Category Archives: 2017 Canadian Whites

Pedagogy and Propaganda in Active Comics no. 7

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , , , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Christine Dionio, Ryerson University

Introduction

During the Second World War, the War Exchange Conservation Act placed in December 1940 restricted the importation of non-essential, luxury goods. This placed a strain on several industries, such as the comic book industry, as American comics thrived amongst Canadian readers (Bell “Comic Books in English Canada”). Rather than halt the comic book industry, the importation ban proved to be a precedent to the golden age of Canadian comics through the creation of the “Canadian Whites,” Canadian produced comics that, unlike the coloured American comics, had pages printed in black and white (Beaty 429). Many of the comic books that composed the “Canadian Whites” are similar to American superhero comics, however, they are more in-tune with Canadian sensibilities. Since the “Canadian Whites” were produced during the war, the comics’ storylines are not only a reflection of how the war was perceived by Canadians, but how Canadians wanted to inform the comic book market (i.e. children) about the war with a particular ideology in mind. The visual and textual war references in the seventh issue of Active Comics from September 1942 depict the fictional stories in a wartime context that the readers were exposed to through other forms of media, such as newspapers, propaganda posters, and films. The explicit visual and textual references seen in seventh issue of Active Comics demonstrates how the “Canadian Whites” served as a pedagogical tool used to address the anxieties of Canadian youth during World War II, using war-focused, nationalistic imagery to ease their anxieties and foster pride and support for the Allies during the war.

Canadian Strength and Adversity

T.A. Steele. Page from “Dixon of the Mounted.” Active Comics, no. 7, p. 1. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The visual and textual references found in the seventh issue of Active Comics paralleled the actual events of the war in a way that celebrates Canadian strength and adversity. This is despite lacking any kind of explicit superpowers, with the exception of “The Brain”, who has clairvoyant abilities. The narratives had to discourage cynicism the reader may have towards the war without creating an irrational, over-inflated sense of optimism. As well, the heroes are expected to support the country by being active in the war, but their capabilities cannot be great enough to end the war on their own since this would create an unrealistic vision of the war and the enemy (Cord 60). While The Brain is the only hero in Active Comics no. 7 to have a superhuman power, he does not participate in the war. Rather, he fights local city crimes and uses his clairvoyant powers to foil unlawful citizens. Dixon of the Mounted lacks any kind of powers and, rather than being classified as a superhero, is a mere corporal supporting the Allies by fighting enemies within Canadian borders. The seventh issue in particular has Dixon fighting against Nazi agents who “intend to wreak havoc and destruction [at a Canadian munitions centre]” (Active Comics 1). Similar to soldiers fighting the war, Dixon depends on his pistol and determination to thwart the Nazi’s plans. Not only does Dixon lack superpowers, he also acts as a symbolic metaphor through his Mountie attire. Similar to propaganda posters, the characters embody cultural symbols as a means to connote them to a particular culture and nation. Dixon, in his Mountie uniform, represents Canada and fights for the law. The Nazi agents, introduced with a Swastika as a backdrop (Active Comics 1) signify Germany and antagonize them as threats to Canadian security. As a Mountie, he acts for the sake of law and justice, embodying both without compromise through an explicitly Canadian character. Ultimately, Dixon parallels the strife of Canadian soldiers in their fight with Axis soldiers and, despite lacking superpowers, demonstrates how those fighting alongside law and justice shall overcome the enemy.

Collective Canadian Triumph

The comic also demonstrates how success lies not only in the individual, but in the collective effort, which also applies to the events of the war. Both “Capt. Red Thortan” and “Thunderfist” demonstrate success against the enemies through the cooperation of everyone involved. In both stories, the characters are fighting against Japanese in a naval context. Active Comics no. 7 came out in September 1942, a year following Pearl Harbor (Greenhouse “Canada and the Battle of Hong Kong”) and a month following the Dieppe Raid (Herd “Dieppe Raid”). During this time, the Allies had to not only combat an enemy in a territory that they were unfamiliar with, but they also had to strike back following the many casualties at Dieppe. In both “Capt. Red Thortan” and “Thunderfist,” the respective heroes are both seen to thwart the Japanese’s advances onto the Allies albeit in an unfamiliar terrain. The emphasis on collective efforts was prevalent during World War II, as demonstrated in posters among other ephemera that worked to promote recruitment, promote bond sales, and promote unity both through domestic cooperation and by sympathizing with soldiers fighting overseas (Halliday 3).  While the heroes lacked any kind of extraordinary powers, they helped reassure the anxieties the young readers may have had about the war by including heroes that are similar to the soldiers who, despite lacking superpowers, can still unite and fight against the enemy.

The Axis and Otherness

Al Cooper. Panel from “Capt. Red Thortan.” Active Comics, no. 7, p. 43. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

One important aspect of visual representation in Active Comics are the way that characters coming from Axis countries are represented through stereotypical characteristics. In doing so, the Japanese and German characters are dehumanized and delineated from the reader as the other – something not to be identified with (Murray 181). With comics as both a visual and textual medium, it is important to consider how the visual representations retain as much meaning as what is demonstrated textually. Most of the major characters in Active Comics involved in the war are drawn realistically, thus the reader cannot identify as well with the protagonist and the antagonists as well as they could a more abstract figure (McCloud 36). However, this works to the advantage of fostering feelings of contempt towards the Axis powers. While the reader may not be a muscular adult male, they identify much closer with them than they do the dehumanized German and Japanese characters. The exaggerated, menacing depictions of the Axis powers not only reduce the enemies to flattened stereotypes, but also associate them with evil (Murray 191). The characters act as metaphoric symbols, standing in place of countries, and the stories of Dixon fighting the Nazi agents and Thunderfist thwarting the plans of the Japanese navy are meant to parallel the ongoing narratives of the war. The Axis characters, being visually antagonized, are not only delineated from the reader, but connoted with evil, thus rationalizing the archetypal triumph of good over evil which is prevalent in Active Comics‘ stories.

Shifting War, Shifting Narratives

“Active Jim’s Monthly Message.” Active Comics, no. 7, September 1942, p. 29. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

It is important to keep in mind that, due to the uncertainty of events, the visual and textual war references are subject to the changing events in the war. In a sense, the characters are a reaction to the battles, as was the case with how the Japanese are presented in Canadian media. In Legg’s film, “Warclouds in the Pacific,” Japanese residing in Britain and America are described to be “intensely loyal to the democratic principles they have adopted [and] proud of the New World heritage” (Legg “Warclouds in the Pacific”). However, Active Comics no. 7 expresses a different sentiment through the way that the Japanese characters are stereotyped and, as seen in “Capt. Red Thortan”, referred to as “Japs” and even “yellow friend” (Active Comics 38). Since the seventh issue of Active Comics was published following the attack at Pearl Harbor (Greenhouse “Battle of Hong Kong), it can be seen that as the events shifted in the war, as did the feelings towards the Axis powers and, in turn, the way that they are represented in mass media. However, the comics were not limited to negative depictions of the enemy with respects to the war. The comics inform the reader of the war both by negatively portraying the enemy and glorifying Allied soldiers. Despite Dieppe being a tragic loss for Canadians (Herd “Dieppe Raid”), “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” commended the “heroism displayed by all ranks at Dieppe” (Active Comics 29). While the Dieppe Raid resulted in a high amount of casualties, “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” celebrates the soldiers’ efforts, discouraging any kind of pessimism regarding the casualties at Dieppe.  The comics, being released on a monthly basis, actively react to the events and foster particular ideologies. That said, the comics act as propaganda, however it is with the youth readers’ anxieties and sensitivity to the war in mind.

Rationalizing Violence

The characters in Active Comics engage in realistic cases of violence, however they are rationalized through the context of the comics’ plots. The wartime context of the comics are what is considered “a state of exception” (Bainbridge 757), meaning that while the actions of the characters may go against the law in a regular context, acting against the law in favour of justice is permissible so long as it is in favour of the common good. In “Dixon of the Mounted”, the story in the issue is resolved with Dixon shooting a traitor, Karnz, dead. While murder is condemned, Dixon’s actions are rationalized since killing Karnz subverts “another Nazi Plot of Sabotage” (Active Comics 10). The comics justify wartime violence so long as it is at the benefit of defending the country and subduing the enemy which, during World War II, are the Axis powers. This can also be seen in “Capt. Red Thortan” when a Japanese pilot is shot down by a turret (Active Comics 44) – Captain Red Thortan killing another individual is permissible during these exceptional circumstances. While the readers of the comic are too young to fight in the war themselves, rationalizing violence still had a practical function at home. Similar to wartime posters, justifying wartime violence against the Axis powers works to promote feelings of contempt which then help foster nationalism and, in turn, support for the war effort (Halliday 128). The readers who associate themselves closer to Canadian characters such as Dixon and Captain Red Thortan than with the Japanese and German characters then are prompted to help support the war effort despite being to young to fight themselves. Overall, in rationalizing the war and the violence associated with it, the comic works to foster nationalistic support for Allied soldiers since the characters, despite technically breaking the law, are acting in exceptional circumstances for justice’s sake.

Conclusion

The seventh issue of Active Comics demonstrates both how Canadians responded to the war and the kinds of ideologies that they wanted to disseminate through wartime ephemera. In celebrating the valour of Canadian heroes, delineating the reader from the enemies, and justifying the violence, the comics work as a highly ideological pedagogical tool that not only informed their market, but influenced them in favour of nationalism. Doing so had pragmatic purposes, as doing so acted as a means to garner support for the war effort from members of Canadian society to young to fight on the war front. What differentiates the “Canadian Whites” from other wartime ephemera is how the approach had to appeal to a youth audience that, while is not completely passive, is still highly impressionable. Active Comics, in taking advantage of its visual and textual capacities, demonstrates the multifaceted ways that different mediums can be encoded with particular ideologies.

Works Cited

Active Comics, no. 7, September 1942. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/art/bell-features/Documents/Active_Comics_7.pdf

Bainbridge, Jason. ““The Call to do Justice”: Superheroes, Sovereigns and the State During Wartime.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law – Revue international de Sémiotique juridique, vol. 28, no. 4, May 24 2015, pp. 745-763. Scholars Portal Journals, DOI:10.1007/s11196-015-9424-y.

Beaty, Bart. “The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero.” American Review of Canadian Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, 2006, pp. 427-439. Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database, DOI: 10.1080/02722010609481401

Bell, John. “Comic Books in English Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, August 7 2015. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/comic-books-in-english-canada/.

Edwardson, Ryan. “The Many Lives of Captain Canuck: Nationalism, Culture, and the Creation of a Canadian Comic Book Hero.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 31, no. 2, November 2003, pp.184-201. Scholars Portal Journals, DOI: 10.1111/1540-5931.00063.

Greenhouse, Brereton and Richard Foot. “Battle of Hong Kong.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, November 15 2016. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-hong-kong/.

Herd, Alex. “Dieppe Raid.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, June 4 2015. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/dieppe-raid/.

Legg, Stuart. “Warclouds in the Pacific.” The National Film Board, 1941. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU1GXo_i4bQ.

Halliday, Hugh A. “Posters and the Canadian War Museum.” Canadian Military History, vol. 3, no., January 1 2012, pp. 126-129. Scholars Commons @ Laurier, http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol3/iss1/16/.

Heller, Steven. “The Ministry of Fear.” Social Research, vol. 71, no. 4, 2004, pp. 849-862. Project Muse, muse.jhu.edu/article/527363.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, William Morrow, 1994.

Murray, Christopher. Champions of the Oppressed: Superhero Comics, Popular Culture, and Propaganda in American During World War II, Hampton Press, 2011.

Scott, Cord A.. “Fighting for Freedom (1939-45).” Comics and Conflict, Naval Institute Press, 2014, pp. 54-90. ProQuest Ebook Central,               http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ryerson/detail.action?docID=1577594.

Stacey, C.P.. Revised by Richard Foot. “Second World War (WWII).” The Canadian Encyclopedia, May 13 2015. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/second-world-war-wwii.

Media Disclaimer

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

 

Romanticizing the War For Children Through Active Comics #15

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, Active Comics, Children's Books and War, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen,

© Copyright 2017 Leya Jasat, Ryerson University

Introduction to the Canadian Whites

Fig1. Active Comics. No. 15, February 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada: Cover. Bell Features Collection, Library, and Archives Canada.

Bravery, heroism, and patriotism are some of the themes found in the Canadian Whites comic books. These themes found in comics for children were also found in the war itself. Specifically, in number 15 of the Active comics (January 1944) series, one can see these themes being portrayed and projected on to the readers (children).

The influence of the great war on children was greatly underestimated. However, adults, older brothers, and uncles had started to disappear from the lives of these children when the war started and these children were just as much involved (Cook). This exhibit looks at the use of comics and their demand as a platform for grooming children in the 1940’s. These comic books were not for the sole purpose of grooming children to support the war but a lot of the stories and advertisements within the comics represent the war and patriotism to Canada. The stories in this comic book usually end happily when the heroes defeat the “enemies”, teaching children that safety, victory, and happiness can be achieved from helping with and winning the war in whatever ways possible.

Summary

The Canadian Whites are a series of comic books made on white paper with black ink during the second World War. Canada was unable to purchase non-essential goods and comics were one of those goods. Canadian children needed something to do/enjoy and the popular American colored comics were not available. Since this was the case, Canadian authors and illustrators including Adrian Dingle, Frank Keith, Leo Bachle, Kurly Lipas, Harry Brunt, Paterson, Al Cooper, and Jon Darian contributed to Canadian Comics which were called the Canadian Whites and were for the benefit and entertainment of children. These comic books consist of continuing series as well as intermittent stories that take up one or more pages. The stories are told in boxes mostly through drawings and a few words called sequential art. The comic books also include advertisements for readers to buy other Canadian comics, war stamps, toys, and notices/challenges for members.

