by Harvey Kurtzman
Two-Fisted Tales #23[#6] (1951)
A little morality play set in the Korean War from Kurtzman in this story, as we first meet Abner, an American soldier who's always sharpening his knife and eager to use it against a Chinese soldier.
Meanwhile, on the other side, is an equally creepy Chinese soldier named Li feels the same way about the machine gun he lovingly takes care of. No surprise then as Abner meets Li on the battle field, and they manage to kill each other and lay dying next to each other, and we get a lecture from Kurtzman about how we should "regard no man's life cheaper than your own".
Lots of great little bits of storytelling from Kurtzman here, especially how the scene introducing Li echoes the images from two pages earlier of Abner. A bit preachy there at the end, but an interesting contrast to the gung-ho nature of many war comics.
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