Marvel Studios put the X-Men at the center of D23 2026, revealing a new cast that includes Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor X and Marine vet Adam Driver as Mister Sinister. The announcement opened another chapter for characters that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced to comic readers in 1963.
Before Lee helped create the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk and other Marvel heroes, he wrote for the U.S. Army. Lee entered the service during World War II and began in the Signal Corps, repairing communications equipment. The Army later transferred him to its Training Film Division, where he wrote manuals, film scripts and cartoons under the military classification “playwright.”
Lee’s service is one of several military careers hidden behind books, comics and television shows familiar to generations of children. The people on this list served on the Somme, flew combat missions, led a machine-gun squad and drew cartoons for troops. For some, the experience became part of their creative work. For others, it remains a little-known chapter of an otherwise familiar life.
1. A.A. Milne Served on the Somme Before Creating Winnie-the-Pooh
Alan Alexander Milne was already an established writer when he joined the British Army in February 1915. He received a commission in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and eventually served as a signals officer with its 11th Battalion during the Battle of the Somme.
Signals officers were responsible for keeping commanders connected to troops at the front. That could mean laying and repairing telephone wire across damaged ground or carrying messages when the lines failed.
Milne contracted trench fever in 1916 and was sent back to Britain. He later worked for MI7b, a military intelligence section that produced pro-British newspaper articles and other propaganda. According to the British government’s account of his service, Milne contributed material to the unit through the end of the war.
He would later become an outspoken critic of war, publishing Peace with Honour in 1934. Then came another war, and Milne served as a captain in the Home Guard during World War II.
The first Winnie-the-Pooh book appeared in 1926. Milne did not turn the Hundred Acre Wood into a battlefield allegory, but the calm world he created came from a writer who understood how quickly ordinary life could disappear.
2. Roald Dahl Survived an RAF Crash and Returned to Combat
Before writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl flew fighters for the Royal Air Force.
Dahl joined the RAF in 1939 and trained in Kenya and Iraq before being assigned to No. 80 Squadron in North Africa. On Sept. 19, 1940, he was delivering a Gloster Gladiator to the squadron when he failed to locate the airstrip he had been given. With daylight and fuel running out, he attempted a landing in the desert.
The aircraft struck the ground, overturned and caught fire. Dahl suffered serious injuries but managed to crawl away before losing consciousness. British troops found him the following morning.
After months in a military hospital, Dahl was declared fit to fly again. He rejoined his squadron in Greece, where he flew Hurricanes during the German invasion and took part in the Battle of Athens. The RAF Benevolent Fund’s account of his career describes a battle in which 12 Hurricanes faced more than 200 German aircraft.
Dahl later served as an assistant air attaché in Washington, D.C. His first published story described the desert crash, although an editor gave it the misleading title “Shot Down Over Libya.”
His first children’s book had an even clearer military connection. The Gremlins grew out of RAF folklore about small creatures blamed for unexplained mechanical problems aboard aircraft.
3. J.R.R. Tolkien Kept Communications Running During the Somme
J.R.R. Tolkien arrived in France with the Lancashire Fusiliers in June 1916, shortly before the Battle of the Somme began.
His battalion entered the fighting at Ovillers in July. Tolkien was appointed battalion signals officer soon afterward, placing him in charge of communications between the front and unit headquarters.
The work could be deadly. Telephone lines had to be laid and repaired across ground exposed to artillery, machine-gun fire and snipers. When the lines went down, signals personnel relied on runners, lamps, flags and carrier pigeons.
Tolkien remained on the Somme until October, when he contracted trench fever. He was evacuated to Britain and spent much of the remaining war moving between hospitals and garrison assignments.
During his recovery, Tolkien began developing stories that would eventually become part of his Middle-earth mythology. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that some of his earliest writings about that world date to this period.
Tolkien acknowledged that the war intensified his interest in fantasy, but he rejected attempts to reduce The Lord of the Rings to a direct retelling of either world war.
4. Charles Schulz Led a Machine-Gun Squad in Europe
Charlie Brown rarely feels prepared for what life throws at him. His creator knew something about facing a frightening situation while wondering whether he was ready.
Charles Schulz was drafted into the Army in 1943 and eventually became a staff sergeant with the 20th Armored Division. He arrived in France in February 1945 as the leader of a machine-gun squad.
The division crossed the Rhine and advanced through Germany toward Munich. It also participated in the liberation of Dachau and is officially recognized as a liberating unit, although the available record does not establish that Schulz personally entered the concentration camp.
Schulz received the Combat Infantryman Badge for serving under hostile fire. He remained proud of his service throughout his life.
His wartime experiences occasionally surfaced in Peanuts. Snoopy imagined himself as a World War I flying ace, and Schulz honored famed military cartoonist Bill Mauldin in annual Veterans Day strips. He also returned to Europe while developing Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!) and the television special What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?