The comic book specifically being discussed in this exhibit is number 15 from the Active comics (January 1944) series. In this comic book, the representation of guns is prominent as it is portrayed as an asset in a few of the stories and it has a full-page advertisement for a toy anti-aircraft gun as well.

Grooming children

 Adults were disappearing from children’s’ lives after the war began expecting them to help around the house, working for money, and purchasing war stamps (Cook). One of their primary sources of entertainment and one of the few activities for children was reading comics. At that time, war toys were becoming normalized (Fisher) and one of the ways this was possible was through advertising them in comic books and portraying gun users as the ones who succeed in the comics. These comics showed children who their enemies are by showing them Canadian heroes fighting people of the enemy countries. Children who were from the enemy countries were bullied once the children learned who Canada was fighting in the war, as explained by Galway “Canadians of German or Italian descent were not allowed to participate in war efforts, were teased, taunted, or assaulted” (Galway).By closely examining the stories and images, contrary to what I expected there is only one story that has the hero handling a gun. “Active Jim” is the only story that shows a hero using a gun while every other story that contains guns has them in the hands of the enemies. In “Active Jim” the police officer is handling the gun to stop a driver while “Dixon of the Mounted”, “King Fury and the Robot Menace”, “Capt. Red Thortan” and “The Brain” have the heroes fighting with their fists, knives, or swords.

The representation of guns in the comics were being used to groom the kids to want to be soldiers especially considering that the only advertisement directed to children in this comic book is for a gun. The advertisement itself has an image of a soldier with a gun above the image of a child with a gun. Children tend to do what they see and if they are seeing an image of a soldier alongside a child with a gun they will want to imitate the soldier first of all and then, of course, the image of the child. The representation of guns seen through the comic strips and advertisement is just one of the ways in which toy guns were being normalized for children in the twentieth century.

Guns were becoming normalized for children in the twentieth century, with the primary cause being the World War. They were being sold through such captivating advertisements that the children were excited to receive toy guns for Christmas and the guns were becoming consumer items (Brown). At the time children wanting to play with toy weapons was a new concept and even then the guns were used to encourage them to become familiar and skilled with weapons for the war (Brown). At the cost of the children’s childhood, weapons were being normalized so that the children could contribute to the war with more skill and enthusiasm (Brown).  Another factor for guns becoming normalized was economic, as described by Brown:

“Businesses heavily marketed cheap, mass-produced arms in this period. Gun manufacturers and retailers employed several aggressive sales techniques, such as emphasizing that using firearms could inculcate manly virtues, and redefining some weapons as toys to make them into acceptable and desirable consumer items. (Brown)”

The fact that guns were being produced in a mass amount that was benefiting the economy gave more reason for encouraging children to buy and play with them. The results of gun use being normalized for the war was not very smart as weapon use was not enforced well enough (Brown). Weapons were being misused and there were little to no laws on mishandling them. The laws that were placed were broken and were not enforced (Brown). Guns were becoming a danger to Canadians but were still being encouraged for the sole purpose of the children growing up to fight and prosper in the war.

Active comics and romanticizing guns

“Active Jim” is the only story that shows a hero using a gun. On pages 33-35 in the 15th edition of the Active comics the story of “Active Jim” and his assistant encounter a sanding crew mishap. Jim and a police officer use a gun to take down the driver who is sprinkling fine glass instead of sand. In this story, the reader is being taught that using a gun can lead to victory and justice. On the other hand, there are multiple stories with the enemies handling guns like in “Dixon of the Mounted” by R.L. Kulbach on pages 1-7 of the Active comics. In this story, the Japanese officers attack and capture Dixon using their guns to keep him from escaping. Another example is “King Fury and the Robot Menace” by Kurly Lipas on pages 22-28 of the Active comics. In this story, a doctor builds a robot and the Germans successfully steal it with the use of their guns.

These stories not only show the obedience and power a person with a gun can have but also teach the readers about Canada’s enemies. The enemies in this comic book are clearly shown to be of a different racial background through their facial features and butchered English dialogue. They were illustrated to portray the people Canada was at war against. This showed readers who their enemies were since they were also from Canada and in order to show patriotism to Canada, they were made to believe in having the same enemies as their country. The children of war were taught who their enemies were and how to treat them from such a young age. They were being groomed to make these people their enemies and dislike them through the beliefs of their country without their own intellect. In the same way, these kids were learning to romanticize the acceptance of self-sacrificing death as a price of heroism for their country (McKenzie). War was becoming their way of life.

Anti-Aircraft Gun advertisement. January 1944, Toronto, Ontario: Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited. Special Collections, Library and Archives Canada.

Apart from stories in this comic book, there is also an advertisement that strikes as utterly surprising. The advertisement is for an automatic anti-aircraft toy gun for children. It is so bluntly placed on the entire back cover (recto and verso) of the comics book. As a reader, it takes one by surprise that such a violent toy would be advertised to children. The way it is advertised is quite disturbing as well because it has an image of a soldier holding and aiming a gun similar to the toy one while there is an image of a child right underneath playing with a toy gun that looks like the one the soldier is holding. Some of the words used to capture the child’s attention are ” JUST LIKE THE REAL THING! SHOOT IT FROM THE TRIPOD, SWING IT INTO ANY POSITION SIMPLY TURN THE HANDLE AS FAST AS YOU LIKE FOR LOUD RAPID FIRE ACTION!” This advertisement is a great example of how guns were being normalized for children in such a blunt way, grooming them for war at the time they are the most vulnerable, their leisure time.

These themes of heroism, bravery, and patriotism can be seen in the comics and everything else surrounding the children of the war. In number 15 of the Active comics (January 1944) series one can clearly see the representation of guns as a primary war weapon as well as the enemies of Canada that the children soon learn to accept as their own enemies. Comics were used as a platform to groom children into accepting and wanting to fight for Canada. They used the love of comics and mixed in patriotism to Canada, Canada’s enemies, and guns. All this by capturing the children’s attention while teaching them who to like, how to behave, and to work for the war.

Works Cited:

Brown, R. Blake. “Every boy ought to learn to shoot and to obey orders” The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 93, no. 2, 2012, pp. 196-226

Cook, Tim. “Canadian Children and the Second World War.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 04 Dec. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.

Fisher, Susan R. Boys and girls in no man’s land: English-Canadian children and the First World War. Toronto u.a.: U of Toronto Press, 2011. Print.

Galway, Elizabeth A. “Border Crossings: Depictions of Canadian- American Relations in First World War Children’s Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 39, no. 1, 2015, pp. 100-115 Research Library

Mckenzie, Andrea. “The Children’s Crusade: American Children Writing War.” The Lion and the Unicorn  (2007): 87-102. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.

 

Superheroes Representing Canadian Identity through Active Comics #1

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , , , , , , ,

©Copyright 2017 Vera Almeida, Ryerson University

Introduction

Tri-coloured cover (yellow, blue, green) Active Comics No. 1
C.T. Legault (a). Active Comics. No. 1, February 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada: Cover. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Comic books became an important source for providing information and education for children about the World War. Active comics were used to display adventure through war stories and demonstrating to children about Canadian identity through superheroes. The period of Canadian superheroes started around the 1940’s releasing the “Canadian Whites”. According to Beaty, “These comics, so-called due to the black and white interiors that distinguished them from the four-color American comics of the period, arose in response to the wartime importation ban on non- essential goods that removed American comic books from Canadian newsstands” (Beaty 429). Active comic #1 has carried out a way to demonstrate children about war in a way where they are separated from reality, thus still being taught war in a much more fun approach. This exhibit’s critical aim is that the superheroes in Active Comics Issue #1 (February, 1942) like Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist explore the depictions that show children about Canadian society and values. In particular the masculine role that these two superheroes perform in order to demonstrate that all Canadian soldiers were brave and strong. The comics have never been as effective, as advertising, but the ideology of maintenance for Canadian military is still there. However, as long as they are considered a ‘children‘s book’ the comic book will serve as an active way of teaching them.

The Children being drawn into Canadian-ness:

Black and white
C.T. Legault (a). Front Cover Verso of “Dixon of the Mounted”Active Comics. No. 1, February 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada: Cover. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Active Comics was served to explain the importance of strong and intelligent superheroes to illustrate what it means to be Canadian. These comics portrayed all sorts of action and fun stories in order to catch the children’s engagement and the conformity on the battlefield. Moreover, the two superheroes Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist’s goal was not only to defeat the enemy, thus to engage children that these superheroes were strong Canadian figures. These two superheroes summon into question the theme between connecting popular culture and nationalism about Canadian-ness through comic books. Moreover, Active comics put forth the idea of importance for those children who have brothers, fathers and uncles serving in war. The adolescent and pre-adolescents of Second World War read the comics eagerly. The comics provided that young audience, which did not read newspapers and had no television to watch, with probably their only source of information on the war.

 

Black and white
C.T. Legault (a). Front Cover Verso of “Thunderfist” Active Comics. No. 1, February 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada: Cover. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Moreover, Bell Features seemed to work in giving life and durability to these Canadian comic books and “looking back at them they were a significant piece in the puzzle of our Canadian-ness”(Kockmarek The war-time Comics of Bell Features Publications). Bright, bold and with colour only on front page, this comic reveals how the publishers wanted to get as much attention as they could for children to buy it. These publishers know exactly of what the comics provided and what type of audience’s the comics would have. Beaty questions, “Why superheroes? Why comics? They are not just entertaining fantasy figures. They are important to our history because they are symbols of our Canadian identity” (Beaty 431). Through making the superheroes play the role of what it means to be Canadian, this embraces the popular culture and makes children aware of what it means to be Canadian. Representing Canadian-ness was a brilliant way to let children, who were the main consumer’s to get a copy of this comic, engage with Canadian nationality. Beaty states, “Superheroes of the Second World War into legitimated representations of Canadian wartime aspirations that could be affectionately regarded in hindsight as examples of Canadian popular culture” (Beaty 431). According to Beaty, these superheroes were the finest way to represent the Canadian culture to children during the war. Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist were superheroes that fit the role to represent their Canadian abilities that children learned from. Active comics was a great source for children to engage and know what it meant to be Canadian, thus the only Canadian popular culture the children was being open too was the whole concept of masculinity features.

Masculinity taking action during World War Two:

Black and white
The “Men of the Mounted” daily strip was created by Edwin Reid “Ted” McCall and drawn by Harry S. Hall for the Toronto Telegram on Feb. 13, 1933.

The two heroes in the Active Comic #1; Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist are adventurous and demonstrate the representation of masculinity throughout their stories in order to keep the Canadian ‘identity’. The first story in the issue, Dixon of the Mounted, plays out the strong and brave man as he is going through a blizzard in the mountains searching for his female companion, Ruth Barton. He was a Corporal in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police labeling for Canada then the beaver and even the maple leaf. Thunderfist opens up as a strongman and as a scientific man known for the strangest inventions. His abilities are his allow him to advance at great speed and makes him fly through the electrical currents. Thunderfist’s costume makes him immune to electrical attacks and he has an intelligent mind that leads him to create devices and his own costume. The realization of the need for mental and physical toughness on the battlefield demonstrates the presumed virtues of dominant masculinity for both Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist, which men bring to the military service. Both of these heroes portray what its like to be in Canadian popular culture through their intelligence and strength. Saying that, this makes them Canadian and the children take on that every soldier who fought in the World War two and was Canadian; they had to be like Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist. There was even aToronto Evening Telegram portraying Men of the Mounted, which contained a strip about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Dixon of the Mounted is a Royal Canadian Mounted police and through this telegram, it is portraying that the superhero is being advertised in a different media form than the comic. Kockmarek states that, “The ‘Men of the Mounted’ daily strip was created by Edwin Reid “Ted” McCall and drawn by Harry S. Hall for the Toronto Telegram on Feb. 13, 1933” (Kockmarek Men of the Mounted). Dixon of the Mounted was so popular that he began to be advertised in other ways. Through both superheroes encouraging Canadian-ness towards children in a masculine way, this started to educate children they way the comic intended too.

Active Comics #1 played a significant role in education a young populace before, during and after the war, encouraging the children that the soldiers that they would win and defeat their enemies just like the Canadian superheroes. Beaty affirms that, “The effect of The Oreat Canadian ComicBooks was twofold: first, it introduced into comic book fandom an awareness of the specifically Canadian contribution to the development of the medium during the war; second, it initiated an association between comic books and nationalism that would subsequently shape the discourse surrounding Canadian comics” (Beaty 431). Throughout the war, the comic book super heroes were involved in helping soldiers defeating their enemies. The representation of the superheroes action was always good, since they are fighting the evil enemies away. The characters always illustrated war aims and how children can be assured that their fathers or brothers were strong and would win the war because they are brave just like the Canadian superheroes. According to the article Part of golden age of Canadian comic books, “Peter Birkemoe, owner of the Beguiling comic book store in Toronto, said that during the war many artists like Riley realized the commercial potential of their comics…these were businesses, this wasn’t an art collective or art-driven,” (Riley Part of golden age of Canadian comic books). In compliance with Peter’s statement, the comics had a specific reason that they wanted children to look at which how the superheroes portray the Canadian popular culture in a masculine way. Children had the mindset that Canadian heroes would always win because of their strong Canadian strength and intelligence. Comics present combat most often as the business of ordinary men and the courage and ability to fight as intrinsic to all men. The Comic promotes the idea that every man, is able to rise to the occasion and defeat the enemy, but only if they have the Canadian-ness powers that Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist portray.

