Fightin' Marines

Fightin' Marines
Fightin' Marines #14, the first issue published by Charlton.
Publication information
Publisher	St. John Publications Charlton Comics
Schedule	Bi-monthly
Format	Anthology
Publication date	October 1951 – September 1984
No. of issues	174
Creative team
Written by	Joe Gill
Artist(s)	Pat Boyette, Sam Glanzman, Jack Keller, Sanho Kim, Fran Matera, Warren Sattler

Fightin' Marines was a bimonthly war comic magazine published by St. John Publications from 1951–1953, and Charlton Comics from 1955–1984, although it was primarily a reprint title from 1978 to the end of its run. Telling fictional stories of the United States Marine Corps, it was a sister title of the other Charlton war comics Fightin' Air Force, Fightin' Army, and Fightin' Navy.

Fightin' Marines was the home of the long-running Vietnam War feature "Shotgun Harker and Chicken," written by Joe Gill. Gill wrote the majority of stories for the title during its entire run. Other notable contributors to Fightin' Marines included Pat Boyette, Sam Glanzman, Jack Keller, Sanho Kim, Fran Matera, and Warren Sattler.

As with many comic book titles published at the time, Fightin' Marines did not start with issue number one; it was a renaming of a St. John Publications series originally called The Texan, which published one issue in August 1951. St. John published issues #2–12 of Fightin' Marines from October 1951 - March 1953.

Charlton took over the series in May 1955 with issue #14 (no issue #13 was published). Early issues of Fightin' Marines sported such taglines as "Breathtaking Action Stories," "Leathernecks in Combat," and "Rip-Snortin' Action Tales." Issues #121 – #130 (March 1975 – July 1976) featured painted covers. (Issue #122 was called Fightin' Marines Presents War, which was a tryout issue for the new Charlton title War, which ran from July 1975 – October 1984.) From issue #131 (September 1976) onward, the cover of each issue featured a head shot of a Marine in dress uniform in the upper left hand corner, next to the title.