Category Archives: 2017 Canadian Whites

Canadian Identity in Dime Comic #20

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

© Copyright 2017, Ryerson University

Premise 

The representation of a Canadian identity in conjunction with its reception will be analyzed within the 20th issue of Dime Comics dating April 1945. One of many in The Canadian Whites, this comic’s inaccurate representations of the Japanese draw attention to the deliberate effort the artists put into depicting the “enemy” in order to establish a Canadian identity. The depicted Canadian identity seems to be a sense of superiority and innate goodness; the comic reveals itself to have strong opinions on a national identity and thus offers them to its audience: children. The wider context of the period outlines that “luxury goods,” including children’s comics, were halted as imports to Canada due to the War Exchange Conservation Act (Bell). Building a strong Canadian identity at the time was important for the war effort (Granatstein), which is why characters such as Johnny Canuck depict a Canadian “super-hero” saving the day. Johnny Canuck has no super powers, which sends the message that he is an ordinary Canadian. Tied with his ability to defeat the enemy, he is the Canadian identity: an Anglo-Canadian male, undefeatable despite his lack of superpowers.  The comic works as a piece of literature for children  that aided in their understanding of Canada’s role in the war effort (Zipes). Children did minor work to raise money for the war effort (Veterans Affairs Canada); this detail of the historical situation asserts that children were receiving a thorough education on Canada’s stance at war (Millar). Dime Comics no. 20 contains a “Canadian identity” that the education received by the youth of the time would have affirmed. This contributed to their consumption and engagement of the media because the same ideals were reflected in a trivial way. The disadvantageous portrayal of the Japanese depicts children of that culture as an “enemy,” this would have given rise to their poor treatment by other school children pre and post war. Currently, there is no review detailing the Canadian identity targeted towards children within their own medium of literature. This study will aid in understanding Canada’s history (WWII) in establishing an identity and its challenges in diversity, in relation to children through this specific medium.

The (only) Canadian Identity

Figure 1. Bachle, Leo, (w,a). Panel from “Johnny Canuck.” Dime Comics, No. 20, April 1945, Commercial Signs of Canada, p.25-31. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

In an effort to build a Canadian identity through these comics, the political stance of the artists was revealed through their characters. Leo Bachle’s Johnny Canuck (Fig. 1) is the working symbol of a Canadian: he appears to be Anglo, physically fit, and smart. Though he lacks any powers that would deem him a super hero, he still qualifies as one because of his quick thinking and tactics to beat the enemy. Bart Beaty discusses an element of super-heroes, identified by Richard Reynolds, that alludes to the idea that the behaviour of super-heroes is condemned from the law if and when their actions reflect their country’s best interest (428). Applying this to Johnny Canuck, he takes on the role of performing a coup d’état on the Nazis (Bachle 31), demonstrating Canada’s role in the war. The Canadian is the hero in this story, like many of the others in the same comic issue, and the featured Canadians are always Anglo. Beaty writes that the efforts of Johnny Canuck “overemphasiz[ed] Canada’s importance in the war” (430), notably regarding the writers agenda of engaging children readers with a political standpoint. In Dime Comic no. 20, Canadians are presented as superior to the Axis powers, with a certain focus on the Japanese. Johnny Canuck’s endeavours to win reflects the benevolent intentions of Canada – to beat evil. However, this comic is a piece of literature for children and therefore has complications within it when it displays only one type of Canadian. With the portrayal of an ideal Canadian through the discussed limited physical attributes, the “enemy” children were left out of the national identity, with the end of the war six months away. The depiction of this sort of Canadian identity leaves vulnerable the fact that Canada needed an identity established for it during the time (Beaty 438), the artists’ efforts in depicting one identity in the comic sends a skewed message to its children-populated audience: Anglo superiority. Receiving such information as a child during WWII had its consequences, primarily the treatment of the “enemy” and their children.

The “Enemy”

Figure 2. Cooper, Al (w,a). Panel from “Barnacle Bull.” Dime Comics, No. 20, April 1945, Commercial Signs of Canada, p.8-9. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The negative representation of the Japanese can be highlighted in comics such as “Barnacle Bull,” in which they are depicted more like pigs than human beings (Fig.2).  Their inappropriately presented physical appearance augments the Anglo-Canadian superiority. Further, it paints an image for the children reading these comics: the Japanese are outsiders. Laurel Lewey discusses the treatment and living arrangements of the Japanese during WWII in Canada. She writes that unofficial organizations deemed the Japanese a threat to the Anglo-Christian image of Canada and therefore they were a problem (Lewey 2). Their treatment was similar to those of Jewish descent in Germany with laws governing curfews and identification cards (Lewey, 6). The questioning of the loyalty of the Japanese by the Canadian government was evident, but the implicit ways that contributed to their harsh treatment include Dime Comic no. 20. Primarily, the medium intended for children offers no indication of racial inclusivity and therefore makes difficult for them to affirm the non-Anglo-Christian-Canadian as a Canadian. Over-exaggerated features as well as inaccurate representations both allude to the beliefs put in place about the Canadian identity, which as a result would increase the negativity received by the “superior” type of Canadian that has been represented. Lewey notes the terrible conditions the Japanese children lived in during the war, screaming while surrounded by little to no privacy and toxic fumes (6). This raises the question of post-war treatment, when these children were to return to the same schools and shared environments with the other children reading “Barnacle Bull.” Racism would have continued due to the message in children’s literature’s ideas of the Canadian identity and what it physically looks like to be an outsider. It is noted that “[t]he government’s Wartime Information Board actually perpetuated negative stereotypes of the Japanese national character” (Patrias and Frager 5), in relation to the medium of comics and its consumption as popular culture, these stereotypes are picked up. It is of significance to note that the perpetuation of stereotypes directly affected children, who are always the face of tomorrow, in ways that may be irreversible. The establishment of an exclusive Canadian identity makes for an environment in which racism can thrive in. This was especially harmful for children because they were not given an opportunity to think on their own and make decisions. What was presented to them as fact – the inherent evil-ness of the “other” – was not a fact whatsoever.

Children’s War Time Education

Figure 3. Canada. National War Finance Committee, F. A. Hey gang! Broadsides 1940. Toronto Reference Library. Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

With war years came the expectation for children to contribute what they can to the Canadian home front. Education in schools reflected the needs of the war, with the viewing of patriotic films and curriculum based on Canada’s part in the war (Millar). During this time children were encouraged to do their bit by buying War Savings stamps (Fig.3) and collecting metal scraps (Veterans Affairs Canada). In school, the objective of learning about the war served two purposes: to depict Canada’s commitment to winning the war, along with communicating to the youth about their nation’s values, perseverance, and the dedication to hard work (Millar). The fact that the education system offered to children during WWII formally conveyed background information on their country’s endeavors becomes evident. Though with hard work, comes the need to play. The Canadian Whites may have been this answer, offering a leisurely read about the concerns of their country. The comics could have allowed the children to put a face to the efforts of Canada in the war. The role of children could have been regarded as a helping hand during the time, though in Dime Comic no. 20 there is not a single trace of children; all the stories detail adults and their escapades. The exclusion of youth in children’s literature may reiterate their role in society at that time, enforcing an ambition for the children to replicate the heroes in the comics. With the already discussed complication of a narrow Canadian identity, came another form of patriotism learned at school. Children’s education would have influenced how they received the comic. Enemies they learned about in school were being reflected in the stories they read in an amusing way. The “Canadian-ness” in the comic could have been a determining factor in its popular engagement with the young audience (Kocmarek 157) further working as a database of the events of the war. It would have been necessary that the comics reflect the general belief about war and the enemies of their society to avoid inconsistencies in ideas of patriotism. The majority of “good” characters in Dime Comic no. 20 reflect a Canadian background (Kocmarek 151), thus augmenting the image of a national identity. This worked in a way to supplement the efforts of the education system, and instilled the same notions in the mind of impressionable young children. A rise could have been given to hostile environments to children not reflected in comics or at school, situating the literature as an example of the root of a bigger problem.

Comics as Propaganda

Figure 4. “A Jap woman waves at a distance window where the Japs were placed.” Toronto Star 1942, Baldwin Collection, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Star Photo Archive. Toronto Star license.

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines propaganda as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view” (Oxford University Press). The inaccurate depiction in Dime Comic no. 20 of the Japanese, reduced to superficial qualities, and the narrow Canadian identity dictate it a form of propaganda. This propaganda and exclusivity of a Canadian identity call to attention the fact that there will always be an “other” category of people that don’t live up to the enforced standards. As reflected in the comic, this exclusion was also depicted in newspapers (Fig.4). The caption’s derogatory reference to the Japanese in The Toronto Star depicts this exclusivity. The photo, presenting a real case of exclusion breathes air into the livelihood of it. With the Japanese being regarded as an enemy in the school curriculum, and being called “Japs” not only in the children’s comics but newspapers as well, reiterates the propaganda children were faced with. In the “Scotty MacDonald” comic a narration reads “concerned with the sole destruction of Scotty’s plane, the perplexed Jap…” (Cooper 21), this deduced the people of Japanese descent to their culture, but also associated them with a desire to harm. This form of propaganda aimed directly at children reflects the Canadian values at the time which included the establishment of the nation as a competing agent in the war. To gain the authority to be so, the Canadian identity had to be established for children in order to convey the beliefs necessary, not only to secure their aid but develop a sense of Anglo-Canadian superiority to fight the Axis power.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Dime Comic no. 20 contains troubling hints of history that the Canadian culture is still trying to overcome. Its depiction of an Anglo-Canadian identity as opposed to a diverse range of characters confirmed what the comic’s consumers’ formal education detailed: that Canada was at war with the “enemy” and their role in defeating them was necessary. Through ephemera and secondary sources a scholar can gain a deeper understanding of the implications of the narrow Canadian identity, reviewing the deeply rooted xenophobia this nation once faced. Working children into this equation, it makes sense to believe that they would have done what they could to help Canada in the war effort, even if that meant contributing to the exclusivity of the national identity. Harsh treatment of the Japanese has been detailed in the time period in addition to the inaccurate depictions in the comic that all pointed to the same idea: there most certainly exists an “other.”

