Weird War Tales #1
Weird War Tales #1 (cover-dated October 1971) marks DC's formal entry into the genre-hybrid territory where war comics and supernatural horror intersect — a fusion made possible only by the Comics Code Authority's landmark 1971 revisions, which lifted its longstanding prohibition on monsters and the undead in mainstream comics. By launching an anthology whose every story was engineered to deliver a macabre battlefield twist, DC essentially invented the 'weird war' genre as a sustained publishing category rather than an occasional gimmick. The series this issue inaugurated ran for 124 issues across twelve years, became the birthplace of the Creature Commandos, provided Walt Simonson his first professional comics credit (issue #10), and seeded Frank Miller's earliest collaboration (issue #68) — making #1 the root of a remarkably fertile Bronze Age run. It also carried editor Joe Kubert's signature anti-war editorial stamp, 'Make War No More,' reinforcing that the horror framing was never mere spectacle but a deliberate moral stance against the glamorization of combat.
In the tense, superstitious world of Baker Company, a new recruit known as Number 13 arrives on Friday the 13th—just in time to be branded a jinx by his fellow soldiers, including Sarge, "Horseshoe" Jones, "Four-Leaf Clover" Benson, "Rabbit-Paw" Prescott, and "Wish-Bone" Wilson. Clad in a dynamite satchel and haunted by a black cat, he’s dismissed as bad luck—until the squad is pinned down in a hostile town. When the moment calls for sacrifice, Number 13 takes a stand, using his satchel to turn the tide in a desperate, explosive act of courage.
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DC editor Joe Orlando — who had previously helmed the publisher's successful mystery anthology line — recognized that the word 'weird' was a proven commercial hook after observing sales performance, and he and Carmine Infantino green-lit both Weird War Tales and the sister title Weird Western Tales on that basis. Joe Kubert, DC's most authoritative war-comics editor of the era, was installed as the first editor and contributed the cover, the framing-sequence art, a standalone story ('The Story Behind the Cover'), and the co-written 'You Must Go' to issue #1; letterer Gaspar Saladino designed the logo while Kubert himself drew the logo's figures, and colorist Jack Adler completed the production team. The first seven issues were assembled largely from reprinted material drawn from DC's Golden and Silver Age war inventory, wrapped in new Kubert-drawn framing sequences that echoed the hosting format popularized by DC's own House of Mystery and House of Secrets — a practical solution that let the new title establish its tone while new inventory was commissioned. Beginning with issue #8, Joe Orlando took over the editorial chair from Kubert and the book converted to all-original material, a shift that reflected strong early sales and locked in the anthology's identity for the remainder of its run.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover date: October 1971 (on-sale July 1971, per copyright registration); published by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics).
- Joe Kubert served as editor, cover artist, interior penciler and inker, framing-sequence artist, and co-story contributor — making this one of the most creator-concentrated launches in DC's Bronze Age war line.
- The cover image doubles as the final panel of the in-book story 'The Story Behind the Cover,' written and drawn by Kubert — an unusually self-referential editorial device for a war comic of the period.
- Each story in issue #1 ends with Kubert's round editorial stamp reading 'Make War No More,' a pacifist slogan he placed in all his war-book editorial pages from roughly 1968–1973 to signal that the title was not glorifying armed conflict.
- The first seven issues, including #1, consisted primarily of reprinted war stories from DC's back catalog, framed by new Kubert-drawn sequences; the series converted to all-new material starting with issue #8, when Joe Orlando replaced Kubert as editor.
- The series grew over its 124-issue run to introduce recurring characters including the Creature Commandos (debuting in issue #93, 1980), G.I. Robot, and a revival of 'The War That Time Forgot' — all of which later influenced DC's animated and live-action media, including James Gunn's 2024 Creature Commandos series on Max.
- Issue #1 was reprinted in the black-and-white Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Vol. 1 (DC, December 2012), which collects issues #1–21; stories from this issue also appeared in K.G. Murray's Australian Terror Tales Album #1 (1976), though with DC logos, the series banner, and the 'Make War No More' stamp removed.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Star Spangled War Stories #71 (1958), G.I. Combat #86 (1961), Star Spangled War Stories #116 (1964)
Reprinted in Terror Tales Album #1 (1976), Sgt. Rock #401 (1985), Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales #1 (2012)
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