Single Panel Comics

Over the years of running this blog I’ve acquired an assortment of single panel comics related to the Foreign Legion.  Now that I’ve scanned the hard copies here is the collection beginning with one of my favorites with probably one of the most obscure joke references ever.  It was published in 1932 in a U.K. newspaper known as The Sketch.  The reference refers to the large number of former Foreign Legionnaires attempting to market their experiences to a literary agent–so many that there is a waiting room full of them.  This was apparently quite true at the time as there actually were many news articles and books being written about certain experiences these men have had in the Legion.  There were also former Legionnaires on speaking tours and appearances before and after the showing times of the Beau Geste movie and related stage plays where the veterans entertained the audience with “true” and horrid tales of life in the “Legion of the Damned”.

This one is from the great Bill Mauldin who was famous for his WWII cartoons featuring GI’s Willie and Joe.  In 1961 the future of the Foreign Legion was being questioned after the infamous Algiers putsch.

The rest of these cartoons mostly play on the notion of forgetting the past or forgetting a girl or in the case of the Gary Larson panel forgetting the Alamo.  (Also included are some Cartoon Stock watermarked images which I suppose are hoovered up by them in the same way as Getty Images claims rights over photographs they have no actual rights to.)  I’m trying to collect some Foreign Legion jokes as well but those are harder to find….”Did you hear about the guy who rejoined the Foreign Legion for another five years? He needed to try and forget what he went through the first five years.”

Davy Crockett joins up to forget the Alamo.

‘Bloody foreigners.’ ‘Who said that?!’

‘Believe me, when you reach MY age you won’t remember who you joined up to forget!’

‘It’s just that, when you asked me if I fancied a pint down the Legion…’

‘It was bad enough losing to her at pool but when she beat me at arm wrestling…’

‘She’s gonna take some forgetting – after all she was 45′ 18′ 36′!’

“I joined because I like sand.”