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.

References

Bachle, Leo. “Johnny Canuck.” Dime Comics, no. 20, April 1945, pp. 25-31. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166582.pdf

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. Scholars Portal Journals. http://journals.scholarsportal.info/details/02722011/v36i0003/427_tfcsmsotcs.xml

Bell, John. “Adrian Dingle (Nelvana of the Northern Lights).” Guardians of the North. 2001. http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/lac-bac/guardians_north-ef/2009/www.collectionscanada. gc.ca/superheroes/t3-402-e.html

Canada. National War Finance Committee, F. A. Hey gang! Broadsides 1940. Toronto Reference Library. Baldwin Collection. Public Domain.

“Dime Comics” no. 20, April 1945. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166582.pdf

Granatstein, J.L. “Canada.” The Oxford Companion to World War II, Edited by Dear, I. C. B., and M. R. D. Foot. 2014. Oxford Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604464.001.0001/acref-9780198604464-e-302

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

Lewey, Laurel. “The Treatment of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s: A Social Work Perspective.” Currents; Calgary, vol. 8 no. 2, 2009, pp. 1-15. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1431991056/fulltextPDF/7F4D05B0BEEC437BPQ/1?accountid=13631

Millar, Anne. “Education during the Second World War.” Wartime Canada, 2015. http://wartimecanada.ca/essay/learning/education-during-second-world-war

Patrias, Carmela, and Ruth A. Frager. “‘This Is Our Country, These Are Our Rights’: Minorities and the Origins of Ontario’s Human Rights Campaigns.” The Canadian Historical Review; North York, vol. 82 no. 1, 2001, pp. 1-35. ProQuest. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/224299045/abstract/415A71A62CC448A8PQ/1

Veterans Affairs Canada. “Canadian Youth – Growing up in Wartime.” 2015. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/youth

Zipes, Jack. “Comic Books.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, 2006. Oxford Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-0697

The Strange Villains of Active Comics #2

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

© Copyright 2017 Dustin Brousseau, Ryerson University

Introduction

During the Second World War comic books were already in the pockets of the children of Canada and the United States. Heroes like Superman and Batman had already captured their imaginations with their stories full of action, adventure, and of course, dastardly villains. When the War Exchange Conservation act prevented those stories from coming through the Canadian borders. Children were left without their favorite heroes and villains, which in turn led to the creation of the Canadian Whites, Canadian comics which could have not competed with the colorful American comics before. The Canadian Whites brought with them new heroes and new villains for those heroes to fight. While everyone likes a good hero, what is a hero without its rogues gallery? Without the villains that fight against those heroes there would be no stories, action, no comics! Despite being written during a time of war however, the villains of these comics remained largely like those of American comics of the time, mostly divorced from the war happening at the time. Why is this? Using Active Comics #2 from March of 1942 as examples I will try and figure out why the comic book villains of the Canadian Whites were so strange and divorced from the very real enemies that were fought in the war at the time.

 

The Villains and Stories:

A deformed mad scientist ranting about his evil plans on the top half, and a picture of Thunderfist punching a robotic dinosaur with a descriptor on the bottom half
E.T. Legault. Page from “Thunderfist and the Monster of Catastrophe.” Active Comics No. 2, March 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 1. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada (Figure 1)

In Active Comics #2 there were four stories, each featuring a hero and a single villain or a cabal of evil doers. The first story stared Thunderfist, a hero with super strength and flight fighting Dr. Bruzzack (Figure 1), a mad scientist attacking a New York City with robotic dinosaurs. The second story featured a regular, if not extraordinarily brave Mounty by the name of Dixon of the Mounted who fought a demon known only in the story as “The Devil”, though this devil is unlikely Satan himself. After Dixon’s story there is Captain “Red” Thortan, an incredibly athletic man with no discernible superpowers fighting against the Japanese army, and finally the is The Brain, a hero with super strength and clairvoyance fighting against a criminal organization led by a man known as The Saboteur. Only one of these villains is connected to the war, with two of them seeming much like standard comic book villains, and one seeming like a threat that could exist in the real world, if not for their over the top way of doing things.

 

Why Not Focus on the War?

It is important to note that the Canadian Whites were written, at least in part by teenagers and younger people in general, some of which would have enjoyed comics before the ban. While much of my information is about American comics of the time these younger comic creators would have likely been influenced by the comics that they read before, and even if they were older it would have made sense for them to mimic the style of comics that were already popular with children in the first place. Because of this despite the information that I will be using comes from studies of American comics, they are still viable for the Canadian comics of the time as well. Many villains of the Canadian Whites are similar to the villains that American heroes would be fighting at the time, in that they were usually divorced from the war, or were taking part in the war in less important ways than being at the front lines. Many of the villains in Canadian comics at the time were using villains bred from the same tropes and ideas that their American counterparts were using. Things like evil geniuses, gang leaders, and mythical beasts were popular types of villains in the Golden Age of comics, so it only comes to reason that these teenagers that are writing the Whites would write villains that follow these sort of archetypes. Due to the format of the comics having several stories in one issue, there was not a lot of time to develop these villains, so making them recognizable as a certain type of villain immediately was important.

 

The Devil throws Dixon of the Mounted forward, with a text box describing the scene on top of the action
E.T. Legault. Panel from “Dixon of the Mounted and Dreadful Dwellings.” Active Comics No. 2, March 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 22. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada (Figure 2)

When Canadian comic books began to become popular due to the inability to import American comics it would come to no surprise to see comics with similar themes and characters. The heroes and villains of Active Comics #2 are no exception to this. In The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero Bart Beaty claims that “the concept of the man-god, a dedication to principles of justice, the secret identity, a conflict with the father, and the belief in the magical power of science.” (428) are key elements in superhero mythology. While the heroes don’t hit all of those traits they all hit at least one. The villains on the other hand are quite the opposite. Dr. Bruzzack certainly no “man-god”, using robotic dinosaurs in an attempt to destroy humanity, starting with New York City. Rather than believing in the “magical power of science” he believes only in himself, his robots being extensions of himself having been created by him. The Devil (Figure 2) appears to be no man, has no dedication to justice, or any of the above traits. The Saboteur is no “man-god” either, relying on his gang for help, and threatens to kill a woman helping The Brain. These villains are meant to be the opposite of what is traditionally seen as heroic back in the Golden Age of Comics according to Beaty.

 

Much like the superhero comics in America, superhero comics in Canada were in the golden age. While the Golden Age of Canadian Comics is differentiated from the Golden Age of Comics in America, they were happening in the same timeframe, the Canadian Golden Age happening between the years of 1941 – 1947, whereas the American Golden Age was happening from 1938 – 1954, both starting before and ending after the Canadian Golden Age (Fennell 305). This means that both Golden Ages were happening during the time of World War II. So the question remains: Why weren’t the villains in these stories representative of the war? Why are the most of the villains in Active Comics #2 divorced from the war that was going on at the time? Why would the heroes ignore the people fighting and dying against fascism? The reason, according to Jason Bainbridge in “The Call to do Justice”: Superheroes, Sovereigns and the State During Wartime, is because of the things that made them “super”, their superpowers, which could easily allow them to singlehandedly end the war, which could somewhat diminish the efforts put in by real soldiers on the battlefield (751). It was for those reasons that superheroes were often stuck fighting crime or monsters on the home front rather than helping with the war effort. Even those with no superpowers such as Dixon of the Mounted were still much more athletic and competent than any real man. Even when heroes were allowed to fight the same enemies that the soldiers were fighting in the real world they were often relegated to stopping either far-fetched schemes that only a superhero could stop, like the aforementioned robotic dinosaurs, or schemes that had little to do with the actual war effort, like capturing the daughter of a British commander, often to mask the horror of what the real war was like (751).

 

Why These Villains?

A two men in suits prepare to kill a tied up young woman to a contraption to kill her by dropping spikes on her
Leo Bachle. Panel from “The Brain.” Active Comics No. 2, March 1942, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 61. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada (Figure 3)

Now that we know why superheroes rarely interacted with the war directly, choosing to instead help the home front, why are the villains that they fight so outrageous? There are several reasons for that in fact. One reason is that the heroes of the time needed to be demonstrably good. In the Golden Age it was thought that heroes needed to be selfless and aid others who needed it because if they didn’t, then that character was not truly heroic (751). For villains to come in line with that line of thinking they had to be outlandishly evil. For example Dixon of the Mounted finds himself fighting an actual demon in Active Comics #2, even going as far as to call it “The Devil”. Even the less obviously evil villains in this issue are still extreme in their villainy. The Syndicate from The Brain story have James Bond villain style machine to kill those who betray them (Figure 3), and Dr. Bruzzack attempts to destroy New York City with robotic dinosaurs. Strangely the villains that have the least dastardly plans is the Japanese army that Captain “Red” Thortan fights, who have only kidnapped the daughter of a British commander, but still fall under the category of “plainly evil” by merit of being part of the Axis Powers. The villains of Active Comics #2 did not view themselves in anyway but evil.

