Star Spangled War Stories #16

Three American GIs advance through a storm of shell bursts on this vivid December 1953 DC cover — one soldier crouches low with a rifle, another raises a pistol, and a third throws his arms wide against a blazing explosion, all rendered in bold teal-blue figures against a scorching orange-red sky by penciler Curt Swan and inker Ray Burnley. The header promises "Flaming Action on Fighting Fronts," and the issue delivers on that pledge with four featured stories spanning a special war feature, infantry, and Signal Corps angles — including "The Yellow Ribbon," written by Harry Harrison with art by Jerry Grandenetti. It's a compact, ten-cent package of frontline drama that captures the kinetic urgency DC's war anthology was known for in the early 1950s.