Comic Book Plus Forum
Comic And Book Related => Comic Talk => Topic started by: kentuckyteacher on March 06, 2008, 07:22:26 PM
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Hello all!
I am currently researching the role comic books (and, to a lesser extent, comic strips in the newspapers) played as propoganda during World War II for an academic paper. I have a few books at my disposal, but was wondering if anyone knew of some good resources, online or otherwise, that I might look at?
Thanks in advance!
David :)
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Hi David
I was just wondering which comics books do you have at your dispossal.
Of course the best online source of Comics Books from the WWII is goldenagecomics.co
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Anatomy of a Mass Medium by Reitenberger & Fuchs is still out there. Denis Gifford did Comics at War; Comic Books and America - 1945 to 1954 by Savage does have some information about the medium with war propoganda stuff as it recaps 1929 to 1944. Superman #1--#20, for example, were propoganda themselves--archives available. Steranko's histories are flawed, but thematically relevant. You also might want to browse the Captain America #1--#10 archive.
--Dave
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'All in Color for a Dime' and 'The Comic Book Book' may also be of interest to you.
B. :D
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The Savage book was what popped into my mind first. The Steranko books would be most helpful for story synopsis (books are more citable than the actual comics in most cases) and for some of the interviews relating to story ideas and the attitudes of some of the creators. I would specifically check out the Captain American chapter (that deals with some of the other patriotic heroes) and the Aviator chapter (I don't remember which volumes each of those are in).
Mark Evanier's new book on Kirby repeats the story about how LaGuardia responded to the intial death threats that Martin Goodman got from the first few issues of Captain America Comics -- and I know I've read about that situation in a few other places. Maybe Gerard Jones Men of Tomorrow?
Comic Book Nation is a book on how comics reflected (and/or affected) youth culture. I have it, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. That might deal with the propaganda element, and it's written by a university professor, so it will have some academic credibility for a college paper.
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There's a German Propaganda site here that is very well done:
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/
and my favourite site on the subject - The Propagander! which has many additional links -
http://members.tripod.com/~propacomics/index.html
-Yoc
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I downloaded one comic called "The fighting Yank". A lot of racial remarks against people from the
far east. It also made some nazi Germans look like Doctor Spock, off Star Trek. LOL A lot of prejudicial
, derogatory remarks against them as well.
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It also made some nazi Germans look like Doctor Spock, off Star Trek. LOL A lot of prejudicial
, derogatory remarks against them as well.
Doctor Spock ? ???
Thats the guy who wrote those books on baby care.
Can't say I remember seeing him in Star Trek, what episode was he in ?
Are you sure your not mixing him up with Stephen Hawking ?
Now he WAS in Star Trek !!! ;D
-Phabox.
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Thats the guy who wrote those books on baby care.
Can't say I remember seeing him in Star Trek, what episode was he in ?
Are you sure your not mixing him up with Stephen Hawking ?
Now he WAS in Star Trek !!! ;D
-Phabox.
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Yeah, sort of a cross between him and Leornard Nimoy. :D Those propoganda comics made everyone else opposed, look subhuman.
It was the ears of Spock (Leonard Nimoy's character) they put on a handful of nazis, in the Fighting Yank
comic I had read.
It's obvious the nazis weren't as smart as Stephen Hawking. Although, Hitler was into the occult. He was no Stephen Hawking though, that's for sure! :) Hehee! Yup, Steven could have been in Star Trek. He would have made Capt Kirk look like a fool! And he though he knew everything about space and time!
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Hey folks, sorry it took me awhile to get back to you all - we're on spring break over here and decided to take some time away from teaching and such for a few days!
Many thanks for the suggestions so far.
What I am using so far is Goulart's Great History of Comic Books, Wright's Comic Book Nation, and Jones' Men of Tomorrow. I also have the DC and Marvel Encyclopedias and Rovin's Encyclopedia of Super Heroes around as well.
Problem with our library on campus is there isn't a great deal of material on the subject, and what there is - somebody already has checked out! Huh. Students. Go figure!
Needless to say I'll be downloading a few things from the site and continuing to look about. Thanks again, and if anyone else has suggestions, keep them coming!
David
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The Steranko History can be hard to find these days, but it is available online to download if you look carefully. I would prefer it to be in print and widely available (and the remaining volumes to be published!), but this is what one has at the present time.
These two volumes were oversized and are incredibly hard to scan, and the one set I've found to download is of photographs of the pages, not actual scans. I found them to be readable enough, but then again, I know the original books pretty much backwards and forwards by now. The Captain America chapter is in Vol. 1 and the Aviators chapter is in Vol. 2. The Captain Marvel chapter does deal with the Monster Society of Evil, which included most of Captain Marvel's stereotyped villains, including Nippo.
The Pulp chapter in volume 1 discusses the Oriental Menace pulps as well as the invasion fears represented by pulp series like Operator #5 to show that it wasn't just WWII -- these stereotypes and fears existed before as well.
Be careful with Goulart. He doesn't source his stories and claims very well (if at all). He also tends to repeat himself in book after book, so if you have one of his many volumes of comic history, you don't need to look to hard for any others.
if you can find them, the Taylor History of Comics books by Mike Benton are pretty solid. since they were hardcover, oversized volumes, they were pretty much marketed to libraries. they may be available through inter-library loan. Benton has a pretty impressive list of sources for each volume, but he also utilized some known inaccurate sources like the infamous Crawford Encyclopedia of Comics. I don't recall if any of Benton's volumes specifically dealt with propaganda elements.
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For examples, you can also check some of the comics covers out at http://www.comics.org (http://www.comics.org). Many of the DC front covers around 1942-44 had exhortations to buy war bonds and stamps--Batman #15, #17, #18, #30, among many others of the time. The Timely heroes like the Human Torch and Captain America also commonly featured battle scenes with the Germans or the Japanese on their covers. Boy Commandos from DC is another good one to check.
Among comics posted here, look for Air Fighters/Airboy or Blackhawk to feature the most propagandist/patriotic/anti-enemy themes, although there's one Black Terror story where he killed literally hundreds of Japanese soldiers. Don't remember the issue number on that one; it might be an Exciting Comics story (where the Black Terror started), or it might be one of his solo issues.