 

Another reason for the villains being divorced from reality is that the heroes, and therefore the villains as well, are based on standards of justice of the time they were made (“Superhero Comics” 333). The morality of the time for fiction was influenced by Judeo-Christian ideals, combining the above self-sacrificing hero, with the idea of a crusader against evil, according to Ryan Edwardson in The Many Lives of Captain Canuck: Nationalism, Culture, and The Creation of a Canadian Comic Book Superhero (187). As such it would make sense for the villains that they fight to be the opposite: Self-serving, and completely evil, the perfect enemy for a self-sacrificing crusader against evil. While not all of the villains in Action Comics #2 are necessarily self-serving, with The Devil appearing to be a beast who mostly relishes in evil acts, with it saying nothing throughout the story and having torture implements in its lair, they are all most certainly evil. Dr. Bruzzack wants to kill all humans because he hates them, and The Saboteur is the leader of a group of gangsters who are going to kill a woman for betraying them to help The Brain.

 

Conclusion:

It seems that the answer to the question of why the villains in Active Comics #2 is simple. They were divorced from both the war, and in many ways reality, because they had to be at the time. Both heroes and villains of the Golden Age, both Canadian and American, were simple in their conception. The heroes were meant to be the ultimate forces of good, being self-sacrificing and forces for good, and the villains had to be the opposite of them, self-serving and evil. Their villains were not made to be villains that would have any place in the war so that the efforts of the soldiers in the war would not be diminished, and even when they did participate in the war it was in ways that did not directly affect the war effort itself. The heroes could not use their powers to end the war themselves, and so the authors had to find some way to make sure that they could not, and that way was to simply make other threats that were bigger or more immediately dangerous such as Dr. Bruzzack’s robotic dinosaurs, or that were closer to home, such as The Devil or the Saboteur, both being in Canada, and both being immediately dangerous for the people on the home front.

Bibliography:

Bainbridge, Jason. “’The Call to do Justice’: Superheroes, Sovereigns and the State During Wartime.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law vol. 28, no. 4, May 2015, pp. 745-763. Springer Link, DOI: 10.1007/s11196-015-9424-y

 

Beaty, Bart. “Superhero Comics.” Fueling Culture: 101 Words for Energy and Environment, edited by Imre Szeman et al., Fordham University, NEW YORK, 2017, pp. 333–337, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1hfr0s3.93.

 

Beaty, Bart. “The Fighting Civil Servant: Making Sense of the Canadian Superhero.” Amerrican Reviews of Canadian Studies vol. 36, no. 3, October 2006, pp. 427-439. Scholars Portal Journals, DOI: 10.1080/02722010609481401

 

Edwardson, Ryan. “The Many Lives of Captain Canuck: Nationalism, Culture, and the Creation of a Canadian Comic Book Superhero.” Journal of Popular Culture vol. 37, no. 2, November 2003, pp. 184-201. Scholars Portal Journals, DOI: 10.1111/1540-5931.00063

 

Fennell, Jack. “The Aesthetics of Supervillainy.” Law Text Culture vol. 16, no. 1, January 2012, pp. 305-328. Hein Online, http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/13

 

Legault, E.T. (w) and M. Karn (a). Active Comics, no. 2, March, 1942, pp. 1-15. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166503.pdf

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.

Social Redemption and Elevation during World War II in WOW Comics Issue #4.

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, Wow, WOW Comics, , , ,

© 2017 Hallett-Hale, Thomas,  Ryerson University

 

Introduction

The Second World War was an event that sparked tremendous social upheaval in the western world, and entire societies were bent on achieving military victory. Such a focus on military service came to elevate it to the top of the social ladder. Soldiers in the service were praised for their bravery, sacrifice, and loyalty; being a part of the military effort during World War Two represented serious social elevation for all, making heroes of ordinary citizens. The status military service offered freely, regardless of ethnicity, represented for minorities and marginalized groups social redemption. Social Redemption here means an elevation of social status for groups who endured repression and discrimination in peacetime society. Media such as Issue #4 of WOW Comics offer a fascinating window into how wide audiences were fed this idea of wartime heroism. The characters of Lorraine and Elaine in WOW Issue #4, as well as women on the wartime homefront, are all excellent examples of how combat heroism and redemption was extended to a priorly marginalized group.

 

Figure 1. E.T. Legault. Panel from “Whiz Wallace.” WOW Comics, No. 4, January 1942, p. 42. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

 

Heroic Redemption for Female Characters

The largest marginalized group who found opportunity and redemption in the Second World War were Canadian women. Opportunities for work at factories, in the Royal Air Force, and in the Army brought women into the limelight. In contrast, the female lead of “Whiz Wallace” is treated with a spectacular lack of respect, and thus tackles social redemption more directly. Her name is Elaine, and in Issue #4 she becomes deeply distressed that other women are fawning over her dearest- the protagonist Whiz. She becomes overcome with despair in her rooms, despair that’s narrated with stark disrespect.“Lying across her bed, Elaine Kenyon, like a foolish child crying for no reason at all, sobs her heart out” (Legault, 36). These words make clear the esteem that the reader is intended to hold Elaine in. On the counter side, our protagonist is portrayed as an earnest hero being snubbed; “Wearied of trying to get an audience with his sweetheart, Whiz goes back to the gathering honouring him, to apologize for Elaine’s action”(Legault, 36). Later, as a seeming punishment for her behaviour, Elaine’s request to join in a combat expedition is rebuffed – and she is left behind. This immense collection of “flaws” that the writer amasses against her only serves to highlight her redemption, as she stows away and fights with the men. Elaine manages to save the life of her companion, despite her perceived weakness. After taking the initiative, Whiz goes from demeaning her to; “Good girl Elaine, I don’t know how you happened to be here, but you’re mighty welcome!” (Legault, 43). This stands as the perfect example of redemption through military action, even from a group so marginalized as to be scorned and left behind for petty misbehaviours. Elaine therefore serves as a figure who, by taking action to aid the military cause of her friends, becomes a heroic figure in her own right; one whose prior misdeeds are erased by bravery.

 

A New Kind of Wartime Character

A reflection of women’s new status is found in my WOW issue, in the character of Loraine. She inhabits the story of “Dart Daring,” as the love interest to the titular protagonist. My issue opens to her brave rescue of Dart from a tribe of angry natives, in which she scales a sheer cliff by herself, sneaks by a hostile camp, and unties our indisposed hero. This is a far greater display of agency than other female characters throughout wartime comics; who often find themselves the victim of unfortunate circumstances rather than the solution. The writer does, however, portray her exploits in language far less heroic than applied to Dart. “Her heart misses a beat,” “Loraine, fear gripping her heart…” (Legault, 5). Her fear is emphasized, and she does not exhibit the cool courage of her male counterpart. And yet, the fact remains that Loraine indisputably clambers up a towering cliff, and braves a camp full of enemies to untie her friend. These feats far exceed being tied to various objects to be used as bait- a fate that inordinately befalls other female characters in many wartime comics. In a time where love interests were often portrayed as kidnapped, threatened, or helpless to create tension, Lorraine’s agency is a heroic new tone. That a heroine could perform heroic deeds in a similar league as a male character is a new brand of story, a portrayal of new, redeemed women, capable of playing stronger roles in w society.

 

Homefront Heroines

Beyond the world of comic books, the concept of women engaged in the war effort blossomed into the idea of wartime Heroines. These women stepped up to aid the war effort, and were acclaimed for doing so. The acclaim was built into the image of women as selfless, patriotic individuals who stepped up to aid their country in its time of need. The wartime service changed the concepts of men and women’s work; instead lauding women for accepting jobs that they could only dream of a decade before. “The war effort and patriotism are presented as the artimcentral motivators for women’s work and the progressive national narrative is strongly endorsed” (Wakewich & Smith, 59), meaning that women’s jobs had become emblematic of patriotic service. The social redemption lay in this recasting of working women as noble heroines aiding their country, simply because the jobs they took were supporting the military effort. This massive shift in thought was so powerful that, even after the war, official wartime record favours the stories of exceptional heroines rather than the everyday exploits of ordinary wartime women (Wakewich & Smith, 59). Thus, the wartime saw women rising from the marginalized social dynamic of women in the 1930s, to be given both greater access to jobs and greater social standing. This social redemption was the prime example of the power the war effort had to elevate and even glamourize marginalized groups.

Figure 2, 1947 painting.”Parachute Riggers,” Paraskeva Clark. Canadian War Museum, http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/artwar/artworks/19710261-5679_parachute-riggers_e.shtml

 

The Unredeemed First Nations in Issue #4

However, the forth issue of WOW comics is not entirely generous with this idea of redemption. While women benefit from redemption in combat, the same cannot be said for the Native Americans depicted in the story of “Dart Daring.” These faceless foes are heaped with cultural stereotypes, but with none of the redemption experienced by Elaine. They are termed both as “Howling Redskins,” (20) and “A pack of blood thirsty savages,” (19). Both of these terms are meant to demean and demonize the Natives- a common practice for wartime comics that wished to display their enemies as inferior. Despite Natives being Canadian minority, the writer pulled no punches, as seen when Lorraine is told; “If your friend is wise, he will easily outsmart those varmints! They’ve been drinkin’ the fire-water given to them by some unknown renegade, and they’re on the rampage!” (17). What makes this stereotyping relevant is that Native Canadians, like women, were a minority whom where actively engaged in the war effort on the Allied side. In theory, the principle of redemption that applied to women should have aided them, however this was not the case. Native Americans were welcomed into the Armed Forces, distinguishing themselves there; “[Charles Byce] won the Military Medal in the Netherlands and the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the Rhineland Campaign. His citation for the latter was impressive: “His gallant stand, without adequate weapons and with a bare handful of men against hopeless odds will remain, for all time, an outstanding example to all ranks of the Regiment”(“Indigenous People”). Native American men were accepted and honoured for their service, same as any others. Furthermore, many in the Native community found social “redemption” of their own, a chance to be validated as true Canadians the same as anyone else; “We’re proud of the word volunteer. Nobody forced us. We were good Canadians—patriots—we fought for our country.” – Syd Moore” (“Indigenous People”). Thus, the failure of Issue #4 to portray the heroism that the Natives earned overseas appears to be the inherent preference of Comic writers to stereotype and simplify their villains for children to grasp easily. When contrasted to the respect that real First Nations individuals won through wartime service, the cruel portrayal in Issue #4 does not refute the theory of social redemption.

