War II squadron in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963). The main character, Sgt. Nick Fury, later became the leader of Marvel's superspy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D..

The elite special unit nicknamed the Howling Commandos consisted of Corporal Thaddeus Aloysius Cadwallander "Dum Dum" Dugan, Private Gabriel Jones (an African-American to serve in an integrated unit, though the U.S. armed forces were not in real-life integrated until after the war, in 1948),^[1] Private Robert "Rebel" Ralston, Private Dino Manelli (modeled after Dean Martin), Private Isadore "Izzy" Cohen (the first demonstrably Jewish American comic book hero), and Private Jonathan "Junior" Juniper — who, in an unusual and daring move for comics at the time, was killed in action after a few issues. He was replaced by Private Percival "Pinky" Pinkerton, a British soldier. Later, Private Eric Koenig, a defector from Nazi Germany, joined the squad. Occasional other members would join for an issue or two before being killed, transferred, or otherwise leaving. Also daringly, the series killed Fury's girlfriend, British nurse Pamela Hawley, in issue #18.

1 Publication history
2 Character biographies
3 Bibliography
4 Footnotes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Publication history

Stan Lee has described the Sgt. Fury series coming about as a result of a bet with his publisher, Martin Goodman, that Lee could produce a book with the worst title he could think of, and still it would sell. Artist John Severin has recalled the idea originating with Kirby. Neither claim is mutually exclusive.^[2]

The series followed an elite special unit, the First Attack Squad, nicknamed the "Howling Commandos" and stationed in a military base in England to fight missions primarily but not exclusively in the European Theatre of World War II. Under Captain "Happy Sam" Sawyer, Fury was the cigar-chomping noncom who led the racially and ethnically integrated unit. The series ran 167 issues (May 1963 - Dec. 1981), though only in reprints after issue #120 (July 1974). Following several issues by creators Lee and Kirby, penciler Dick Ayers began his long stint on what would be his signature series; John Severin later joined as inker, forming a long-running, critically acclaimed team. Roy Thomas succeeded Lee as writer, following by Gary Friedrich, for who this also became a signature series.

Friedrich began as a co-scripter of issues #42-44 (May-July 1967). The Friedrich-Ayers-Severin team began in earnest, however, with #45 (Aug. 1967), the first of what would be several of the series' "The" stories: "The War Lover" was a shaded exploration of a trigger-happy soldier and the line drawn, even in war, between killing and murder. Daring for the time, when majority public sentiment still supported the undeclared Vietnam War, the story balanced present-day issues while demonstrating that even in what is referred to as "a just war", a larger morality prevails. While war comics at this stage were less overtly jingoistic than in the 1950s, Friedrich's allegorical approach was ahead of movies and television as well, occurring years before M*A*S*H would tread similar ground. Friedrich's story also marked the first time since the early Lee-Kirby Furys that such provocative humanism appeared in a full-length comics tale, rather than in the occasional "very special" short stories that represented the preferred length at rival DC Comics. Subsequent "The" stories included "The Assassin", "The Peacemonger", and the unromanticized A.W.O.L. drama "The Deserter" (#75, Feb. 1970), based loosely on the real-life case of WWII Private Eddie Slovik.

Friedrich continued through #83 (Jan. 1971), with the late part of this run having reprint issues between new stories, and again for the even-numbered issues from #94-114 (Jan. 1972 - Nov. 1973).

Sgt. Fury ran concurrently with two other, short-lived Marvel World War II series, Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders (later titled Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders), which lasted 19 issues from 1968-1970; and Combat Kelly, which lasted nine issues from 1972-1973. The Howlers guest-starred in #6 and #11 of the former series, and #4 of the latter.

[edit] Character biographies

Sgt. Fury #57 (August 1968), featuring a Friedrich "The" story. Cover art by Ayers & Severin

Nicholas Joseph Fury was the eldest of three children born to Jack Fury. His father was a United States citizen who enlisted in the United Kingdom's Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Jack had enlisted in 1916 and was stationed in France under the Third Republic. He reportedly shot down Baron Manfred von Richthofen early in the Red Baron's flying career, and was a highly decorated combat aviator by the end of the War in 1918.

Discharged after the War, Jack returned home, married an unnamed woman, and became the father of three children. Nick, probably born in the late 1910s or early 1920s, was followed by Jacob "Jake" Fury (later the supervillain Scorpio, who co-founded the Zodiac cartel), and their sister, Dawn.

All three children grew up in the neighbourhood known as Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Nick was an amateur boxer. With his friend Red Hargrove, he eventually left the neighborhood to pursue his dreams of adventure, eventually settling on a daring wing-walking act. Their death-defying stunts caught the attention of Lieutenant Samuel "Happy Sam" Sawyer, who enlisted them for a special mission in the Netherlands. Nick and Red later joined the U.S. Army, with Fury undergoing basic training under a Sergeant Bass. Red was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii when the Imperial Japanese Navy ambushed the base on December 7, 1941, and was among the many killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Sawyer, now a captain, assigned Fury the command of the First Attack Squad, nicknamed the "Howling Commandos" and stationed in a military base in England to fight specialized missions, primarily but not exclusively in the European Theatre of World War II. Fury fell in love with an English nurse, Pamela Hawley, who died in a bombing raid of London before he could propose to her.

The Howling Commandos' earliest chronological (but not first-published) assignment occurred in the autumn of 1942. They were to recover British rocket scientist Dr. MacMillan from a German military base near occupied Paris. Their success brought the attention of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who incorporated the unit into the British Army.

The Howlers fought against the likes of German General Erwin Rommel and intersquad bigotry, often in the same story. Antagonists included Baron Strucker, Captain America's nemeses Baron Zemo and the Red Skull (Adolf Hitler's protege), and other Axis villains. The Howlers encountered Office of Strategic Services agent Reed Richards (later Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four) in issue #3 (Sept. 1963), and fought alongside Captain America and Bucky in #13 (Dec. 1964).

They reunited for missions in the Korean War, where Fury received a field promotion to lieutenant, and the Vietnam War, each in a summer-annual special, as well as at a present-day, fictional reunion gala in issue #100 (July 1972).

[edit] Bibliography

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1-167 (May 1963 - Dec. 1981)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Annual #1 (1965)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos King-Size Special #2-7 (1966 - Nov. 1971)

# 5-7 are reprint-only, except for 10-page framing sequence in #6

Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury #1 (2006)

[edit] Footnotes

^ In comics books, the DC Comics feature "Sgt. Rock", begun in the series Our Army at War in 1959, had earlier featured an African-American soldier, Jackie Johnson, in an integrated unit.

^ Ronin Ro, in Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury USA, 2005 reissue ISBN 1-58234-566-X) has written that,

To this day, Stan claims that [the replacement for the canceled title The Incredible Hulk] was the result of a bet between him and Goodman. As Stan tells, Goodman told him their books were selling because of buzzwords like Amazing, Fantastic, Mighty, and Incredible Stan answered that the Lee-Kirby style was responsible ... and offered the following challenge: 'I'll do a war book with the worst title I can come up with, but if it's done in the Marvel style, I bet it'll sell'.

...Severin said that he had heard the idea during the late 1950s.... 'Jack wanted to know if I'd be interested in syndication. He said we could be partners on a script idea he had. The story would be se in Europe during World War II; the hero would be a tough, cigar-chomping sergeant with a squad of oddball GIs — sort of an adult Boy Commandos '. After Severin turned Jack down ... Jack left, heading toward Marvel and Stan Lee.