Fans of Doug Murray and Russ Heath’s HEARTS AND MINDS and Wayne Vansant’s KATUSHA should head over to the excellent podcast series In Country: Marvel Comics’ “THE NAM”, presented by Tom Panarese on Podomatic.com. In each episode Panarese summarizes an issue of the groundbreaking 1980s Vietnam War comics series. The series was notable as the first to realistically depict the American experience in Vietnam and for telling the story in real time – each issue progressing one month in the history of the conflict. Created by Vietnam-veteran Doug Murray and artist Michael Golden, Wayne Vansant first worked on the series in issue #7, which told the story of a “Kit Carson Scout” – a Viet Cong guerrilla who defected to South Vietnam – and through the subject tells the history of the conflict in Southeast Asia from the 1940s to the 1960s. Vansant’s first issue features the documentary-style storytelling that he would go on to employ over an impressive career as one of the top military historians working graphic novels, with fictional works including KATUSHA: GIRL SOLDIER OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR and non-fiction like the Zenith Graphic Histories series (NORMANDY, GETTYSBURG, GRANT VS LEE, BOMBING NAZI GERMANY, and the forthcoming THE RED BARON and BATTLE OF THE BULGE. The series also featured stories illustrated by war comics greats John Severin and Russ Heath. While writing THE NAM, Murray worked with Russ Heath to create the graphic novel HEARTS AND MINDS, published by Marvel’s Epic imprint. Rights for HEARTS AND MINDS are available from Grand Design Communications. Listen to In Country: Marvel Comics’ “The ‘Nam” — Episode 7: The whole series is available at In Country: Marvel Comics’ “THE NAM” on Podomatic.com.
