Category Archives: Triumph Comics

Canadian Identity in Triumph Comics #18

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG 810 Fall2017 Section 011 - Monique Tschofen, Triumph, Triumph Comics, , , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Gillian Dizon, Ryerson University

Introduction

The comics published by Bell Features during World War II are a cultural backbone for what a given society at the time wanted to define as the nationalistic ideology of Canadian identity. Thus, superheroes, their sidekicks and their antagonists came to fruition to address these behaviours or characteristics for all audiences. Generally speaking, if one were to consider these superheroes and their journeys as an example of perfection and goodness, then their antagonists must serve as a way to illustrate to the readers what is considered evil or antithetic to Canadian identity. Tasked with motivating young Canadians during the war effort, the various heroes of Triumph Comics #18 (Ace Barton, Captain Wonder, and Nelvana of the Northern Lights) of Triumph Comics #18 (1944) are often antagonized by villains who are marked by cultural or ethnic stereotypes of Japanese, German and Indigenous people. Understandably, two of these cultural groups derive from the countries the Allies have been warring with during WWII, however, villainizing entire populations of people to young readers would have deleterious effects – especially since many of these ‘villains’ had resided within Canadian borders. This exhibit will analyze the nature of what the writers of Bell Features has decided was necessary to frame Canadian identity and the problems that arise from poor, stereotypical writing.

Comics: Mythology for Kids!

Comic book superheroes are ultimately symbolic. During the golden age of comic books, these characters are meant to embody the ultimate moral good. Understanding the influential power within comic books as something that is akin to mythology would best describe why the portrayal of these characters are so effective and why nations contextually accepted these portrayals – no matter how problematic – at the time of their publishing. As Bart Beaty describes in The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero (2006) that heroes “serve to protect the national interest within superheroic narratives, but they also serve to illuminate national interests in the real world as iconic signs” (428). Beaty further demonstrates that as contemporary mythologies, the actual construction of a hero draws largely from classical mythology (The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero; 2006, 428).

The heroes of Triumph Comics (1944) are no exception to the methods of mythology-based creation. Nelvana of the Northern Lights (Triumph Comics, 1944) created by Adrian Dingle is an example of the “man-god” (The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero; 2006, 428) trope. The first recognizable thing about Nelvana is that she is first discovered by soldiers as a polar bear mounted, otherworldly, magical apparition within an aurora borealis (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 2). Between Nelvana, Ace Barton and Captain Wonder (and briefly, Speed Savage), all three embody the classical heroic attitude Beaty describes as “a dedication to the principles of justice” (The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero; 2006, 428). For Nelvana, her single in this issue of Triumph Comics has allowed her to speak only twice in the comic and yet the only words she tells to the group of men she had just saved from wolves was a vow that she will protect them from the horrors of their enemies (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 9). As for Captain Wonder and Speed Savage in a collaborated issue, the White Mask is described as a “two-fisted, gun packing aid to JUSTICE!” (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 52) while Captain Wonder shames a man for betraying his country for his own profit (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 29). Finally, for Ace Barton’s issue, he is described to be an ace pilot for the R.C.A.F. who tirelessly fights the Japanese despite being outnumbered and stranded (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 38-44). All four of these superheroes serve as an example of classical heroes found in myth who are enhanced beings with an inherently morally good heart.

Antagonists: The Japanese

Now to examine what Triumph Comics had understood the Japanese to be at the time of their comics’ conception. As previously stated, the Japanese and the Germans are vilified because they are part of the Axis Powers and have generally become a real life menace for countries that fight for the Allies. On top of crudely drawn features, throughout the entire issue of Triumph Comics #18 (1944) racial slurs such as “Japs” (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 9) and “Yellow Peril” (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 42). But to really drive home the concept of these people as monsters, the artists have depicted these people with less than human features and behaving in an animalistic manner (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 42).

Figure 1. The “Japs” from Ace Barton. Triumph Comics #18, 1944.

There’s very little difference in the Japanese antagonists in this issue of Ace Barton. The bigger antagonist has slightly more depth as a double agent for the Japanese army but is still drawn in a way that makes him resemble a monster and with no exposition about his character as anything more than a villain. A moment later he commands hordes of Japanese soldiers (pictured above) to chase Ace through the jungle like a pack of dogs (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 40-43).

On a visible and symbolic level, readers of this issue of Ace Barton can sympathise with Ace in comparison to the Japanese not only because he is the hero of this narrative but because he is simply more human in his behaviour. In an article entitled Aboriginality and the Arctic North in Canadian Nationalist Superhero Comics, 1940-2004 (2005), Jason Dittmer and Soren Larsen “Given the visual nature of most superhero media, this reductionism also requires this coherent subjectivity to occupy a specific body, one that is gendered, raced, and super-powered” (53). From a careful observation of this issue, the authors of Ace Barton had intended their young audience to take the Japanese is expendable, traitorous or hostile. Regarding Beaty’s work, he describes that the pantheon of Canadian superheroes “illustrate a set of tensions that surround the intersection of popular culture and federal institutions within Canada” (The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero; 2006, 427). Given the history of Japanese internment camps during this time period, stripping the humanity from the Japanese isn’t a taboo subject for the 1940s.

Germans

Figure 2. Captain Wonder vs. Nazis. Triumph Comics #18, 1944, pg. 29

In Triumph Comics #18 (1944) Nazis are an often central antagonist appearing in Captain Wonder, Captain Wonder Meets Speed Savage and one-off strips between the larger comic issues. In this publication’s single of Captain Wonder, unlike the Japanese of Ace Barton (Triumph Comics #18, 1944), the Germans are drawn not in animalistic or monstrous ways but rather as menacing people. However, they still exhibit the same behaviour of having no real, in depth motives besides a need to destroy and kill. Since the Germans are a main opponent for the Allies, and therefore Canadians, in WWII, wartime comics are quite active in heavily vilifying the Nazis. In fact they are shown to be an even more fearful antagonist than the Japanese because in the each of the Captain Wonder issues, the Nazis have infiltrated into Canada and successfully killed many civilians (Triumph Comics #18, 1944).

To contrast these Germans against the Canadian superheroes would be presumably an easy task because of how evil they are; but arguably, this places Canadian protagonists into becoming just as unrealistically good. In Beaty’s article he elaborates that when it comes to Canadian comic culture “Canadian superiority [is] rooted in historical circumstance” (The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero; 2006, 434). There is no way of defining moral rightness for the heroes of Triumph Comics #18 (1944) without having to use blatant, one dimensional comparison. Dittmer and Larsen would regard the power in representation because when considering countries as imagined communities, “that power is just as manifest in

the everyday production of national representations as it is in the enforcement capabilities and reifications associated with the organizations dedicated to government” (Aboriginality and the Arctic North in Canadian Nationalist Superhero Comics, 1940-2004, 2005, 54).

Nelvana …and then the rest of the Natives

The most interesting meta-literary comparison between racialized heroes and villains would be how the authors have depicted Indigenous people.