Japanese Canadians in the Military

A strong example of this idea of redemption through military service lies outside my comic, in the stories of the Japanese Canadians during World War Two. Japanese Canadians, unlike the prior two marginalized groups, belonged to a minority whose former country was actively opposed to Canada and the Allied cause. This caused deep suspicion to fall on an already maligned group. The majority of Japanese Canadians lived on the coast of British Columbia, where they were viewed with deep suspicion and distrust by English Canadians. Eventually, through a mixture of distrust, racism, and a desire to eliminate fishing competition, the Japanese Canadians were relocated all over the country, a great many ending up in internment camps (Sugiman). This kind of widespread social distrust perpetuated appalling conditions that this group were forced to suffer, their homes, possessions, and lives stripped from them. The awful conditions makes the “social redemption” that many young Japanese-Canadian men experienced by joining the Armed Services even more marked, perhaps more so than that attained by Natives and women. These men did not hesitate to join the Forces, since “For [Japanese Canadian] men, a symbolic demonstration of both loyalty to the nation and confirmation of manhood was enlistment in the armed forces” (Sugiman, 195). This show of loyalty was rewarded largely by an escape from internment camps, and a form of social approval. A young Japanese Canadian at the time, by the name of Akio, detailed in an interview the results of joining the Forces; “In almost every reference to his decision to join the army, Akio introduced two related themes: his father’s support of this decision, and his belonging in Canada as opposed to Japan” (Sugiman, 196). It seemed that joining the forces switched the social standing of Japanese Canadians from that of possible enemy agents to loyal, patriotic Canadians. This change is a drastic example of how the redemption process not only exists, but how powerful it was during the war time years. Akio goes on to detail how his military status served as a protection against the racism and discrimination of every day life; “In almost every memory story, Akio juxtaposed the harshness of such discriminatory acts with the loyalty and support of Hakujin [White Canadian] men in the army. Akio believes that his military status in some ways shielded him from the impact of the racism that Japanese Canadians encountered in daily life” (Sugiman, 207). Even the depths of suspicion that an entire ethnic group had fallen to could be redeemed by service in the military, and all that it represented- the patriotism and dedication to one’s country that endowed a social standing all of it’s own, above the stereotypes and judgements of ordinary society.

Conclusion

To conclude, the characters within my issue- Loraine and Elaine- provide an abstract portrait of how the wider society of World War II was taught that military and combat engagement meant social elevation, and in some cases, redemption. The Native Americans, portrayal adds more nuance to the idea, contesting the reality of this social redemption with what the widespread, propaganda-like media spread. What the oral and archival evidence shows is that the social elevation of military service was profound to many minorities and marginalized groups, despite the castigation the Natives receive in my issue. In the end, the drive to win World War II was great enough to defy even the cast iron social standards of pre-wartime society.

 

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Works Cited

Brcak, N. and Pavia, J. R. (1994), “Racism in Japanese and U.S. Wartime Propaganda.” Historian, 56. 671–684. Retrieved from doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1994.tb00926.x

Walker W. St. G. James. “Race and Recruitment in World War I: Enlistment of Visible Minorities In the Canadian Expeditionary Force.” Canadian Historical Review 1989 vol. 70, 1-26. Retrieved from http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/CHR-070-01-01

Wakewich, Pamela, and Helen Smith. “The Politics of ‘Selective’ Memory: Re-Visioning Canadian Women’s Wartime Work in the Public Record.” Oral History, vol. 34(2), 2006, pp. 56-68. Retrieved from www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/stable/pdf/40179897.pdf

Sugiman, Pamela. ‘“Life Is Sweet”: Vulnerability and Composure in the Wartime Narratives of Japanese Canadians’. Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes 43(1) (2009): 186–218. Print. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/367058

Dittmer, Jason, and Soren Larsen. “Aboriginality and the Arctic North in Canadian Nationalist Superhero Comics, 1940-2004.” Historical Geography, vol. 38(1), 2010, pp. 52-69. Retrieved from ejournals.unm.edu/index.php/historicalgeography/article/view/2864/2342

Legault , E T. “WOW Comics.” WOW Comics [Toronto, ON], vol. 1, Commercial Signs of Canada, 1942. No. 4, pp. 1–42.

Clark, Paraskeva. “Parachute Riggers.” Exhibition Theme – Work. Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, 1947. Canadian War Museum, http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/artwar/artworks/19710261-5679_parachute-riggers_e.shtml

“Indigenous People in the Second World War.” Veterans Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, 29 Nov. 2016, www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/aborigin. Accessed 23 Mar. 2017.

Anti-Japanese and Germanphobic Sentiments: Perpetuating Fear and Loathing of the Enemy in Commando Comics, Issue No.15

2017 Canadian Whites, Commando, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Hallifax, Michaela, Ryerson University

 

INTRODUCTION & RISE OF THE CANADIAN COMIC

Upon first glance, the 15th edition of Commando Comics published in January of 1945 may seem like an innocent comic meant to entertain and delight Canadians during a tumultuous time during World War II. However, after further examining its propagandistic subtleties scattered throughout this issue, it becomes clear that these comics were not simply blatantly racist and nationalistic but were a result of and contributor to the anti Japanese and German-phobic ideals that were being perpetuated throughout the allied nations during WWII. By portraying certain depictions of the enemy meant to represent an entire country of people, the 15th issue of the Commando Comics helped feed into this notion that all of the Japanese and all of the German people were inherently evil and inferior, whether they were directly involved with the war or not, ultimately giving rise to racist sentiments throughout the allied nations.

It was in the early 1930’s that the comic book industry really started to gain ground as a mainstream source of media and entertainment. With the release of Action Comics No.1, which featured the now iconic hero Superman co-created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the popularity of comic books continued to rise, subsequently inspiring others to contribute their own costumed characters to the growing industry (Bell). In 1939, despite the outbreak of war overseas, the comic book industry continued to rise in popularity and began to spread throughout Canada. However in December of 1940, faced with a country that was experiencing the demands of a war economy and a growing trade deficit with the United States, the King government passed the War Exchange Conservation Act, effectively putting a stop to nonessential goods being imported into Canada, including comic books (Bell). Taking advantage of these war time restrictions, multiple Canadian publishers began to distribute their own comic books featuring uniquely Canadian superheroes; one publisher being Bell Features who was publishing more than 100 000 comics per week, including Commando Comics (Bell).

 

 

NATIONALISM & PROPAGANDISTIC DEPICTIONS

Throughout war, one of the driving forces on any home-front has always been to instill and call upon nationalism throughout that specific nation; to gather support, to help with enlisting, and to raise moral throughout a country during an extremely difficult time. It was no different in Canada during World War II. The Canadian Whites collection were simply a more disguised form of propaganda meant to rally nationalistic sentiments throughout the country, as are most Superhero comic books. Although comic books simply seem like an appealing children’s story that are based on childhood superhero fantasies, they are usually a more complex, nationalist allegory (Heet). The Superheroes that Bell Features were publishing were nationalist ones who really spoke to Canadian’s pride and belief that they were essential in defeating Hitler and the Nazis. Johnny Canuck for example, who appeared in several Bell Features comics, continuously fought and overcame Nazi oppression and was crucial in the destruction of Hitler’s war material factories, all the while being praised by Winston Churchill who was in awe over what this Canadian hero was achieving (Heet). This nationalistic depiction can be seen throughout the 15th edition of the Commando Comics as well, in the way that the Canadian heroes are drawn and displayed.  In The Young Commandos, written and illustrated by Jerry Lazare, the young heroes are drawn as very handsome, tough, muscular men, embodying the most positive physical characteristics that Canada would want to see in their heroes (10-15). These characteristics used to positively depict Canadians can be seen in other stories throughout this edition; including Chick Tucker, written and illustrated by Alfred Zusi, Ace Bradley, written and illustrated by Harry Thomson, and Clift Steele and the Mystery of Magon, Part 2, written and illustrated by Adrian Dingle. These depictions of the Canadian heroes illicit a sense of nationalism within Canadians, for they are handsome, tough and embody everything Canadians want to see in both their heroes and within themselves.

In stark contrast to the way in which the Canadian heroes were depicted in the Commando Comics, the vilified nations of Japan and Germany were made to look like unintelligent and crude barbarians who were much inferior to the Canadians who always thwarted them. In one of the Bell Features comics, Hitler is portrayed as illiterate fool, speaking in a bad mix of English and German to the people of Germany; “Peoples of der Reichtag, ve haff been informed through der Gestapo that John Canuck is now in der country … he must be found! I vill giff 10,000 marks for him…dead or alive!!” (Heet).  This portrays the Germans as illiterate and intellectually inferior to Canadians and the allied nations. Furthermore, in the 15th issue of Commando Comics, in the story Clift Steele and the Mystery of Magon , the Japanese hiss when they pronounce their ‘s’’s, as shown in the image below (Dingle 6).