The Charles M. Schulz Museum’s history says the latter incorporated footage from Omaha Beach as the Peanuts characters visited Normandy.
5. Dr. Seuss Created Private Snafu for the Army
By the time Theodor Geisel entered the Army in 1943, he had already published several children’s books under the name Dr. Seuss. His military assignment gave him a very different audience.
Geisel joined at age 38 and was placed in charge of animation for the 1st Motion Picture Unit. Working with filmmakers and animators, he helped produce instructional material for American troops.
His best-known wartime project was Private Snafu, a series of short cartoons about a soldier who repeatedly made poor decisions. Snafu talked too freely, neglected his equipment and ignored basic health precautions. His failures showed troops what could happen if they made the same mistakes.
The cartoons covered subjects including malaria prevention, military secrecy and the use of gas masks. They were written for adult soldiers, which allowed Geisel and the animators to use humor that was considerably rougher than anything readers would later find in The Cat in the Hat.
Most of the shorts were written by Geisel and voiced by Mel Blanc, with animators such as Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng involved in production. The films were restricted to military audiences during the war but have since entered the public domain. The National Archives has preserved several of them.
6. Stan Lee Wrote Training Material for the Army
Stan Lee had begun working at Timely Comics before the United States entered World War II. He temporarily left that career behind when he entered the Army in 1942.
Lee was assigned to the Signal Corps, where his early duties included repairing telegraph lines and communications equipment. Once the Army learned about his writing experience, it transferred him to the Training Film Division.
He spent the rest of the war writing manuals, film scripts, slogans and cartoons. His official military classification was “playwright.” According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Lee was one of only nine soldiers given that designation.
After leaving the Army in 1945, Lee returned to Timely. The company eventually became Marvel Comics, where he helped create Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the X-Men and Doctor Strange.
7. Shel Silverstein Became a Professional Cartoonist at Stars and Stripes
Shel Silverstein was drafted into the Army during the 1950s and assigned to the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes. Working from Japan, Silverstein drew “Take Ten,” a series of cartoons about barracks life and field soldiering. The assignment required him to produce material on a daily deadline, something he had never done consistently before entering the service.
“For a guy of my age and with my limited experience to suddenly have to turn out cartoons on a day-to-day deadline, the job was enormous,” he recalled in a 1969 interview with the newspaper.
Silverstein served on the staff from 1954 to 1956. He later credited the experience with helping launch his career, telling Stars and Stripes that the opportunity allowed him to blossom.
After the Army, his work appeared in magazines before reaching the bookshelves of millions of families. He wrote and illustrated The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic, along with songs including Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.” His military cartoons are preserved by Stars and Stripes.
8. Bob Ross Spent 20 Years in the Air Force
The quiet host of The Joy of Painting had a much louder job before he began filling television screens with mountains and “happy little trees.”
Bob Ross enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 at age 18. He served for 20 years and rose to the rank of master sergeant, including an assignment as first sergeant of the clinic at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
A first sergeant is responsible for the discipline, readiness and welfare of enlisted personnel. Ross later described himself as the person who made airmen scrub latrines and disciplined them for arriving late.
He discovered painting while attending an art class at the Anchorage USO. Alaska’s mountains, forests and snow soon became his preferred subjects, establishing the scenery that would dominate his later television work.
Ross also said that years of giving orders influenced the calm demeanor viewers came to know. After leaving the Air Force, he resolved that he would no longer shout.
He retired in 1981 and began hosting The Joy of Painting two years later. The Department of Veteran Affairs’ provile of Ross connects both his Alaskan landscapes and gentle presentation to his military years.
9. Richard Scarry Drew Maps for Soldiers Before Creating Busytown
Richard Scarry eventually filled his children’s books with busy towns, labeled objects and animal characters explaining how the world worked. His Army assignment required a similar ability to make complicated information understandable.
Scarry was drafted in 1943 and commissioned as a second lieutenant in Army Special Services, an organization responsible for troop morale and entertainment.
He was sent to Allied headquarters in Algiers and told to explain why the troops were fighting while keeping them informed about events back home. Scarry arranged to have a copy of Time magazine flown to his office each week. He condensed the news and converted it into maps, posters and other visual material.
The assignment gave Scarry experience sorting large amounts of information and presenting it clearly. His official biography describes the work as an early step toward the career he later built.
After the war, Scarry moved to New York and began working as a commercial artist. He illustrated his first Little Golden Book in 1949 and eventually created Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever, the Busytown books and hundreds of other titles.
Military service did not affect all nine creators in the same way. Dahl’s RAF experience supplied the idea for his first children’s book. Silverstein learned to work as a professional cartoonist, while Ross found both his subject matter and the quiet manner he adopted after retirement.
For Milne and Tolkien, the connections are harder to measure. Their military records should not be treated as a single explanation for the work that followed.
What ties the nine together is the distance between the worlds they knew in uniform and the ones generations of children came to love.
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