Figure 3. Nelvana of the Northern Lights in Triumph Comics #18 (1944)
Injun Moe (Figure 4.). From Triumh Comics #18 (1944)

Arguably, the most visual difference between Nelvana and Injun Moe would be how closely Nelvana is drawn to possess Euro-centric features. Injun Moe however, has darker skin for being printed on colourless pages and his hair is tied into braids, adorned in feathers. Since Nelvana is made to fit the heroic, white-centric ideal of Canadian patriotism, she is allowed to be characterized with positive, protagonistic traits associated with her other superhero counterparts as she is seen saving Canadian soldiers from wolves (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 8) and swearing to them that she will protect them from harm (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 9). Injun Moe is racialized ridicule as he is seen taking hyper-literal meanings from other characters such as the bird pictured in the above panel (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 21). The next single within this issue, TANG! (Triumph Comics #18, 1944), also depicts Indigenous antagonists; this time, an entire tribe who ambush a white man and his fellow white sidekick, apparently justified by a cry from a Native chief that “the white men want to disturb [their] peace!” (Triumph Comics #18, 1944, 14). These characters, unsurprisingly, have are draw with ethnic features and traditional dress in comparison to Nelvana. In these three singles, Indigenous people have ranged from heroic, stupid and hostile.

Dittmer and Larsen have addressed this issue regarding Nelvana’s key to heroism as being tied to whiteness and that her ethnic culture isn’t addressed at length (Aboriginality and the Arctic North in Canadian Nationalist Superhero Comics, 1940-2004, 2005). Thus, Nelvana stands as a symbol of the Canadian North more than she is a positive representation of Indigenous people. From another author, Sherrill Grace, Dittmer and Larsen refer to her work to describe this fraudulent sense of cultural representation “that these countervailing ideas are integrated into a powerful discursive formation that ultimately privileges Canada’s southern urban interests over those of northern residents” (Aboriginality and the Arctic North in Canadian Nationalist Superhero Comics, 1940-2004, 2005, 55). Nelvana would have a stronger, more positive impact as a Native character if it weren’t for her imposed whiteness and that every other poor, appropriated depiction of Native (or generally non-white, non-Canadian) people appear in all the major comic narratives of Triumph Comics #18.

Conclusion

What is even more unclear about trying to tie Canadian identity to these heroes is also exhibited in an article by Ivan Kocmarek who writes in Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications (2016) where Adrian Dingle, the creator of Nelvana of the Northern Lights, that the stories in Triumph-Adventure Comics will “all have a Canadian background” but “ have no indication or assumption of anything “Canadian” in their stories” (150). With that in mind, how can these comic books, which are made to drive the ideology of Canadian identity, be impactful and clear to impressionable, wartime readers? The culture of Canada continued to be undefinable because it is lost within the exaggerated characteristics of their superheroes and supervillains and not honed to any real culture within Canada but is instead framed around defaming other cultures. All in all, this comic book, despite how much it lacks in meaning, serves as a touchstone for the mindset of authors and culture-creators within 1940s and a foundation for better comics to proceed.

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“Propagandizing the Wartime Canadian – A Study of Wartime Media in Triumph Comics No. 19”

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG 810 Fall2017 Section 011 - Monique Tschofen, Triumph Comics, , ,

© Copyright 2017 Dylan Gibbons, Ryerson University

Introduction

During WWII, after having print materials such as comic books and magazines restricted from other countries, Canada in turn experienced the “First Age of Canadian Comics” from Bell Features and lead artists such as Adrian Dingle (Kocmarek 148). Predicated on the need to bolster the Canadian dollar during the war, the early years of comic books in Canada are particularly interesting, being that art and story telling were never at the core of the media, as they might have been in other countries. As this paper will show, this implicitly entails an agenda. The comics were designed not only with economic prosperity in mind, but also with the explicit agenda of adding to patriotic, nationalist attitudes, the promotion of traditional British niceties and politeness, and to instill in the reader the necessity of supporting the war effort (Kocmarek 150). These tropes and underlying motivations behind the creation of this media are blatant in most comics of this time, including the primary source material of this exhibit, Triumph Comics: No.19.

Perhaps what is most significant is what the comic signifies within the broader context of the war effort: a shift from simply believing that the Allies’ enemies in WWII are bad to a collectivised message with focus on patriotism and doing one’s civil duty in supporting the war effort. This exhibit will analyze Triumph Comics: No. 19, created in 1944, with reference to other contextual sources, to show how this comic was used, similarly to other media released at the time, to propagandize the Canadian people into adhering to certain normative attitudes and into making certain economic decisions, and show how this was not at all random, but implemented by government institutions.

Manufacturing Normativity

Perhaps the most explicit implementation of propaganda the comic gives us is found in Ted Steele’s ‘Speed Savage’ story (38-46). The story follows the superhero the ‘White Mask’ and his attempt to administer justice in wartime (WWII) Canada. In the comic, the main villain is one who is trying to sabotage the war effort by shooting factory workers out of a cannon (Steele 42-45), wherein they plummet to their death, subsequently frightening the citizens and preventing them from working (Steele 39). However, what is more interesting is that the White Mask’s heroism involves, not only defeating the villain, but assaulting a frightened factory worker who no longer wants to support the war effort through the creation of missile shells (Steele 39-41).

“Speed Savage”, Pg. 40-41. 1944. Triumph Comics, No. 19.

Upon closer examination, this tells us that in wartime Canada the highest form of villainy is someone derailing the war effort and the highest form of heroism is the patriotic perpetuation of the war effort, by any means necessary. That the citizen who has lost faith in the war effort becomes criminal in the eyes of the hero suggests a propagandistic element behind the making of this comic and the attempt to manufacture a new normativity of radical nationalism. Here we find a double-sided message on the part of the comic’s creators. We see a desire to instill supreme, unwavering support of the nation by glorifying patriotism and, conversely, the threat of being removed from the group and becoming enemy if you fail to comply. The comic shows us, quite crudely, the repercussions for not engaging with the community and subscribing to the war effort narrative: beaten up by a masked ‘superhero’, while all your friends cheer your beating on. This makes explicit the agenda the government and emerging comic book industry were sending to the audience, in this case, children: assimilate, be patriotic, or face ostracization.

Upon further investigation, this turns] out to be exactly what was intended. During WWII, the Canadian Government enacted an institutional campaign to create propaganda over multiple media, including this comic, utilizing fearmongering and patriotism with the hopes that these two incentives would suffice in promoting the purchase of war time bonds (Brownell 67-74). Citizens were even recommended to rent out their spare rooms to workers so there would be more space to create armaments, as shown in an animation titled Empty Rooms Mean Idle Machines (National Film Board of Canada). In this way, even the privacy of one’s home was meant to be infiltrated and politicized. Overall, each and every media, from film to poster to comic book, was coopted, to a greater or lesser extent, in the pursuit of propagandizing the Canadian populace for various reasons, mostly economic.

“Victory Bonds Flier”, 1944. Collections Canada.

Gives Us Your Money and Do Your Patriotic Duty!

