Two-Fisted Tales
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Two-Fisted Tales was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The war comic, published by Bill Gaines, originated in November 1950 when Harvey Kurtzman suggested to Gaines that they publish an adventure comic.
Kurtzman became the editor of Two-Fisted Tales, which soon narrowed the focus from adventure tales to war stories. As with most of the EC comics published at this time, Two-Fisted Tales did not start with issue number 1, since it was renamed from a previous title. Two-Fisted Tales was a renaming of The Haunt of Fear starting with issue 18. Wholesale problems had caused Gaines to consider dropping The Haunt of Fear, but he changed his mind without skipping an issue. Two-Fisted Tales took over the numbering, and The Haunt of Fear then reverted back to the correct numbering for the remainder of its runs. In those days publishers would frequently change comic title names to save money on second class postage.
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[edit] Artists and influence
Artists who contributed were Kurtzman, John Severin, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Alex Toth, George Evans, Ric Estrada, Joe Kubert, Will Elder, Gene Colan, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein and Dave Berg.
The stories Kurtzman wrote for this title often displayed an anti-war attitude. Canadian journalist Mitchell Brown wrote about the impact and influence of Kurtzman's approach:
- Prior to Two-Fisted Tales #18, war comics were simple and jingoistic. Comic readers during the Second World War could look forward to stories about Captain America punching Hitler, or a group of preteen boys pulling pranks behind enemy lines, or a bumbling private up to his usual hijinks in the mess hall. There were plenty of stories that truly tried to capture the horror and senselessness of the battlefield, but comic books were not the place to find them.
- Harvey Kurtzman changed all that... But unlike other magazines of the day, no one could accuse Two-Fisted Tales of being wartime propaganda. On the contrary, the magazine was a brutally honest look at battles and wars throughout history. Kurtzman, who had been drafted in 1942, knew warfare firsthand, and he was outraged by the gung-ho war comics that made war look like a glorious thing. In his stories, there were no heroes -- just soldiers trapped in situations beyond their control. Often, his stories weren't about soldiers at all, focusing instead on the lives of innocent people scarred by war... The title ended with its 41st issue in 1955, but its influence would later be seen in titles by other publishers that would pick up the torch -- for instance, in the 1960s Warren Publishing's Blazing Combat tried to deal honestly with war at a time when honesty about the Vietnam war was hard to come by. In later years, Sgt. Rock would be DC's answer to the call for realistic war stories.
- By the end of the century, war comics that told the truth about war were all but forgotten by most readers, making way for movies like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan to show the true face of war. But the spirit with which Kurtzman created some of the most masterful stories of their kind would, like the servicemen they commemorated, not easily be forgotten.
Two-Fisted Tales was published with a companion title, Frontline Combat, for most of its run. Towards the end of 1953, a decrease in interest due to the end of the Korean War, as well as Kurtzman becoming overwhelmed with his work on Mad required changes to be made. Frontline Combat was dropped entirely while Two-Fisted Tales was changed from bi-monthly to quarterly publication. The editorial duties were handed over to John Severin for the remainder of the comic's run, and it once again took on more of an adventure theme. Unfortunately, sales continued to drop, and Gaines was forced to fold the title. Over its four-year span, the comic ran for 24 issues, ending with issue 41, in February 1955.
[edit] Television adaptation
In 1991, the comic book was adapted for a TV pilot by producers Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis and others. Apart from an opening montage of covers from the comic book and use of comic's logo, this film had little connection with Kurtzman's creation. In imitation of EC's horror books, the hour-long anthology drama featured ghostly gunfighter Mr. Rush (Bill Sadler) as a host and a device to connect the segments, although Kurtzman's war-adventure stories had never been introduced by a host. Two of the stories, "Showdown" and "King of the Road," were original scripts and not adaptations from EC. The third story, "Yellow," was adapted from a story written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Jack Davis for the first issue of EC's Shock SuspenStories. The pilot had a single telecast, generating little interest, and all three segments were later extracted to become individual episodes of HBO's Tales From The Crypt television series.
[edit] Reprints
Two-Fisted Tales was reprinted by publisher Russ Cochran in 1980 as several slipcased hardcover volumes. Cochran and Gemstone Publishing began another series of reprints in 2007 with The EC Archives: Two-Fisted Tales.
