INSIGHTS

Insights: Research and Findings

Chapter 1

The American Wartime Propaganda During World War II:

How Comic Books Sold the War

“The American Wartime Propaganda During World War II: How Comic Books Sold the War,” by Mia Sostaric, describes how comics such as Captain America and Wonder Women were primarily utilized as a form of war propaganda, while also influencing racial and stereotypical views of minorities as inferior to White Americans.

A superhero who stood as the embodiment of the American ideals during the early 1940s, Captain America’s main purpose was to inspire audiences to participate in the army, victory groups, and clubs. From comic books to advertisements plastered as posters and announcements on the radio, Captain America persuaded citizens through compelling messages that made it clear that the success of the country rested in their hands. The same can also be said of Wonder Woman advocating a sense of public obligation to the readers to contribute to the war effort. For instance, in issue #13, Wonder Woman asked for women to become nurses to help wounded soldiers. This invigorated sense of civic duty and nationalism in the success of the war effort, however, was at the expense of minority populations. The government's use of propaganda through these comics portrayed minorities as “unreliable” or “suspect of loyalty,” justifying the treatment of minorities as such—encouraging the racial profiling of Asian Americans and allowing unjust initiatives such as the use of internment camps for Japanese Americans. For example, in the Captain America comics, Japanese were drawn as villains with buck teeth and fangs that made them look inhuman. Additionally, Wonder Woman also created puzzles and games encouraging audiences to “capture the Japanese.” With the American children reading multiple comics every month, these works greatly influenced the contribution of citizens to the war effort, albeit with racist stereotypes and agendas.

Image on ClipArtBest.com

Beyond the Page: A Summary

Reflective of the power to incite hundreds upon thousands of people to do their part for World War II, graphic novels and their respective narratives inspire movements and beliefs that move beyond what is on the page. Graphic novels thrive on the interpretation and synthesis of its images, words, and gutters that encourage the audience to exercise their imagination in filling the gaps. Cathy Sly, an author and consultant of graphic novel pedagogy who is endorsed by the Australian government, cites that “the sequential art mode [of graphic novels] provides a ‘fast track’ to narrative empathy.” In the body of her work, "Crossing Cultural Boundaries with Graphic Novels," Sly cites her statement in support of Suzanne Keen’s teachings, “[i]n comics and graphic narratives, illustrations of faces and bodily postures may capitalize on the availability of visual coding for human emotions, eliciting readers’ feelings before they even read the accompanying text.”

With this in consideration, we find that the dehumanization of minority groups in graphic novels poses a serious issue for all audiences. With the graphic novel industry’s decision to appeal to its target audience of White males, those who are consuming this media may be influenced by the negative stereotypes of minority groups. Minority groups are not only susceptible to the actions of those who believe in these negative stereotypes, but are also susceptible to creating the same opinions about themselves as well as other marginalized communities. Further implications of the representation of minority groups are discussed on the next page through our analysis of “A Content-Analysis of Race, Gender, and Class in American Comic Books,” by Matthew Facciani et. al.