In an article titled “Building Citizenship: English Canada and Propaganda during the Second War”, William R. Young illustrates the process of Canadian propagandas shift from promoting unified hatred of an enemy to the promotion of collectivism, or ‘Canadianism’ (123) and having shared goals to promote support for the war effort during WWII. Simple hatred of an outgroup, such as what is seen in Ross Saakel’s ‘Ace Barton’ and the hostile portrayal of the Japanese, was found to be a limiting approach that failed in selling Victory Bonds (Canadian war bonds) during WWI. Simply propagandizing a nation into hating another was not sufficient in creating unity within Canada, nor did it help in the efforts to convince Canadians to invest in these bonds, thus new methodologies were conceived. The idea of shared goals was much more effective in collectivising otherwise disjointed groups, such as Indigenous Canadians, Francophones, and Anglophones (Young 124-125). Thus, the Wartime Information Board (the institute in charge for the creation of propaganda) undertook the task of convincing Canadians to make evermore sacrifices to support the war effort (Young 125-130); Prime Minister Mackenzie King signed off on all of this (Young 125). This is not to say that hatred for the enemy was discouraged in subsequent media, which nearly every story in Triumph Comics: No.19 shows to be the case. However, this is always coupled with sentiments of doing one’s duty, protectionism, ingroup preference, etc., which is very much explicit in the aforementioned ‘Speed Savage’ story.

The comic’s title story, Rene Kulbach’s ‘Tang’, also has this tactic imbedded; though, it fails dreadfully. The story is clearly a parody of the popular American television show The Lone Ranger, with a one-dimensional Indigenous sidekick and all. The story displays a meager attempt to amend race relations, despite the story, on the surface, supposedly being uninvolved with the war effort. This attempt is made through the conceptualization of ingroups and outgroups. While the protagonist’s Indigenous sidekick, Hank Steel (of course possessing a highly Westernized name), is made and dressed to appear as part of the ingroup, in the third through sixth panels Buddy Brackenbridge (the protagonist) slaughters a group of Indigenous raiders, Buddy remarking as he fires his gun, “One Redskin less…” (11). This, and that Hank Steel is only given the capacity to make observational one-liners, leads to the conclusion that Hank is being made out to be ‘one of the good ones’. This shows the incapacity of the artists to understand outgroups, unless members of those outgroups assimilate into the ingroup and take up the role of flatterer, sidekick, and tag along, incapable of expressing complex thought or emotion. Fundamentally, despite being an attempt to create a unity between races, it misses the mark of genuineness by several leagues. However, it is an attempt nonetheless, and one that likely would not have been made without the previously mentioned government initiative to create unification between Canadians. Certainly, the protagonist’s, and, potentially, the artist’s, attitudes towards Indigenous people more generally suggests this.

A Change in Gender Roles (Sort of… For now)

Another major part of government propagandizing was changing the role of women in the absence of a large male workforce; this is reflected in the conflicting consistency of presenting women in the comic. Most of the female characters are presented in their stereotypically helpless gender role; however, there is also the emergence of something quite new: a female superhero, Nelvana of the Northern Lights (Dingle 1-9). Even in this case, the female protagonist is given little action or dialogue, but it is still noteworthy in that she is portrayed as being dignified and maintaining the aspect of self-sufficiency – something that would have been reflective of a primarily female population needed for factory work. It is important to note this dualism: women are expected to play their assigned roles as perpetual ‘damsels in distress’, as seen in Ross Saakel’s ‘Captain Wonder’ (20-26), but are now having their identities affirmed so as to be dignified in the archetype of the heroine, the polar opposite of the damsel.

Perhaps one might postulate that this is not evidence of propaganda, rather evidence of the natural progression of women’s improved agency in society. However, in hindsight, nothing about this societal shift was natural, rather an explicit symptom of government campaigns to manipulate women into occupying the factory assembly lines to support the war effort. By 1944, nearly half of adult women had joined the work force (Harttman 16), which was aided by government changes in policy to allow women to serve their country in the production of military equipment and armaments. During this time, numerous government campaigns were implemented to achieve this, and women’s participation was won primarily through the amalgamation of femininity with the idea and setting of factory work to promote female friendly environments where women could see themselves working (Hartmann 17). This was evident not only within the factory, where monthly beauty competitions were held as an appeal to women’s desire not to come off as too masculine, but can be viewed in several wartime propaganda posters, particularly posters aimed at selling victory bonds. These posters were explicitly created with the intent of coercing the female populace into joining the factories, again, by appealing to a sense of patriotic duty (Halbesleben 77-78). The assault was, then, twofold: feminize the workplace to hoodwink women into desiring the monotony of factory life, and, in case this was not sufficient, guilt them into supporting the war effort with persistent talk of duty.

“War Time Propaganda Poster”, 1940-1945. Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum.

This was only to be flipped on women post-war, however, with reverse campaigns promoting the return to ‘the kitchen’, along with significant drops in the wages of women who wanted to continue factory work (Hartmann 17-18). What these factors suggest is that women’s labour was not only expendable to the Canadian government, but was actively exploited. What was, later, perhaps, falsely interpreted as societal recognition and acknowledgement of women’s capacity to fill traditionally male occupied positions was more realistically active manipulation. Furthermore, if government institutions had truly felt that women were equal to men, that they too could be superheroes and not just damsels, then they would not have been so apt to discourage female workers from factory work upon the return of the male populace. This, in part, may explain why the character of Nelvana, despite being a superheroine, still embodies stereotypes of female passivity. What this shows is the disingenuousness of the comic’s attempt to create a female protagonist that is empowering, but rather that the comic only followed trends of the Canadian wartime, helping to create the façade of recognition to facilitate women’s propagandizing.

Conclusion

Having comprehensively analyzed Triumph Comics: No. 19 and affectively contextualized the media, it is evident that the collection of comics is nested in and is an example of wartime propaganda for expressly economic purposes. What may cause the greatest disdain from this exhibit’s findings is the span of such propaganda, targeting women, children, men, and even reaching towards racialized groups. One may make certain allowances given the context, WWII, and make the case that all was a matter of necessity. However, regardless if such allowances are valid, the comic still serves as a prime example of a nations attempt to create a collectivist culture using fearmongering and nationalism. Subsequently, and rather unfortunately, this leaves the origin of Canada’s comic book industry muddied from the start, having less to do with art, and more to do with politics and propagandizing the citizenry.

Works Cited

  • Brownell, Kathryn Cramer. “‘It Is Entertainment, and It Will Sell Bonds!’: 16mm Film and the World War II War Bond Campaign.” The Moving Image, vol. 10, no. 2, Feb. 2011, pp. 60–82. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/415434.
  • Canada, National Film Board of. Empty Rooms Mean Idle Machines, 1942. www.nfb.ca, https://www.nfb.ca/film/empty_rooms_mean_idle_machines/.
  • Dingle, Adrian, et al., editors. Triumph Comics: No. 19. Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, 1944, pp. 38-46. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Halbesleben, Jonathon R. B., et al. “‘We Can Do It!’ Recruitment and Socialization Through WWII War Effort Posters in the United States.” Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship; Sheffield, vol. 8, no. 4, Oct. 2003, pp. 68–85. Business Premium Collection, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/203912716?accountid=13631.
  • Hartmann, Susan M. “Women, War, and the Limits of Change.” National Forum; Baton Rouge, vol. 75, no. 4, Fall 1995, pp. 15-19. Periodicals Archive Online, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1297782757?accountid=13631.
  • Kocmarek, Ivan. “Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, vol. 43, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 148–65. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/crc.2016.0008.
  • Victory Bonds Flier. 1944, http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayEcopies&lang=eng&rec_nbr=2847132&rec_nbr_list=3635777,3635761,2847102,3635772,3665095,2846950,2847132,2846866,2847027,2847157&title=Enlist+Your+Dollars+in+Bonds+for+Victory+%3A++seventh+victory+loan+drive.&ecopy=e010695630-v8. Library and Archives Canada, MIILKAN no. 2847132.
  • Wartime Propaganda Poster. http://www.airmuseum.ca/postscan.html. Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum.
  • Young, William R. “Building Citizenship: English Canada and Propaganda during the Second War.” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’Études Canadiennes; Peterborough, Ont., vol. 16, no. 3, Fall 1981, pp. 121–132. Periodicals Archive Online, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1300019791?accountid=13631.

