Don Lomax

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Don Lomax was drafted into the Army in 1965 and, along with most draftees went to Vietnam in the fall of 1966 during President Johnson’s targeted build-up to reach his goal of half a million troops in-country by the summer of 1967. Being an orphan company without a particular mission at the time, upon arriving in the Cha Rang Valley on Highway 19 in the near geological center of the country, his unit (the 98th Light Equipment Maintenance Company) was assigned a plethora of duties from convoying supplies, to airport guard duty at Qui Nhon Airport, to repairing Fuel bladders, with a little shit burning thrown in for fun. All the while he took mental notes and sketched the people, the gear, and the countryside thinking, “This would make a great comic.” And it did.

VIETNAM JOURNAL, the comic book was first published by Apple Publishing in 1987 and was eventually nominated for a Harvey Award. He has had a long career now approaching 50 years in magazine and comic books including a stint at writing The ‘Nam and The Punisher for Marvel in the ‘90s. Other spin-offs, High Shining Brass, Valley of Death, and Tet ’68 are still available in print and downloads on-line.

Lomax has four great children, two girls and two boys with nine grandchildren, and six greatgrandchildren (at last count). His sons are both veterans, his oldest Bryan served in Panama during operation Just Cause and Torrin with the Special Forces during several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both are retired now. Lomax now lives in Illinois with the light of his life, his wife, Zenaida and is hard at work on Series Two of Vietnam Journal. (well, not THAT hard at work. When you love what you do it can’t really be called work, can it?