Two-Fisted Tales #23
"Death Stand!" from Two-Fisted Tales #23 (1951) delivers a gripping wartime tale of isolation and quiet desperation, anchored by Harvey Kurtzman’s sharp script and John Severin’s dynamic art, with Bill Elder’s inks adding grit to the storm-laden skies. As fighter pilot Strange grapples with loss and the weight of duty, a single, unopened sack of letters from Katherine becomes a fragile tether to the world he might not return to. The cover, a stark, moody piece by Harvey Kurtzman, captures the tension of a man on the edge—both in the cockpit and in spirit.
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Fighter pilot Strange, despondent over the perceived loss of his girl, Katherine, really doesn't care whether or not he dies when fighting against the enemy. When the enemy approaches, Strange is told that a whole sack full of mail for him has come in, and he tells Friday to hold them until he comes back. Unsettled weather and fog settles in over the airfield, and the field radio crackles with Jake's plea to give him landing instructions since he can't see the base......but his receiver is out and he heads on out to sea, never seeing the sack full of letters from Katherine.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).