Images in this online exhibit are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or educatio

Women’s Codependence and Objectification in Triumph Comics No. 20

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG 810 Fall2017 Section 011 - Monique Tschofen, Triumph Comics, , , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Michelle Moreira, Ryerson University

Introduction

The several decades of comic book readership mostly comprising of males from ages twelve to thirty-five, has led to a monopolization over the type of content created, along with the reinforcement of misogynistic ideals made through this said content (Lavin 93). As the created content continued to prioritize the interests of young men over that of females within the same age range, “the comparatively low numbers of… female readers reflect the scarcity of products designed specifically for them” (Lavin 93). With no female voice or influence on the ways in which women are depicted, the male perception in which artwork and illustrations are created from, reflect on the broader social values of an early twentieth century Canadian society. As a result, inaccurate and objectifying depictions of women are created through the use of patronizing dialogue, and visuals relating to sexuality and domestication. In looking to the entire issue of Triumph Comics No. 20 as the primary source of study, issues pertaining to the portrayal of women are exemplified through the lack of titles given to female characters, and displays of female domestication. Using these examples, the following essay will argue that the way in which women are depicted through comics, serves to further perpetuate the idea that the former—as codependent beings on the male sex— merely exist as an object to benefit or serve the male sex.

Titles and Identity

Upon comic books’ first introduction to the public, the role of the female character has continuously shown to be something of ambiguity (Lavin 94). One of the examples discussed by Michael R. Lavin is that of Louis Lane; a tough and intelligent woman who is in constant need of Superman’s rescue (94). Despite women taking on various roles such as; the superhero, the superhero’s love interest, a self-sufficient career woman, the maid, or the damsel in distress, a common theme of codependence can be seen in all. The one dimensional standard in which these characters are set, begs the question of what exactly are women’s purpose in text. Their association with various archetypes becomes ineffective and ultimately misleading, forcing them into an uncategorized in-between place. As a result, the meaning of a true female role is nonexistent. In the same manner, the lack of titles or names given to these characters reflect on their lack of significant influence. In the story of “Nelvana of the Northern Lights and the Ice-beam”, though the protagonist introduces herself as Nelvana she is never addressed by this name. Instead, she is referred to as “lass”, “poor dear child”, “dear”, “young lady” “lidy” and so on (Dingle 2-4). The issue of generalized titles also applies to other types of characters, such as the maid in “Nelvana” whom is referred to as “bessie” and “the good natured woman” (3-4). Other similar examples found in Goofy Tales and Snaps are the titles of “his wife”, “te[a]cher”, and “mighty good brides” when referring to female characters (27-39). Using words such as “his wife” and “mighty good brides” both hint towards a male ownership over the former, and women’s inability to exist without the inclusion of the latter. A similar comparison would be that of Mary Marvel who was introduced as Captain Marvel’s sister and Supergirl introduced as Superman’s cousin (Lavin 94). The article of Women in Comics outlines that even amongst super-powered females, they are still defined through their relationships with men and still seen to need rescuing or protection (94). “Te[a]cher” as opposed to “Mrs” refers to a title that is impersonal to the subject, and can be used interchangeably with the male sex. By having an unassigned title, the position associated with women is of ambiguous nature once again, and shows to be one that is easily replaced and re-assigned.

An important aspect to take note of, are the characteristics often associated with the subject whilst being introduced. For example, while the maid in “Nelvana” is given the formal title of “Mrs. Gooch”, she is also identified as being “none too brilliant” (Dingle 2). Though she is properly established to the reader, the state of her intelligence is inappropriately mentioned and insulted. This specific tactic seems to demonstrate that when women are appropriately recognized in a text, there are other factors that add to the unreliability or insignificance of their character. If the comic does not insult the integrity of the character, women are subject to other identifiers that are irrelevant to the comic’s plot. A scene from Charge of the Cossacks exemplifies this when a woman is being grabbed by a male officer, to which he says “come old woman, you’ll do” (Lazare 30). The mere comment on the woman’s age acts as an invitation for judgement on the basis of viewing them as an object rather than a person. Kathleen Woodward in Figuring Age comments on this type of physical evaluation by stating, “I’m often stuck when people say, ‘you’re so youthful!’—as if they saw me as an image, not a human being” (6). Just like the previous titles of “te[a]cher”, “brides”, and “his wife”, identifying female characters in this way aims to reduce them to that of an object and implies the lack of need for a female influence. Through the previous examples and analysis, the ambiguous role of female characters can also be viewed as one that has been redefined by the male perspective, further perpetuating the prioritization of the male audience and desire.

Women and Domestic Confinement

To further expand on issues of identity, the exposure given to women within comics is also very minimal and conditional. Adding to previous mentions of ownership over women and the overall restrictions of their identity, recurring images of domestication also become a defining influence on these ideas. Besides Nelvana in “Nelvana of the Northern Lights and the Ice-Beam”, the only two other female characters within the text are maids (Dingle 2-4). Considering maids or house-keepers only exist within the boundaries of the home and are generally occupied by women, such images act as a personification for the idea of domestication. Though not just limited to the comic of “Nelvana”, other images of women merely existing within the home are also seen in “Duds”, and “Goofy Tales”. The image from “Duds” below depicts a woman sitting around a dinner table while two men have their own conversation, leaving her without dialogue (Fig. 1). 

Fig. 1. Frank Keith. Frame from “Duds.” Triumph Comics, no. 20, June 1944, p. 18. Bell Features Collection, Ryerson University Library & Archives.

The consistent images of women being confined to the home, motion to their lack of social presence and influence. In this case, the home acts as a gendered entrapment in limiting interaction with the outside world, and determining where they are allowed to exist and where they are not. Exposure to the social world become smaller as a result, and reinforce the idea of “a man’s world”.

In the article “Fangirls in Refrigerators: The Politics of (In)visibility in Comic Book Culture” by Suzanne Scott, the dialogue of comic books’ gendered domestication pays special attention to one specific use of refrigerators. The article speaks on the overall treatment of female characters in comics, referring to a particular scene in Green Lantern where he finds his girlfriend dismembered in the fridge. Ironically associated with a household item, the death of Green Lantern’s girlfriend is significant in displaying the uses of women’s role in the plot. As it was previously stated that women are commonly seen to live by agents of domestication, the example of Green Lantern also demonstrates them to die by it as well. The shift between a woman’s existence and nonexistence in a text does not occur at all. Once again, this begs the question of what exactly do women offer to a text. If there is no movement or difference in position, then it is safe to assume that from a comic book’s perspective, women do not provide any substantial voice to a story. However, what seems to be more effective is their death in creating movement within a plot which no longer involves them. For example, the villain Major Force killing Green Lantern’s girlfriend, simply to motivate him to take action (Scott 1).

