#wayne vansant

[nerds-yearbook]

On a day in June 1969, Soldier "Ice" Phillips serving in Viet Nam, imagined what it would be like if the heroes from Marvel Comics were real and came over to fight in the war in the The 'Nam 41#, cover date February, 1990. ("Back in the Real World", The 'Nam 41#, Marvel Comic Event)

[comicarthistory]

Semper Fi #9 cover. 1989. Art by Wayne Vansant.

[uwmspeccoll]

Spotlight: Sherman’s March

On today’s date, August 31 in 1864, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman began their assault on Atlanta, the first major victory on Sherman’s ruinous March to the Sea. The assault had been preceded by a number of important skirmishes, but Atlanta was the prize as it was an important rail hub and industrial center for the Confederacy. On August 31, Sherman's army captured the railroad track from Macon. General John Bell Hood was in command of Atlanta’s defense, but with his supply lines fully severed, Hood pulled his troops out of Atlanta the next day, September 1, destroying supply depots as he left to prevent them from falling into Union hands. He also set fire to eighty-one loaded ammunition cars, which led to a conflagration watched by hundreds (and later depicted, of course, as one of the most memorable scenes in the movie version of Gone with the Wind).

By September 2, it was all over and the city surrendered. On September 3, Sherman sent a telegram to Washington that "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” He then established his headquarters there on September 7, where he stayed for over two months. On November 15, the army departed east toward Savannah, on what became known as "Sherman's March to the Sea." As this comic book points out in its final panel:

Sherman’s March cut a swath 250 miles long and 60 mile wide from Atlanta to the sea. The economic and social damage to the region would be felt for decades. Sherman had promised to “make Georgia howl!” and that he did. The bitter feelings resulting from that 250 mile scar lived through Reconstructon and into the next century. . . 

                           . . . and for some that bitterness is still felt today.

This comic book, Sherman’s March Through Atlanta to the Sea, published in Atlanta by The Heritage Collection in 1995, and written and illustrated by Wayne Vansant with Ethan Krash, has a decidedly “heritage” flavor. In a subplot, a Southern black man named Luther eschews his relatively comfortable job in a pistol factory, even though some of his fellow Black workers find that “we’z got it good here. No field work. We’z been taught a good trade, and Mr. Sam don’t ask us to do nothin’ he wouldn’t do.”

Luther complains to his sweetheart Leah (who looks “almost white”) that “Just ‘cause they call us workers instead of slaves don’t make us Free! I want to be free! And I intend to be.” Luther decides to defect to the Union army, but is so mistreated and marginalized by the thuggish Union troops that he returns to fight fervently for the Confederacy, which ultimately leads to his death on the battlefield. When Leah finds his lifeless body, she laments, “Luther. . . Oh, Luther. At least you’re finally free.”

[downthetubes]

Garth Ennis writes new "Rat Pack" story for 2020 Battle Special

Garth Ennis writes new “Rat Pack” story for 2020 Battle Special

The cover of Battle, cover dated 17th April 1976 – featuring Rat Pack. Art by Carlos Ezquerra. With thanks to Great News For All Readers

The latest 2000AD Thrillcast offers a recording of the war comics panel from New York Comic Con – and writers Alex de Campi and Garth Ennis have both revealed they have written strips for a new Battle Special from Rebellion out next year, Garth writing a new “Ra…

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[thebristolboard]

Pin-ups by Wayne Vansant from various issues of The ‘Nam, published by Marvel Comics, 1990-91.

[theblackestofsuns]

“All Right!”

The ‘Nam #77 (February 1993)

Don Lomax, Wayne Vansant and Phil Felix

Marvel Comics

[all-action-all-picture]

Knights of the Skull collection from 2017. Tales of the Waffen-SS written and drawn by Wayne Vansant. Comic strips but with text pages detailing further some of the real events depicted.

[all-action-all-picture]

The Battle of the Bulge: A Graphic History of Allied Victory in the Ardennes, 1944-1945 from 2014. Written and drawn and clearly heavily researched by Wayne Vansant.