Sgt. Rock #396

This special "Children in War!" themed issue of Sgt. Rock takes a quieter, more human angle on the Second World War, promising stories by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Russ Heath that put young innocents at the center of the conflict's heartbreak. Joe Kubert's cover says it all without a single soldier in the foreground — a wary young boy in a battered hat and jacket stands protectively beside a wide-eyed little blonde girl clutching a ragdoll, the faint ghost of wartime chaos rendered in blue tones behind them. It's a striking, empathetic image that reminds readers in 1985 that the war Sgt. Rock fights always carries a human cost far beyond the battlefield.