Logically, a way to cause friction within the ideas of women’s domestication would be to simply remove them from the confinement of a the gendered confinement: the home. By changing the environment in which they are found expands these character’s mobility, allowing them to involve themselves in other aspects of the plot. However, as demonstrated in “Snaps” within Triumph Comics, altering the female role is not as easy as removing them from gendered environments. A panel taken from “Snaps” comic makes a mockery of this attempt by presenting women in an outside environment, while still completing household chores (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Harry Brunt. Frame from “Snaps.” Triumph Comics, no. 20, June 1944, p. 38. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The illustration  also utilizes the idea of an altered education to add a satirical tone to the piece. Considering education is often used as an agent of empowerment through knowledge, the mere mockery of this portrays an image in which women lack these two characteristics, to which the right of formal education does not apply. If empowering agents do not apply to the former, their role in the text remains the same: to benefit the status and desires of their male counterpart. Just as the example in Green Lantern shows that the murder of his girlfriend was to merely motivate the male lead in taking action, the image above serves women’s existence to serve for the benefit of men—in this case to be “mighty good brides”

(Brunt 39).

As a result, by portraying women through a way in which most of their exposure is in a household, their existence is seen as conditional and ultimately dependent on the male role. The home acts as a structure to contain and limit any potential of women creating their own unique impact in the world, and in turn lessens the threat of equally distributing power between the two sexes within the male’s world.

Concluding Thoughts

Using the 1940s Canadian Wartime comic Triumph Comics no. 20, the essay’s particular focus on titles and domestication, serve to highlight women’s overall invisibility and ambiguity as characters in the comic. The association of titles with women’s identity is significant in their attachment of gender roles and social expectations from a patriarchal Canadian society. The confining nature of titles as well as symbols of domestication play an equally important role in reducing the female voice and image. By providing analysis through the use of these two examples, the essay utilizes two different perspectives towards the overall argument. As titles aid in maintaining the ambiguity of women’s purpose in a text while creating an identity that is simultaneously nonexistent, readers can conclude that the interchangeability of their role results in a lack of significant importance. On the other hand, the images of domestication hint towards the attempt to restrict the overall appearance of women in comics, in turn eventually make them nonexistent in society. From the historical context of the piece, the use of these two tools can be seen as the patriarchal urge to control and dominate within the overall society. Though demonstrated through fictional roles and characters, the ways in which women are depicted in the comic suggests a societal attitude that has become vital in dictating the human rights, opportunities, and overall treatment of women.

Works Cited

  • Lavin, Michael R. “Women in Comic Books.” Serials Review, vol. 24, no. 2, 1998, pp. 93–100.
  • Scott, Suzanne. “Fangirls in Refrigerators: The Politics of (In)visibility in Comic Book      Culture.” Transformative Works and Cultures, vol. 13, 2013.
  • Triumph Comics, No. 20, Bell Features Publishing, Canadian Whites Comic Book    Collection, 1941-1946, RULA Archives & Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. 

Continue reading Women’s Codependence and Objectification in Triumph Comics No. 20 →

Triumph Comics No. 23

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG 810 Fall2017 Section 011 - Monique Tschofen, Triumph Comics, , , ,

Encouraging the Militarization of Scientific Advancement in Triumph Comics No. 23

© Gabriela Will 2017, Ryerson University

INTRODUCTION

World War II had a monumental affect on Canada’s advancement as a country, most notably on the cultural and scientific fronts. Culturally, Canada developed a strong sense of identity, as seen through the advent of the Canadian Whites: a series of comics made in Canada, targeting Canadians, and propagating Canadian imagery and values. The comic also depicts the rapid technological advancement rampant through the war years. In Triumph comics: No. 23, this is manifested through the repeated images of weapons in all sorts of contexts and across genres, including westerns, noir, superhero, and joke comics. These comics do not provide a historical lens to observe the period, so much as a mirror, reflecting back to the Canadian population the values and needs of the country, including the persistent emphasis on the invention and manufacturing of weapons technology. The importance of these advancements are reinforced throughout the comic in the form of acknowledgement and praise of the home front’s contributions, generating interest in the sciences, and instilling nationalism, with the intent of encouraging their reader’s eventual contribution. The prevalence of guns throughout the comic also contributes to the underlying theme of justice threaded throughout, suggesting further complexity to the comic’s aims, including constructing a new understanding of ethics during war time.

MEDIA AS PROPAGANDA

Like most forms of media during the time, Triumph No. 23 takes advantage of its reach and readership in order to encourage a pro-war nationalism among Canadians. It’s specific audience, as strictly Canadians, allowed for an outpouring of “nationalistic material” that was never previously possible in a comic subculture that was entirely subsidized by other countries (Foster). Beginning with the invention of the printing press, which lead to large-scale spreading of ideas and ideals, most subsequent mass produced texts served as avenues for social and political messages (Valentine 124-125). This is only amplified in war time, when writers were being pressured by many different industries to contribute to the war effort through subtle indoctrination of their readers.

The newspapers – which many comic authors are indebted to as the inaugural platform of comic strips – printed articles informing Canadian authors of their duty to portray Canada’s “proud and honourable past” in order to show the “heroic youth-and those who stay at home-what they are fighting for” (“Important”). Some comics even included “laudatory endorsements from Canadian cabinet ministers” who were trying to perpetuate an agenda of their own (Kocmarek 37). With a printing of around 500,000 copies of comics in any particular month (a number almost tripled by the known practice of circulating a single comic through multiple sets of hands), the messages contained within the pages reached a huge and often impressionable audience (Kocmarek). The effectiveness of the infiltration of the comics’ content into the Canadian consciousness is evident through the implementation of “active clubs” and other initiatives suggested by the comics that were successfully actualized throughout the population, amassing an impressive number members (Bell 156-160). By the mid-war period it was clear that the Canadian Whites had substantial influence over their large and varied readership, bringing the content “in the pages of [the comics into] the real world” (Bell 37).

INVENTION OF WEAPONS

Comics originated in the pages of newspapers, where they were “the most frequently read part … by children, and the second most [frequently read] by adolescents” (Foster). This familial relationship becomes important when analyzing the messages of the newspapers of the era, and how the news and events the authors read influenced the content of the comics they created. One such article from the Hamilton Spectator, 1942, talks about the scientific instruments that were being created in Canada including “radio-locators” and “navigation instruments”, which were at the forefront of the scientific boom (“Secret”). The added intrigue of ‘secret’ devices was used to increase interest and prestige among the readers of the newspaper, and may have influenced one particular writer, Adrian Dingle, in his comic “Nelvana”.

Fig. 1. Adrian Dingle; last frame of “Nelvana” Triumph Comics No. 23, Bell Features Publishing, Nov/Dec 1944. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

In this comic, Nelvana is trying to secure the “precious plans” for the secret “ice-beam,” an invention she and her Canadian companions are trying to keep out of the hands of the axis-agents (Dingle 1). This weapon is fantastical, yet not totally unrealistic, and may have been representative of some of the “secret devices” that weren’t talked about, but were nevertheless floating around in the consciousness of the Canadian population (“Secret”). By recycling the ideas and themes permeating the newspapers within his comic, Dingle emphasizes the importance of new scientific invention in helping the war effort. Indeed, it is the ice-beam invention that eventually defeats the Nazi “Roboms” in “Nelvana,” as told through a newspaper heading in the last frame of the comic (Dingle 7, Fig. 1). This full circle effect found in “Nelvana” – from authors reading newspapers, to creating their comics based on what they read, to portraying newspapers in their comics that share the same messages – reflects the life Canadian readers back to them in a more dramatic, elevated, purposeful way. Keeping the population attuned to the needs and realities of the situation on the home front permeates through every level of authoritative texts.

