U.S. Air Force Comics #18

A B-26 Marauder roars through a sky blazing with fire and smoke on this October 1961 Charlton entry, its star-marked wings tilted dramatically as bombs fall away below. The cover, rendered by Maurice Whitman, frames two servicemen in portrait insets — a grim, battle-hardened airman in a leather cap and a younger, blond soldier — alongside the bold promise to "meet the men and machines that stopped the Nazis cold." Inside, writer Joe Gill and artist Bill Molno (inked by Vince Alascia) deliver "The Defector," a story that looks to match the cover's tense, wartime energy perfectly.