Posted in: Comics | Tagged: dead reckoning, diamond, don winslow of the navy, machete squad, Navy, retailer summit, the stan, trench dogs, us naval institute

U.S. Navy Invades Comics Industry, Launches Dead Reckoning Imprint, Reprints Classic Don Winslow

The U.S. Navy has circled its battleships to lay siege to the comic book industry with a new graphic novel imprint, debuting at the Diamond Retailer lunch at C2E2 today. Dead Reckoning, a division of Naval Institute Press, will launch with four graphic novels in September, including a reprint collection of the classic comic Don Winslow of the Navy (the Fawcett comics, not the Newspaper strip).

Here's what else Dead Reckoning has to offer:

Machete Squad

By Brent Dulak, Kevin Knodell, David Axe, and Per Darwin Berg

Brent Dulak doesn't want to go to Afghanistan. Haunted by the memories of his two tours in Iraq and burnt out on soldiering, he wants nothing more than to drink to self-destructive excess and have meaningless sex with questionable women.

He's a U.S. Army medic who was recently promoted to sergeant, in charge of a team of soldiers whose job it will be patch up the wounded at a remote outpost as American forces prepare to turn Kandahar Province over to the Afghan forces. That won't be easy, Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban. It's filled with motivated insurgents, questionable local allies and countless ways to die.

Brutally honest and darkly funny, Machete Squad is the story of a soldier trying to keep people alive as America's longest war rages all around him. He must look out for the welfare of his men and their patients even as he doubts his own abilities-and at times his sanity.

The Stan

By Kevin Knodell, David Axe, and Blue Delliquanti

The 'Stan is a collection of short comics about America's longest war. The tales in this book—based on reporting by David Axe and Kevin Knodell and drawn by artist Blue Delliquanti—are all true and took place in roughly the first decade of the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan. While the stories are from the recent past, The 'Stan is still very much about Afghanistan's, and America's, present. And likely future.

Trench Dogs

by Ian Densford

Inspired from assorted first-hand accounts, this fictional story of World War I is a sweeping look across the war and the soldiers who experienced the horrors of the front lines and high seas. While horse drawn carts and trains were ordinary sights, some of the first automobiles, tanks, submarines, airplanes, and battleships were being used; alongside machine guns, poison gas, and flame throwers. The nightmares of World War I and the fallout afterwards are often overlooked, this book asks the reader to look again and remember the dead, to weigh their number against those that would choose war. Conceived as a long, continuous camera pan through the trenches and beyond, the reader is soon buried in mud, corpses, and ruin, emerging on the other side with blurred recollections of lost comrades and a nagging sense of pointless destruction.

The Best of Don Winslow of the Navy

Edited by Craig Yoe

A collection of the best stories from the classic Fawcett run of Don Winslow of the Navy, one of the most popular comics running during and after World War II. Edited by Craig Yoe, the selected stories are digitally restored and contextualized with Craig's historical research and introduction. Preceding the full, colorful tales is a detailed introduction on the creation of the adventurous Don Winslow. The character served to foster recruitment, entertain Navy personnel and the general public during World War II and beyond. Winslow fights the Axis and super villains like The Snake and the smoldering hot, but deadly, Singapore Sal.

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