Dingle, Adrian. Panel from “The Young Commandos.” Commando comics. No. 15, January 1945, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 13. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Likewise in The Invisible Commando, they cannot form full sentences (Bachle 35). This further perpetuates the idea that the German and Japanese are not only evil, dangerous enemies, but that they are illiterate making them intellectually inferior to the Allies. These crude depictions of the Japanese and Germans seen throughout the 15th edition of Commando Comics not only portray them as unintelligent illiterates, but they also portray the people of those nations as scary, ugly men. In The Young Commandos, Jerry Lazare draws the villain Kato Aomori as a thick headed, buck toothed man who is losing his hair in patches (12). In Clift Steele and the Mystery of Magon, the Japanese villains are depicted as larger men, with hunched over almost buffoonish stances, with bucked teeth and thick necks (Dingle 4-5). These portrayals emphasize the widespread notion during WWII that the Japanese were not only inferior to the Allies in warfare and intellectual standing, but also in physical appearance. This comic book helped perpetuate the propagandistic notion that the Allied nation’s enemy was inferior to them in every way.

 

 

“YELLOW PERIL”; FEAR & DETAINMENT OF JAPANESE- CANADIANS

These notions of Japanese inferiority that the Canadian Whites –including Commando Comics– perpetuated helped give rise to anti Japanese sentiment that was beginning to fester in Canada during the latter half of World War II. In British Columbia the racist colour metaphor know as “Yellow Peril” began to rise, and in 1942 the Canadian government started to detain and dispose of any people of Japanese descent living there. Racism towards the Japanese in Canada was not unheard of before their detainment; laws in British Columbia had previously prevented Japanese peoples from working in mines, from voting and excluded any whom the people of British Columbia declared to be an ‘undesirable’ from being involved with any project funded by the province (Marsh). On December 7th 1941, following attacks on Pearl Harbor and bombings in Hong Kong where Canadian troops were stationed, fears of the Japanese and a possible invasion became heightened throughout Canada, giving rise to their distrust of the Japanese. Japanese schools and newspapers were subsequently shut down, and 1,200 Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded by the Royal Canadian Navy (Marsh).

The racist sentiments held towards the Japanese people were in full effect after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, and propaganda such as the Commando Comics only furthered the Canadians’ belief that the Japanese were crude monsters who deserved to be feared and detained. Because of these fears, on February 24th 1942, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie issued an order to remove “any and all persons” in the country; although those orders were ambiguous enough to allow the detention of any person, the specific target of the issue was the Japanese Canadians, specifically along the West Coast (Marsh). The British Columbia Security Commission was soon established with the purpose of carrying out Japanese internment, and on March 16th the first Japanese Canadians were taken by special trains that brought them to Hastings Park, where eventually more than 8,000 detainees would pass through (Marsh).

The anti-Japanese racism was not solely confined to British Columbia, but was spread throughout Canada during WWII. By the end of WWII, over 90 % of Japanese Canadians had been uprooted and displaced and sent to internment camps such as the one seen in the image below. By the end of the war over 21 000 people, most of whom were Canadian citizens by birth, had been interned (Marsh). By the end of the war, Prime Minister King did not show any remorse for the way he and his government had been treating the Japanese Canadians, instead giving them an ultimatum; to move to Japan or to spread to the provinces east of the Rocky Mountains (Marsh).

“Japanese Interment Camp in British Columbia.” Photograph. Wikimedia Commons, 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

Ideas that are espoused in Commando Comics issue 15, helped give rise and distribute these extreme anti- Japanese sentiments throughout Canada during WWII. By maintaining that the Japanese were barbaric monsters who were inferior to the Canadians and the Allied Nations in every way, Canadian citizens began to see Japanese Canadians as the crude monsters they were depicted as. Major-General Kenneth Stuart, who served Canada in both World War I and II, wrote that “from the army point of view, I cannot see that Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security” (Marsh). Despite those who advocated for the Japanese-Canadians and against the treatment they were receiving from the Canadian government during WWII, Escott Reid who was a Canadian diplomat during the war, said that Canadian politicians due to their rage towards and fear of the Japanese, spoke about them in the way that the Nazis spoke about the Jewish people of Germany. Reid stated, “When they spoke I felt… the physical presence of evil” (Marsh). There was already an anti-Japanese sentiment on the rise throughout Canada during the onset of WWII, and propaganda such as Commando Comics issue 15 only furthered this racist, biased position by distributing crudely drawn and illiterate representations of the Japanese people.

 

 

RESURGENCE OF GERMAN-PHOBIC IDEALS THROUGHOUT CANADA

Issue no. 15 of Commando Comics not only depicts Japanese people as inferior, but it also portrays the Germans as evil,  uneducated villains as well. In Loop The Droop written and illustrated by Harry Brunt, Hitler is depicted as a bumbling buffoon, who scares easily and spends his days in fear of the United Nations. At one point he is waiting around in Berchtesgaden, speaking in a mangled mixture of German and English; “I vunder vot der United Nations haff up dere sleeves now? (sigh)… Diss zuzbenz iz driving me grazy- my nerves iss all on edge!” (Brunt 55-56). This depiction of Germany’s leader, speaking English whilst alone with a poor German accent, perpetuates the notion that Germans are foolish and cannot speak properly making them intellectually inferior to Canadians. Propaganda such as this contributed to German-phobic sentiments during WWII because Canadians were being shown not to fear the Germans, for they were simply scaredy-cats and bumbling idiots.

Anti-German sentiments such as this were present before WWII, and were widespread throughout Canada. In World War I for example, an extreme backlash against the Germans and all things German became prominent within Canada. Public schools removed any German curricula from their schools; orchestras refused to play German compositions; and in Winnipeg residents went as far as to change the name ‘hamburger’ to nip so that any association with Germany and the enemy language was eradicated (Anti-German Sentiment). Furthermore, a small town named Berlin in Ontario that was home to many German Canadian citizens became the focus of unease after avid patriots removed a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I from the centre of the town. In the hopes of eliciting nationalistic feelings the town committee changed its name to Kitchener in 1916 (Anti-German Sentiment).

These fears and concerns were being perpetuated through the use of anti-German propaganda. From the beginning of WWI most Canadians demonized the enemy, believing stories from overseas of supposed German war-crimes and accepting without question fabricated German atrocities. The war propaganda being perpetuated throughout Canada convinced Canadians of the Germans’ barbarity and reinforced stereotypes that intentionally obscured the line between fact and fiction (Anti-German Sentiment). This propaganda soon referred to German Kultur as “a damning insult, a predisposition for war, cruelty, and destructiveness” (Anti-German Sentiment). This stamp on German culture placed the Germans outside of a community of civilized nations, depicting them as barbaric and inferior. While Commando Comics issue no. 15 may not reach this level of severity towards the Germans, it still helped perpetuate notions that the Germans were not only inherently evil villains, but also intellectually inferior and therefore easy to defeat in battle.

Despite the work of ‘revisionist’ scholars who labored tirelessly to reconstruct the way Germany was seen by the Western World post WWI, there was a permanent Germanphobic view that resided deep in the minds of the Westerners (Connors). During WWII these deep-set views were called upon and exploited by writers who espoused Germanphobic literature and propaganda that was worse than that of WWI (Connors). Propaganda such as Commando Comics.  Anti-German –which is distinct from anti-Nazi– views were given wide publicity by anti-German newspapers and were espoused with such enthusiasm that it was hard to not believe that all of the Germans were solely responsible for WWII (Connors).  Even a distinguished professor and writer from Australia who was known for being impartial wrote:

“The Germans are a politically retarded race. They are still in the “myth” stage of development … The Germans have never wanted democracy; they crave for authority, and respect the strong arm. They do not want individual freedom … The average German would much rather salute a uniform than have a vote … The German is designed by history and nature to provide mass material for dictatorship.” (Connors)

Harsh, unrelenting propaganda such as this, caused Canadians and other Allied nations to look down upon the Germans and regard them as inferior; intellectually, politically and in every other sense of the word. Anti-German propaganda became widespread throughout not only Canada, but in Britain, Australia and the United states as well, reaching extreme proportions (Connors). In the 15th issue of Commando Comics, depicting  the Germans as buffoonish clowns who are afraid of their own shadows and who cannot form proper sentences, only further perpetuated these Germanphobic sentiments within Canada. This ultimately  caused Canada to not simply fear the Germans, but to mock and loath an entire supposed, barbaric nation.

 

IN CONCLUSION

The 15th edition of Commando Comics’ underlying propagandistic tones, perpetuated anti-Japanese and Germanphobic sentiments throughout Canada during WWII. Comic books, meant to delight and entertain are almost always nationalist allegories, and Commando  Comics no.15  is no exception. With heroic, handsome depictions of Canadian heroes thwarting crude and barbaric portrayals of the enemy, Canadians began to believe that they were not only instrumental in defeating the Nazis and the Japanese, but that they were far more superior than their enemies.  By portraying an entire nation as intellectually and physically inferior, Commando Comics issue no.15 helped contribute and give rise to racist sentiments that became prominent within Canada during World War II.

 

 

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WORKS CITED

“Anti-German Sentiment.” Enemy Aliens: Anti-German Sentiment, Canada and the First World War, Canadian War Museum. http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/enemy-

 

Bachle, Leo (w, a). “The Invisible Commando.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 30-35. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

Bell, John. “Comic Books in English Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 Feb. 2006, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/comic-books-in-english-canada/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.