Superheroes and Canadian Nationalism:

Colourful cards with pictures of Men of the Mounted
Men of the Mounted” trading cards put out by Willard’s Chocolates which had opened in Toronto in 1917.

The mobilizations of clichés that are in the place of these superheroes are substantial. Active Comics mentions stereotypes with its two superheroes Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist and it is clear that the overt nationalism of Canadian superheroes in the contemporary era had as much to do with frustrations over sustaining a viable Canadian comics publishing industry as it did with representational issues of Canadian identity. For Canadian superheroes to partake in the discourse of Canadian nationalism, therefore, it was necessary for the proponents of those heroes to disavow cultural production. With these two Superheroes Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist the children were becoming aware that since these superheroes were Canadian they knew all about what it was to be a Canadian. The comics were demonstrating that these superheroes fought and thought like Canadians, since they were strong and intelligent because of their actions and were Canadian. Children were being drawn to all the masculine aspects of these superheroes which made them believe that all Canadian men were supposed to act as accurately as they performed. Furthermore, Willard’s Chocolates, a shop that opened up in Toronto in 1917 and came up with an idea of, chocolate with trading cards inside. Willard’s, “…came up with the “Sweet Marie” caramel and nut filled chocolate bar in 1931 and was eventually purchased by George Weston in 1954” (Kockmarek Men of the Mounted).The trading cards consisted of Men of the Mounted, which was inspired by the superhero Dixon of the Mounted; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Saying that, with Willard’s chocolates connecting to Dixon of the Mounted, it is portraying Canadian-ness. The superhero was being portrayed into popular culture through a company who sold chocolates with these trading cards in them. This idea was made because Dixon of the Mounted made great success in the first Canadian adventure strip to appear in Canada. With this being said, the superheroes were becoming popular, which was a great way to influence the Canadian-ness to everyone especially the children being targeted. These chocolates influenced children with their trading cards, which was a good way to get children involved with Canada’s popular culture.

Conclusion:

Conclusively, Active Comics Issue #1, examined the portrayal that displayed to children about Canadian popular culture through Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist encouraging Canadian-ness towards children in a masculine method. Canadian superheroes in the contemporary era had many clichés, in particular the masculine role that these two superheroes perform in order to demonstrate that all Canadian soldiers were brave and strong during the World War two. Through making the superheroes play the role of what it means to be Canadian, this embraces the popular culture and makes children aware of what it means to be Canadian. Representing Canadian-ness through these two superheroes was a brilliant way to let children engage with Canadian nationality. Saying that, these comic books limited the children’s concepts of what it means to be Canadian since it was being portrayed in a masculine way.

 

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.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “Artist Michael Riley Part of Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books.” Canadian Press NewsWire, Aug 29, 2006, Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/347347292?pq-origsite=summon

Beaty, Bart. “The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero.” American Review of Canadian Studies, Oct. 2006, pp. 427–439., doi:10.1080/02722010609481401.

Bell, John. “Comic Books in English Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 Feb. 2006 www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/comic-books-in-english-canada

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, Canadian Comparative Literature Assn, 2016. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/article/611725

Kocmarek, Ivan. “Men of the Mounted.” Comic Book Daily, 8 Jan. 2014 www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/men-mounted

Laurie, Ross. “Masculinities and War Comics.” Journal of Australian Studies, 18 May 2009, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14443059909387455.

Legault, E.T. (w) and M. Karn (a). “Dixon of the Mounted and Thunderfist.”Active Comics, no. 1, February, 1942, pp. 1-29. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

 

 

The Role of Women in the War in Active Comics #12

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen

 

… A Deeper Look Into The World of the Lady

Broadside. Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

 

 

Historic Recap and Overview of The Canadian Whites

The Second World War is referred to by many as “the good war”, and this can be true in a wide variety of ways. The Second World War brought an abundance of opportunities for everyone around the world, and more specifically in North America, with urbanization on the rise, and factories opening up, giving jobs to people who were most commonly left out to dry. Women were brought into the workforce for one of the first times ever, but although so many progressive things were happening, the old mentality had still not gone away. Cue the writers of the Canadian Whites. Due to laws that had been put into place during the war, leisurely things were no longer allowed to be brought in from the United States to Canada. In those days, children did not have something like TV or iPhones to keep them entertained; their equivalent of an iPhone was a comic book. Imagine a ban being put in place today stating that iPhones were no longer allowed to be shipped into Canada. One way or another, someone would have to come up with an idea to fix this problem. This exactly what happened to the comic book industry. The Canadian Whites came into play during the time of a struggle during the Second World War, and they essentially were the reason comic books were so popular in this time in Canada. The comic book was something that had never truly been Canadian before, but as time had trotted on, the Canadian Whites were making a name for themselves. Although the Canadian Whites phase did not last very long in Canada, they brought something to the nation that will never be forgotten. “With the end of most original Canadian comics publishing ending in 1947, Canadian superheroes disappeared… In the early seventies however, new alternative and underground comics (or commix) publishers emerged in Canada, and some creators began to dream of a second generation of national superhero’s. The search for Captain Canada or a similar superhero had begun. ” (Guardians of the North, 1). What the Canadian Whites had done was lay the foreground for the later comic book creators to resume what had already been started for them. They laid the groundwork for some of the most important Canadian comic book material that had ever been thought of.

Canadian Comics

A brief history on the Canadian Whites would cover the fact that Canadian Whites were people who saw that something needed to be done for the greater good of society. The Canadian Whites had a void to fill, for all Canadian children and adults alike. What they had to do was create their own line of comics that they could still enjoy. What is underlying in all of the comics by the branded “Canadian Whites” is the mentality embedded with all of the people of this time period. Essentially, whatever the authors were thinking in that time was exactly what they were compelled to write about. For example, the comic book in particular that will be uncovered is from Active Comics from July of 1943, which just so happens to be in the middle of the Second World War. There are many things that can be inferred about this period in time. Stereotypically, one would imagine that an old school mentality was the mentality in which everyone had at this time. In times past, the way people thought was a lot more narrow minded than the way of the world today. People did not like when things were out of the ordinary and different. They would have much rather had everything stay consistent all the time. Imagine being a woman in this time era for instance. Everyone believed that a woman needed to look a certain way, be a homemaker, take care of the children, and have the money brought home to her by her husband. A woman who wanted to do something for herself, or stand up for herself was looked at in a way that made her seem strange. Being something different was not something that people had encouraged in the 1930s-1950s.

Underlying Themes in the Comics

Fig. 6. “Keep these hands off.” Broadside. Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

Through the majority of the comic book storylines that were brought forth by the Canadian Whites, you get a sense of racism, sexism, and overall an overall distaste for things that are not the conservative way of thinking. “It can be assumed that Canada would have emerged from the depression of the 1930s into a moderate and continuing prosperity without the intervention of World War 2” (Phillips, 7). With the intersection of the Second World War, education and prosperity of the men was put on hold, to battle. At the same time though, it was somewhat the opposite for the women. As aforementioned, with the Second World War came opportunity for the women to place themselves into the workforce, and make something of themselves. This places them in the center of the rise of urbanization and factory work. There was a sort of preconceived notion that a lady was just supposed to say at home and take care of the children while the men were at more, but they were worth so much than that. Propaganda was created along with this preconceived notion, and a lot of this mentality shines through in the comic book story lines. The woman was the subject of sexism in a multitude of ways. What is beyond the surface is the fact the women were much more than the men had made them out to be. “All told, more than 8 million women joined the labor force, an estimated 3 million more than would have done so normally” (Wynn, 474-475). This goes to show that although people had this frayed ideal of what a woman was supposed to do, they were able to somehow rise to the occasion and show that they were more than what the men with the old mentality thought.

The Ladies

The women of this time were almost used as a tool to promote whatever the government felt was necessary to promote and sell during the war. They were used as a prop in their game to make money, and to promote hate against the Axis powers such as Germany Italy and Japan (to name a few). The women were made out to be the victims that needed to be saved by a man in every circumstance they could find. The relevance of this poster captures the essence of what propagandists in 1943 were all about. This correlates to the embedded mentality of all the men, that a woman was unable to do anything for herself, other than taking care of children, and that if she ever needed to get any kind of work done or make some money, a man would have to come to her aid or it would never get done.

Active Comics, Number 12

Specifically, in Active Comics number 12, in one of the storyline threads “Thunderfist”, there is a story about essentially a woman being careless and ignorant trying to save the people around her while she is really making it worse for herself. The comic begins with a man and a wife reading the paper and finding out that someone had stolen the superhero of the town that they resides in costume. This prompts the woman to ask her husband all kinds of questions about the superhero, and how this is a terrible thing that is happening in their community. This then leads the husband to ask his wife what the sudden interest is in the superhero, subliminally implying that the husband is somewhat jealous, and does not trust his wife so much to the point where he is questioning why she is asking questions. In the story we find out that two men have stolen the superhero’s clothes and they are out in the city doing things a true superhero would never do. After the wife asks so many questions, she feels compelled enough to go out and help the superhero Thunderfist (there is another underlying story from another comic thread that implies that Thunderfist this superhero who has his identity stolen from these men has already saved this woman from a disastrous situation at least one time in her life before). Through the story, the woman is made out to be a damsel in distress, and essentially leads to the notion that she is not able to do anything for herself, that she needs a man to save her. This is not to say that every woman in that time period actually did act in this way, but the general overview of how women are perceived is misconstrued through the works of these comics.

“Whatever the changes in female employment, most met continued resistance and opposition. A fear of so called ‘New Amazons’ was widely evident and discrimination persisted. Women were generally segregated, denied top positions, and despite equal wage policies paid on average 40 cents less than men”(Wynn, 475). Although we cannot say for sure, through the works of the Canadian Whites, most specifically through Active Comics and the story line of “Thunderfist”, one can see the relation between what the men were writing about in terms of women, along with the ideal of the people of that time. Instead of fiction in the comic books pushing for women to be treated the same as men, they were pushed down further into a hole of segregation. They were only seen as beings to be sexualized, taking advantage of their beauty in a way that was insulting to women everywhere.

Through everything, women were made to seem like people who were not actually worth anything, and they were made out to be these damsels in distress that had been a preconceived ideal in the mind of a man in the 1930s and 40s. In reality, the women came into the workforce with class and determination and turned all the stereotypes on their heads. The women proved that they were able to work for themselves and become something, despite what the men thought. They broke past what had been written about them in comic books and proved to the world that a woman can save herself.

 

Works Cited

Phillips, Charles E. “Education in Canada, 1939-46.” History of Education Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 1951, pp. 7–13., www.jstor.org/stable/3659220.

Wynn, Neil A. “The ‘Good War’: The Second World War and Postwar American Society.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 31, no. 3, 1996, pp. 463–482., www.jstor.org/stable/261016.

Labarre, Nicolas. “Alien as a Comic Book: Adaptation and Genre Shifting.”Extrapolation., vol. 55, no. 1, 2014, pp. 75-94, Research Library,

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.

 

The Representation of Heroes as Canadian Masculinity to Canadian Child Readers During World War II

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , , , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Dewe, Kristen. Ryerson University

Dingle, Adrian (a). Active
Comics. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Introduction:

On December 6th of 1940, during the second World War, William Lyon MacKenzie King, former Primer Minister of Canada declared the War Exchange Conservation Act (WECA), which was a measure used to protect the Canadian dollar and the general war economy (Kocmerac, 148). In this, comic books were listed as non-essential commodities that were deemed banned. During this time, Canadian superheroes became the most prominent features within Canadian comic books (Kocmerac, 151). Heroism became a very distinctive part of children’s lives, as they read and looked up to the superheroes who were prevalent within comic books such as Active Comics. In this work, the focus will be on Adrian Dingle’s fifth issue of Active Comics which was published for May of 1942. To identify how these heroes represented the idealized Canadian masculinity of a superhero to Canadian child readers, it is evident that we consider what makes a Canadian hero, why they are primarily men, the distinction between different aged superheroes and how child readers are influenced by these heroes. Throughout this work, we will uncover how the comic uses different age genres to depict heroism in Canada as a means of showing what it ultimately means to be a Canadian hero.


Steele, T.A. (w.a). Active
Comics. Dixon of the Mounted. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

What Makes a Canadian Hero, a Hero in Active Comic No. 5 (May, 1942):

During Adrian Dingle’s issue of Active Comics in May of 1942, he depicts heroism as only masculine, however ranges from heroes being of different age groups. He makes it evident that heroes can be babies, teenagers and adults and does not limit the reader to believe in only one distinct type of hero, however, limits the reader to believe in only one gender of hero.

The first story in the issue, “Dixon of the Mounted”, shows heroism from Dixon, an adult who is after a murderer and attempted-murderer in hopes to save himself and society from the dangers of this man. His attempt is rather gory and very explicit in it’s use of fighting vigorously, showing that the adult form of heroism is to defeat through killing.

Saakel, Ross (w.a). Active
Comics. Active Jim. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The next story, “The Noodle – The Mighty Mite”, deals with heroism from a toddler who is out to save a female baby who was kidnapped by a Mummy, showing that he is out to protect society. Although he is a baby, his use of heroism exhibits strength and intelligence – to an extent far beyond a toddler’s capabilities, however does not display any acts of extreme violence or gore, showing that heroism from a toddler is different from that of an adult. Additionally, Active Jim, a teenage hero deals with providing safety for society by catching a leopard that escaped from a circus train with no form of explicit violence or murder.

