[MarkWarner]

After skipping a week (we did have to read an awful lot for the Billy the Kid comparisons) it is time for our next reading book choice.

This is my selection, so blame me if it all goes "Pete Tong". I have just bumped across this Charlton one-shot made for  Maco Toys. It looks a bit different, plus it is about time we had a war comic.

Content wise it's a free for all week. So cover to cover or just choose a bit that interests you! Which just leaves me to say that the book can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58673.

[John Kerry]

Oddly enough I just read this a couple of days ago. It is a fun little item. There are two stories which have a Korean war setting. Not sure if they were reprints, pulled from the files or produced for this book. I enoyed the first one "Battle for Hill 77!!" more. The plot device of having two soldiers not getting along has been used often but it was used effectively here. The second story seemed too short. The art on both was decent. It didn't get in the way of the story, but didn't turn the reader off either. Certainly if I see Mr. Tallarico's name in the art credits I will be willing to read the comic.
The two humour items were both good but to my mind the piece "General Orders" was better. The art (again by Mr. Tallarico) was quite funny when paired with the text. The Private Bill story was nothing to write home about but it didn't make you want to throw the comic across the roon in annoyance either. The art was suitable for a humour strip as opposed to the more serious art on the other stories.
Now to the main part, which of course is the adverisements of which I counted twenty-one. My first thought is the prices. They seem cheap but when you remember in 1959 a comic cost ten cents you realize even the least expensive items were a substantial cost outlay for a child. Personally I found them interesting. The use of  the comic strip format was a novel one, but one that works will in this situation. I daresay though  that talent show seems  a wee bit out of place.
The actiivity page was nice. I might even get a piece of paper and do the puzzles. I also wonder how many of these books ended up being destroyed by having the order form used. The same goes for the membership card  on the  back  cover. All in all a pleasant  enough book.

[bowers]

 Yeah, I remember the Maco stuff. Every kid on the block had the cap-firing grenade, which usually worked about half the time. My favorite was the .45 which shot "harmless" pellets. Harmless until your mom ran over a couple of them with a vacuum cleaner, causing an unholy rattle! My pellets disappeared soon after.
I seem to remember getting a copy of this free at either W.T. Grant or Woolworth's. This was a pretty effective ad for these toys, much cheaper than TV advertising. As a kid, I think I enjoyed the ads more than the stories! Cheers, Bowers

[crashryan]

When I was maybe seven years old my folks bought my brother and me toy machine guns like these. The clamor we created with the sounds of shooting and dying drove my mother nuts. She chucked the things and vowed never again to buy toy guns. Not that I missed them much--spaceships were sooo much cooler.

I expected this book to be a repackaged Charlton war comic with inserted ads. Instead it's a huge ad with a couple of stories shoehorned in to make it seem like a comic. A friend of mine has directed many toy commercials. I was fascinated by the difference in tone between his TV pitches and the ads here. The TV spots immerse kids in fantasy. They're all about speed and excitement. In contrast the comic ads are cool and clinical. They carefully detail construction, materials, size ("approximately 13 oz. capacity!") and above all safety. This suggests the ads were intended to be read by parents, not, as in other campaigns (like the Red Ryder rifle ads) to inspire young readers to badger their folks into buying something. In fact some of the details would have turned me off as a kid (won't penetrate a tissue at point-blank range!) The fact that the same specifications are repeated on each page makes for boring reading.

The stories are throwaways. The artwork reinforces their generic feel. Though signed by Tony Tallarico these strips were obviously pencilled by Bill "I won't draw anything I don't absolutely have to" Fraccio. I'm no fan of Tallarico's work, but I admit that he put in a lot more effort when he did a job by himself. Odd to see one humor feature teaching the boys the rudiments of sexual harassment.

The two biggest guns were pretty pricey. A gallon of gas was 29 cents and a plastic model kit $1.49, but those babies cost ten bucks!

[EHowie60]

The ads are an interesting look back at a time when the main selling point of a toy gun was that it looked just like the real thing! The art is fairly well done on the ads, if fairly standard. I think Crashryan is right, the ads do seem to be in part for parents. Maybe the idea was that the kid would show the ads to his folks, and they could then look it over and see the safety features. A lot of the ads show the kids in kid-sized army uniforms, but apparently Maco didn't actually make those.

I find it unaccountably amusing that someone did exactly two of the word scrambles on p. 20. Does the anti-aircraft gun on p. 27 seem way too large to anyone? The Talent Show set seems extremely out of place. I'm sure they could have thought of some sort of military theme for it.

As for the few actual stories (only 10 of the 36 pages), Battle for Hill 77 is very generic, not much to say about it. I must admit the ape on p. 14 got me laughing. "Valley Trap" was interesting. I've read a fair number of stories featuring the Marines in comics on this site, but never before one that ended with "the Marines retreated successfully". I suppose if you're going to tell true war stories of the Korean War, you're going to eventually have to confront the fact that America did not win.

And finally the order form! The advertising worked, sort of. Gregg there filled the form out, but I see it was never mailed in. I wonder if some kid was disappointed that they didn't get their field kit, or else if they forgot all about it soon after.

