WHAT IF MARVEL MASTERWORKED THEIR GOLD AND SILVER AGE CRIME AND WAR COMICS?

Welcome to the What If? Library page joining together the two genres of comics where the brutal heart that can beat in the chest of man is most evident- when man chooses wrong over right, and when he must rise to kill an enemy combatant with his rifle, bayonet or bare hands! It's Crime and War, Masterworks fans! And one day, you may hold in your hands a book culled from the list to your right!

First off, Marvel trotted out a good variety of pulpy crime books in the 40s and early 50s. With names like Crime Can't Win, Crime Must Lose!, and Lawbreakers Always Lose!, you could be assured that the police would eventually get their man. But surely there'd be lots of bullets flying and blood dripping along the way! There were a few mainstay titles, like the anthology Justice Comics. And to top things off, we've wedged in Sports Action for you, an anthology dedicated to the wide world of sports! (I've never read those comics, so I have no idea if they address the rampant steroids problems of the 1940s. Oh...there wasn't one? Why, I never knew!)

For violent comics drama of a global nature, we can turn to the many war titles that Marvel produced across the 40s and 50s. If battle is your appetite, Marvel can serve up a dish to satisfy! Look at all those comics with "battle" in the title! You got yer Battle Action, Battlefield, Battlefront, and Battleground, Young Men on the Battlefield and Marines in Battle! And when you're ready for something more simple, there's just plain old Battle! These war anthologies served up a heavy dose of combat realism and stories from creators who were actually there!

On top of comics dedicated to the Marines and Navy branches, Marvel also created a small but potent stable of identifiable war hero comic lines, led by Combat Casey and Combat Kelly, and including other, more obscure men of war like Devil-Dog Dugan, Kent Blake of the Secret Service, and Sgt. Barney Barker!

It's highly unlikely we'll see any of these comics lines get the Masterworks treatment any time soon- if ever! But as usual, it's nice to muse about such things, and at the very least, this page can serve as a broad overview of what available material is out there for these two genres. We haven't scratched the surface on providing all the maps and mockups for each volume, so check back over time for new ones that we'll be putting up.

-- by Gormuu

NOTE FROM CHRIS: The maps on this page have been compiled from many various sources, but as you will notice, there are still quite a few issues without data. If you own any of these issues with missing data, any information you can supply would be greatly appreciated by all visitors to this site. I'd love to get accurate story titles and page counts for these issues. (And if you can supply an artist credit or two, that would be the icing on the cake!) If you can help, please e-mail CLEAZER72@YAHOO.COM)

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GENERAL MAP OUTLINES:

(For more detailed maps, click the individual volume links at the list on the right.)

CRIME COMICS:

All True Crime
Vol. 1: Official True Crime Cases #22-25, All True Crime Cases #26-32

Vol. 2: All True Crime Cases #33-34, All True Crime #35-42

Vol. 3: #43-52

Amazing Detective Cases
Vol. 1: #3-14

Crime Can't Win
Vol. 1: #41-43, 4-12

Crime Cases Comics
Vol. 1: #24-27, 5-12

Crime Exposed
Vol. 1: #1, 1-14

Crimefighters
Vol. 1: #1-10, Crime Fighters #11-13

Crime Must Lose!
Vol. 1: #4-12

Justice
Vol. 1: #7-9, 4-9
Vol. 2: #10-19
Vol. 3: #20-29
Vol. 4: #30-39
Vol. 5: #40-49
Vol. 6: #50-52, Tales Of Justice #53-58
Vol. 7: Tales Of Justice #59-67

Lawbreakers Always Lose
Vol. 1: #1-10

Man Comics
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-19
Vol. 3: #20-28

Men's Adventure
Vol. 1: True Adventures #3, Mens Adventure #4-15
Vol. 2: #16-28

Police Action
Vol. 1: #1-7, Casey: Crime Photographer #1-4

Private Eye
Vol. 1: #1-8

Sports Action
Vol. 1: Sports Stars #1, Sports Action #2-14

Spy Cases
Vol. 1: #26-28, 4-10
Vol. 2: #11-19

Spy Fighters
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-15, Spy Thrillers #1-4, Police Badge #479 #5

Young Men
Vol. 1: #4-11, 21-23

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WAR COMICS:

Battle
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20
Vol. 3: #21-30
Vol. 4: #31-40
Vol. 5: #41-50
Vol. 6: #51-60
Vol. 7: #61-70

Battle Action
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20
Vol. 3: #21-30

Battlefield
Vol. 1: #1-11

Battlefront
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20
Vol. 3: #21-30
Vol. 4: #31-39
Vol. 5: #40-48

Battleground
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20

Combat
Vol. 1: #1-11

Combat Casey
Vol. 1: War Combat #1-5, Combat Casey #6-12
Vol. 2: #13-23
Vol. 3: #24-34

Combat Kelly
Vol. 1: #1-11
Vol. 2: #12-22
Vol. 3: #23-33
Vol. 4: #34-44

Devil-Dog Dugan
Vol. 1: DDD #1-3, Tales of the Marines #4, Marines At War #5-7

Kent Blake Of The Secret Service
Vol. 1: #1-14

Marines In Action
Vol. 1: #1-14

Marines In Battle
Vol. 1: #1-13
Vol. 2: #14-25

Men In Action
Vol. 1: Men In Action #1-9, Battle Brady #10-14

Navy Action
Vol. 1: #1-11
Vol. 2: Sailor Sweeney #12-14, Navy Action #15-18, Navy Tales #1-4

Navy Combat
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20

Sergeant Barney Barker
Vol. 1: SBB #1-3, GI Tales #4-6, 3-D Action #1

War Action
Vol. 1: #1-14

War Adventures
Vol. 1: #1-13

War Comics
Vol. 1: #1-10
Vol. 2: #11-20
Vol. 3: #21-30
Vol. 4: #31-40
Vol. 5: #41-49

Young Men On the Battlefield
Vol. 1: Young Men #12, YMOTB #13-20

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