The Losers
Prior to the formation of the group, each character had his own adventures in DC's war anthology comics. Captain Johnny Cloud, a Navajo pilot who always destroyed his planes after a mission. had appeared in All-American Men of War #82–115 (1960–1966); the two-man team of Gunner and Sarge had first appeared in issue #67 of the same title (March 1959) before transferring to Our Fighting Forces for a fifty-issue run, #45–94 (May 1959–August 1965). Captain Storm, a PT Boat Commander, had his own title, which lasted 18 issues from 1964 to 1967.
Their first appearance as a group was with The Haunted Tank crew in G.I. Combat #138 (October -November 1969), in a story titled "The Losers". Prior to that, Captain Storm, Gunner and Sarge (along with Fighting Devil Dog) had teamed together once before to fight some Japanese naval officers in Captain Storm #13. They got their own series a few months later (January/February 1970), as the main feature of Our Fighting Forces, beginning with issue #123. Their stories as a team were written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by a variety of artists, most notably Sam Glanzman, Russ Heath, John Severin, and Joe Kubert.
The group served in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, meeting other DC World War II characters such as the Haunted Tank and Sergeant Rock. The team briefly had a female member named Ona Tomsen who was part of the Norwegian resistance movement, who joined the team in issue #135. At the same time, the team briefly lost Captain Storm, who suffered amnesia (and lost an eye) due to a bomb blast. They reunited in issue #141, when Capt. Storm reappeared as a one-eyed, peg-legged pirate. Gunner's pet dog Pooch also joined the team for some missions.
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Famous quotes containing the word losers:
“Nihilism as a symptom that the losers have no more consolation: that they destroy in order to be destroyed, that without morality they no longer have any reason to “resign themselves”Mthat they put themselves on the level of the opposite principle and for their part also want power in that they compel the mighty to be their hangmen. This is the European form of Buddhism, renunciation, once all existence has lost its “meaning.””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the game of love, the losers are more celebrated than the winners.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)