Stahling For Fun

Yesterday we saw some early comics from two of MAD Magazine's famous Usual Gang Of Idiots, Al Jaffee's Inferior Man and Dave Berg's Death Patrol. I ended the posts teasing another connection between the two strips.

That connection? Al Stahl.

After Jaffee and Berg moved on from those comics, Stahl went MAD on them and added a new level of insanity to both comics. If you recall Inkie, you know he was qualified for crazy.

Inferior Man moved from Military Comics over to Feature Comics with Al Stahl at the helm -

As mentioned yesterday, Death Patrol ended with Berg's final strip in Military Comics #12. It returned nine issues later with Gill Fox doing the first of the new strips, and Al Stahl taking over immediately after. It's still war time for the Death Patrol, but things keep getting stranger...

Death Patrol's creator returned for a stint in the middle of Stahl's run. That's worth returning for, eh?

page art by Al Stahl from Military Comics #s 26 & 34 and Feature Comics #s 65-67, 70, & 71 (1943, 1944)

The Lighter Side Of Death Patrols

Earlier today we saw what Al Jaffee was doing in Military Comics back in the days before MAD Magazine. A few pages down the book, another major member of the Usual Gang Of Idiots was delivering deranged comedy with a group that echoed the most famous stars of the title - the Blackhawks.

This was another international squad of flyers, in a rather different vein, the Death Patrol...

BTW - They lived up to their name, despite the comedy stylings. This splash is from issue #10. Only one of the members depicted is a survivor since issue #1.

Obviously, from both the title of this post and the signature above, we're talking about Dave Berg as the current artist on the strip. It was originated by Jack Cole, who drew the first three episodes. Berg took over with the fourth issue and stuck around to both write and draw the stories until the series ended (the first time) in #12.

When Dave took over the book, he started killing off old characters and bringing in new members to diversify the team. He added the sovereign of an African nation invaded by the Nazis, a Native American, a Russian, a Woman, a Latino, and even a Frenchman.

Way ahead of the times in diversity. 
Not so much in handling. We get a bone-in-the-nose cannibal chieftan, a headdress wearing Indian chief, a Bolshevik borscht-eater, et cetera...

As you might have noted, the tales are often narrated by someone who was there.
Or by something who was there...

Beyond both being done by famous MAD pre-alumni for the same comic book, Inferior Man and Death Patrol had something else in common. 

So now we're all set up for next time...

page art by Dave Berg for Military Comics #s 9-12 (1942)