May-Jun 1953
F-86 Sabre Jet!
by Harvey Kurtzman, Alex Toth
Four F-86 fighter pilots engage 4 MiG-15s in aerial combat over Korea during the Korean War. The sky is very overcast and one of the pilots sails into a seemingly endless cloud bank. He loses sense of direction and has trouble believing what the instruments on his dashboard are telling him. He goes with the readings on the instruments despite feeling that he is making a mistake. His instruments turn out to be correct and he emerges from the cloud bank safely.
I read a black and white version of this story, which was printed in Corpse on the Imjin! and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman. The story was originally published in color. I found color scans of the story, which is just 7 pages long, online. Adding color to this story makes quite a difference.
This is one of three collaborations between Kurtzman and Toth. The other two stories are also in this collection. I think this was the third one published. Kurtzman refused to work with Toth after this story because Toth made some changes to the layouts of a couple panels without his permission.
The tension in this story is palpable. The pilot is really unsure what he should believe. The moment in the cloud bank is where the heart of the story is found. The visuals by Toth are what sell this story. Kurtzman might have done thumbnail layouts for this story but I’m sure it wouldn’t feel quite the same without Toth’s renderings of those thumbnails.
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