Today in Comics History, October 25, 1854: Maybe if they'd only gone a quarter a league onward they might have saved some lives

You read it as poetry in high school, now read it in comic book form which you'll remember a lot longer: the story of the Charge of the Light Brigade!


from "Light Brigade!" in Frontline Combat (1951 series) #4 (EC, January 1952), script and vellum layouts by Harvey Kurtzman, pencils and inks by Wally Wood, letters by Ben Oda



It's war in the Crimea (river made famous in song by Julie London), and the Russians are loaded for bear! Or, technically, British light cavalry troops, who are about to charge the valley on a mission to give Alfred Lord Tennyson maximum literary royalties. (Joke's on him eventually; the poem's in the public domain, hah!)


Quoth army commander Lord Raglan No he didn't.: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Sadly, no one was riding an elephant.


OH THE HUMANITY


Now you're all ready for your big pop quizz tomorrow on the Charge of the Light Brigade. Be sure to mention Wally Wood.


from Star-Spangled War Stories #176 (DC, December 1973)