Comic Books Propaganda World War Ii

[Arleen Smelko]

Didyou know that comic books were used as propaganda during World War II? While adults were targeted through posters and short films that were shown before movies, American children were targeted through some of our most prominent superheroes to date such as Captain America, Superman, Batman and several others. These superheroes embodied the ideal virtues of American soldiers and demonstrated the courage and resolve needed to fight evil during World War II. In this vlog, David Onyon, SAGU History Professor, discusses how the effort to win WWII went hand-in-hand with comics.

Historian Paul Hirsch was a Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation Fellow for Caricature and Cartoon at The John W. Kluge Center in summer 2015. His research explored the intersection of visual culture, race, policymaking, and diplomacy from World War II through the post-Cold War period.

Today, comic book superheroes represent safe, family entertainment. Movie adaptations of comic books generate billions of dollars for corporations like Disney and Time Warner. At the same time, graphic novels win literary awards and receive reviews in major newspapers. Comic books, themselves, are part of our collector culture – they are sold at stores catering to fans, while old issues can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the perception of comic books was totally different. Comics were viewed as crude, lowbrow entertainment for children or unsophisticated adults. They were almost totally uncensored, in contrast with traditional magazines, radio broadcasts, or books. And they were everywhere – comic books were available at grocery stores, newsstands, and drugstores, and strewn in waiting rooms, classrooms, and bus stations. The industry sold nearly a billion comic books a year during the 1940s. At the time, comics were disposable culture – buyers read comics then threw them away or traded them among friends.

The comic book industry, centered in New York City, was profoundly different, as well. It was run by a colorful collection of ex-pornographers, former left-wing radicals, and hustlers. Artists were paid by the page and often worked in sweatshops, cranking out work in assembly-line fashion. What unified the owners and creators was their status as social outsiders. Comic books were created and sold by men and women shut out of more mainstream professions. Women, African Americans, Asian Americans, and large numbers of Jewish immigrants invented and shaped the comic book, in part because they had no access to employment in other fields.

The government took an interest in comic books for two primary reasons. First, they offered a covert means of spreading propaganda to an enormous audience. Nearly half of all servicemen identified as regular comic book readers, and millions of civilians around the world also consumed American comics. Second, because comics were uncensored, propagandists could use levels of violence, racism, and sexuality unthinkable in more official types of propaganda. Suddenly, the fact that comics were crude and packed with vicious imagery became an asset to the government – it enabled the creation of incredibly aggressive propaganda. And since it was often done covertly, the government did not appear to be involved at all. So the government could get its messages into print without raising suspicion about any links between itself and the racist propaganda about America’s enemies.

Within the WWB there was a Comics Committee that created comic book characters and story ideas that were then passed to cooperating publishers. Writers and artists would build artwork and language around ideas submitted by the Comics Committee, and then return drafts to the WWB for review. Frequently, the WWB returned these drafts with very specific requests for more anti-Japanese images, or more explicitly anti-German narratives. The WWB believed comic book publishers spent too much time attacking Nazis, specifically, rather than the German nation, as a whole. The board wanted comics to depict all Germans – not just Nazi party members – as responsible for the violence and atrocities committed during the war. WWB members also worried that comic books did not generate sufficient hatred for Japan. As the war against Japan dragged on into 1944, the WWB demanded stories that emphasized the need for a merciless, race-based war of extermination in the Pacific.

Although some publishers did not work with the board, overwhelmingly, comic book companies were willing accomplices to the WWB. Cooperating with the WWB was seen as a patriotic obligation. Working with the WWB also made financial sense, as publishers had to comply with wartime rationing of wood pulp, the essential ingredient in comic book paper. A publisher in good standing that printed WWB-sanctioned stories might receive access to additional wood pulp, and sell more comic books.

Paul Hirsch was a Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon in summer 2015. He is currently a Resident Fellow at the Institute for Historical Study in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin.

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United States propaganda comics are comic books that have been published by various parts of the United States government over time as propaganda tools in various international conflicts.[1][2][3]

Comic books have historically been used as a tool of influence, starting predominantly in World War II. During World War II, private comic book publishers and later government comic publications increased and gained popularity among the domestic population and Allied forces. The United States used these comics increasingly as World War II concluded and thereafter through the conflicts of the 20th century and into the 21st century. Private companies and the U.S. government would develop comic books to address the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, humanitarian initiatives and the War on Terror.

The comic book genre, especially its most popular aspect, the superhero, uses visual cues to reduce individual characters into representations of cultural ideas. This process has allowed characters to become powerful representations of nationalism (Superman), or the search for societal stability (Batman), or struggles over femininity (Wonder Woman). Scholars have established the importance of heroic characterization as a means to inform societal members about collective expectations and behavioral ideas.[4]

During the outbreak of World War II in Europe, the comic book industry was in its infancy. However, as the war progressed the comic book industry quickly capitalized upon the growing conflict, vilifying the Axis Powers and magnifying American patriotism. Comic books and superheroes even alerted citizens of domestic caution and awareness, "pointing out how domestic corporations and criminals, not just foreign villains, sought to undermine American ideals."[2] Eventually as the war evolved, comic book publishers aligned and collaborated with the U.S. military:

Comics brought superheroes into the war effort when the United States finally entered the war. Many writers joined the War Writers Board (WWB), which was established to promote government policy as well as discourage profiteering. While a private organization, the WWB quickly joined forces with the United States Office of War Information. Headed by Elmer Davis, the OWI focused on coordinating all media for the war effort. The comic book creators cooperated with the prevailing attitude of supporting the war.[2]

As soldiers were being deployed to varying theaters of battle, comics accompanied them on their journeys to Europe and Asia, "and in some cases millions, of copies a month were printed"[5] to keep up with the demand for consumption and delivery to foreigners. The American comic book themes and storylines remained consistent:

the American way was a place where science and equality prevailed over ignorance. It reinforced the idea that America was a place where people who worked hard to better themselves could become successful, while looking out for the oppressed at the same time.[2]

Timely Comics and National Allied Publications became involved in the U.S. war effort during World War II. In propagating the collaborative wartime message of WWII, many superheroes entered the world war II. In exemplification, National Allied Publications, a predecessor to DC Comics, in 1938, introduced Superman in Action Comics #1 and by early 1941; Superman was fighting a Nazi paratrooper in the air. Through the creation and publication of comics, it illustrated the necessity to target the enemies' vulnerabilities in character and reputation. Timely Comics, later to become Marvel Comics, created Captain America and he entered World War II in early 1941: "Captain America dramatically leaped into action on the cover, delivering a knockout punch to Adolf Hitler's jaw."[5] The co-creator of Captain America, Joe Simon, commented on the accessibility of enemy characters and leadership in ridiculing and undermining their position and justifying U.S. involvement in World War II, stating, "Captain America was the first major comic book hero to take a political stand. ... Hitler was a marvelous foil; a ranting maniac."[6]

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