Combat Kelly Primer
Series Overview
Combat Kelly was the first of Atlas Comics war hero series that focused entirely on one character (most of the time). It started off as a wartime comedy series as those type of stories were popular. Why tell stories about the horror of war when you can have stories about American soldiers making sloppy passes at women, because sexism is hiiiiillllarrrrrriiiooouuuss. Needless to say, this series was a product of its time and if you were to read it today you’d be more concerned about the problematic attitudes towards women and Asians. After a few issues the series shifted into a more serious war series in order to make Combat Kelly a legitimate wartime hero. Still, the title was particularly racist even for a comic book that was produced at the height of the Korean War and the early days of the Cold War.
Combat Kelly’s supporting characters included Cookie Novak, who started off as the units cook until he became his wartime sidekick. Other characters included Captain/Major Thorn, their commanding office, Sargent O’Hooligan — an insufferable asshole, Yamakayaka a Japanese sumo wrestler who often fought for the Americans. Apparently the scourge of Communism was a bigger concern than 146000 people who were annihilated not even a decade earlier. Then there were the villains, all taking a page from the infamous Tokyo Rose with names to Yalu River Rosa, Korea Katie, and Muktong Molly. Later on in the series run they expanded the Combat Kelly mythology by also telling stories that took place during World War II.
The series also backup stories that were usually one-off war stories although a few backups featured Battle Brady and the similarly named Combat Casey.
The series ran for 44 issues, ending in 1957. Combat Kelly has not been seen since. The only recent reference to the character was in Marvel Atlas #1 profile on Korea, confirming that his adventures are considered part of Marvel Continuity.
Index Scope
This index only includes in-continuity stories except for the one-off war stories, this includes stories that were narrated by Combat Kelly, and stories where Cookie Novak educates the reader on military equipment, symbols, and and ranks.
