As a sailor, Sam Glanzman served about the USS Stevens during World War II. A quarter
century later, as a writer/artist he began a memorable comic book series, published in the various DC war
comics of the era, based on his experiences. This series, at least 58 chapters between 1970 and 1977,
most of them only four pages long (and the rest just five), is one of the great achievements
in war comics (a field with no shortage of great achievements), and largely unrecognized. Each story is an exploration of one
of the many facets of war. Some are funny, some are sad, some are inspiring, some are
depressing. Glanzman shows what he saw with his own eyes, men coping with conditions you
can't imagine without living it. And he tells you what he thought. It's a surprisingly
personal work for something from a big publisher like DC, and illustrates why their war books
are considered by some to be their strongest line in this period.
(photo above, SJG in his studio, courtesy of Don Mangus)
Glanzman would return to the Stevens later in his career, with several short stories in Marvel's Savage Tales under the banner "Of War and Peace: Tales by MAS" in 1986, two graphic novels published
by Marvel in 1987 and 1989 (more explicitly autobiographical than the 1970s USS Stevens
series) and a 10 page story published by DC in 1992.
Eventually I plan to put more notes on the series and on Glanzman here, probably including a Glanzman bibliography, and sample scans and reviews of the individual stories. Currently I have scans from about half the stories and short notes on some of them.
Thanks to all the members of the for fueling my interest in these
comics in general, and especially to perhaps Glanzman's biggest fan, Don Mangus
, for
fueling my interest in SJG in particular, and supplying several of the cooler scans here, including the photos of Sam Glanzman and the copies of his actual war diaries. And of course thanks to Sam Glanzman for
all the wonderful comics. As a special treat, check out the picture on the left. It's a spectacular brand new painting by Glanzman for an auction at the 2001
. Absolutely incredible work, and thanks to dcwarcomics veteren Mick Rabin for the scan. Mick's been among those instrumental in getting many of the creators of DC's war books to the San Diego con and together with their fans in recent years.
You can find out more about the USS Stevens at
this site, including a photo. You might also want to check
here
for more details on the history of the ship. I'd suggest seaching
Google for "USS Stevens" if you're interested in
more.
If you're interested in this you might also want to check out the page for
Robert Kanigher's Gallery of War, which ran in the DC war
books around the time that the USS Stevens did.
TwoMorrows Publishing's #5 featured a short interview and autobiography of Sam Glanzman, as well as
an article by Don Mangus and Andrew Steven about many of the best USS Stevens stories. #9 features quite a bit on Glanzman's work at Charlton, and the long-awaited issue on DC's war comics (from new publisher Top Shelf) should probably have quite a bit more on the USS Stevens series, as well as Glanzman's work on features like the Haunted Tank, Battle Albums and other stuff. Definitely a magazine worth a fan of SJG checking out.
Some great new Glanzman art is available on-line, a western story and a story about Roman centurions. Check out
The print version of the western story can be ordered at this site:
A few nice recent Glanzman art commisions are on various themed web pages. I'll add them here as I find them. Click here for a very nice Glanzman commission piece of Winged Victory from 2002. And here for a neat page on the Haunted Tank, with a nice Glanzman drawing at the bottom. And don't forget this one for Glanzman doing Horatio Hornblower. And you'll find a great Haunted Tank sketch here
To see more than a dozen samples of recent Glanzman commissions, and info on how to get your own, check out THIS PAGE.
Links to other points of interest on the web.