Overall, the heroes within this specific comic book, all have a few things in common. First, they are all brave individuals whom risk their lives to help society, and in doing this, inspires its readers, specifically children. Children are drawn in by these superheroes who will stop at nothing to retain justice, regardless of their age. Moreover, they also have their gender in common. All the superheroes within this comic book are men, showing the gender inequality that is prevalent in the text.

Why are Heroes Masculine?

Within this specific comic book, only men are perceived as heroes. Babic offers that comic books are “…predictions of societal downfall, disfigured gender roles, and mass children embracing violence as a natural mechanism of communication failed to note that adult readership soared alongside that of children” (Babic, 15). It is evident that Babic realizes this gender inequality that stems from comic books, and continues by centering on what children will retain from reading comic books that are unrealistic as only men are the heroes.

Brown also offers insight towards the masculinity of heroes within Milestone Media (a novel on African American heroes) as a “comparison to the market-dominating comic books published by other companies which promote a popular trend of gender extremism” (Brown). In this, Brown tries to argue that newer comic books no longer have this ideology of a superhero being primarily a white male, however, have now gone into having diversity regarding gender and race.

In Mollegaard’s book review on Age of Heroes, Eras of Men, she discusses the complexities of the superhero genre as “the marginalization of the female superhero” (Mollegaard, 431). Mollegard further uses this to distinguish that the misconception of “the superhero genre is simplistic drivel for adolescent boys” (Mollegaard, 431). So, the underlying statement through this, is that because the target audience for comic books was adolescent boys, masculine superheroes seemed to have fit as better role models for these young boys.

The Distinction Between Different Aged Superheroes:


Saakel, Ross. (w.a). Active
Comics. The Noodle – The Mighty Mite. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Although the comic fails to show women as superheroes, it does contain superheroes of different ages, ranging from babies to adults. Within The Noodle – The Mighty Mite, the superhero who is a toddler shows an expansive amount of knowledge and is very strategic in figuring out how to protect society in a non-violent form. A superhero such as The Noodle is very inspirational for young children, as they can believe that if a baby can do something, they can achieve a lot as well.

Saakel, Ross. (w.a). Active
Comics. Active Jim. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Regarding Active Jim who is a teenage superhero, he is also inspirational for young children because of his age being close to young boys, and because he uses his strengths to defeat and outsmart the antagonists, similar to The Noodle, without violence. As Jim is still in high school and can look out for society, young boys may look at Jim as someone who is like themselves. Lastly, Dixon of the Mounted portrays an almost oppositional way to protect society, through using violence as a defence mechanism.

Steele, T.A. (w.a). Active
Comics. Dixon of the Mounted. No.5, May 1942, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The conclusion from these three, are that adults have more of a will to commit murders, whereas children and teenagers have a more forgiving element to them and are primarily out to help society. It is prevalent that each age group handles being a hero in a different way and is not like how we would expect it to be within our society. For the most part, we would expect teenagers to be the ones with a lesser understanding of the significance of life as the violent-heroes, whereas we would expect the adults to be the more responsible and inspirational heroes, showing the oppositional positions that the comic offers versus what society would think. Regarding toddlers, we see toddlers as innocent, naïve individuals within our society, very different from how toddlers are described within this comic.

The comic does not reflect a modernized society in the depictions of violence based on age genres, however, it emphasizes oppositional positions in this through characterizing adults as the most violent. This comic would impact children in having distrust towards adults as they are depicted as the most violent, and give the reader an unrealistic understanding of babies, teenagers and adults.

How Child Readers are Influenced by These Comics:

Babic discusses how comic books have a larger impact on children than adults. She states, “Children clearly sucked in the storylines at a larger rate than that of adults, but adults— especially soldiers on the front lines— fueled themselves on the junkets of their favorite superheroes.” (Babic, 15) This source overall offers a distinct view point on how heroism is depicted by children and what they will adapt to believing a hero is.

Furthermore, Fradkin entails a small focus on comic books creating resilience for children. His article discusses the concept of “invincibility suggestion” and how comic books were and are used for children whom are fighting cancer or other diseases as they can relate to the superheroes in their journey to “fight evil”. Prior to this article, the idea of superheroes as characters to strengthen and inspire a child may almost seem absurd and unrealistic to some, but by putting it in this perspective, one can completely understand how a child with a condition would feel empowered by a comic book. Therefore, this shows superheroes as a beneficial factor for children (Fradkin).

Conclusion:

The idealized comic book heroes in Canadian comic books heavily influenced child readers during the Golden Age. The typical masculine superhero ascribed by different age genres shows diversity in ages, but lacks the diversity in genders, giving children an understanding that heroes are only masculine. In limiting children’s beliefs of what a superhero is, children were not only taught to be narrow-minded, but also to believe in men superiority, as the comic books described that women were not capable as the same things that men were. It is evident now that as society has evolved, this ideology of masculine superheroes is not as relevant as it was during the period of World War II, as we have familiarized ourselves with more women superheroes.

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

___________________________________________________________________________

Works Cited:

Babic, Annessa Ann. Book. “Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society and Entertainment.” pp. 15-16. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ProQuest ebrary, Accessed April 2 2017, http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/oculryerson/detail.action?docID=10823569.

Brown, Jeffery. Review. “New Heroes: Gender, Race, Fans and Comic Book Superheroes.” University of Toronto, ProQuest ebrary, Accessed April 6 2017, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/304394534/fulltextPDF/79ABD99412984EFDPQ/1?accountid=13631.

Dingle, Adrian (a), TA Steele (w.a), Ross Saakel (w.a), and Al Cooper (w.a). “Active Comics.” No.5, pp. 1-64. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, Accessed April 2 2017, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166506.pdf.

Fradkin, Chris. Book. “Shared Adversities of Children and Comic Superheroes as Resources for Promoting Resilience.” Child Abuse & Neglect. Vol. 54, pp. 69-77. Science Direct, Accessed April 6 2017, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/science/article/pii/S0145213416300187.

Kocmarek, Ivan. Review. “Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature. Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 148-151. Project MUSE, Accessed April 2 2017, https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/article/611725.

Mollegaard, Kirsten. Review. “Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience.” pp. 430-431. Scholars Portal, Accessed April 6 2017, http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/pdf/15427331/v37i0004/430_aoheomutcsp2.xml.

 

Japanese Representation as a Reflection of Canadian Culture in Dime Comics No.18

2017 Canadian Whites, Dime Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, ,

©Copyright 2017, Graham Payne, Ryerson University

Introduction:

The art, stories, and media that a culture produces are integral parts of understanding that culture. “Canadian Whites” is a blanket term referring to a comic book movement which started in response to the Wartime Exchange Conservation Act which was enacted when Canada joined the Allies against the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Wartime Measures Act restricted the flow of non-essential goods across the border between Canada and the United States of America. This created a dearth of many leisure products, including comic books. The Whites were completely Canadian productions, as they were comics created by Canadians for Canadians. Reading through the Canadian Whites makes it obvious that they are products of their time, and heavily influenced by the war. But as you continue to read through the stories, troubling patterns emerge, patterns which echo one of the darker and often repressed parts of Canadian history, the treatment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Examining the creative media of a culture can provide us with a reflection of its values, beliefs, and morality. Dime Comics No.18 (December 1944) provides a useful lens to examine and understand this aspect of Canadian history. The stories within this comic provide an unfettered look at the widely held and socially accepted bigotry of the time, which targeted people of Japanese descent.

Bigotry as normality:

When examining the Canadian Whites, it’s important to understand the cultural context in which they were made. Even before the Second World War broke out, there had been long standing resentment against people of Asian descent in Canada. According to Ann Gomer Sunahara in her book “The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War”, people of Asian descent were considered inferior to people of European descent. Sunahara describes this as a “passive, unconscious racism” (3). Passive, not in the sense that it wasn’t harmful, but rather that it was the prevailing ideology of the time and it promoted negative stereotypes of those of Asian descent within Canada. Citizens of European descent would not have considered themselves as racist, as they were adhering to the social conditioning which led them to believe in inherent differences between themselves and their Asian counterparts. European Canadians had been born and raised in a culture that perpetuated this narrative, which was of their supposed superiority over those of different ethnicities. These beliefs can be seen in exemplified in several stories within Dime Comics No.18.

H. Brunt. Panel from “Lank the Yank” Dime Comics, No. 18, December 1944, Bell Features, p. 43. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

One of the stories within Dime Comics No.18 is an episode in the continuing series “Lank The Yank”, a comic series created by Harry Brunt. In this episode, the titular Lank encounters a group of Japanese soldiers. When Lank retreats into a nearby body of water, the Japanese soldiers pursue him and foolishly end up drowning like lemmings. The comic portrays the Japanese as being too stupid to not walk into danger. It also portrays them as not having the ability to swim. Finally, they are mocked for being short as they drown in water which Lank strides through easily (pg 9). Lank in contrast, is smart enough to lure them to their doom. The message from this comic is that the Europeans are biologically and mentally superior. This comic makes the Japanese objects of ridicule and makes the death of three human beings an ethnic joke. “Lank the Yank” summarizes the culturally systemic prejudice of Canada in the 1930’s-40’s.  

A. Dingle. Panel from “Rex Baxter and Xalanta’s Secret” Dime Comics, No. 18, December 1944, Bell Features, p. 43. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

In the essay “Henri Tajfel’s ‘Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice’ and Psychology of Bigotry” Michael Billig examines the work of past articles regarding the social psychology of prejudice. According to Billig, as humans we have an innate need to organize and categorize both physical and social information about the world that we inhabit. Humans, he suggests, create cognitive shortcuts which allow our minds to make sense of the vast swaths of information around us. These cognitive shortcuts help us to make sense of this information. However, these categorizations can distort our understanding of reality, especially when this leads to defining people as members of a larger social group, rather than as a collection of individuals. Individual human beings of any culture are infinitely more complex and varied than any characterization of race or ethnicity could allow. Broad characterization, suggests Billig, leads to exaggeration and the presumption of stereotypes. In this way, prejudice can be defined as as a “cognitive interpretation of the social world” (178), a false understanding of people based on misinformation gained from one culture about another. An example of such exaggeration can be seen in the first story of Dime Comics No.18, “Rex Baxter and Xalantana’s Secret”. In this episode of the comic series “Rex Baxter”, the main antagonist, a Japanese general, is little more than a racist caricature with exaggerated physical and behavioral features, depicting Japanese people as physically ugly and violently sadistic. The general has huge buck teeth, while all other Japanese have eyes so slanted they appear to be closed. They speak in broken, grammatically incorrect English, and talk of taking women as prizes of war, which is clearly meant to imply some inherent savagery. In the study “Teaching About Racism: Pernicious Implications of the Standard Portrayal” by Glenn Adams, Vanessa Edkins, Dominika Lacka, Kate M. Pickett and Sapna Cheryan, racism is understood less as a personal problem and more of a cultural one. It’s easy to understand racism as the problem of individual minds, but that does little to address the root issues. While there are certainly individuals who hold racist ideals, the true danger in racism lies in ingrained socio-cultural bigotry, or as they call it “the essence of racism” (350).

A. Dingle. Panel from “Rex Baxter and Xalanta’s Secret” Dime Comics, No. 18, December 1944, Bell Features, p. 43. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Racism over time becomes embedded in collective rhetoric, which is then in turn used to justify itself. The representations of the Japanese soldiers matters, as these caricatures add to the rhetoric of the time. One particularly poignant line in “Rex Baxter” is delivered by Rex Baxter after his companion Gail expresses trauma after taking the life of a Japanese soldier. Rex responds by saying “No Dear, not a man, a rat!” effectively reducing those of Japanese descent to vermin, to be killed indiscriminately (5). This bigotry and devaluing of the lives of people of Japanese descent became common within Canadian culture, and was present at the highest levels of the Canadian government at the time. Sunahara references the now infamous quote from Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King personal diaries, “It is fortunate … that the use of the bomb should be used on the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe” (15). The Prime Minister is of course referring to the atomic bombs launched by the Americans on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, clearly valuing the lives of European civilians over those of Japanese heritage.

What was happening on the home front:

When discussing the Canadian Whites and their representation of people of Japanese descent, it’s important to remember for whom they were made. The Whites weren’t created for those soldiers actually fighting against Japan and the other Axis Powers during the Second World War, but rather for those on the home front. Canada in the 1930’s to 40’s was an increasingly paranoid country. As the war dragged on, the public became more and more irrationally concerned that those of Japanese descent were waiting for an opportunity to harm Canada. As Ann Gomer Sunahara reports, particularly in British Columbia, the general consensus was suspicion and a lack of trust for those of Japanese racial origin, and a mistaken belief that their continued presence in Canadian society was a threat to public safety. Sunahara notes that astoundingly, both the Canadian Military and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were firmly of the opinion that those of Japanese descent within Canada were not any kind of liability, “at no point were Japanese Canadians ever a threat to Canadian society” (3). One of the most colourful ways of understanding the phenomenon comes from essay “The Canadian Japanese and World War Two” by Forrest E La Violette, which describes popular public opinion as a crescendo of demands to remove the Japanese from Canadian society.

