''Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders'' is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

comic book published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. The series lasted for nineteen issues, from January 1968 to March 1970. By issue #9 the name was switched to ''Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders''. Created by

Gary Friedrich Gary Friedrich (; August 21, 1943 – August 29, 2018) was an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' '' Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos'' and in the following era, the series '' The Monster of Fr ...

and

Dick Ayers Richard Bache Ayers (; April 28, 1924 – May 4, 2014) was an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on s ...

, the book was a spin-off of the series '' Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos'' which they wrote at the time. The series was launched when Marvel suddenly received the ability to publish more titles than they had previously due to an embargo.

Publication history

Per issue: #The Last Banzai, January 1968 #The Return of Baron Strucker, March 1968 #Two Against HYDRA, May 1968 #Holocaust On Hydra Island, July 1968 #Mission: Destroy the Invisible Enemy, August 1968 #Mission: Save a Howler, September 1968 #Objective: Ben Grimm, October 1968 #Mission: Foul Ball, November 1968 #The Gun-Runner, December 1968 #To the Last Man, January 1969 #Death of a Leatherneck!, February 1969 #Pray For Simon Savage!, March 1969 #The Junk-Heap Juggernauts, April 1969 #Savage's First Mission, May 1969 #Within the temple waits... death!, July 1969 #War Is Hell—On Ice, September 1969 #The unsinkable Jay Little Bear!, November 1969 #The high cost of fighting!, January 1970 #They Serve in Silence, March 1970

Plot

The series focuses on the characters of the elite Marine Corps team the Leatherneck Raiders and their lives in the

Pacific theater of World War II The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

Reception

Sales for the series were decent and a proposal to have a ''Captain Savage of the Silent Service'' series as a follow-up was made, with Savage as a submarine commander, but it was not taken up. Pierre Comtois, the author of the book ''"Marvel Comics in the 1970s"'' states that the series was an early experiment from Marvel before they realized that the superhero genre would be the one to dominate the comics market in the foreseeable future. Comtois praised Ayers' artwork and described the dialogue as "smooth and natural sounding", also stating that the plot generally moved forward properly without leaving plot threads hanging. Comtois hypothesised that the series was cancelled due to changing societal norms, such as anti-war sentiment, something which affected many war comics at the time.

References

External links

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Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on April 9, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Savage And His Leatherneck Raiders Comics about the United States Marine Corps Marvel Comics set during World War II Howling Commandos 1968 comics debuts 1970 comics endings

Publication history

Plot

Reception

See also

References

External links