Rookies in Uniform · Vol. 1 No. 1

The first issue of Rookies in Uniform opens with an introduction signed "The Editor," who allows that the boots, Levi's and white tee of "the outfit" are fine, but the real thing is better. The uniform, he writes, is a symbol of authority, and he dedicates the issue to "the marines, sailors, soldiers, forest rangers, coast guardsmen, postman, cop, military cadet and more." The cover lines back him up with "A Very Cocky Marine," "The Army Gets Out-of-Hand" and "Navy's Ready to Go."

Sailors in white caps line the editor's page, a tattooed man strips on a stack of flattened cartons on p. 5, and "The Merchant Navy Takes a Holiday" puts a curly-haired man and his blond shipmate at the wheel of a boat with palm trees on the shore. On p. 18 comes "Fire Break" by Sean, a hand-drawn comic in which Forester Karl Reynolds and Fireman Chris Martin dodge a flare-up in a cave with an underground stream and start unbuttoning. The back cover stays in color with a blond on the phone, his white pants open.