THE COMPLETE TWO-FISTED TALES (4 Volume Boxed Set, issues #18-41)

West Plains, MO: : Russ Cochran,, (1980). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in a a very near fine slipcase. Uncommon in this condition. . First thus. A hardcover reprint in black and white (with the covers in full color) of the complete anthology war comics published bi-monthly by EC Comics in the early 1950s. "The title originated in 1950 when Harvey Kurtzman suggested to William Gaines that they publish an adventure comic. Kurtzman became the editor of Two-Fisted Tales, and with the dawn of the Korean War, he soon narrowed the focus to war stories .Artists who contributed included Kurtzman and other EC regulars such as John Severin, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, George Evans, Will Elder, Reed Crandall and Bernard Krigstein. Non-EC regulars that contributed to the comic included Alex Toth, Ric Estrada, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert and Dave Berg." (wikipedia) This 4 oversized 4 volume boxed set includes all of the issues from #18, December 1950 (the first one) through #41 in February 1955. In addition to being historically accurate, the stories Kurtzman wrote for this title often displayed an anti-war attitude. Canadian journalist Mitchell Brown wrote about the impact and influence of Kurtzman's approach: "Unlike other magazines of the day, no one could accuse Two-Fisted Tales of being wartime propaganda. On the contrary, the magazine was a brutally honest look at battles and wars throughout history. Kurtzman, who had been drafted in 1942, knew warfare firsthand, and he was outraged by the gung-ho war comics that made war look like a glorious thing. In his stories, there were no heroesÑjust soldiers trapped in situations beyond their control. Often, his stories weren't about soldiers at all, focusing instead on the lives of innocent people scarred by war." (wikipedia). In addition to reprinting all of the original material on high-quality paper, these volumes contain notes and comments (inside the covers) by John Benson and E. B. Boatner, two experts on EC Comics, who interviewed Kurtzman for this project. Unpaginated.Set consists of four large format books in illustrated boards, in an illustrated slipcase. Published as part of the complete EC Library.