HOMEFRONT MANUFACTURING

The war brought an onset of technological advancements to the Canadian home front, specifically in regards to the manufacturing of weapons and transportation of supplies. Canada’s reputation as a country with a “virtually nonexistent” capacity for scientific or industrial development changed rapidly with the desire to be seen as self sufficient and separate from Britain’s influence (Avery 14). Therefore, Canada began their own endeavours into “radar, explosives, proximity fuses, and chemical and biological warfare,” as well as massive manufacturing projects in areas of transportation, such as the Corvette ships (Avery 25). However, the manpower needed to manufacture all these weapons was usually at a deficit (Avery). Many forms of media set their sights on improving this ratio through sending messages containing positive reinforcement to boost morale, nationalism, and the incentive for everyday Canadians back home to participate in manufacturing efforts. The first frame of the comic “Barnacle Bull” shows him on a Corvette: a ship built in Canada and used by the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II (Brunt 41, “Corvette”). These minute details threaded throughout the comics help instil a sense of pride on both a personal level for those have first hand experience with the ship, but also on a national level, wherein every Canadian can feel a sense of pride for their country’s accomplishments.

This covert propaganda tactic was seen throughout the media of the day, including a radio broadcast from 1942. Using testimony from Canadian’s on active duty stationed across the fronts, the speakers repeat the same message of thanks and appreciation to the home front for all the “new equipment [and] new weapons” (Messages). They emphasize how much it means that it “comes from Canada”, their home, and how “the people on the front [are] every it as important as any other” (Messages). Almost every person says “keep up the good work Canada,” and there is strong sense, especially in some of the stuttering, that the soldiers are following a script provided to them (Messages). This same persuasive elements of testimony and ‘glittering generalities’ are found both in “Barnacle Bull” (more discretely), as well as overtly in the radio broadcast. Both mediums use praise as means to make the Canadian home front feel more directly connected to the cause at large, creating a greater feeling of nationalism and desire to participate.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT

The manufacturing of weapons was not the only source of contribution that was lacking on the home front; the Canadian government and universities were also in need of educated youth to participate in the scientific invention stage of weapon making. The government tried to achieve this through “mobiliz[ing] Canadian universities for war” by allocating the majority of their resources on achieving this goal (Avery 42). Their two main goals were “developing new weapons” and recruiting students to “continue their studies in all branches of science, especially along the lines required to met national requirements as they develop[ed]” (Avery 83, 43).

The pages of Triumph Comics No. 23 are saturated with recurring depictions of weapons in many different forms. In the comic “Speed Savage,” the technical, scientific jargon alludes to the complexities of scientific advancement at the time. The evil mastermind’s “fluid of life giving cosmic energy” used to bring a statue to life was only possible because of his “years of study and research,” much like the career trajectory required of actual scientists (Steele 26). This story is also reminiscent of Frederick Banting’s career high, a Canadian scientist who’s lifesaving injection of insulin only a decade before was hugely celebrated and still fresh in the consciousness of the Canadian population around the time of World War II, when he again enlisted as a pathologist in the Canadian Medical Corps (Hume 128). Thus, a comic which prophecizes the possibilities of scientific advancement while alluding to Canada’s past scientific successes can be seen as a form of subtle propaganda aimed at instilling a sense of scientific curiosity and interest in young readers.

Fig. 2. Harry Brunt. Title of “Professor Punk.” Triumph Comics No. 23, Bell Features Publishing, Nov/Dec 1944. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

The connection between the necessity for a higher education in the advancement of weaponry is even more blatant in the comic “Professor Punk” (Fig. 2). As pointed to in the title, the main character is irrefutably associated with a university through his title of “Professor,” as well as the graduation cap he wears (Brunt 8). He uses scientific laws, such as deferring to the light of the “the deadly German V-2 rocket bombs” to track them, as they “travel faster than [the speed of] sound, so they strike before they can be heard” (Brunt 8). To defeat the bombs, he uses moles, who dig into the ground in order to avoid the light of the oncoming bombs, incidentally creating big craters for them to fall into and rendering them harmless. Even though this invention seems ridiculous, it was actually not far off some of the real suggestions put forth by actual scientists, such as “freez[ing] the clouds and mount[ing] guns on them,” or building a “bridge from Newfoundland to England” for the troops to cross over (Avery 50).

Pairing images of defensive weaponry advancement with symbols of university education not only emphasizes the necessary relationship between these two undertakings, it also suggests a relationship between publishing and university institutions. Both institutions, based in Toronto, received direct (in the form of monetary endorsement in the case of the University of Toronto) and indirect pressure from the government to aid in the recruitment of people in the war effort, especially needed in the scientific realm (Avery). Thus, the seeming collaboration of the two in the comic “Professor Punk” is not a surprising result of succumbing to these external pressures.

REINFORCING WARTIME MORALITY

The repetition of representations of weapons throughout the whole comic, specifically bombs and guns, trivializes violence and perpetuates a war time view of justice. Guns are used with a sort of reverence to their power, drawn by heroes with words like, “I’ll split you wide open,” “lead for the artist,” and “Speed’s gun is out of its holder and spitting death” (Steele 28, 30). These phrases, accompanied by flashy visuals, romanticize the act of killing another person, but only once they have been sufficiently villainized. The emphasis of a self vs. other dichotomy throughout the comic exemplifies a moral reasoning that justifies killing the enemy as long as it is the interest of the greater good. For example, in “The Voice of Justice” the detective is allowed to lie to the public in order to catch the murderer, in “Capt. Wonder,” children are absolved of their guilt to protect their innocence, and in “Ace Barton” people can be killed outright if they are an enemy or traitor (Alexanian, Saakel “Capt,” Saakel “Ace”). This type of morality has undertones of propaganda because it demonizes the enemy for the purpose of making the audience more united and, in the case of a war-time country, more nationalistic.

Scientists working on war weapons already had ethical concerns that were only amplified by the continued immensity of destruction that could be achieved now that “modern science had intensified the savagery of war” (Avery 39). Already in the first World War the invention of chemical warfare was being questioned on ethical grounds, and in World War II, with nuclear weaponry on the horizon, ethical concerns only increased. Scientists are being implicated in the ethical problems of a war they don’t necessarily support through their participation in creating the weapons being fought with. Therefore, those scientists “who contribute directly to that war will … be acting immorality” through their role in the death of thousands of young kids “due in no small part to their ‘ingenuity’” (Blue 20). This creates conflict between the advancement of scientific technologies and their implications on the war-front, where they employed the full extent their destructive power (Blue 89).

Clearly, the unethical attitudes portrayed in Triumph No. 23 do not align with the morality of Canadian scientists. This solidifies the content in the comic as propagandistic rather than realistic. Attempting to show a representation of justice that diminishes the act of killing the enemy would be more beneficial to Canada’s aim of recruiting scientists for war purposes rather than showing the result of their inventions in the form of thousands of dead youth. By advertising a new type of war-time morality that quantifies the killing of villains, traitors, and enemies, Triumph Comics partakes in an undeniable form of flag waving propaganda technique that “justif[ies] an action based on the undue connection to nationalism or patriotism or benefit for an idea, group or country” (“Flag-Waving”). Thus, with the comic’s reach as a media influence throughout the Canadian population already established, the assumption of the Canadian Whites as neutral media can be confidently refuted.

