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CGC records 5 graded copies for War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle #1 (2008). Population is the number recorded by this grading source, not the total print run or all surviving copies.
I: Bloody April
In Spring 1917 America joined World War I, one of their first orders were to create the Eighty-Eight American Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. The Squadron was led by Major Peter Roxburgh-Jones who recruited a very reluctant Captain Jack Booker, a native American who wants nothing to do with his fellow countrymen. The two men are very surprised when an unrequested pilot by the name of Lieutenant Karl Kaufmann shows up in a brightly decorated Spad airplane. The commanders told the unorthodox Kaufmann to bring his written order to the adjutant, Captain Clark.
Clark, who's already been drinking heavily, takes the order but admits that it doesn't look like an official letter but figures that he will contact wing command later and straighten it out. In the meantime, Kaufmann is assigned to C-Company and jumps aboard his plane as they are just about to leave on a routine mission. After the planes have started their engines, Captain Clark comes running out saying that Kaufmann's letter is not an official signal, but no one can hear him above the roar of the planes. The drunk Clark ran right towards Kaufmann screaming at him to get out of the plane, but he ran right into it's propeller, slicing him to bits. The fake order got sliced up along with the officer and Kaufmann got his plane off the ground before anyone could ask him any questions.
Once in the sky, Kaufmann quickly got separated from his company and got lost in the clouds. When he emerged he saw a lone German plane and quickly shot at it, severing the head of it's pilot. The sight sickened Kaufmann and he vomited before landing. He believed that he was the first of his Company to arrive back at base and related how he got lost and shot down a German plane to his commanding officers. They, in turn, told Kaufmann that the rest of the planes wouldn't be returning, that they had been reported shot down while on patrol. Captain Booker informs Kaufmann that their losses have been very high lately, causing them to term the month Bloody April.
Creative credits
Writers: Garth Ennis
Interior art: Howard Chaykin
Color: Brian Reber
Source records & attribution
Panel Profits keeps each source identity attached to its edition record.
COMICBASE: comicbase:1196967
COMICBASE: comicbase:1196968
GCD: 510533