L. Bachle. Panel from “Johnny Canuck.” Dime Comics, No. 18, December 1944, Bell Features, p. 43. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The Canadian public, in their fear, stopped seeing those of Japanese heritage as individual human beings, but rather as a part of some great amorphous “other” with which their country was currently at war. The depictions of Japanese people in the Canadian Whites were symptomatic of the culture they were produced in. In the episode “Johnny Canuck” in Dime Comics No.18, by Leo Bachle, the titular Canadian spy Johnny Canuck is deceived and betrayed by a Japanese man masquerading as a Chinese official. Even before the betrayal, Johnny Canuck says that the spy looks “like a jappy”, implying some inherent untrustworthiness based on his appearance (43). According to Audrey Kobayashi in her paper “The Japanese-Canadian Redress Settlement and its Implications for “Race Relations”, she suggests that there had always been discrimination by European Canadians against those of Asian descent. However as the war kept going, and the Japanese were more and more vilified, the war became a perfect excuse for more bigoted voices within Canada to call for the ejection of the Japanese Canadian population. The so called “Jap problem” (38) was based in little more than hateful rumors and speculation that those of Japanese ancestry were waiting for a signal to betray and attack Canada from within. This, of course, resulted in one of the darker chapters in Canadian history, the forced internment of Japanese Canadians by the Canadian government. “Between 8 December 1941 and 31 March 1949, Japanese Canadians were uprooted from their homes, deprived of property, possessions, dignity and civil rights, including the rights to work freely, to vote, and in the case of those who were subsequently ‘deported’ to Japan, to their status as Canadians” (Kobayashi 2). According to Sunahara, in February of 1942, just one month after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, the Federal Cabinet of Canada ordered the expulsion of Japanese Canadians living from within 160 kilometers of the Pacific coast. It just so happened to be where the majority of Japanese Canadians lived and 22,000 Japanese people were displaced. The Japanese population of Canada was scattered across the country, spread across internment camps and long abandoned ghost towns, robbed of both their physical possessions and their dignity in retribution for the actions of a country they had few ties to. These motifs of dehumanization and vilification can seen throughout Dime Comics No18, which reflect the attitude toward of Japanese Canadians, which resulted in the mass displacement, internment, and violation of their basic human rights. By vilifying the Japanese to a cartoonish degree, the Canadians of the 1940’s justified these unjust actions.  

To conclude:

The Canadian Whites, especially the stories within Dime Comics No18, are reflective of Canadian culture at large. The depictions within the Whites of the Japanese people as vile subhuman, unintelligent savages, whom characters kill with the same guilt as one has for killing a rodent, shows us the exact attitude which existed within Canadian culture at the time. Bearing in mind that the majority of those who read the Whites were civilians who were locked in a state of paranoia about a war half a world away, it’s no surprise that their prejudice would turn on landed Japanese immigrants and second generation Japanese Canadians. The Whites reflect this theme of hate, bigotry, and dehumanization, which permeated Canadian culture and lead to one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian history.

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.

Work Cited & Bibliography:

Kobayashi, Audrey. “The Japanese-Canadian Redress Settlement and its Implications for “Race Relations”.” Canadian Ethnic Studies = Etudes Ethniques au Canada, vol. 24, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1-19. Periodicals Archive Online, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1293139767?accountid=13631.

Billig, Michael. “Henri Tajfel’s ‘Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice’ and Psychology of Bigotry.” The British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 41, 2002, pp. 171-88, Nursing & Allied Health Database; ProQuest Sociology Collection; Science Database, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219174061?accountid=13631.

Davis, Laura K. “Joy Kogawa’s Obasan: Canadian multiculturalism and Japanese-Canadian internment”. British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol 25, Issue 1, May 2012, pp 57-76. Ryerson University Library and Archives,http://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/doi/pdf/10.3828/bjcs.2012.04

Sunahara, Ann Gomer. The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War. Toronto, Ontario, James Lorimer & Company 1981.

La Violette, Forrest E. The Canadian Japanese and World War II: A Sociological and Psychological Account. Toronto, Ont, University of Toronto Press, 1948.

“World War Two & Interment.” Www.sedai.ca, SEDAI: The Japanese Canadian Legacy Project, www.sedai.ca/for-students/history-of-japanese-canadians/world-war-ii-internment/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2017.

Dingle, Adrian (w, a). “Rex Baxter and Xalanta’s Secret.” Dime Comics, no.18, December, 1944, pp. 2-7. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Brunt, Harry (w, a). “Lank the Yank.” Dime Comics, no.18, December, 1944, pp. 8-9. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Bachle, Leo (w, a). “Johnny Canuck.” Dime Comics, no. 18, December, 1944, pp. 41-47. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

Engaging Children in the War Effort through Active Comics #14

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Marion Grant, Ryerson University

Adrian Dingle. Active Comics, No. 14, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

During World War Two it was clear that the government solicited the help of its citizens to fight the war at home through a variety of means. By using different mediums like posters and news publications, citizens were encouraged to purchase war savings stamps, collect scrap metal and disengage from gossiping. What is interesting to notice is that these ideologies and propagated messages were also spread throughout the comic book, Active Comics #14 (November 1943). These comics were created and distributed to children during World War Two. Disguised as fantastic stories about superheroes participating in stories defeating Canada’s enemy, the authors and illustrators used numerous tactics to coerce the young readers into participating in vital wartime activities by modeling this behavior through the comic book character, Active Jim and his club, Active News and Views. The character and his club also worked as yet another method used to encourage children to purchase war savings stamps and perpetuate the duties of the Canadian wartime child.

ACTIVE JIM AND WARTIME YOUTH

Jon Darian (w, a). “Active Jim”, Active Comics, No. 14, p. 55, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

In his comic series, Active Jim is a ‘superhero’ that possesses no superior abilities but instead is a teenager who attends school, just like much of his readers. While his adventures may vary comic to comic, they were based on Canada’s real life war time situation and were representative of the conduct and values expected of children during war two (Kocmarek 149). By creating Active Jim with no super strength, intellect, or mystical abilities, the writers leave room for the young readers of this comic to grow themselves into his character and aspire to be someone like him: an individual with a strong sense of nationalistic pride and desire to fight for his country. In his series he never accomplishes anything too spectacular, but instead is involved in stories that any child could have participated in had they been given the opportunity. For example, in issue 14 he takes on the task of tracking down an individual spreading rumors with the intention of putting it to a stop with confrontation (Dingle 54). By participating in activities that did not require any special skills, Active Jim demonstrated how easy it was to help out during the war.

Active Jim was as an excellent role model for children and teenagers growing up in wartime Canada. There was often fear from the older generations that the youth growing up during world war two would be corrupted by the lack of discipline and supervision due to the absence of parents during the war. While the weight of the war hung heavy on everyone, Doctor Baruch Silverman, A medical technician and author that advocated for patience and understanding when dealing with wartime youth, argued that older children were far more susceptible to being significantly effected by these issues would make them “restless, aggressive, rebellious and impatient with the routine of everyday life” (3). Rebellious behavior would often present itself as underage drinking, dancing, and cavorting with the opposite sex (Cook). However, it was crucial that these behaviors were prevented as much as possible. Children growing up in Canada during World War Two would be responsible for the rebuilding of the country long after the war was over and because of this needed to be molded from an early age to prepare for reconstruction after the war (Silverman 3). Children were encouraged from an early age to do whatever possible to support the war effort and very often included activities like collecting scrap materials, purchasing war savings stamps, and behaving like a model citizen (Granatstein & Oliver 60; Cook).

Jon Darian (w, a). “Club News and Views” Active Comics, No. 14, pp. 40, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

This encouragement was similarly reflected within Active Jim’s comic book club, ‘Active News and Views’, of whom he was the spokesman and figurehead. While being a pen pal club, it also took on the task of creating conservation tips to help with the war effort, as well as safety tips and contests for the readers (Kocmarek 158). The Active News section in each issue is also flooded with applause and admiration for the readership that made significant contributions to the war effort. Members would write in with tales of their fundraising hoping to be featured in Active Jim’s esteemed collection of chosen members with readers often competing to receive the prestigious title, member of the month, in next months issue. While the criteria for winning the title is unknown, majority of the featured members had, in some way, financially contributed to the war effort, be it through the purchase of war savings stamps or putting on plays and donating the proceeds to the red cross. For example, in issue 14, the chosen member of the month was Donald Black, who was using the money earned on his paper route to invest in war savings stamps issued by the government (Darian 40). This sense of competition present in Active News for chosen member very well may have been a significant driving factor in some children to contribute as much as they did to the war effort during World War Two. As both a superhero in his own comic and the spokesperson of the Active News and Views club, Active Jim played a crucial role in forming behaviors and initiatives of the children reading Active comics during World War Two.

ACTIVE JIM AND WAR SAVINGS STAMPS

Fund-Raising Poster, Hey Gang! Keep on Licking War Savings Stamps- They’re full of Vitamin “V”. Broadside. Circa 1942, Canadian War Museum. Public Domain.

Similarly, Active Jim also played an important role in propagating the sale of war savings stamps, bonds, and certificates to the readers. The comic acted as yet another medium to advertise these purchases to children among the thousands of posters, radio broadcasts, and billboards already present in their lives. For instance, the last panel of Active Jim in issue 14 ends with a police officer breaking the fourth wall and addressing the readers claiming, “There’s no sounder investment than war savings stamps, certificates, and bonds” after having spent the entire story dispelling rumors that their value was dwindling (Darian 56, see Figure 3). This was a message that was broadcasted religiously to not just children, but to everyone, across many different mediums the most significant being, however, of posters. In their article addressing the use of posters during both of the World Wars, Hugh Halliday claims that “posters have existed to influence public opinion, often under the guise of entertainment or information” (126). It appears that this might also be true of aspects of the Active Jim series as well. While clearly serving as a platform for entertainment for children, the series also seems to have a very biased attitude concerning the purchasing of war savings stamps that was used to frame the content published to the young readers.

Figure 1: War Savings Committee. We’re doing our bit! We’re buying war Savings Stamps. 1942. War, Memory, and Popular Culture Archives, University of Western Ontario. Public Domain. http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/War%20Savings%20Stamps.pdf.

At one point during World War Two, the Canadian government realized that Canadian children were a commodity that had not been fully exploited. Their contribution to the federal budget was substantial, and the tactics used to coerce them into purchasing the War Savings stamps are unparalleled. It was estimated that Canada’s approximately 2,000,000 school children alone would annually raise at least 8,000,000 through the sale of war savings stamps alone, every year (“School Children”). War savings bonds began to take over the children’s lives. Messages to encourage Canadian children to invest in Victory loans campaigns were constant and aggressive. Teachers were instructed to preach about them in classrooms, advertisements littered the school hallways, and often school principals even divided the school into sections and provided quotas for each section to fulfill (Van Loon). Penny banks were sent home with children during the summer break to encourage them to save their money to buy stamps when they returned to school in the fall and the War Savings Committee even went so far as to provide employment for some children who would be unable to otherwise purchase stamps. The committee also created special stamp book that were meant for the exclusive use of children, they were colored attractively and created to specifically appeal to wartime youth [Figure 1] (“School Children”). The constant marketing and advertising of War Savings Stamps present in the children’s everyday lives was likewise reflected in Active Comics series and played a crucial role in encouraging readers to purchase war savings stamps during World War Two.

In issue 14, the writers published a story about Jim seeking out an individual that was spreading rumors about the decreasing value of war savings stamps and encouraging all the girls to sell their stamps and certificates back to the bank (Darian 53- 56). This reflected a real-life concern of the Canadian government during world war two. While it was possible for individuals to sell back their victory loans, aggressively discouraged the Canadian population from selling them off and instead pushed hard for them to purchase more. The government was incredibly dependent on the victory loan campaigns to fund their overseas efforts. The sale of war bonds, certificates, and stamps made up a substantial part of the federal budget. Over nine brilliantly marketed victory loan campaigns, the federal government managed to borrow 12.5 billion dollars from Canadians during World War Two (Bryce 328). Despite the fact that every single bond drive had been oversubscribed, the Canadian government continued to aggressively push the victory loan campaigns and borrow as much as they could from Canadian (Granastein & Oliver 60). In a sense, The Active Jim series was used to project real life ideologies and initiatives from the Canadian government in a context that was more understandable and exciting to children than the propaganda that had historically used to sell the War Savings Stamps.

ACTIVE JIM AND FIGHTING THE ENEMY

Figure 2: G. K. Odell & National War Finance Committee, Keep these hands off!. National War Finance Committee, 1941. Toronto Public
library. Public Domain. http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-KEEPTHESEHANDSOFF&R=DC-KEEPTHESEHANDSOFF.

Finally, the comic also perpetuates an interesting relationship between war savings stamps, bonds, and certificates and the enemy, the axis powers. The Canadian whites were “built from Canada’s war-time situation and its response to that situation”, so in a way they were a method of conveying topics or stories in the war to children (Kocmarek 149). However, being fictitious, the writers and illustrators were given a creative licence in which they were able to construct and enforce ideas concerning the enemy, as well as promote hatred of the enemy. During World War Two, there was a lot of media urging citizens to purchase war savings stamps so they themselves can contribute to the war effort and through purchasing war savings stamps directly contribute to Canada’s victory. Posters were often marketed in a way to make women, teenagers and children, who were too young or unable to enlist, directly contribute to the war effort. The posters reflected topics of fear, patriotism, and morality in order to coerce Canadian citizens to invest in one of the nine victory loan campaigns. For example, one poster presents a mother clutching her child while monster- like hands lurk at the edge waiting to grab her child with the caption “Keep these hands off! Buy the new Victory Bonds” [Figure 2] (Odell). By exploiting the fear of the individuals viewing this image, the National War Finance Committee created hundreds of posters like this to aggressively push the sale of war savings stamps, certificates, and bonds during World War Two.