CONCLUSION

Triumph Comics No. 23 was a product of it’s time, informed by the context in which it was written and becoming part of the Canadian consciousness, infiltrating the minds of the Canadian population with the overt and covert messages about the war it carried. While the Canadian Whites dissipated with the termination of the war and the WARSAW pact, reading them reveals magnitudes about what life was like on the home front. The comic’s creators’ attempt to encourage their readers in certain directions, such as using persistent imagery of weapons to instil a curiosity in the sciences of weapons technology with the intent of motivating Canadians to participate in the invention, manufacturing, and advancement of these weapons. The theme of justice threaded throughout Triumph No. 23 in the form of demonizing the enemy in a self/other dichotomy absolves Canadians of any guilt attributed to helping create weapons used for murder, fulfilling the authors’ prescribed obligations to propagate a war-time morality within the Canadian population.

Works Cited

  • Alexanian, Aram. “Voice of Justice.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 50-56. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Avery, Donald. The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War. University of Toronto Press, 1998, Scholars Portal Books. https://ryerson.summon.serialssolutions.com/#!/search?bookMark=ePnHCXMw42JgAfZbU5khZ9tYAFsjoANAjDlg4x6gIX1gmuJkEAKGgwK0mFfIT1MoTwTWAgpuriHOHrrQ5mY8dAgjPskQ1JEB1mXGRCgBAF14I60
  • Bell, John. “3 Smashing the Axis: Canada’s Golden Age of Comics, 1941-1946.” Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe. Dundurn Nov. 11, 2006. pp. 30-43. ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/ryerson/reader.action?docID=611683&ppg=23.
  • Blue, Ethan, et al. Engineering and War: Militarism, Ethics, Institutions, Alternatives. Vol. 20, Morgan and Claypool, 2014. Scholars Portal Books. http://books1.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/viewdoc.html?id=641253&page=34.
  • Brunt, Harry. “Barnacle Bull.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 41. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Brunt, Harry. “Professor Punk.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 8-10. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • “Corvette.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette.
  • Dingle, Adrian. “Nelvana of the Norther Lights and the Ice-Beam.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 1-7. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • “Flag-Waving.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Aug. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag-waving. (last edited 11 October 2016)
  • Foster, John. “Comic Books – Oxford Reference.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, Edited by Jack Zipes, 2006. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-0697.
  • Hume, Stephen Eaton. Frederick Banting: hero, healer, artist. vol. 12, XYZ Publishing, 2001. Scholars Portal Books. http://books1.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/viewdoc.html?id=372881#tabview=tab0
  • “Important Task Facing Writers of the Country.” The Hamilton Spectator, 24 Aug. 1940. Democracy at War: Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War, WarMuseum. http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/canadawar /munitions_e.shtml
  • Kocmarek, Ivan. “Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, vol. 43, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 148–65. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/crc.2016.0008.
  • “Messages to the Home Front in 1942” A soldier’s War, 1939-1945. 30 Nov. 1942, CBC Archives. http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/second-world-war-messages-to-the-home-front.
  • Saakel, Ross. “Ace Barton.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 43-48. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Saakel, Ross. “Capt. Wonder.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 11-17. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • “Secret Devices Made in Canada.” The Hamilton Spectator, 19 Dec. 1942. Democracy at War: Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War, WarMuseum. http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/information_e.shtml.
  • Steele, Theodore. “Speed Savage.” Triumph Comics no. 23, Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, Nov/Dec. 1944, pp. 25-31. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Triumph Comics, no. 23. Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, 1944. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
  • Valentine, Patrick M. A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuneiform to Bytes. Scarecrow Press, 2012, ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/ryerson/reader.action?docID=1664200.

Images in this online exhibit are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.

Cultural Anxiety, Women, and Triumph Comics no.21

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG 810 Fall2017 Section 011 - Monique Tschofen, Triumph Comics, , , ,

© Lea Sansom 2017, Ryerson University

Introduction

The role of women was changing drastically during and after World War II. As with any major cultural shift, this change in role was met with varied reactions from society at the time. There was major cultural anxiety surrounding the role of women as they went from homemakers and mothers, to working in factories and more. This cultural anxiety is evident in texts from the time, including in Triumph Comics no. 21. In this comic, there is no unifying message around the role of women. The female characters present in the various stories are represented as strong and capable heroes, or as weak damsels in distress. This is evident in the way they are drawn, as well as their actual role and importance in the narrative of the various stories. Taking these examples and the historical context into account, it is possible to see how the cultural anxiety surrounding the role of women at the time was present within this comic. Looking at the comics individually, it might seem that certain ideals were being promoted. When they are all taken into account together, given that they were published in the same issue, it presents a fairly conflicted idea of women and their role. This is similar to the cultural conflict taking place at the time surrounding the need for capable women and the desire to maintain traditional roles.

The Changing Role of Women in WWII

It is possible to see the changing role of women through primary sources of the time. The film Women are Warriors from 1942 outlines the many different ways in which women were involved in the war effort. This film places considerable focus on the domestic tasks of women during this time, such as caring for children and sewing clothing (1:30-2:00). However, it also shows shots of women training and marching like soldiers, and discusses the manual labour such as farming and even manning anti-aircraft guns (3:25). An article by Elinore Herrick from The New Leader discusses a newly implemented program of women working in shipyards. The author praises the success of the program, and the women participating. Of particular note is that the women are not allowed to wear makeup or jewellery for safety reasons, and must also wear fairly masculine safety gear. However, the author emphasizes that the women are experimenting with creams to protect their skin, and that they have a comfortable restroom with nice furniture. This attempt to emphasize the remaining femininity in a typically masculine job contributes to the idea of anxiety surrounding women’s roles.

World War II afforded women a larger role outside of the typical household management expected of them at the time. However, the expectation was that after the war, women would return to the role of housekeeper and restore the status quo (Smith and Wakewich, 58-59). According to Smith and Wakewich, the necessity of drawing women into the workforce had to be balanced with “concerns about women’s capacity for industrial labour and the general public’s anxiety about women’s expanded public role both as breadwinners and consumers” (60). The reliance on women both as a practical source of labour, and also as symbols of social stability created cultural anxiety (Hegarty, 113) and further necessitated a drawing of cultural boundaries between the proper woman who did her duty, and the woman who overturned societal norms. This defining of roles often intertwined with control of sexuality and created a divide of patriotic women and promiscuous women. The difference between them being their apparent acceptance or rejection of cultural norms and thereby the risk they posed to traditional ideals after the war was over (Hegarty, 115). Control and use of women’s bodies and sexuality during the war is a common theme that Smith and Wakewich, and Hegarty touch on. There was increasing pressure on women to occupy a more traditionally masculine position in order to aid the war effort and be seen as patriotic, but only so long as they did not disrupt cultural norms more than was necessary. This balancing act was adopted by the government in order to get the labour that they needed while alleviating cultural anxiety around morality (Smith and Wakewich, 61). It also had to be adopted by women, who could suffer the personal repercussions of being deemed immoral, as “‘promiscuous’ female sexuality became a prime target during wartime” (Hegarty, 115).

