The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz (comic book)

 

Schultz in German uniform

(1967-1970)
Written by Will Franz & Sam Blanzman.  Additional illustrations by Wayne Vansant
Wikipedia Page

When I was growing up, the local drugstore carried only four comic book publishers:  DC, Dell, Classics Illustrated, and Charlton.* DC was the biggest and best; Dell was for kids; Classics Illustrated were barely considered comics at all; and Charlton was a joke. No one read Charlton. It was during the late 60s that they produced The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz, unique among all the World War II comics of the  era.

Willy Schultz was an American army captain fighting in North Africa. After a misunderstanding, he was court martialed for shooting his colonel, who Schultz was threatening with a gun, when a German sniper shot the colonel. Schultz was given the death penalty, but a German attack freed him, and he found his ways to German lines, Since he grew up speaking German, he was able to pose as a German soldier and fought with them, avoiding killing any Americans. And thus began his odyssey, as fate caused him to switch sides as he hoped to find a way to clear his name.

This was quite different from the war comics of the time. They were popular, with titles like Sgt. Rock, Our Army at War, G.I. Combat, Blackhawk, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, and many others.** They all had soldiers as heroic warriors for a just cause.***

The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz was an antiwar war comic. Schultz often questioned the brutality and even the necessity of the war and how the killing was often senseless. Characters would be introduced and often would be killed in the battle.  It clearly was influenced by the controversy over the Vietnam war.

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*I'm sure you spotted what was missing here. But Marvel Comics had very poor distribution outside of big cities. In my home town, only 80 miles for New York City, no on ever heard of Marvel. I learned about them when someone moved next door to me with his brother's collection, which made me an expert (no one in my school had ever heard of Spider-Man). I often say that Marvel didn't exist, and that was true in my town.

**Schultz was a feature in Fightin' Army.

***The main ambiguous war comic hero was Enemy Ace, set in World War I, starring a German pilot, based on Manfred Richthofen (the Red Baron), who was ambivalent to the fight. Setting it in the first world war avoided issues with Nazism.