Figure 3: Jon Darian (w,a). “Active Jim”. Active Comics, No.14, pp. 56, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

Similarly, the comic also worked to exploit these fears and perpetuated a culture where purchasing war savings stamps was a way to fight the war. In the last panel of issue 14 of Active Comics the comic finishes off with the statement that war savings certificates are a solid investment and anything that one hears “to the contrary is a Nazi lie” [Figure 3] (Darian 56). The story and its final statements are part of social culture that was breeding the idea that the very idea of discussing the value or possible devaluing of war savings stamps was unpatriotic. Other statements like this existed and were posed to scare children to participating in certain activities. Threats of family members dying or being branded as assisting the enemy were displayed to prevent individuals from gossiping. “Are you one of Hitler’s little helpers” was a question that was asked weekly of listeners of the CBC broadcast, comrades and arms. The goal of the program was to warn against rumor spreading that could aid the enemy or hurt the country’s morale by using exploiting the patriotism and fear of its listeners (Strange). Interestingly enough, the comic also discourages gossiping by claiming that individuals who spread rumors were those of the most “dangerous type” and who “gain their livelihood from our inability to see through their lies” (Darian 56). This story of Active Jim was one medium of many that existed during World War Two that existed discourage individuals from selling off their investments and spreading rumors that war savings stamps were losing their value.

Jon Darian (w,a). “Active Jim”. Active Comics, No.14, pp. 55, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

It is also interesting to notice that in the issue, Active Jim takes on a group of undercover Nazis whose mission it is to spread rumors on a high school campus to devalue war savings stamps, certificates and bonds (Darian 56). Grown men, who are undercover in the enemy country were given the task of spreading rumors on a high school campus, instead of assassinating a government official or planting a bomb. While it is important to remember that this story is fictitious its vital to understand the idea that this story could be alluding to, that the act of purchasing war bonds was so vital for the Canadian government that the German army had no choice but to dispatch soldiers to devalue the war savings stamps, certificates, and bonds in the hopes that it would increase their chances of defeating Canada in World War Two.

CONCLUSION

By using Active Jim as a role model for the young readers of this comic series, the writers and illustrators could create a character that the readership could project themselves onto and aspire to be, an individual with a strong sense of patriotism and the desire to fight for his country. The character’s strong attitude about war bonds as well as his admiration of the readers supporting the war effort in his “club news” section could easily be interpreted as propagating children to buy war bonds and coerce them into participate in the war effort. This was a role that was similar to that of the posters, newscasts, and other media that surrounded the Canadian Children living on the Home-front during World War Two.

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.

WORKS CITED

Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond & John English. Canada, 1900- 1945. University of TorontoPress, 1987.

Bryce, Robert. Canada and the Cost of World War II. McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2005.

Cook, Tim. “Canadian Children and the Second World War.” Historica Canada, 4 December 2016, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-children-and-wwii/

Darian, Jon (w,a). “Active Jim”. Active Comics, No.14, pp. 53-  56, Bell Features, November 1943, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

Darian, Jon (w,a). “Active News and Views”. Active Comics, No.14, pp. 40- 41, Bell Features, November 1943. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166515.pdf.

Frayne, Trent. “Children’s Stamps Buy Training, Combat Craft”. Globe and Mail, 26 July 1944. Democracy at War: War Museum Canada, http://collections.civilisations.ca/warclip/o
bjects/common/webmedia.php?irn=5047405

Granatstein, J. L. and Dean F. Oliver. “The Canadian Home Front in the First and Second World Wars.” Canadian Military History, 16 June 2015. Scholars Portal, http://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1672&context=cmh.

Halliday, Hugh. “Posters and the Canadian War Museum.” Canadian Military History, Vol. 3, Issue 1,1994. Scholars Portal, http://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017
&context=cmh

Hillmer, Norman. “Victory Loans.” Historica Canada, 28 April 2015, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/victory-loans/

Kocmarek, Ivan. “Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publiciations.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/ Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, Volume 43, Issue 1, March 2016. Project Muse, https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/article/611725

Odell, G. K. (a) & National War Finance Committee, Keep these hands off! 1941. Toronto Public library, http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-KEEPTHESEHANDSOFF&R=DC-KEEPTHESEHANDSOFF.

School Children of Ontario near Million in Purchases”. Hamilton Spectator, 16 April 1941. Democracy at War: War Museum Canada, http://collections.civilisations.ca
/warclip/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=5047698

Silverman, Baruch. “Meet Wartime Youth”. Youth in Wartime, 17 January 1945. Special Collections: Toronto Public Reference Library.

Strange, William. “Hitler’s Little Helpers” Comrades in Arms, 9 October 1942, CBC Digital achieves. http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/hitlers-little-helpers

Van Loon, J. W., “Children Invest Over $200,000 In War Savings Stamps and Aid in Extensive Salvage Campaign”. Hamilton Spectator, 24 December 1943. Democracy at War: War Museum Canada, http://collections.civilisations.ca/warclip/objects/common/webmedi
a.php?irn=5044113

Our Great Gendered Expectations: Dominant Masculinities in Dime Comics 23

2017 Canadian Whites, Dime Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, ,

© Copyright 2017, Mariam Vakani, Ryerson University

INTRODUCTION:

The early moments of Canada’s declaration of war against Germany saw a time of economic turmoil. By the end of 1940, the Foreign Exchange Control Board introduced the War Exchange Conservation Act, which essentially banned the import of non-essential American goods, which included comic books and pulp-fiction periodicals, in hopes of conserving the American dollar. (Bell, 30). The American comic-books enjoyed by Canadian children disappeared from the newsstands, leaving a gaping hole in the popular culture of the time.

This gap was quickly noticed by children, and just as quickly exploited by the four independent publishing houses that reacted immediately to this business opportunity, beginning what would later be known as the Golden Age of Canadian Comics. First led by Maple Leaf Publishers and Anglo-American, the Golden Age was marked by the onslaught of creative Canadian heroes and stories written by Canadian artists. Amongst these artists and publishers was Adrian Dingle, who had first worked with Hillborough Studies on their only title, Triumph-Adventure, but later joined the brothers Cy and Gene Bell in creating what would come to be known as the greatest publisher of Canadian comic books, Bell Features. Amongst their several titles was Dime Comics, which ran through the end of 1946.

The black and white paneled pages of Dime Comics showcase many stories of bravery and damnation, demonstrating the complex creativity that was born during the war. Issue No. 23 of Dime Comics was published in October of 1946, little more than a month after the war officially ended. The issue includes full-length comic stories, shorter spreads, and direct insight into the world that inspired the fictional stories. Amongst the themes that we see in this particular issue is that of the idealized masculinities embedded in the stories of superheroes, promoting a framework of stereotypical hegemonic masculinity that was both a standard to which the men of the era were held and a dream that adolescent readers aspired to become.

WHAT MAKES A HERO: COMIC BOOK PHYSICALITY AND HYPER-MASCULINITY

Photograph of a soldier from WW2, carrying a gun through the forest
“Private H.E. Goddard of The Perth Regiment, carrying a Bren gun while advancing through a forest north of Arnhem, April 15, 1945 Netherlands. Credit: Capt. Jack H. Smith Canada. Dept. of National Defence Faces of War Archives at Library and Archives Canada

“…Hyper-masculinity is the most visible and most mute way of responding to the anxiety generated in the North American male’s search for masculinity” (1103) writes Klein, author of the journal article, “Comic Book Masculinity”, in which he discusses the links between body-builders and internalized misogyny and homophobia. In addition to their valiance, the superheroes must also fit a certain physical type. Each of the men is broad-shouldered and chested, with a strong jawline and chin; they are young and handsome and ready for action. A strong build was one of the physical demands of war-time strength.

Even in the case of exhaustion, as we find Johnny Canuck in during his kidnapping, the male superhero is always ready for action, Terry Allen is instantly prepared to become Nitro and save the day, Drummy Young is immediately ready to engage in physical combat with the enemy; their bodies work in their favour and are undeniably strong, flexible, and healthy. “There seems never to be a hesitation or a backward glance: the superhero knows what he has to do, even if this implies only being on the move—performing, in a word,” states Yann Roblou (79), discussing the hyperbolic activity of the male superheroes’ body. No matter the situation, the heroes are never to be seen as fazed in their speech or in their body language.

WHAT’S A MAN TO JUDGE: THE MORAL INTEGRITY OF COMIC BOOK HEROES

Comic book masculinity also extends itself to expectations of male vitality: they must always be ready for combat and be above feeling pain. Indeed, even when Johnny Canuck succumbs to pain and fatigue, he is revitalized by the end of the page and announces that he is ready to “take another crack at the Japs.” (Bachle) While exhaustion and fatigue are felt by the superhero, he must be quick in recovery and be ready to continue his duties.  The Faces of War collection at the Library and Archives Canada depicts the male soldiers of the Second World War, all of whom have the same strong build and vitality that we see in the heroes of Dime Comics. The physical build was a reality as much as it was a fictional depiction, though the comic book drawings were a hyperbolic version of that reality.

Issue No. 23 of Dime Comic hosts four interesting male characters: Rex Baxter, Nitro, Drummy Young and Johnny Canuck. Each of these men embody an idealized masculinity, characterized by their rationale, justice and sense of protection. Hutchings writes, “almost all attempts to characterize (military) masculinity include risk taking and rationality as well as discipline, endurance, and absence of emotion.” (393)

Rex Baxter, the “United Nations Counter-Spy”, leads his squadron through the air and is faced with the threat of new invasions from Hitler.  Nitro, the second hero that we see, is the alter-ego of Terry Allen, a patriotic Canadian shown buying war bonds with his fiancée, Lynn, when the bank is robbed. Terry Allen turns to Nitro, determined to save the day, whilst remaining a concerned fiancé and leaving the crime-scene with Lynn when she is shot.

Drummy Young, a model citizen, realizes that a radio-show host was a Nazi spy, using his platform to provide Nazi forces with the latitudes and longitudes of ships at sea, thus enabling their attacks. Drummy stops the “bad guy” on time, preventing further harm to Canadian servicemen at sea. Finally, we see Johnny Canuck, weakened in an enemy dungeon, but watch as he escapes, avenges the death of his prison-mate and seeks vengeance for the lives of all those who “endured a living death” in the dungeons.

It is interesting to note that while not all these characters are military men, per se, they clearly demonstrate the making of soldiers, in their particular strength of character, sense of justice and moral integrity. Perhaps it could be said that their remarkable feats of bravery were meant to demonstrate to children the power of the ordinary citizen- that by being vigilant and active, they, too, could play their part in the war.

EXCEPTION OR EXAMPLE?

Hourihan writes, “the hero’s task is to defeat the forces of chaos, fear and ignorance and so ensure the survival of the state, the realm of civic order and rational behaviour.” (88) This concept is evidenced in the characterization of each of these ultra-male superheroes; they are meant to act as defenders of peace and protectors of Earth. Rex Baxter tackles the peculiarity of seeing strange planes in the sky with a cool-headed approach, a curiosity and a strong sensibility of the possibility of danger. Johnny Canuck, fatigued from his capture and time in the enemy dungeon, still recognizes his moral responsibility to avenge the deaths of his prison-mates, and, once he escapes and is reinvigorated, is immediately ready to reengage with the enemy soldiers.

Nitro holding his fiancee, Lynn, with a speech bubble that says,"Looks like i'll have to forget Simms for now, Officer, this girl's life is worth more than a dozen like him."
Jerry Latare.
Panel from “Nitro” Dime Comics, No.23 October 1946, p.15.
Bell Features Collection,
Library and Archives
Canada.

Drummy Young does not have explicit ties to the military in the same way that Rex and Johnny do, but, by being a vigilant citizen, Drummy finds the Nazi spy amongst a group of radio show hosts and saves the lives of hundreds of servicemen at sea. When the bank is robbed while he is buying war bonds with his fiancée, Lynn, Nitro rushes to stop the heist until he turns to find that she has been shot. At that point, he exclaims that “this girl’s life is worth more than a dozen like him!” (Latare) and leaves in order to find medical help for her. Nitro presents a duality of masculinity, conflicted when faced with a situation in which he must act as savior both to the masses and to his fiancée, Lynn, and is ultimately rewarded when he must fight the robber to obtain a blood sample for the transfusion that Lynn needs to survive.

This determination to save the day, the careless disregard for one’s own well-being, and the unwavering faith in their own goodness and conviction in the causes they fight for characterize our heroes, and our expectations of Canadian men. Our saviors fit the characteristics of being tall, muscular, conventionally attractive white men who seek protection for those that are weaker than them, placing the safety of women, children, and the elderly above their own needs.

TALL, WHITE AND HANDSOME: THE BIASES IN THE HEROES WE CHOOSE

Furthermore, the dominance of the white, muscular, heterosexual male superhero is asserted when he is placed against the backdrop of immoral characters and apathetic women, who play foil to his excellence. Within the black and white pages of Dime Comics, the hero exists in a metaphorically black and white moral binary, where he is the unequivocal force of goodness in a world that is populated by petty thieves, Japanese enemy soldiers, and Nazis.

As such, we begin to question exactly what differentiates our male hero from the antagonist, when they both engage in violent behaviour in the defense of their causes. The simple answer is that the heroes we follow, Johnny Canuck, Drummy Young and Nitro, (as we do not see Rex engage in combat with anyone) truly believe that they are protecting the weak as they fight. The more complex answer would be that the artists and writers have their own ideological biases that bleed through their stories –the masculinity that is acceptable is that which is in accordance with the commonly held values of the Canadian people, and through the blatant othering that is present throughout the stories, we are made to believe that the superheroes are dispensing justice.

