The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz

by Will Franz, Sam Glanzman (Illustrator), Wayne Vansant (Illustrator)

Overview

Finally collected by IT’S ALIVE! and co-published with Dark Horse, The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz was originally serialized in the comic book Fightin' Army in the 1960s.

An American solider of German heritage finds himself on the wrong side of World War II in this sweeping epic. This war story is, at its heart, an anti-war story and a story about universal human nature in the hellhole of war. Also includes a new final chapter drawn by Wayne Vansant and a new historical essay by Stephen R. Bissette about the series.

This series was written by a sixteen-year-old Will Franz and illustrated by the already-seasoned comic book creator and WWII veteran Sam Glanzman. The entire story arc, collected here and finally finished, is one of the most dramatic, moving, and controversial comic book stories ever told!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506731544
Publisher:	Dark Horse Comics
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Will Franz is an American comic-book writer and occasional penciler, best known for his Charlton Comics war stories, mostly published from 1967 to 1970. Franz is particularly remembered for the ongoing feature "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz", a Vietnam War-era serial about a German American U.S. Army captain during World War II.

Editorial Reviews

12/01/2022

Tunisia, World War II: Captain Willy Schultz is framed for the murder of his commanding officer and sentenced to execution by firing squad. An ambush by the enemy grants him the opportunity to escape into the harsh, unforgiving North African desert. He may be a man without a country, but he believes that "the Nazis are still Nazis and must be stopped," which means he's not done fighting. The ensuing one-man battle for survival was first serialized in Charlton Comics's Fightin' Army in the 1960s, when comic-book racks abounded with titles depicting soldiers as glorious heroes and combat as a thrilling adventure—this story isn't like those. This story is about soldiers who bleed, die, and kill at the whim of generals and politicians who determine their fates in rooms far from the battlefield. It's about the cost of allowing ideology to override personal morality and retaining one's humanity in an unimaginably brutal world. VERDICT Creators Franz and Glanzman (A Sailor's Story) provide enough explosive action to satisfy the genre conventions of the time in which the story was created, but with a distinct, stunningly powerful, anti-war perspective. This volume collects the entire series for the first time.

Library Journal