Battlefield #11

Atlas Comics' Battlefield monthly anthology brought readers gritty front-line drama throughout the early 1950s, and issue #11 (May 1953) delivers that tension straight to the cover. Russ Heath's pencils and inks put a battle-worn soldier front and center — helmet punctured by what looks like a bullet hole, cigarette clenched in his teeth, a bloodied knife gripped in both hands — while combat rages in the smoky background behind him. It's a striking, no-nonsense image that sets the mood perfectly for the "War Tales from the Front Lines" promised inside.