It was initially written by Doug Murray, illustrated by Michael Golden and edited by Larry Hama, and was published by Marvel Comics for seven years beginning in 1986, which was intended to roughly parallel the analogous events of the period of major American military involvement in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973.

The comic was initially structured as the narrative of a fictional soldier, Private First Class Edward Marks (but sometimes following other characters), as he experiences real events that occurred during the conflict.

Joe cover, one that showed an Infantryman in camo face paint peering through dense jungle foliage.

"[2] Though he chose Murray and Golden for the series in part because of their having done "The 5th to the 1st", Hama has denied that The 'Nam itself in any way sprang from "The 5th to the 1st", and mentioned that he did not think Shooter was even aware of those stories.

[6] The series had a publicity coup when The Washington Post did a big write-up on the first issue's release, which was picked up by other newspapers across the country; it was rare that the mainstream press gave significant recognition to doings in the comic book industry.

[5] Murray wanted to work on a Comics Code-approved series in order to reach a broader audience.

Hama and Murray wanted to ignore politics and focus on the war from the average foot soldier's point of view.

[7] Many changes occurred in the series after the first 12 issues; the use of newsprint was abandoned in favor of slicker paper with higher color intensity.

[5] Had he continued with the book, Murray wanted the main character from the first year, Ed Marks, to come back to Vietnam as a reporter and deal with the subject of Agent Orange.

Immediately following Murray's departure, the real time progression of the stories stopped, and the 23rd Infantry squad were dropped as the main characters.

[10] Marine Corps veteran and former Newsweek editor William Broyles Jr. praised the comic for having "a certain gritty reality", but Jan Scruggs, President of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, questioned if the Vietnam War should be the subject of a comic book and if it might trivialize it.