Combat #36

Dell's War-Stories Combat brings one of World War II's most pivotal naval engagements to vivid painted life on this July 1972 cover, where Japanese aircraft bearing the red rising-sun markings swoop low over a burning aircraft carrier as explosions tear across its deck. A stricken plane corkscrews downward in flames while more fighters fill the smoke-hazed sky, perfectly capturing the cover's bold promise of "the thunder of a thousand screaming bullets and bombs." With Paul S. Newman writing and Sam Glanzman handling both art and inks inside, this issue delivers the chaos and stakes of the Battle of Midway with genuine intensity.