World War II, Veterans, and Comics - 2005-06-11 10:11 PM
- [ I omitted some of my original cover selections, because they no longer display here. You can still view them at: www.comics.org series index links, visit the specific issue index for that issue (ex: DET 31) ]
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=87 (DETECTIVE 31)
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=97 (ACTION 1, 52)
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=185 (MASTER COMICS 33)
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=249 ( ADVS CAPT MARVEL 8, 26, 27, 28)
I've been thinking since Memorial Day, and as we approach July 4th, what a deep influence World War II had on many comic book artists of the 40's, 50's and 60's, and ongoing on the entire industry through the continuation of characters created in that era.
- Simon and Kirby
Will Eisner
Lou Fine
Mac Raboy
Joe Kubert
Stan Lee
Carmine Infantino
Gil Kane
And so many others.
Whether they served in the military, or simply grew up in that era, their concepts of right and wrong, of good and evil, the face and form of evil as portrayed in comics, was largely shaped by their battlefield experience, or by their experience living through the WW II era at home, watching newsreels, viewing the devastation daily, regularly viewing the propaganda that drove the Axis powers to conquest and genocide.
In the modern era, the concept of evil is an abstraction, the line between good and evil much more gray.
But the black-and-white contrast of good and evil was deeply felt by the generation of artists that began comics in the Golden Age of comics during WW II, and even in the late 1930's prior to the war's beginning in September 1939.
Jack Kirby served in Northern France in 1944, and no doubt saw a lot of evil there firsthand.
Many war comics Kirby did over four decades are somewhat autobiographical of his own experiences on the battlefield.
The first of these I sampled was Kirby's run in OUR FIGHTING FORCES 151-162 (1974-1975)
In many ways, even though Kirby's 70's DC work was 30 years after the war, it was the most explicitly representative of how WW II had shaped Kirby's perception of evil.
MISTER MIRACLE 7 (1972) opens with a scene where children abducted from Earth are brought by air-ships to an indoctrination and training camp on Apokalips. And from the moment the doors open, the new arrivals are beaten with clubs by harrassers, and driven running all the way to their barracks.
Reminiscent of Jews arriving in railcars at a Nazi concentration camp.
FOREVER PEOPLE 3 introduces Glorious Godfrey and his Justifiers, who parallel Nazi storm troopers in their indoctrinated ability to rationalize violence, murder, even suicide, in the name of their cause.
I see Glorious Godfrey as Joseph Goebbels, a propaganda mininster. Although Kirby also said that Billy Graham's speaking style is a big influence on shaping the character.
Also big in Kirby's Fourth World series was the concept of anti-life, sacrificing one's own life and happiness to become a cog in the machine of a fanatical cause.
Again, a concept rooted in Kirby's WW II experience with Nazism.
Even Kirby's lighter works such as KAMANDI present battle scenes that have a WW II feel to them.
One scene I recall from KAMANDI 10, after a fierce battle, Ben Boxer says to Kamandi :
"It was us or them. I'm glad we won."
Kirby is one example.
Joe Kubert likewise demonstrates a deep influence from WW II, a majority of his work being in DC's war books, with a special focus on World War II in a majority of the stories.
Not just the work of a number of artists from that period, but the comic book industry as a whole seems deeply impacted by this wartime-shaped focus on good and evil, and on Nazis or Nazi-patterned images as the embodiment of evil.
- More omitted images you can view at the below index pages:
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=159 (NATIONAL COMICS 21)
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=137 (MARVEL MYSTERY 10, 14)
http://www.comics.org/SeriesID=237 (CAPT AMERICA # 1)