[SuperScrounge]

Battle for Hill 77!! - Okay story, but it's hard to care for characters when the author can't even be bothered to name them. BTW there is a second signature under A. Tallarico, a Bill something. Anyone able to read the full name?

Mess Sergeant Kit - Were there really kids who wanted to be mess sergeants? "Yes! I've got the kit! Now I can hone my mess sergeanting skills!!! Woohoo!"

General Orders - Amusing.

Valley Trap! - Oddly distanced war story that utterly failed to make me care. How do you fail to milk drama out of a situation of soldiers fighting their way out of a trap?

The Adventures of Private Bill - Cute.

[crashryan]

Nice catch, SuperScrounge. My weary eyes missed Bill Fraccio's signature under Tallarico's. Though he pencilled for Tallarico for years Fraccio seldom got credit in print. In fact as a high-school art spotter I was convinced Tallarico was a one-man operation. When Charlton began crediting Fraccio on Blue Beetle I thought they'd made him up.

[SuperScrounge]

Thanks Crash. I've added Fraccio as the inker at the GCD. 

[crashryan]

Sorry if I was unclear, SuperScrounge, Fraccio pencilled and Tallarico inked.

[SuperScrounge]

Nope, you were clear, for some reason I my eyes glossed over the part of your post where it says he pencilled. D'oh!

[paw broon]

Sorry folks, this isn't for me.  Not being a fan of war comics, I started with a bias against this.  Not being a gun fan gave another mark against the book, and to make matters worse, here's a company packaging a pile of ads as a piece of entertainment. At least it was a give away.
As for the art,  well, it's typical low standard Charlton, with the dreaded, Fraccio/ Tallarico duo.   I can take the art on Blue Beetle as I am a huge fan of superheroes but here, illustrating war stories and ads for replica guns, it's too much.
By the way, I do enjoy looking at classic duelling and flintlock pistols.  Some of our galleries have good displays of beautifully tooled and inlaid pistols. But I have no desire to hold or fire them. Or any other weapon for that matter.

[narfstar]

The best part of this book was using the tree as a grenade launcher. The detail on the faces was typical of the Fraccio/Tallarico team. The art on the toys, I thought was really good.

[Kracalactaka]

I like this book, I like most of the ones where the comic is pretty much an ad. just for the sheer audacity of it.

I like the general orders part especially, because it is the Marine Corps general orders (even though they Portray the Army with them)

(both services have general orders, but the Marines have eleven while the Army only has three)

I guess Paw Broon is a lover, not a fighter (that's all right, I got your back Broon) 

[Morgus]

If we had Maco stuff here in Canada I never found it. We had REXALL drugstore hard plastic machine guns. Pull the trigger and you get a rattly noise. Like crashryan said, somebody had to make serious coin, though, to get all of this stuff. I know my folks were doing well just to get that knock off plastic gun. For some reason I didn't mind the art in the real story this time. What do you want to bet that the Maco people made them spend the extra effort to get the merchandise REALLY well drawn?

[MarkWarner]

Rather like Paw Broon, I am not really into militaria and guns. To be honest this side of the pond we do tend to think of the U.S. as "slightly" gun obsessed. I am however a fact nut and I love vintage toys, so I am going to read the advertisements avidly.

Never having been in the military, or giving it any thought I did not realize a soldier would routinely carry his mess kit around with him. Seems strange: gun - check, grenades - check, helmet - check, knife, fork & spoon - check. But again I guess grub is no laughing matter on active service.

I will give the Field Knife "Made of polythene, flexible, and harmless, a fun filled toy" a miss. Doesn't sound much fun to me!

So far I am going to buy the mess kit with the garrison belt for $2.50. I was going to buy the Paratrooper Carbine until right at the end (as I guess a sell to parents) it said:

"The pellets that are fired come out with such little force that they will not tear a single sheet of facial tissue at point-blank range"

So I decided not to blow 3 bucks on it.  What

[John Kerry]

I live in Canada and most of us think our neighbours to the south are a bit gun obsessed as well.

[crashryan]

I live in America and you're both right: this country is obsessed with guns. With the aid of gun manufacturers, who make a mint off this sort of thing, gun ownership has been elevated to a religion. A small but ridiculously powerful group of fetishists is prepared to jump up screaming whenever someone as much as hints that there's something crazy about positing a "basic right" for people to own--and use on each other--machine guns. Otherwise rational politicians, careful to protect their revenue streams, remain silent even in the face of increasingly nonsensical notions like arming schoolteachers just in case Billy Bunter should get out of hand. (Though Hurree Singh would likely end up being the one who got shot.)

[Kracalactaka]

Mark:

the comic/ads (and TV and Movies for that matter) are somewhat misleading as to the day to day life of a modern soldier (or Marine, etc)

Messkits, canteens and weapons and such are not routinely carried.

Those items are only on hand when troops are deployed to a field training or combat environment.

When troops are in garrison they wear soft hats (berets/ballcaps, etc), not helmets. Things like backpacks, shovels, canteens and messkits (which have not existed since the 1970s) would be tucked away in a soldiers quarters. Weapons are stored in secured arms vaults and only issued when needed for training, maintenance and for deploying for actual combat.

Soldiers (from civilized nations) have not routinely carried weapons at all times since the 1800s