Sad Sack

In the 1960’s and into the early 70’s comic books were still fighting World War II. Serious or humorous each comic book company had someone in the military. Marvel had Sgt. Fury. DC, called National Periodicals at the time, had nearly cornered the market on military personnel with Sgt. Rock, Captain Storm and Haunted Tank. By the way take a look at Dial B for Blog today as the have many covers from that era on their site. My favorite is the Captain Storm cover. Charlton had Beetle Bailey. Harvey Comics had Sad Sack. At the time Sad Sack had the most popularity between him and Beetle Bailey. Sad Sack stared in the 1940’s. He was created by Sgt. George Baker as a World War II comic strip. Sad Sack was Army slang from a joke that meant inept rookie. It was done wordless in pantomime style. It made it in to Yank magazine and Life Magazine. After the war it was a newspaper comic strip till the 1950’s. Then Harvey comics got the comic book rights. As the cover says Sad Sack was loved by millions. It was an instant hit with comic book audiences. The art style changed and now Sad Sack had to talk. While other artist eventually took over, mostly Fred Rhoads, George Baker still did the covers in the original style till his death in 1975. I am not certain if it was intentional but it seemed like there were some similarities between Sad Sack and Beetle Bailey. But they were both about Privates in the Army who had to deal with other crazy military characters. The main difference is that Beetle was always trying to get out of work but Sack, while he didn’t like to work, would do what he was told. Like Beetle he didn’t always do the best job but at least he did work. The Sad Sack series was so popular that even supporting cast members, like the General, Sarge, and Slob Slobinski got their own series. There was even a kid’s version called Little Sad Sack. Sad Sack even had his own radio program with Mel Blanc as Sack. Paramount even released a movie called The Sad Sack starring Jerry Lewis.
The issue pictured above is issue 191 from 1967. In it are some short stories where Sack stops military spies, a death threat on the Generals life, various stories about Army life and some corny jokes. My favorite story is when Sack and his buddy Hi-Fi are getting tired walking back to the base. They see the Sarge but he drives past them in his jeep. Hi-Fi and Sack are upset that passed them up but Hi-Fi said remember someday Sarge will have everything come back to him. They see a car dealer and they get a free trial spin in one of the cars. An expensive looking red convertible. Meanwhile Sarge is broke down and they pass him on the road. Sack and Hi-Fi stop at a restaurant to get lunch. Sarge sees their car and they left the keys in so he drives it back to the base. He decides to get back at them by making changes to the new car that he thinks they bought. When he returns it to them it is no longer red but green and the fenders are gone. Sack and Hi-Fi tell him they reported the car stolen and it still belongs to the dealer. Sarge drives it back to the dealership. He has a brief chase with the police. Very brief as it is only two panels. Then he has to pay the dealer $2,000 for the car. Hey it was used and cars were cheaper in 1967.
Here is a link to a Sad Sack site and here is a link to another one.