The best war comics: the tier list

The war comic is an old and demanding genre: the best titles go beyond action to question courage, the absurd and trauma. This tier list brings together the stories that best convey this look, from the classic EC of the 50s to modern series. Criterion: the strength of the story and the accuracy of the statement on the war.

Editorial Ranks, Facts verified. It is a reading guide.

Tier S: the great war stories

Sgt. Rock, worn by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert at DC, is the most iconic comic soldier. The 'Nam (1986), written by veteran Doug Murray, recounts Vietnam with a realism rare for the time. Charley's War (1979) by Pat Mills is an anti-militarist summit on the First World War. And Two-Fisted Tales by Harvey Kurtzman (EC, 1950) remains the model of the demanding and documented war story.

Tier A: the adult look

Enemy Ace humanizes the enemy through a tormented German aviator. Blazing Combat (Archie Goodwin, 1965) paid dearly for his antimilitarism. War Story by Garth Ennis compiles accounts of the Second War, and Punisher: The Platoon returns to Frank Castle's Vietnam with documentary rigor.

Tier B: between history and anticipation

DMZ by Brian Wood imagines a second American Civil War. Frontline Combat extends Kurtzman's work at EC. Weird War Tales mixes war and fantasy, and Winter Soldier anchors its plot in the legacy of the Cold War.

Tier C: the classics of the genre

Our Army at War (birthplace of Sgt. Rock), The Corps and War is Hell complete this selection: solid war series, a notch below the stories that have marked the genre.

To remember

• Harvey Kurtzman (EC) and Joe Kubert (DC) are the two historical pillars of the genre.
• The best titles are often antimilitarist (Charley's War, Blazing Combat).
• The genre is renewed via Ennis (War Story, The Platoon) and Wood (DMZ).
• Some of these titles remain rare in French: look for them in original version or in full.

Where to start: reading guideposts for war comics

A ranking tells you what is strong, not in which order to read it. Here are entry points, each tied to a conflict or an era, to move forward without getting lost in a sprawling genre.

The Korean War and the antimilitarist tone: Two-Fisted Tales. Harvey Kurtzman became its editor after suggesting to William Gaines that they publish an adventure comic, then narrowed the title to war as the Korean conflict began. Frontline Combat is its companion title, and the stories Kurtzman wrote for both often display an anti-war attitude.

The classic soldier: Sgt. Rock. Created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, he first appears in Our Army at War #83. The same duo signs Enemy Ace in 1965, whose hero, Hans von Hammer, nicknamed "The Hammer of Hell", is a troubled German ace plunged into the First World War and, later, the Second.

The human cost of combat: Blazing Combat. This quarterly magazine, published by Warren from 1965 to 1966, is written and edited by Archie Goodwin. It gathers top artists (Gene Colan, Frank Frazetta, John Severin, Alex Toth, Wally Wood) around a humanist theme: the personal price of war, rather than the usual springs of manly adventure. Its short life makes it easy to read in one go.

Vietnam, in order: The 'Nam. Published by Marvel from 1986 for seven years, the series is written by Doug Murray, initially drawn by Michael Golden and edited by Larry Hama. It was designed to roughly follow the timeline of the American presence from 1965 to 1973, which gives a natural chronological thread.

The trenches seen from below: Charley's War. This British comic strip about the First World War, written by Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, follows the conflict at soldier level. It reads best continuously, without interruption.

A simple reading order. Choose a conflict first rather than a publication date: Charley's War and Enemy Ace for the First World War, Two-Fisted Tales for Korea, The 'Nam for Vietnam. For the collector, one point of caution: anthology titles such as Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat gather short stories by several authors. Check which issues a reissue or omnibus covers before buying it, so as not to acquire the same story twice.

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