After 37 years . . .

Back in the early-to-mid-'70s, DC Comics used to run these house ads, where they'd show a number of small, mostly-black-and-white pictures of several comics on sale that month, such as this one, which ran in comics cover-dated August and September 1974.  (Click on the image for a larger version.)

I remember reading these ads (at the tender age of six) and being fascinated by the covers, particularly the horror ones and also some of the war ones. I was mostly interested in superhero comics (and I would not have been allowed to have a horror comic at that age), but the horror and war comics had the covers that really grabbed you, and even now I have vivid memories of some of the covers advertised. One of the images that burned itself into my mind was the cover of Our Fighting Forces #150, in the middle right in the ad above. Here's a larger picture of the actual cover, drawn by legendary comics artist Joe Kubert:

 

I could hardly imagine a situation more desperate than this: the American GI, forced to lie perfectly still or be shot by the Nazis, while right in front of his face, a venomous snake rears up, ready to strike. This scene was indelibly etched in my brain, and over the years I repeatedly thought of it when reminiscing about the comics of that era.

So in 2011, when I was going through a box of $2 comics at a convention and I found a copy of Our Fighting Forces #150, I had to buy it. After 37 years, I could finally find out how this GI got into this horrific situation, and more importantly, how he could possibly get out of it. So I bought the comic and took it home, and took it out of its bag and read it . . . 

. . . and nothing even remotely resembling this scene occurs anywhere in the story.