 

Brunt, Harry (w, a). “Loop the Droop.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 55-56. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

Connors, Michael F. “Dealing in Hate: The Development of Anti-German Propaganda.” Institute for Historical Review. http://ihr.org/books/connors/dealinginhate.shtml#pgfId-540

 

Dingle, Adrian (w, a). “Clift Steele and the Mystery of Magon Pt. 2.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 1-7. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

Heet, Jeer. “POW! BLAM! ZOWIE! Eh?” Literary Review of Canada, vol. 75, no.5, June 2007. http://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2007/06/pow-blam-zowie-eh/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2017.

 

Lazare, Jerry (w, a). “The Young Commandos.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 10-15. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

 Marsh, James H. “Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 23 Feb. 2012,  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/japanese-internment-banished-and-beyond-tears-feature/.  Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.

 

Thomson, Harry (w, a). “Ace Bradley.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 43-49. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

Zusi, Alfred (w, a). “Chick Tucker.” Commando Comics, no. 15, January, 1945, pp. 37-42. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

 

 

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.

 

Soldiers, Comics, and World War Two

2017 Canadian Whites, Commando, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, ,

© Copyright 2017 Brittany Diamond, Ryerson University

Background Information

Commando Comics is a comic series printed from 1942-1946 with a dominant war theme shown throughout most, if not all, of the stories. Commando Comics were the final of the Bell Features’ comic series. These comics are part of a collection called the Canadian Whites produced by Bell Features, a comic publishing company (Kocmarek 155). The front and back covers are produced in colour while the rest of the book is all in black and white. These comics were sold for $0.10 at the time they were printed, but today are worth significantly more than that due to how difficult they are to find in readable condition.

In November 1944, volume 14 was printed and it is no exception to the war theme. There are 12 different black and white stories within the 48 pages all based around the war. Different individuals write a majority of the stories, and all contain different plots that always relate back to war.

Contextualizing The Comic in Daily Life

The Commando Comics were written during World War Two, this could explain the reason the comics were completely war-themed (Kocmarek 155). Adolescents and pre-adolescents of the time read these comics. The readers would have learned about the war through the different stories (Kocmarek 156). Although they were fictional, they still provided an insight to what it would have been like for the Canadian soldiers fighting against the enemies (Kocmarek 156). The comics were seen as the only source of information about war for the young age group because the newspapers were for an older audience, and television was no accessible as it is for the youth of today (Kocmarek 156-157).

The stories and characters would have been seen as very interesting to the youth because the war took place in a foreign place and contained storylines of violence and sabotage (Kocmarek 157). However, it could have provided the youth with hope because the Canadians in the stories were always successful in their missions. This could have caused the youth to have stronger beliefs in what the Canadian soldiers despite the stories being fictitious. The Commando Comics were an important source of information for the younger generations during the time of war, because the medium they were presented in was easily accessible and easily understood (Kocmarek 156). These comics became the primary source of information about Canadian soldiers and the war for the youth.

World War Two Background Information

World War Two lasted from 1939 to 1945. The Second World War was an entirely new battlefield for many Canadian soldiers. It was different climate and terrain than what most of them had ever experienced (Sumner 53). The Canadians along with the British and Americans were a part of the Allies, which is the side that ended up winning the war. The Allies were battling against the Axis, which was the side of the Germans, and the Japanese. This war used many different types of battle including surface ships and U-boats, and air warfare (Sumner 54, 57). The armies, navies, and air forces were the three different types of soldiers found on each side in the war (Sumner 57). The civilian and military intelligence organizations had to work hard to ensure that they could fulfill the needs of these three groups. It was very important for the military to know how to position their soldiers in order to win the war (Sumner 62). In the end, the Allies planning and decisions seem to have been effective because they are the ones who won World War Two.

Can Comics Train Soldiers?

In October of 1940, there was a newspaper article released in the Toronto Telegram called “Ottawa’s “Comic Capers” and Compulsory Service” about how comics were briefly used as way of training soldiers. The idea behind this was that the comics would have glorified the war instead of showing the harsh and brutal conditions the soldiers would be facing. This was supposed to appeal to young Canadians before beginning their 30 grueling days of preparing to defend Canada (Ottawa’s “Comic Capers”). However, this idea was not well received. It was seen as childish and offensive to recruits who were more intelligent and did not fit into the young Canadian demographic (Ottawa’s “Comic Capers”). However, it was soon decided that comics should be used as a form of entertainment where soldiers can be featured rather than a form of training for the soldiers who are going to go to war.

Soldiers in the Commando Comics

Every story is related to war whether it is soldiers fighting the Japanese, soldiers fighting the Germans, or a proposed idea for war success. There is always war, and with war comes soldiers. The Canadian soldiers portrayed in Commando Comics are always the stronger and smarter ones, and this always leads them to victory. Although, different artists draw the soldiers they have a lot of similarities.

The soldiers are all very masculine, young men in their mid-twenties who are well groomed, and basically the ideal soldier (Cord 50). The soldiers are always capable of getting themselves out of whatever trouble they are in, even when it seems impossible. The soldiers are drawn and presented in a way that positions them as smarter than the enemy and able to defeat them.

Leo Bachle. Panel from “Invisible Commando.” Commando Comics, No. 14, November 1944, p. 26. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

The image shown is from the opening image of “Invisible Commando” by Leo Bachle. Without explanation, or relevance to the rest of the storyline, the soldier is pictured shirtless. He is not only shirtless, but his muscles are well defined and he can be perceived as almost “Hulk-like”. He is extremely well groomed for someone who is at war with his helmet falling off his head revealing almost perfectly styled hair. He is holding a very large gun and aiming it out of the frame presumptively at an enemy. He looks like an ideal solider, and almost all the other soldiers are drawn with similar characteristics (most are wearing shirts, though).

The Real Soldiers of World War Two

Canadian soldiers in World War Two looked much different than the soldiers presented in the comic books. Advertisements for the army included a man who looked to be about 25 years old dressed in full uniform (Hayes and Goodlet 46). This man has on shined boots along with spurs and jodhpurs, a tailed jacket with a belt over his right shoulder complete with a tightly knotted tie (Hayes and Goodlet 45). This is supposed to be what the ideal and most masculine soldier was to look like. The Canadian soldier was encouraged to always wear a proper uniform (Hayes and Goodlet 59). Realistically he wore what he could in order to survive the harsh conditions. A shirtless existence would not suffice.

Masculinity is something that was almost enforced in the Canadian army during World War Two. The soldiers were meant to be as tough and “manly” as they possibly could be in order to be the best soldiers that they could be.

The soldiers in the Canadian army were typically around mid-twenties, making them more likely to be young and carefree. They were carefree because when they enlisted, many had no dependents (Grace 341). The more experienced soldiers had three or four years of service, but lack experience in civilian life. A lot of the soldiers did not have a lot of education due to other priorities in their lives furthered by the fact that they were unable to access education or the poverty in some areas (Grace 341). The soldiers were not very connected with the current events of that time as they had little access to newspapers. The men were instead taught about different part of Canada, which provided them with more information about their country and places in it that they had not been to (Grace 342). This kept them busy while educating them about their homeland.

A Canadian paratrooper of the 1st Parachute Battalion. These 600 men were the first Canadians to land in France on the night of June 5-6. 84 were killed. Canada Alive! Juno Beach, 5 June 2014. Photo. https://canadaalive.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/juno-beach/.

The image shown depicts a Canadian soldier holding a large gun. He is said to be a Canadian paratrooper of the 1st Parachute Battalion, one of the first Canadians to land in France (Canada Alive!). He is wearing a full uniform, with a helmet on his head, and is not well groomed. Compared to the soldier presented in the Commando Comics, he looks prepared for war.

Fictional Soldiers

Many popular superheroes today came from American comic books, such as “Batman”, “Superman”, and the “Green Lantern” (Cord 28). However, these were not the only hero type seen in comics. Soldiers were viewed as heroes in many comic books, including American ones. Many of the American comics, similar to the Canadian ones had the main characters (soldiers) fighting and winning against various countries that were a part of the Axis. The comic soldiers lived easy lives where every situation had a doable solution despite the fact they were supposed to be living in a warzone.

The comics allowed everyone to feel as though they were a part of war through the stories being told. The comics were seen as truth, allowing children to identify different aspects of the war such as the weapons, uniforms, and language (Cord 48). The men were drawn as what one might the ideal soldier to look like complete with “handsome chiselled features, broad shoulders, and a superior knowledge of science and technology” (Cord 50). This is a very specific way that the soldiers were drawn, and is applicable to the Canadian comic soldiers as well.

Comic Soldiers versus Canadian Soldiers

The main difference between the comic soldiers and real soldiers seems to be the way that they look physically. Comic soldiers are always very muscular, well groomed, and not always dressed in the most war appropriate clothing (Cord 50). The Canadian soldiers do not have to be muscular, but they must be well trained. They are not as well groomed because it is real life war and looking the best that they can was definitely not a priority. They were dressed in ways that someone who is fighting a war should be. They tended to have the appropriate gear and weapons that they would need to survive as long as possible.

A similarity between the two types of soldiers is how they were perceived as masculine and manly. This was something that was highlighted not only in the comics, but also through many different types of media concerning Canadian soldiers. Soldiers seem to have been described simultaneous as soldiers and masculine (Shaw 24). No soldiers were described as weak or scrawny despite the unavoidable fact there were definitely some who were not as masculine as others. Masculinity seems to have been not only important to the comic soldiers, but also very important to the real Canadian soldiers.