Additionally, the women that are placed around the men serve little more purpose than props or plot devices, such as where Lynn distracts Nitro from his work saving the bank and Gail Abbot, Rex Baxter’s girlfriend, exists in the background as he expounds on the conflict. We find the men in drawn as unquestionably more intelligent and interesting than the women around them, and continue to read them as such. The men exist, then, as unequivocally good because they are never confronted with their equal opposites, only men who are meant to be read as evil and women who are purposefully written as unintelligent.

While the truth of the matter is that the Canadian superheroes were fighting to protect the weak and the helpless, it cannot go unstated that “such figures are not helpful role-models for ordinary boys and men who are full of normal imperfections, who must live in a mundane world where there are no unequivocally evil enemies to fight against…” (Hourihan, 72). The comic book hero exists in a vacuum, there is no goodness but him and he has little evil in him, at all.

HEROES TO OUR CHILDREN:

Johnny attacking his captor who is begging for mercy, while Johnny's speech bubble is him talking about how he is seeking vengance for the lives lost.
Leo Bachle. Panel from “Johnny Canuck” No.23 October 1946, p.43
Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

However, this does not negate the fact that these heroes were role models to children both during and after the war. They stood as symbols of patriotism, created by artists specifically for the purpose of providing Canadian children the same patriotic heroes that American superheroes were for American children. As narrated by John Bell in his book Invaders of the North, Johnny Canuck was created by a fifteen-year-old Leo Bachle, who amused a Bell Features investor with his criticism of the artwork of some of the Bell Comics. (50) Upon request, he showed the investor some of his own artwork and was hired the next day as a freelance artist for Bell Features, soon creating Johnny Canuck, who stands to this day as a symbol of patriotic Canadian heroism. Johnny Canuck was a hero who constantly came in contact with Hitler, frequently “slugging the Nazi dictator”, and in essence, became a catalyst of wish-fulfilment for many of the children who had to watch the war from home.

Despite the aggression and structured expectations that the comic books seemed to be setting forth, that the heroes also presented themselves as a means through which the child-readers were allowed to partake in a war they had to see from the sidelines is undeniable. It is also undeniable that the heroism and war-like behavior of the comic-books was an exaggerated, over-sentimentalized versions of what war-time masculinity should look like. Neither of those facts override the other but exist simultaneously as the context which created the comic culture of the time.

CONCLUSION:

The stories of Rex Baxter, Nitro, Drummy Young and Johnny Canuck portray a double-ended societal expectation and youthful desire to be the hero of the war. These heroes exist because they were needed, in the way fiction is, to comfort, appease, enlighten and intrigue children, although not necessarily to teach them the realities of war as it played out for soldiers on the home-front. They portray the aggression and masculinity that was deemed appropriate for the time, channeled, unfortunately through their hatred for the “others” and the sense of masculine superiority and dominance that exists within the stories; but there remains the fact that the heroes and their worlds provided a sanctuary in which Canadian children could dream themselves into super-heroes and military men, fight alongside their fathers and brothers and make their way towards a victory.

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.

Works Cited

  • Bachle, Leo (w, a). “Johnny Canuck.” Dime Comics, no. 23, October, 1945 pp. 39-45, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.    http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166585.pdf

  • Bell, John. Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe, Dundurn, 2006.
  • Hourihan, Margery. Deconstructing the Hero: Literary Theory and Children’s Literature. Routledge, 1997.
  • Hutchings, Kimberly. “Making Sense of Masculinity and War.” Men and Masculinities, vol. 10,    no. 4, September 2007, pp. 389-404. Sage Journals. DOI: 10.1177/1097184X07306740,            http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X07306740

  • Klein, A. “Comic Book Masculinity.” Sport in Society, vol. 10, no. 6, November 2007, pp. 1073-1119.      Scholars Portal Journals. DOI: 10.1080/17430430701550512,           http://journals.scholarsportal.info/details/17430437/v10i0006/1073_cbm.xml

  • Latare, Jerry (w, a). “Nitro.”  Dime Comics, no. 23, October, 1945 pp. 11-16, Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.        http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166585.pdf

  • Roblou, Yann. “Complex Masculinities: The Superhero in Modern American Movies.” Culture, Society and Masculinities, vol. 4, no. 1, 2012, pp. 76-91. Men’s Studies Press. DOI: 10.3149/CSM.0401.76

Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Future: Children and Propaganda in Active Comics #9

2017 Canadian Whites, Active Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , , , , , ,

©Copyright 2017 Alexandrea Fiorante, Ryerson University.

Active Comics Issue #9 

Writing for Canadian children and adolescence aged 7-18 during World War II, Active Comics issue nine (January 1943) relays wartime propaganda that promoted Canadian patriotism and war inclusion to youth who were too young to participate on the war front. This exhibit will study how Issue #9 involved children into wartime activities and groomed adolescents approaching wartime age through the comic “Active Jim” and his club membership “Active Jim’s Monthly Message.” Active Comics issue #9 is an important tool for recruiting the youth and creating ideal Canadian citizens from progression towards a better nation.

Canada and the Second World War

The War Exchange Act prohibited American non-essential goods, including comic books, from entering Canada during World War II. As a result, Canada emerged with comic books that promoted their own nationalistic views: The Canadian Whites. A Toronto publisher, Bell Features, created Active Comics.

Adrien Dingle. Active Comics: No. 9, January 1943, Dixon of the Mounted: Cover. Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, 1943.

Created for, and by Canadians, Active Comics issue #9 encompass patriotic heroes, wartime news and incentives for children’s involvement. It was used as propaganda to groom youth for war. Fredrik Stromberg argues that propaganda was a necessary form of communication because of wartime ideas that viewed militarization as rational for teaching values (ch 2). Comic books influenced child readers’ opinions on political, social and moral values during the 1940s, in which patriotism was expected. It created ideal Canadian citizens to enlist in the war.

The importance of comic books stemmed from the educational standards of World War II. The 1880’s education system focused on teaching youth about politics and war events at government-run institutions. Ross Collins writes that children existed as messengers to relay information to their parents, among others (ch 2). Authorities encouraged youth to partake in clubs, such as boy scouts, to learn proper values, be groomed for war, and prevent delinquency (ch 2).

The drafting age for youth on the war front was nineteen. Comic books provided information that prepared young people, aged seventeen and eighteen, who were soon eligible to participate. Many children had siblings and parents active in the war efforts. Comic book imagery and content spawned children’s desire to be like their elders.
Bell Feature’s Active Comics issue #9 works similarly. It includes Canadian morals and militarization that groomed youth for future duties. Not only is reading an educational act, but it also kept children from delinquency by including clubs to join and activities to do. Issue #9 harnesses war values and interests by providing participatory opportunities and Canadian heroes to follow (Kockmarek 150).

Analysis of the “Active Jim” Comic

“Active Jim” is a comic book hero created by Edmond Good that presented an attainable image of the ideal Canadian citizen. “Active Jim” follows the young Canadian hero Active Jim and his lady friend Joan Brian during their car ride home after a hockey game. A boy of good values, he picks up a hitch hiker who turns out to be a Nazi trying to reach the United States border. Active Jim outsmarts the Nazi, ties him up, and brings him to police. The next day, Joan acknowledges Jim’s success. He replies that “any real Canadian boy would have done the same” (Good 37).

Fig. 1. Edmond Good. Frame from “Active Jim.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 37. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Important to note is Active Jim’s backstory. Active Jim is a teenage boy who is not old enough to be on the war front. He is a young, average boy who, in-between his studies and watching hockey games, tries to do ‘his bit’ in support of Canada. Active Jim presents to youth a Canadian hero that is relatable in lifestyle and age. His comic pushes desires to be active in war efforts by showing an easily identifiable character and his successful attempts to fight crime. When he says that “any real Canadian boy would have done the same,” the idea of using role models is evident (fig. 1). Active Jim is an older brother figure used to groom, and persuade, young boys into being active in war efforts while showcasing Canadian values as important.

Fig. 2. Ross Saakel. Splash page from “The Noodle.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 30. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Active Comics issue #9 also uses the young, amiable hero character in “The Noodle,”created by Ross Saakel, to inspire youth to do their part. The character is a baby wearing a diaper who combats enemy threat to save himself and his girlfriend, Henrietta (fig. 2). Like Active Jim, The Noodle is too young to be involved in the war. Likewise, the The Noodle’s backstory involves that his father is battling on the war front. The comic uses the father figure to identify with children who have parents in the war.  These fictional, young heroes show that anyone can aid in the war effort.

(Fig. 3)“Fund-Raising Poster, Hey Gang! Keep on Licking War Savings Stamps- They’re full of Vitamin ‘V’”. Broadside. Circa 1942, Canadian War Museum. Public Domain.

The Canadian War Museum poster “Hey Gang” uses a youth character to promote buying war saving stamps (fig 3). As done with “The Noodle” and “Active Jim,” the use of another young role model character creates a collective drive and a sense of unity that inspires other youth to participate. This poster also coincides with the idea of doing one’s part and reinforces the idea that all “Canadian’s must contribute to the end the war” (Stevenson). Considering children are too young to be on the war front,  buying war saving stamps-like the poster- and victory bonds, they are able to aid in the funding of the war. The red “V” on the poster stands for victory, providing an incentive to do their part and emerge successful in their efforts and the efforts of Canada.

 

Analysis of “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” 

Active Jim is the leader of his own membership club for wartime efforts. Created by Adrien Dingle, “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” uses the idealistic Canadian hero as propaganda for involving youth into war. His name, “Active Jim,” insinuates activeness from the use of the adjective in conjunction with the issue’s title “Active Comics.” This is evidence of blatant militarization and implementation of wartime values.

Fig. 4. Edmond Good. Frame from “Active Jim.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 35. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Noted in his comic “Active Jim,” the comic’s backstory tells the reader that he and Joan are in the car chatting over the “Active Team’s sensational victory” (fig. 4). This acts as propaganda within within propaganda to advertise the club in Active Jim’s own realities. By pairing the club, the comic’s themes of activism and his notion that “any real Canadian boy would have done the same,” the club is a grooming method for making war efforts desirable by penning every child as a war hero. Active Jim’s club exists as a controlled environment that militarizes children and keeps them out of trouble as Collins had suggested (ch 2).

Active Jim’s club membership is an opportunity for youth’s active participation. Providing an elitist group run by a figure like Active Jim, working with the Canadian hero and receiving a special group certificate is a huge incentive to be war hero. Similarly to figure 3, it is effective in using a heroic character to relay information and ask the youth to fulfill roles. Children can relate to the mundane character and will listen and strive to be like them because they are relatable in lifestyle and age but still make evident change in Canadian society.

Active Jim’s Monthly Message: Casablanca Conference Analysis  

Fig. 5. Adrien Dingle. Splash page from “Active Jim’s Monthly Message.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 18. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Active Jim’s Monthly Message in issue #9 asks for members to decode a message about the Casablanca conference. The use of a secret message not only creates excitement around an elitist group task, but relays political information to children. The Casablanca conference of January 1943, the same month and year of Active Comics issue #9, is about Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill’s next phase of World War II (Fleming 2). Cleverly nicknamed “SYMBOL” which coincides with Active Jim’s ‘symbol message,’ the mention of the political event is used to inform children about the current events. As children learn, they will pass the information on to their parents through Collin’s suggestion that youth are used as messengers (ch 2). Likewise, “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” also acknowledges that children “are doing their part in so many ways… buying war saving stamps… but there’s still plenty of growth,” insinuating that there is always work to do, and that involvement in the war is crucial (Dingle 18) (fig. 5).

In connection to the historical outcome of the next phase, the Casablanca Conference was for “unconditional surrender,” meaning they would fight until their ultimate defeat, as peace could only come from the elimination of the German and the Japanese (Fleming 3). This mention resonates with readers and the act of continuing to do their part. However, the message remains unsolved because of the inability to retrieve the code wheel.
Active Comics issue #9 includes propaganda around teaching readers feelings of racism and hatred towards enemy powers. Active Jim’s comic includes Nazi hatred propaganda, and another comic “Thunderfist” showcases negative Japanese representation. Stromberg’s notion of ‘war rage’ as seen in various comics dealing with enemy powers was evident in popular entertainment to promote patriotism (ch 2).

Fig. 6. “Keep these hands off.” Broadside. Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

The World War II poster “Keep your hands off!” is an example of racial hatred towards enemies to promote patriotism (fig 6). The woman in the poster is holding a child that symbolizes innocence. The dark hands that have the emblems of the enemy powers on them are suggestively devious because of their shape in conjunction with the headline “keep your hands off!” The poster stresses the protection of youth from the enemy powers by fighting against them and posing them as a threat. The collective hatred of their enemies spawned patriotism and a desire for young people to fight against them to protect Canada and future generations.

By linking the ideas of the Casablanca Conference, mystery message from “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” and Jim’s statement to “work three times as hard to make this message a reality” Active Comics issue #9 uses the information to groom children for war by immersing them in politics and ideas essential to fighting enemies.

Fig. 7. Advertisement for Victory Model’s “Command Repeating Play Gun.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 66. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Likewise to the ideas of grooming youth through information, the “Command Repeating Play Gun” by Victory Models aids in this process by selling replica weapons used on the war front (fig. 7). Through purchasing the items, the youth who are close to their enlistment age are able to be familiar, and practice with, the gun. Children further away from the legal age of enlistment are able to be groomed along with the elders to find desire in being on the war front through engagement with the toy.

The club and the toy exist, as Collins suggested, for keeping children out of trouble by giving them war related groups and items to engage with and gain interest in the war (ch 2). By partaking in activities, they are gaining Canadian values and learning how to be successful on the war front.

