Whether you’ve been following Retrotechtacular for a while or have firsthand experience with the U.S. Army, you know that when they want to teach something to a someone, they’ll get the job done in spades with a side of style. The era between WWII and the Vietnam War was a golden age of clear, simple instruction that saw the Army use memorable material to teach a wide array of topics. And speaking of golden ages, the Army found success with comic book-style instructional magazines drawn chiefly by [Will Eisner] of Spirit fame.
The first of these rags was called Army Motors, which premiered in 1940. It introduced several memorable characters such as a Beetle Bailey-esque bumbling soldier named Private Joe Dope, and no-nonsense gal mechanic Connie Rodd, a sharp cookie who’s as brainy as she is buxom. Educational and entertaining in equal parts, the magazine was pretty well received.
Its successor, known simply as P.S. started its run around the beginning of the Korean War in June 1951. These magazines were intended as a postscript to the various equipment maintenance manuals that soldiers used. They offered all kinds of preventive maintenance procedures as well as protips for Army life. The eye-catching depictions of Connie Rodd demanded soldiers’ attention while the anthropomorphic equipment illustrations encouraged them to listen to what their equipment told them.
Additional artists including [Joe Kubert] and [Dan Spiegle] were brought in to produce P.S. on a monthly basis. As the years marched on, the magazine’s character base expanded to include representatives of other military branches solving specialized problems. The bumbling idiot types were 86’d pretty early on, but cheesecake was served well into the 1970s.
Did we mention that they’re still making P.S.? Here’s the February 2015 issue and a friendly PDF warning.
Thanks for the tip, [Itay]!
Retrotechtacular is a weekly column featuring hacks, technology, and kitsch from ages of yore. Help keep it fresh by sending in your ideas for future installments.
Awesome! Connie’s 1970 pinup calender lines up with 2015!
This brings back lots of good memories from my time in the Army. I worked on that Radar !!!
Interesting, browser complains the security certificate is not to be trusted at the P.S. mag download link. :D
These are great! Thank you American taxpayer!
Today, the army is all about political correctness. You would be sent to a special class for re-education for displaying a picture of Connie.
I remember these from when I was in the army.
I still read them to this day, Lots of good tips from the field in there
Did the link get hackaday’d or is it geoip limited to CONUS only?
It keeps on timing out for me.
+1 Hackaday just DDOSed the military! Hope they don’t give a fuck lol
Took a while to materialize. It’s approx. 38MB, fyi.
Looks like Connie’s in uniform (or sweats) these days – better still, support for xP is ending on April 8, 2015.( P.54)
After twelve years in the Army I can tell you that the only time I have ever used any of these was to pass time on the can. Still better than staring at the wall of the stall, though.
Have’nt even heard about a magazine or a comic exclusively for the army and military…. being in this publishing decade for almost a decade now…. the look and feel of this magazine attracts me………. Would suggest you to be part of some popular Digital Magazine/Book store which can globalize your content.I am a part of Magzter Digital Newsstand……. check it out if you have any plans for digital expansion.
Ha, I remember these. Thank God for the Reserves. We had stacks of these going back to the 80s in the motorpool office. Right next to the stacks of TMs that came with every vehicle we received. Honestly I think P.S. did more for helping non 63B maintain their shit than the actual TMs lol.
Where can I get the old ones with the more attractively-attired Connie (sans sweat-pants)?
The first link. They didn’t change her until the end of the 1970s.
I actually have an archive of these going back to about ’63 in my motorpool. If you want to see the good stuff the Vietnam era editions are the best, they even go so far as to call the Vietnamese “Charlie.”
Am I the only one who noticed the headline was written with all words beginning with an M?