The Cultural Effects of War on Comic Books

Hello again! In my previous post, I left off on the topic of wars, World War I & II in particular, and how they have brought about the modern comic book industry. After analyzing several blogs on the Web, I began to form a more complete hypothesis about the true cultural and sociological causes for the predominance of the white race in early graphic novels. The fact is that the early Superman comics tended to stray away from the topic of war. Interestingly enough, a blog run by die-hard fan Steve Younis, known as "Superman Homepage" contains a post which mentions Superman himself straying away from recruitment to the army. "By and large, the stories inside the comics remained morality plays and confrontations with villains like Luthor, The Prankster, Toyman and the Insect Master, not battles with the German army" (Wallace Harrington, IIb. Superman Stories). This suggests that the writers of early comics believed in avoiding, distracting the masses from, or even satirizing the Wars and the plethora of races involved in them. The races used for the leading characters or heroes of the novels were, as stated before, predominantly white Americans. Races targeted for insults and jokes throughout some novels, in addition, were political enemies of America, such as the Japanese. The blog post "5 Shockingly Racist Scenes in Famous Superhero Comics" by Seanbaby shows specific parts of early Superman, Batman, and Captain America strips that illustrate negative attitudes towards the Japanese. However, not all of the attention is derogatory; some strips show a weak-willed, and, frankly, sloppy job of equality towards the Japanese- American people living among the regular citizens of the United States.The post reads, "You've probably seen that before. "SUPERMAN SAYS: YOU CAN SLAP A JAP" might be the most famous racist comic panel

of all time. It's included in nearly every discussion of WWII propaganda .." (Seanbaby). Agreeably, Seanbaby declares in his blog post that 'racism' is prevalent in hundreds of comic books. On the other hand, 'racism' may be an improper term to describe such messages. From a differing perspective, these strips might have been another integration of real-world humor and political satire in a work of literature. Although it is impossible to know the full meaning behind the writers' blend of politically incorrect and often insulting messages, it is clearly obvious that the influence of the Wars had ushered in a developing environment dominated by the white superhero.