The Weird War Tales of Alex Nino may seem like an odd choice of subject. Isn’t Alex Nino the artist who did all those mind-bending pieces for Science Fiction magazines? You bet. But at the beginning of his career (1972) he started in the horror comics along with all the greats of Phillipino art like Alfred Alcala, Tony deZuniga, E. R. Cruz, Ernie Chan, Jerry Talaoc and others. This group of artists brought a style to inking that American comics did not have before their magic.
Weird War Tales was my kind of war comic. I was never into Sgt. Rock (despite loving Joe Kubert’s art). Of course, being a kid in Canada in the 1970s meant the Vietnam War was all you heard about on the news. Growing up on M. A. S. H. and movies like Catch-22, any kind of rah-rah John Wayne war comic wasn’t going to appeal to me then. But the strange anti-war theme of WWT was perfect.
Alex Nino did nine stories (one for House of Mystery) that dealt with war, all kinds of war. Not surprising, he got to do the future war tales, but he could deliver a down-to-earth scenario too.
“The Last Battle” (Weird War Tales #9, December 1972) was written by Robert Kanigher. In the futuristic year, 1978, the world is split into Earth East and Earth West. The two factions fight a nuclear war. After the bombs fall, there is only one man from the West and one woman from the East left. The man thinks they will be the new Adam and Eve, but the woman has other ideas. She is bobby-trapped and they both die to the words: “There can only be East…East…East…” A bitter object lesson in hate. Jack Oleck would use the same title five months later.
“October 30, 1947 Nurenberg Prison, Germany/December 25, 2047” (Weird War Tales #11, February 1973) was written by Sheldon Mayer. Mayer writes a long story in segments, jumping through time. He begins in the trenches of World War I. Alex Nino illustrates the last two segments of the story. General von Krauss is awaiting execution but he finishes his experiment on immortality. The soldiers go to hang him but he has disappeared into the future. The armies of 2047 give up war on Christmas Day and go to Venus. Earth is now a lifeless husk that can’t support life. Von Krauss shows up but no one is left. The weird spirit of war and death, who he has seen in other segments, leaves him there for all eternity.
“The Conquerors” (Weird War Tales #16, August 1973) was written by Jack Oleck. Aliens destroy humanity and take over the earth. Only there are survivors when there should be none. These survivors are taken to be experimented on by scientists. The prisoners seem lifeless and cowed, but when they escape the truth comes out. They are happy there are millions of invaders, because they are vampires and they are hungry. The aliens’ death beams disintegrated the stakes that pierced their hearts.
“Evil Eye” (Weird War Tales #16, August 1973) was written by Arnold Drake. A group of American soldiers take a town in Italy and plan to rebuild the Church of St. Justin. The saint was known for being a witch-hunter. A small boy shows up and the locals claim he is a gypsy and a witch. Michael supposedly has the evil eye. The Americans befriend the boy and bad things start happening. When the Germans attack, the Americans’ luck fails. They all die. The German officer is happy to have defeated the enemy. He, too, befriends Michael. Here we go again…
“The Last Battle” (Weird War Tales #24, April 1974) was written by Jack Oleck. War ends on Earth but the dictator who has all the planet realizes a problem: with no enemy, people will start a revolution against him. To distract and fool everyone, he starts a war with Mars, despite it being uninhabited. Since the people don’t know this, they love their dictator. To finish the illusion, the dictator goes to Mars and shoots off volleys of weapons. Unfortunately, the planet isn’t as uninhabited at all. Missiles return fire and the ruler of Earth is blown up.
“The Claws of Death” (The House of Mystery #224, April-May 1974) was written by George Kashdan. Lt. Collins takes heat from his captain when a squad of soldiers is killed. Collins tries to prove that they weren’t killed by enemy fire but by animals. Collins is headed for a court martial when his superior, who is fond of his silver-handled pistol, gets a surprise. The captain is attacked by a werewolf. He shoots the monster six times but only kills it when he throws the gun at it. The captain tells the truth at his own court martial and is shot dead by a firing squad. This story struck a note with me, because one of my favorite David Drake stories features a werewolf in the Viet Nam War. It was called “Best of Luck” (Year’s Best Horror VI, 1978). In Drake’s story it is a silver coin that does the job.
“The Unseen Warrior” (Weird War Tales #25, May 1974) was written by George Kashdan. Nazi doctors flee a secret weapons base, leaving behind a man in bandages. The German soldier wakes, pulls off the bandages to find himself invisible. He goes on a one-man killing spree but makes the mistake of stealing a tank. Leaving the vehicle, he goes to the German soldiers who are on the verge of deserting as the Americans press in the final days of the war. The invisible man tells the soldiers he is Odin, calling them all to keep fighting. They do, but the American tanks are too powerful. The invisible man wants to surrender but can’t. He stumbles into slag-cauldron in a metal factory. The Americans find his metal-covered corpse. One soldier congratulates the dead man. If Hitler had more soldiers like him, the Americans would be retreating.
“Doomsday!” (Weird War Tales #31, November 1974) was written by David Vern (as Coram Nobis). Tells the tale of Xeres, a planet that has suffered great disasters. The people rebuild over the years but a new prophet brings sad news. They will all drowned in a world-wide flood. The world of Xeres ends. We pull back to see that world was nothing more than a golf ball. And it has landed in a water trap.
“The Deadly Seeds” (Weird War Tales #36, April 1975) was written by George Kashdan. (This is actually the comic that got me started on all this. I love a good plant monster.) A special team parachutes to the secret lab of Professor Klopfke, Nazi scientist. The old man refuses to come and the men have to shoot their way out. They end up in Klopfke’s experimental garden, where they find out exactly what kind of secret weapon the scientist was working on.
There you have it. No happy endings. But I certainly learned what irony was. As always, Alex Nino brought a different look and feel to comics. Even the battlefields of Europe were strangely eerie and weird under Alex’s pen.
When I was a kid in the 80’s, my family would spend part of the summer each year at my grandparents’ cottage, where my uncle had a big stack of Weird War comics. I think I looked forward to re-reading those even more than fishing and canoeing. I didn’t know his name at the time, but that Alex Nino art really stood out and made a big impression on me.
Maybe it’s a Canadian thing, maybe it was being raised on sci-fi from the 60’s and 70’s, but the jingoistic, rah-rah war comics never appealed to me either. When it comes to super hero comics I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Marvelite, but I will always love Weird War tales.