Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, the greatest sea landing and assault in the history of the world. The men and women who fought WWII had the kind of grit and determination needed. To call them The Greatest Generation is to simply underwhelm; they are the generation that saved all the rest of us from the evil of empire. In the East, Japan brutally assaulted civilians and soldiers committed unspeakable atrocities. To the West, not one but two totalitarian regimes stood on the brink of domination of Europe. All that stood against them and world domination: The Greatest Generation.

Now we had staunch allies and many sacrificed just as much as the U.S.A. to win, but nowhere in human history did so much rely on one country. We had only 334,000 total in the armed forces at the beginning of WWII. By comparison, the German Army had fielded 36 divisions at this time and over 13.6 million soldiers over the course of the war (Wiki). The United States had survived the Great Depression and were hard people, as tough as the steel of the bayonets they would mass produce. Did they fear, heck yes, but that didn't stop them from rolling up their sleeves and going to town on our enemies. The rest is history.

 

 

 

Our Army at War #168

These books were some of the only war stories I read as a kid. The Unknown Soldier was always mysterious, deadly and righteous. I was hooked. In honor of those men and women who sacrificed in WWII, today I thought a look back at The Unknown Soldier would be most appropriate. Essentially, everyone was the unknown soldier back in WWII. The Unknown Soldier first appeared in Our Army at War #168 (June 1966) created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. "The character is named after The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. The character of The Unknown Soldier is symbolic of the nameless soldiers that have fought throughout America's Wars. His abilities were as a weapons expert, master of disguise and an expert combatant" (Wiki). Do these old war comics still have some fight left in them and should new investors purchase these old school books?

 

 

Long-Term Returns:

  • Grade 9.4 $1800 FMV (recent sale) returns negative -20% 
  • Grade 9.2 $1000 FMV (recent sale) returns positive +30.3%
  • Grade 8.5 $399 FMV (recent sale) returns positive +20.9%
  • Grade 6.5 $155 (sale 2017) returns positive +97.6%

The long-term outlook for this book is positive though because of the lack of media hype its returns are kind of pre-Iron Man movie. Bottom line, there are collectors, and people that love these books. But we are a long way from a movie for the Unknown Soldier. However, use your imagination maybe not now with all the superhero hype in the air and Disney about to burst onto the scene with a new streaming service; but in the future, sure. You want to be ready, sitting pretty in your fox hole, with plenty of ammo for the M-1, tinned rations, and most importantly the highest graded copy of Our Army at War #168 in your possession.

The patriotic duty of every American is to remember those that have made all this freedom possible. The landing on D-Day was the beginning of the end of the Axis Powers, and the end of the beginning of America's rise to dominance as the world super-power. The Greatest Generation made it all happen, honor their memory with solidarity in the belief in democracy (small "d").