Powerful Characters

There are two notably powerful female characters in Triumph Comics no. 21. These are Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the titular character of her comic, and Sally Dunlop who is the protagonist of “Air Woman”. Both characters are shown in their comics to be smart and physically capable, and they come to the rescue of the male characters in their respective comics.

Fig. 1 Adrian Dingle, panel from “Nelvana of the Northern Lights” Triumph Comics. no.21, Aug/Sept 1944, Bell Features, p.2

Nelvana is significant in that her comic is the first to appear in this issue, and she is featured on the cover. Her comic was serialized as well, indicating that she was perhaps a popular character used to draw readers to buy the comic. This issue contains Chapter Three “The Lair of the Devil Fish” of the larger story “Nelvana of the Northern Lights and the Ice Beam”. From the beginning of this chapter, Nelvana is placed as the hero, with the recap of the previous chapter stating that Nelvana has just rescued one of the male characters, Silas, from a monster (Dingle, 1). From that point, Nelvana leads the police sergeant and Silas in investigating. In the image above (fig. 1), Nelvana’s physical strength is highlighted. She is shown in a powerful pose, even breaking out of the panel frame. She has dynamic lines around her, and faces front while the male characters have far less focus on them. Nelvana’s quick thinking also allows them to track the monster to the villains lair (Dingle, 3). Nelvana does present as typically feminine, she has long hair and wears a skirt, however her body is never seen as weak, and her physical appearance is not mentioned except in relation to her super powers. Based on Nelvana’s importance within the issue, she was clearly a successful character. With that in mind, the assumption can be made that readers at the time were receptive to such a powerful female character.

Sally Dunlop, of “Air Woman” is presented similarly to Nelvana. One important difference is that while Nelvana is very obviously a fictional character, “Air Woman” begins by situating the comic in its WWII context “The first Canadian Women’s Service, formed on July 2, 1940 was organized to release manpower for aircrew duties” (Lazare, 38). This adds weight to what takes place in this comic, as Sally Dunlop and the events of the comic are positioned as a more real-world situation. She is clearly meant to present an inspiring figure through her actions. Sally Dunlop represents an example of Hegarty’s “patriotic woman”. Like Nelvana, Sally Dunlop presents as typically feminine. In fact, she and Nelvana look quite similar. Again, like Nelvana, her body is never objectified. She is shown in action, running to save soldiers from a crashed plane, and then physically moving rubble in order to lift the soldiers to safety (Lazare, 40-41). She is even presented with a medal of honour “Distinguished Service in the Face of Danger” (Lazare, 41). Given the real-world context of this comic, Sally Dunlop being shown as smart and capable in the face of danger is very impactful.

While it is impossible to say what the intentions of the authors of these comics were, it is safe to assume they wanted their comics to sell. Therefore, the representation of both Nelvana and Sally Dunlop certainly indicates that strong and capable female characters were at least somewhat accepted and encouraged. Both comics do however maintain the physical appearance of femininity for the characters, similarly to Herrick’s article on female shipyard workers emphasizing the use of creams and typically feminine comforts. This indicates that while these comics do not balk at representing powerful women, there were still certain cultural expectations in place that they had to conform to.

Damsels in Distress

There are multiple examples of the damsel in distress within this comic. Gloria Gates from “Captain Wonder” and an unnamed character from “Tang” who is referred to mostly as “the girl” are two examples of this type of character. These two characters are shown being rescued by men, and never take much action of their own within the narrative. They are also both often depicted being held or restrained in some way.

Fig. 2. Ross Saakel, panel from “Captain Wonder” Triumph Comics. no.21, Aug/Sept 1944, Bell Features, p.20

The image to the left (fig 2) depicts Gloria Gates being kidnapped in “Captain Wonder”. She is being physically held by the male villain, and she makes no attempt to fight back, only being able to call for help. Her body is objectified here, with her skirt being pulled up slightly to reveal the top of her stocking, and her body positioned in a way to display her curves, even though she is being violently kidnapped. The male villain is what the eye is first drawn to in this frame, making Gloria even less important. Later in the comic, Gloria is shown tied up and with her shirt pulled down to expose her shoulder and the top of her breast. She remains tied up until Captain Wonder saves her, and even then her shirt remains pulled down in the last frame she is present in (Saakel, 24). The main purpose she serves in the narrative is to give Captain Wonder a reason to go and fight the villains. She is never shown in action, except for fleeing from the villains after being rescued, and her body is objectified throughout.

The unnamed “girl” from “Tang” serves much the same purpose as Gloria Gates. She is first shown tied up and gagged by the villains which the main characters are investigating, and she provides justification for the protagonists to fight the villains. After being rescued, the girl is shown being carried on horseback by the protagonists and providing them with one clue to find the rest of the villains (Kalbach, 14-15). In fact, this clue is only one of two sentences the girl speaks. It is also not a complete sentence, only a fragment description of one of the villains. The other sentence is simply confirming that the protagonists had reason to fight the villains. Like Gloria Gates, the girl serves mainly as a justification for the violence that the male protagonists commit.

Narratively, neither of these female characters are unique or vital. They could both be swapped with any number of reasons for the protagonists to leap into action and the narrative could be essentially the same. These characters both represent women who are entirely reliant on men. In the context of the time, this could be a statement on the role of women. It certainly indicates that as a society this view of women was not entirely unacceptable.

Conclusion

This comic offers insight into the effect that the changing role of women had on culture at the time. There is no unified stance on the role of women within this comic, just as the role of women was a tension point within the culture at the time. The characters presented have very different roles within their respective narratives, with varying importance. Similar techniques are used to show power or weakness in the female characters. In comparing these characters, it is possible to see how the patriotic woman was represented, as well as how women were represented as weaker and needing the support of men. Neither type of woman is represented as inherently bad, and so it is safe to assume that both were culturally present at the time. Overall, the varied representation of female characters within this comic is an interesting view into cultural ideals of the time.

Works Cited

  • Dingle, Adrian. “Nelvana of the Northern Lights and the Ice Beam. Chapter Three: Lair of the Devil Fish.” Triumph Comics, no 21, Aug/Sept 1944, pp. 1-7. Bell Features, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166652.pdf.
  • Hegarty, Marilyn E. “Patriot Or Prostitute?: Sexual Discourses, Print Media, and American Women during World War II.” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 10, no. 2, 1998, pp. 112-136
  • Herrick, Elinore M. The Myth of the American Glamour Girl: A Real Story of Women in War Industry: Millions in Factories Solving Manpower Crisis, Mrs. Herrick Says. vol. 26, New Leader Publishing Association, New York, N.Y, 1943.
  • Kelbach, René L. “Tang.” Triumph Comics, no 21, Aug/Sept 1944, pp. 10-16. Bell Features, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166652.pdf.
  • Lazare, Jerry. “Air Woman.” Triumph Comics, no 21, Aug/Sept 1944, pp. 38-41. Bell Features, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166652.pdf.
  • Saakel, Ross. “Captain Wonder.” Triumph Comics, no 21, Aug/Sept 1944, pp. 19-25. Bell Features, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166652.pdf.
  • Smith, Helen E., and Pamela Wakewich. “Regulating Body Boundaries and Health during the Second World War: Nationalist Discourse, Media Representations and the Experiences of Canadian Women War Workers.” Gender & History, vol. 24, no. 1, 2012, pp. 56-73.
  • Women Are Warriors. Directed by Jane Marsh. National Film Board, 1942.

Images in this online exhibit are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.