The Iron Corporal was a fictional character appearing first as a recurring character in Charlton Comics

Charlton Comics

Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...

' war comics line, and briefly in his own comic book titled The Iron Corporal. His first appearance was in Army War Heroes #22 in 1967.

The stories, written by Willi Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman

Sam Glanzman

Sam J. Glanzman is an American comic-book artist, best known for his Charlton Comics series Hercules, about the mythological Greek demigod; his biographical war stories about his service aboard the U.S.S...

 (one story was written by Charles Nicholas

Charles Nicholas (comics)

"Charles Nicholas" is the pseudonymous house name of three early creators of American comic books for the Fox Feature Syndicate and Fox Comics....

 and drawn by Vince Alascia

Vince Alascia

Vincent Alascia , also known as Nicholas Alascia, was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America during the Golden Age of comics, and for his 23-year run as inker on a single creative team, with penciler Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski and writer Joe Gill at Charlton Comics...

), revolved around Ian Heath, an American corporal

Corporal

Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....

 fighting with the Australian army in the Southwest Pacific during the Second World War. The Iron Corporal's back story includes having his ribs replaced with an iron rib cage. The stories are only loosely connected and depict the struggles of infantrymen in war.

Franz was also responsible for two other recurring series, The Lonely War of Captain Willy Schultz

Captain Willy Schultz

Captain Willy Schultz is a fictional comic-book soldier, a German-American U.S. Army captain during World War II, who after being falsely accused and convicted of murder, escapes and blends into the German Army while seeking a way to clear his name and retain his Allied allegiance...

 and The Devil's Brigade

Will Franz

William "Willi" Franz is an American comic-book writer and occasional penciler, best known for his Charlton Comics war stories, mostly published during the period 1967–1970. Franz is particularly remembered for the ongoing feature "The Lonely War of Willy Schultz", a Vietnam War-era serial about a...

.

Sources consulted

• Comic Book Artist #9 (Two Morrow Publishing, August 2000, 116pp.) Interviews with Glanzman and Willi Franz.