Conclusion

The Commando Comics portray soldiers in a very specific way, even though all are drawn differently. The main idea of the soldier stays the same. They are muscular, handsome, smart, young men. They are the ideal people who one would have wanted to be protecting their country. The soldiers are usually holding weapons and come with an infallible plan about how to defeat the enemy. They are wearing significantly less gear and protection than they should be during war, but that usually does not matter since they do not get injured. The soldiers in the comics can be seen as the perfect soldier.

When the comic soldier is compared to the real Canadian soldier, the differences and similarities are obvious. However, both type of soldier (comic and real) can be seen as heroes in society. The soldiers in the comics always beat the enemy or save someone in distress. Real soldiers are fighting for Canada and freedom. It is important to understand the difference between the two soldiers because one is a reality while the other is not. The comic readers were almost being led to believe that Canadian soldiers were undefeatable, yet in reality they lived in harsh conditions and were fighting for their lives. The comics seem to show the soldiers going through minimal struggles to win, and always having the perfect equipment. World War Two was nothing like this; it was hard work and a lot of it. Although, the comics were aimed at the youth, it would still be beneficial for them to understand how hard the Canadian soldiers were working, and that it was not as easy as it is portrayed in the Commando Comics.

Soldiers are important to the comics and even more important to Canada. Through looking at the comic and real soldiers, they can both be seen to be significant to Canadian society. Without the comic soldiers, the contemporary youth would not have been able to learn about World War Two and how hard it was and how vital soldiers were to it. Without real soldiers, there would be nobody protecting Canada or keeping the peace, as Canadian soldiers are typically known to do. Soldiers show how their role in society is one that needs to be appreciated and understood through everything that they are able to accomplish through their enlistment or through their comic stories.

 

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.

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Works Cited

A Canadian paratrooper of the 1st Parachute Battalion. These 600 men were the first Canadians to land in France on the night of June 5-6. 84 were killed. Canada Alive! Juno Beach, 5 June 2014. Photo. https://canadaalive.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/juno-beach/. Accessed 23 March 2017.

Commando Comics, no. 14, November, 1944, pp. 1-36. Bell Feature Collection, Library and Archives Canada. http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166543.pdf Accessed 23 March 2017.

Grace, John. “The Canadian Soldier and the Study of Current Affairs.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), vol. 20, no. 3, 1944, pp. 341–46. www.jstor.org/stable/3018560. Accessed 23 March 2017.

Hayes, Geoffrey. & Goodlet, Kirk. W. “Exploring Masculinity in the Canadian Army Officer Corps, 1939-45.” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, vol. 48 no. 2, 2014, pp. 40-69. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/553724. Accessed 23 March 2017.

Kocmarek, Ivan. “Truth, Justice, and the Canadian Way: The War-Time Comics of Bell Features Publications.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, vol. 43, no. 1, March 2016, pp. 148–65. Project Muse, https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/article/611725/pdf. Accessed 23 March 2017.

“Ottawa’s “Comic Capers” and Compulsory Service.” Toronto Telegram, 16 Oct. 1940, http://collections.civilisations.ca/warclip/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=5033495. Accessed 23 March 2017.

Scott, Cord A. Comics and conflict: War and patriotically themed comics in American cultural history from World War II through the Iraq War. 2011, p. 45-51.

Shaw, Amy. “Conscientious objection in Manitoba during the First World War.” Manitoba History, no. 82, 2016, pp. 22-27. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=rpu_main&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472267142&it=r&asid=2060d32bf59ca8f8407fbf426a701534. Accessed 23 March 2017.

Sumner, Lori. “Know Your Ground: A Look at Military Geographic Intelligence and Planning in the Second World War.” Canadian Military Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, 2014, pp. 53-63. Accessed 23 March 2017.

WOW Comics No. 6: A Window to Past Culture and Ideologies

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, Wow, , , , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Kristian Saflor, Ryerson University

An Academic Analysis:

Comic books in Canada during the second World War served as forms of entertainment for children. With its use of illustrations, stories, and advertisements, Canadian comics managed to attract children into reading them as it provides them with content that serve entertaining and fun through the eyes of children. However, comics are more than just forms of entertainment, but rather they are historical artifacts. Bell Features’ comic WOW Comics No. 6 contains what would be considered entertaining for children at the time; superheroes, advertisements for toys, contests, and eye-popping illustrations, but examining the content and analyzing the way it resonates with its audience suggests what culture was like at the time the comic was produced.

This exhibit will explore comics as a form of media altogether and emphasize the role of comics as an expression of cultural views and ideologies as opposed to viewing comics simply as forms of entertainment. The research provided throughout this exhibit seeks to correlate culture and entertainment, and how both of these aspects serve to educate contemporary readers of the historical context of when such comics were produced to the public. This exhibit will answer the questions; what does WOW Comics No. 6 provide besides entertainment for contemporary readers? And why is it important to view WOW Comics No. 6 more than just entertainment?

Reputation and Underlying Significance of Comics:

Comics, as compared to literary books, textbooks, and even film, are generally regarded to be inferior forms of entertainment, or simply just disregarded altogether. Mark Berninger states that comics have been largely marginalized by critics and academics (4), thus suggesting that comics have little to no value for academic analysis and examination. This notion altogether indicates that comics, to a vast majority of scholars and critics, are generally looked down upon. It is difficult to determine which specific aspects of comic books hinder scholars and critics to examine the medium as academic research and it is tedious to come to an overall general conclusion. It is important to view comics more than just forms of entertainment. Berninger emphasizes that comics are an extension of ourselves and uniquely suited to describe the human experience (3). With this in mind, examining WOW Comics No. 6 requires one to reflect upon the context of which it was produced and created. To expand on the idea of the human experience and how it relates to comic books, comics are heavily influenced by the culture it stems from, in regards to WOW Comics No. 6, the stories and undoubtedly, the advertisements are strongly influenced by wartime during the 1940s.

A Window to the Past:

Context at the time of a comic’s development and production is crucial for understanding set ideologies and values. Casey Brienza argues that there is an urgent need to study the context of a comic at the time of its production (107). WOW Comics No. 6 presents shocking, and somewhat comical imagery towards the depiction of Adolf Hitler, racist stereotypes, and misogyny. To modern readers, these representations may be deemed appalling and deeply offensive in many ways, but that was not the case for Canadians at the time WOW Comics No. 6  was produced. The offensive depiction at the time was deemed normal and part of culture, it was a different time, and different views were established in Canada during the 1940s. Annessa Ann Babic emphasizes that comic books, much like movies and music, are created to sell, and that they are sold according to consumer demands and preferences (111). Drawing from this notion, WOW Comics No. 6’s content is derived from consumers’ wants and preferences at the time of production, Babic states that the public makes demands on what themes should be presented in comics, and how the pages of a comic book provide a glimpse of the culture of when the comic was produced (111).

With this in mind, analysis of comics requires acknowledgement of culture and ideologies, in this case, the content presented within WOW Comics No. 6 reflects the desires and expectations of the people living in that era. Culture and ideologies within a country changes over time, a comic book produced at a time where war played a huge impact globally gives modern readers a small fragment of what culture was like at the time.

Comics, Wartime, and the Everyday:

The material and content of WOW Comics No. 6 is evidently influenced by wartime as it is clearly represented in sections such as the contest titled “What Would You Do With Hitler and his Gang?”. With the second world war in full effect, WOW Comics No. 6 implemented themes of war and nationalism in both the comic’s stories and advertisements. Looking at comics as a historical artifact, the contents and themes presented within the comic evidently identifies itself with what was going on in Canadian society.

With stories such as “Dart Daring and the Horror in the Hills” by E.T. Legault, and advertisements within the comic such as toy airplane advertisements, the notion of war and wartime playing a huge impact on Canadian society managed to find its way in merchandise and entertainment. WOW Comics No. 6 serves as a window to society at the time of the second world war, or as Frank Bramlett defines it, as the everyday in that the comic portrays notions of war and conflict through its superhero narratives. Bramlett emphasizes the notion of the everyday and the quotidian as presented in comic books through its story and characters. As Bramlett states, comics illustrates the quotidian to a high degree, the representation of the everyday in comics become reflexive to the reader, supporting the everyday through use of characters, dialogue, settings and narratives (247).

The everyday as shown in Dart Daring and Whiz Wallace presents the reader with the story’s heroes in a state of conflict and some sort of call of duty. The concept of the everyday expressed though the characters in the comic links to the everyday life of readers at the time. The stories and narratives presented in both “Dart Daring and the Horror in the Hills” and “Whiz Wallace and Two Worlds at War” evidently reflect the issues people had to deal with during the war. The distinction between the heroes and villains presents a stark contrast between the two groups where the villains are dehumanized and stereotypically labelled as seen in “Dart Daring”.

Comics are not only forms of visual entertainment for children, but it captures worldviews and culture through its presentation of stories, narratives, and characters. The link between war and conflict in “Dart Daring and the Horror in the Hills” and war and conflict in the context of the everyday of the readers during wartime indicate that comics do indeed mirror and reflect culture and ideologies at the time of the comic’s production. Comics encapsulate the everyday of the readers through its depiction of plot development, characters and character visuals. Looking more closely at “Dart Daring and the Horror in the Hills”, the antagonistic group, which appears to be Natives, are identified as “savages” (Legault 6). The name in itself suggests stereotypical views towards their enemies much like propaganda posters presented to the public. The advertisements within WOW Comics No. 6 clearly mirror propaganda posters with its stereotypical, comical and antagonistic view towards Germany, Adolf Hitler, and the Japanese. Bramlett emphasizes that comics rely on the reader’s sense of the everyday; comics incorporate culture’s view of the everyday into its characters, story and narratives (258).

