Battle #14

From the Atlas Comics era of 1952, this issue of Battle captures the gritty intensity of frontline combat with a cover by Carl Burgos that puts you right in the thick of it. A cigarette-chomping GI mans a heavy machine gun in the foreground, trading deadpan quips with a fellow soldier — "Hey Joe, got a match?" / "Just a sec, Tex, I'm busy!" — while enemy combatants scramble in the background under fire. It's the kind of rugged, boots-on-the-ground storytelling that made Atlas war comics a staple of the newsstands, and this issue also features "The Anger of Colonel Wu-San," written by Hank Chapman with interior art by Paul Reinman.