European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine Cru there s nothing funny in comic version of a Iii author David Drake intended the team Yankee series to show that War is not  by Ron Jensen staff writer Hen Vietnam vet and science fiction writer David Drake was hired to script the comic Book version of a novel about world War Iii he wanted one Point to stand out As the Reader turned the pages i Don t like  his feelings Are evident on every Page of the six Issue limited series of team Yankee based on the Best Selling novel by army col. Harold Coyle. Unlike the War comics of the past where wisecracks competed with the rat a Tat Tat of machine guns and no one Ever bled team Yankee combat is vivid and graphic at Drake s direction. Blood splashes from wounded soldiers. Bullets slice limbs from bodies. Civilians perish in the Cross fire. The first two pages of the final Issue Are scenes of nuclear devastation burned corpses hollow eyed survivors scorched landscape. Team Yankee artist Rod Whigham told Drake they were the two most depressing pages he had Ever drawn. The artist was accurately depicting my intentions this is not neat. This is not fun " Drake said in a Telephone interview with the stars and stripes from his Home in North Carolina. I Don t want to be remembered As the Man who made nuclear War  the premise of the comic series is the same As the novel. Relations Between the East and West have broken Down. The soviet army invades West Germany. Nato forces retaliate. Nuclear bombs fall on cities of both sides before a coup in the soviet Union results in peace. The Story line follows a tank Crew through the 12 Days of the War. My intent was to make it As real As i could Drake said. Not so much for the people on the line god knows it will be real when it happens but for the people Back Home who have never been in a War zone to try to get the feel of a military unit in the Field and feeling very very  the people in the Field were interested however. Stars and stripes bookstores in Europe sold nearly 90 percent of the 1,500 copies of each Issue stocked. Team Yankee was Drake s first crack at comic books. His previous work had been science fiction novels most notably a futuristic mercenary series called Hammer s stammers in which combat was depicted As something Nasty and to be avoided basically the 11th armoured cavalry with Ray guns he said. Drake knows about combat. He was with the 11 the army Cav in Vietnam in 1970. He came Back he said with a definite viewpoint about War that has fuelled much of his creative work. I would not be writing the things i write had i not been in the service when and where i was he said. If i had t been in Nam i would t have written the Hammer s stammers series and i certainly would t have been considered for or interested in this comics  Drake returned from Vietnam real shut Down. I was really really really shut Down he said. I was really scared of what i d do if i got angry. I was afraid that i was out of  he drove a motorcycle instead of a car lessening the Chance he would Hurt somebody else if he lost control while driving. The thing they Don t Tell you is a War zone is an insane situation he said. If you act sanely in a War zone you dig a Hole. They can put you in jail. They can do anything they want to you. There is nothing they can do to you that is As bad As what the enemy will do. If you Don t dig a Hole and i did to most people Don t then you Are living in an environment that by definition is insane. If you get used to living in a situation where you think you Are going to be killed it s kind of hard to believe in the reality of a civilian world when you get  Drake returned to North Carolina and Law school. After graduation he worked As the assistant City attorney for Chapel Hill where he now lives. His interest in writing slowly took Over his life and he was delighted to discover helped him put his Vietnam experience in perspective. The anti War work he was doing was a catharsis. It helped a lot he said. I did t realize How much it was helping until after the  Drake not Only put his Point of View into his script he closed each Issue with an editorial under the heading rear  in one he chastises the air Force for buying too Many f-15s and too few a-10s, saying the latter is a better weapon than the former for Europe. In his final editorial Drake discusses his Vietnam experience and How it affected his scripting of team Yankee. He wrote that he Hopes his sentiment comes across. It s funny he said. Vietnam is real big now. Maybe if we can Tell people what it was like nothing like it will happen  saturday february 18, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 13