Conclusion 

Active Comic’s issue #9 (January 1943) targeted children aged 7-18 during World War II to relay wartime information and ensure the participation of children regardless of their age. Likewise, issue #9 is a method for grooming youth in preparation for the warfront. Through this issue, the form is used an important tool for harnessing youth interests and involvement through the “Active Jim” comic and “Active Jim’s Monthly Message” to create ideal Canadian citizens for wartime recruitment.

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.

Works Cited

Adrien Dingle. Active Comics: No. 9, January 1943, Dixon of the Mounted: Cover. Bell Features and Publishing Company Limited, 1943

Collins, Ross F. “How War Can Make Children Better.” Children, War & Propaganda. New York, Peter Lang, 2011.

“Command Repeating Play Gun.” no. 9, January 1943, p. 66. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166795.pdf 

Fleming, Thomas. “The Most Ruinous Allied Policy of the Second World War.” History Today, vol. 51, no. 12, 2001, pp. 2-3. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/202814892?accountid=13631

Dingle, Adrien. “Active Jim’s Monthly Message.” no. 9, January 1943, p. 18. Bell Features Collection, Ryerson University Library and Archives. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166795.pdf

Good, Edmond. “Active Jim.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 35-37. Bell Features Collection, Ryerson University Library and Archives. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166795.pdf

Kocmarek, Ivan. “Truth, Justice and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 43, no. 1, 2016, pp. 148-165.  Project Muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/611725/pdf.

Saakel, Ross. “The Noodle.” Active Comics, no. 9, January 1943, p. 30-31. Bell Features Collection, Ryerson University Library and Archives. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166795.pdf 

Stevenson, Robert. “Canadian Wartime Propaganda: Second World War Propaganda Poster.” Canadian War Museum, Canadian War Museum, http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/propaganda/poster20_e.shtml. Accessed 9 March 2017.

Stromberg, Fredrik. Comic Art Propaganda: A Graphic History. Lewes, Ilex, 2010.

Post-War Women as Portrayed in Dime Comics #25

2017 Canadian Whites, Dime Comics, ENG 810-011 Lorraine Janzen, , ,

© Copyright 2017 Julie Veitch, Ryerson University

Primarily red, yellow and blue front cover of Dime Comics #25.
Clayton Dexter (a). Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, cover. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

This exhibit examines the representation of women in Dime Comics Issue #25 (February 1946). Particularly, it will be looking into why, in this issue of Dime Comics more than the previous issues, female characters are portrayed as being more powerful and active in their narrative. Previously, women in comics had mostly just been eye candy, but in this issue, the female characters are active in the storylines- if still somewhat scantily-clad in some cases.

As such, this exhibit seeks to prove that this issue of Dime Comics demonstrates the post-war view of women as active and powerful people who helped war efforts on the homefront. The theory here is simple: when women took over the jobs that were previously done by men and could do them well, the perception of women began to change and this is reflected in the female characters presented in this issue.

Research into this topic has revealed that while there is writing on women in comics, these writings tend to focus more on American superheroes such as Wonder Woman and Supergirl, more recent heroes, or if they do focus on Canadian female superheroes, it is usually solely Nelvana. Lesser-known Canadian female superheroes and comic book characters have hardly been looked at in any depth, and side characters such as Gail in “Rex Baxter” have certainly never been talked about. Additionally, the relationship between the role of women during WWII and the portrayal of women in comics at the time has not been explored before.

The Women in Dime Comics #25

While some of the big name comics in this issue such as “Drummy Young”, “Johnny Canuck” and “Nitro” have little to no female characters, this issue does feature some powerful, active female characters, which will be looked at in-depth in this section.

Panel from Rex Baxter featuring Gail spotting Hitler's wrecked plane.
Clayton Dexter (w, a). “Rex Baxter: Counterspy.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 5. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

In “Rex Baxter: Counterspy”, Gail joins Rex on his quest to find Hitler, who is looking for the underwater city of Atlantis. Acting as Rex’s sidekick of sorts, Gail tags along while they fly across the ocean looking for any sign of Hitler, and she is the one who ends up spotting the wreckage of Hitler’s plane on an outcropping of rocks. After that discovery, she accompanies Rex under the sea to find Hitler himself.

While Gail is clearly meant to be a side character to the heroic Rex Baxter, in this issue of the comic she is seen playing an active role in the story. Instead of being passive and pretty, Gail spots the plane wreckage that leads them to Hitler. Perhaps Rex would have spotted the wreckage without her help, but maybe he would not have, if she had not been there, so her keen eyes were crucial to his mission.

Panel from Harbour Police of the Polka Dot Pirate
Ross Mendes (w, a). “Harbour Police.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 26. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Similarly, in the comic “Police Harbour”, The Polka Dot Pirate plays a key role in the plot. When Russ’ sidekick Ricky gets thrown off of a boat to drown, The Polka Dot Pirate picks him up in her motor boat and potentially saves his life. Later on, working with Ricky, she fights the thieves who have captured Russ and saves him.

This is an interesting twist on a common trope, as most comics in the 1940s and before had the main male hero saving women, not women saving the main male hero. The Polka Dot Pirate, while pretty and wearing a rather ridiculous outfit that is clearly meant to show off her body, is portrayed in this comic as an active, powerful woman who is not afraid to fight some bad guys and save the day.

Finally, in “A Betty Burd Adventure: Guns of Greed”, the title character Betty finds birds dead and animals trapped in the jungle and sets the trapped animals free, taking the snares with her. When the hunters who set the traps find that their prey have been set loose, they set a trap for Betty and capture her. In the end, she is saved from being mauled by a leopard by Commissioner Storm, an army man who had been tracking the hunters.

While Betty Burd is saved by a male character in this comic, this fact does not subjugate her as it might in other narratives. Betty was only captured by the hunters because she had saved the animals in the jungle from their snares, so it was her heroic action that landed her in the sticky situation. Additionally, because Betty is the title character, and one of the only female characters in Canadian comics to be a title character in 1939-1945, she is clearly not meant to be a passive character who exists only to be a plot device or eye candy.

Unlike typical women in comic books during WWII, these three ladies all have active roles in their comics, whether they were the main characters or side characters. The only other female characters featured in issue #25 of Dime Comics were those in “Izzy Brite”, a three page joke comic that included a poster of a pin-up model, a stereotypical little girl and stereotypical old woman/grandmother character. None of these women play much of a role in the comic and while these portrayals of women are not very modern or ground-breaking, they are relatively harmless, especially since the comic in question is a lighter, more silly comic.

Women in WWII Efforts

Image of a female factory worker holding a gun.
“Make small arms big for our fighting men is the slogan of 3,000 women and 1,000 men at work in the Small Arms plant at Long Branch. A product of their work is displayed by Mary Starchuck; New Toronto (LEFT); who handles a Sten gun like a veteran.” Toronto Star 1942, Baldwin Collection, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Star Photo Archive. Toronto Star License.

At the peak of female employment during WWII, in 1943, 261,000 women were employed in war production, and by 1944 over 1,000,000 women were working full-time in various industries in Canada (Pierson 9). Just an example of this massive jump in women’s employment is demonstrated by the employment records of aircraft plants (10). In September of 1939, only 119 women were employed in aircraft plants, but that number rose to 25,013 women by the beginning of 1944 (10). It is clear from these numbers that women stepped up in a big way during WWII, eagerly filling the void left in Canadian industries by their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons who were off fighting in the war.

Testimonies from former female members of several military organizations such as the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in the book Greatcoats and glamour boots: Canadian women at war (1939-1945) discuss working military jobs on the homefront as being “lonely” and “isolated” at times (Gossage 236-238). They also described stressful situations such as working as plotters in Halifax and staying up after their shifts to watch German U-boats get further up the St. Lawrence river than most Canadians thought they did (236). These testimonies and others like them shed light on the trials and tribulations that women on the homefront confronted head on with courage and strength that would have previously been deemed distinctly male. Instead of being the docile homemakers that men thought they should be, these women showed their strength and capability, and the men had to take notice.

A woman working in an aircraft factory
“As never before; women are running the entire scale of jobs in Canadian war industry. Grinding; welding; assembling; drilling punching; pressing; packing; shaping on machines big and small are jobs for women today. This girl is an expert on a grinding wheel. She is working on an airplane part.” Toronto Star 1941, Baldwin Collection, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Star Photo Archive. Toronto Star License.

However, things were not all well and good on the homefront (socially), even though women stepped up in the way that the government and Prime Minister King stressed was crucial to Canada’s success. The fact that women were taking over traditionally male jobs lead to some people believing that the war had “emancipated women” because it equalized the roles of both genders in society (19). Some Canadian became very anxious about women becoming too masculine because it was acceptable for them to wear pants and they were working in jobs that had previously been monopolized by males (20). For this reason, women were often assured that things would return to normal when the war was over, and that their work would not require that they do anything unbecoming of a lady, or “unwomanly” (20).

Another worry that some, particularly employers and managers, had was about what would happen when the men came back from the war and took their jobs back from the female employees that had been labouring in their stead (Cardinali 132). For this reason, managers tried their best to hire the wives of the workers turned soldiers in the hopes that they would be willing to give up their jobs to their husbands (132). They also hired wives of current employees who had not been sent off to fight in the hope that the women would be willing to step aside if their husbands were still employed (132). These measures clearly denote a nervousness about the women being unwilling to return to their lives as dutiful, passive housewives. However, despite many women expressing a desire to continue working after the war, the managers’ strategies were mostly successful (132). Despite this large return to normalcy, though, women gained permanent privileges during the war, as well as proving to themselves and those around them that they were capable of doing work that was previously not available to them and viewed as “men’s work” (132-133).

Conclusion: The Real and the Fictional

War ephemera poster featuring 3 women
We’re in the army now. Broadside. Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

The women in Dime Comics #25 are clearly active, powerful characters that play a fairly significant role in the comics they are featured in. An interesting detail to note is that these women, Gail, The Polka Dot Pirate and Betty Burd, are portrayed as active, but in a very helpful way. They are helping the hero on their mission or saving people or animals, not necessarily saving the day and getting all the credit. This connects with the wartime idea of women not only entering the workforce to help on the homefront, but also the idea of women “joining the army” by being helpful- collecting scraps of metal, paper, bones, rubber, and other materials that can be used in war supplies (see We’re in the army now poster).

Additionally, the anxiety about the differences between men and women becoming less pronounced, or women becoming more masculine due to their taking over male work, may have had an impact on how women were portrayed in comics after the war. If the comic artists saw the roles of men and women becoming more equal as a good thing, then this could explain why some female characters were able to come out from the shadows and play an integral role in their comics. While the women in these comics, Gail, The Polka Dot Pirate and particularly Betty Burd, were all still very much feminine in appearance, their roles as active, intelligent and resourceful people could be seen as more “male roles” than traditional “female roles”.

Page from the comic Betty Burd
Fred Kelly (w, a). “A Betty Burd Adventure: Guns of Greed.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 44. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

It is also worth noting that at the time of WWII, there was a lack of female comic book characters, the only two of note at the time being Wonder Woman in the U.S.A. and Nelvana in Canada who both emerged in 1941. Due to this lack, female readers were hungry for female characters- they wanted to read about strong, smart and capable women (Jorgenson and Lechan 269). Girls and women in the 1930s and 1940s wanted characters that they could look up to and aspire to be like, which could have also been a factor in the women of this comic issue showing traits such as intelligence and strength (269-270).

This creates an interesting contradiction in the quest to please both male and female readers: the female character or superhero as sex object and role model (Lavin 94). Make Betty Burd an ecological hero who saves animals to appeal to the female audience, but also put her in a scanty crop top and booty short ensemble to please the male audience. After all, how could the male audience possibly relate to a female character, even if she is active and capable? However, considering that previous to the wartime era of comics female characters had only been eye candy with very little presence or substance, this was at least a step in the right direction, and one that female audiences surely welcomed.

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.

Works Cited

Cardinali, Richard. “Women in the workplace: Revisiting the production soldiers, 1939-1945.” Work Study, vol. 51, no. 2/3, 2002, pp. 121-133. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/218385570?accountid=13631

Dexter, Clayton (w, a). “Rex Baxter: Counterspy.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 1-6. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166587.pdf

Gossage, Carolyn. “On Duty at Home and Overseas.” Greatcoats and glamour boots: Canadian women at war (1939-1945). Dundurn Press, 2001. Scholars Portal, December, 2009. http://books2.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/viewdoc.html?id=/ebooks/ebooks0/gibson_crkn/2009-12-01/4/410661

Jorgenson, Anna, and Arianna Lechan. “Not Your Mom’s Graphic Novels: Giving Girls a Choice Beyond Wonder Woman.” Technical Services Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, July, 2013, pp. 266-284. Scholars Portal, http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/pdf/07317131/v30i0003/266_nymgnggacbww.xml

Kelly, Fred (w, a). “A Betty Burd Adventure: Guns of Greed.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 43-47. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166587.pdf

Lavin, Michael R. “Women in comic books.” Serials Review, vol. 24, no. 2, June, 1998, pp. 93-100. Scholars Portal, DOI: 10.1016/S0098-7913(99)80121-X.

Mendes, Ross (w, a). “Harbour Police.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 23-26. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166587.pdf

Moyer, Hy (w, a). “Izzy Brite.” Dime Comics, no. 25, February, 1946, pp. 20-22. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166587.pdf

Pierson, Ruth R. Canadian Women and the Second World War. The Canadian Historical Association, 1983. Library and Archives Canada, March, 2007. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/008004/f2/H-37_en.pdf