Figure 1. E.T. Legault. Panel from “Dart Daring.” WOW Comics, No. 6, March 1942, p. 6. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

In regards to history, WOW Comics No. 6 mirrors societal views and ideologies and provides contemporary readers a brief understanding of culture and ideologies at the time it was produced. For contemporary readers, WOW Comics No. 6 demonstrates the reality and everyday notions of a country influenced by war. It signifies the way war has affected communication and depiction of people towards its readers, and for us contemporary readers, it signifies a tiny piece of history and the culture and ideology that comes with it.

Propaganda as an Agent of Ideology:

WOW Comics No. 6 contains heavy implications of nationalism, and antagonism towards Canada’s enemies at the time. It presents an abundance of nationalistic views, and propaganda, whether it be presented in a subtle or obvious manner.“Dart Daring and the Horror in the Hills” depicts Daring’s enemies as stereotypical “Indians”, are represented as hostile and villainous, and are referred to as “savage” (Legault 3). Advertisements are of war-related merchandise or purchases such as war saving stamps, and a contest titled, “What Would You Do With Hitler and his Gang?”, which bluntly antagonizes and ridicules Hitler and the Japanese, which they are referred to as “dirty japs” (32). The notion of propaganda presented in WOW Comics No. 6 and how it is presented gives contemporary readers an understanding of how communication was handled during the 1940s in Canada.

Figure 2. “What Would You Do With Hitler And His Gang?” Contest. Panel from WOW Comics, No. 6, March 1942, p. 32-33. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

With propaganda popping up in every page of the comic, it is important to explore the psychology behind propaganda in order to understand why this certain era relied on it to speak to its viewers. Ryan Jenkins discusses the concept of propaganda and who it really benefits. According to Jenkins, propaganda serves beneficial solely for the propagandist rather than the people who view it (1). With communication in mind, examining WOW Comics No. 6 requires exploration of the propagandist, Jenkins claims that the propagandist fill their needs and wants only if it furthers their ideologies (10). Propaganda plays a huge role in Canadian culture at the time, propagandist forced specific outlooks towards Canada’s enemies at the time. The question that comes to mind is, what is the significance of this in regards to comics as an agent of historical context?

Propaganda is meant to forcefully deliver the perspective and ideologies of the propagandist, because WOW Comics No. 6 is littered with propaganda, readers can interpret the perspectives and motivations behind the propaganda presented within the comic; what the propagandist is trying to communicate and what does it say about Canadian culture in the 1940s. For readers, analyzing propaganda within the comic enables us to decipher cultural outlooks on specific groups of people and the notion of war, an example of this is the representation of children’s interaction. Going back to the “What Would You Do with Hitler and his Gang” section, it is extremely difficult to deny that the outlook on Canada’s enemies are represented as overly comical, but perhaps there is a deeper message in regards to how Canadians sought to communicate with their readers. For the most part, Bell Features comics was catered towards children, the activities and stories were meant to be read and engaged with by children at the time.

Because WOW Comics No. 6 was focused on this age group, the inclusion of war related themes and propaganda suggests that Canadian culture during the second world war sought to involve children with wartime efforts in a very blunt manner, which also suggests that Canadian culture at the time made no effort to keep war discreet towards children. The inclusion of propaganda in a comic book further supports the idea that comics are an agent of historical context, as the messages being conveyed give modern readers a sense of how a country communicated to its consumers, in this case, how Canada communicated to children during the war.

WOW Comics and the Truth of Ideology:

Comic books as a whole serve as much more than what it is originally perceived as. To an extent, comic books are miniature history textbooks encapsulating a piece of history held together with paperback covers and printing paper. The comic contains Canadian ideology from the past, and provides, as well as educates readers of what culture was like at the time of the comic’s production. Perhaps most importantly, WOW Comics No. 6 encapsulates needed accuracy of Canadian ideology in the 1940s.

History textbooks and secondary sources speaking of Canadian history and views can potentially be altered to create a false image of Canada; a fragmented outlook on Canada and Canadians during the struggles and influences of war. The essentiality of the comic is that it is clear and unedited. The content is all there and everything is intact in terms of thematic elements and messages given to the reader at the time. With the lack of editing and possible fragmentation of information, WOW Comics No. 6 signifies a piece of history that is accurate of Canadian ideology.

Works Cited

Babic, Annessa Ann. Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainment. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, December 2013, pp. 111-22. ProQuest site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/oculryerson/reader.action?docID=10823569

Bramlett, Frank. “The Role of Culture in Comics of the Quotidian.” Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics. December 2010, pp. 246-59. Schlars Portal Journals, journals1.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/details/21504857/v06i0003/246_trocicotq.xml

Brienza, Casey. “Producing Comics Culture: A Sociological Approach to the Study of Comics.” Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics. December 2010, pp. 105-19. Scholars Portal Journals, journals2.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/details/21504857/v01i0002/105_pccasattsoc.xml

Berninger, Mark. Comics as a Nexus of Cultures. McFarland & Company, Inc. April 2014. ProQuest, ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/ryerson/reader.action?docID=1594826

Legault, E.T. and Henly, J.O. “Thrilling Adventures of Dart Daring Master Swordsman.” WOW Comics, no. 6, March, 1942. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada. data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e447/e011166669.pdf

Jenkins, Ryan. “The Thin Line Between Propaganda and Persuasion.” Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013. December 2013, pp. 1-61. ProQuest, search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1524023363?pq-origsite=summon

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 New Children of 1940’s Comics

ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, Wow, WOW Comics,

This post will focus on the second issue of the WOW Comics, printed in November 1941, part of the Canadian Whites Collection. In this issue three main stories are: Dart Daring and Perils at Sea , The Ring of Death and Whiz Wallace and the Kingdom of Awe. Out of these three two super hero stories that continue into the issues to come. Alongside the main stories there are interactive games and contests. For example, a drawing contest with the winning prize roller blades. This comic issue also holds, insight on the “Science of Wrestling” as well as war flags and fighter planes. On first glance, the comic seems to be a fun escape for children during the war, but the WOW Comics second issue can be seen as an instructional manual for both young boys and girls in the 1940’s.

Introduction of Children in Literature:
In the mid 18th and early 19th century, the Romantic period, the child came fully into its own as the object of increasing social concern and cultural investment; which in turn brought a new genre into writers’ attention, children’s literature. The previous belief was the Puritan belief, that all humans are born sinful as a consequence of mankind’s ‘Fall,’ which led to the notion of childhood to be a perilous period.

Construction of the Child:
From around the middle of the 18th century, many people in Britain began to think about childhood in new ways. Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the architect’s whose work rejects the doctrine of Original Sin and maintains that children are innately innocent, only becoming corrupted through experience of the world in Émile, or On Education (1762).
Following Rousseau’s lead, romantic poets such as William Blake and William Wordsworth, childhood became close to God and a force for good. Both Blake and Wordsworth work with the suggestion that the “child-like state of innocence [is] morally and emotionally superior to the condition of adult experience,” (Benziman, 69). Childhood was now associated with nature, innocence, the unconscious, most instinctual being. In children’s literature, the idealized version of childhood became prominent and remained enormously influential throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. The child like state of innocence is viewed as higher ranking to a condition of adult experience,” (Reynolds). Add to that this child-like state is rather artistically productive.

Perpetual childhood:
However, not everyone saw childhood as a state to be hurried through in order to achieve adulthood. The 19th century saw the development of what is occasionally referred to as the “Cult of Childhood”, with adults delighted to celebrate childhood in texts and images. The connections with the Romantic ideal of childhood are clear, but many writers of the ‘Golden Age’ of children’s literature went further, even expressing a longing themselves to be children once more. But perpetual childhood is impossible, and there is a notable tendency in some of the best-known Victorian fantasies for child characters to die in this world in order to be reborn or to stay children forever elsewhere. The Cult of Childhood persisted into the 20th century, reaching its height in J M Barrie’s Peter Pan (who first appeared in a play of 1904), who famously refused to grow up (Reynolds).

Break in the Romantic Image:
Working-class children were sent to work at an early age with the beginning of the industrial revolution, as it was a common belief that children should contribute to carrying on the industries of their country. This notion was of equal importance as education, urging factory owners to use children to their advantages. For example, using children in coal mines, as they were small enough to fit in the crawl spaces as well as they did not know any better.

Brief Re-account :
On 1 September 1939, German forces invaded Poland, and the Second World War began. Donald Macdonald, then a boy in Winnipeg and later a federal Cabinet minister, remembered huddling around the radio in his grandparents’ living room, listening to the CBC reports of the Nazi invasion. “Even as a seven-year-old I understood that the world had just changed for the worse,” (Canadian Encyclopedia). The six-year-long war brought changes to the world and forever altered Canada. Then a nation of only 11 million people committed more than one million men and women to uniform, (Canada War Museum).

Changes in Children’s Lives:

New Responsibilities:
The adults started to disappear from children’s lives after the war started. Soon male teachers abandoned classrooms for service in the armed forces. “They went from men in civilian dress to uniformed heroes — and sometimes martyrs,” (Canadian Encyclopedia). While fathers and older siblings were away on duty, children were expected to help around the house. Young children were assigned new chores, anything from cooking to cleaning. Mothers entered the workforce in white or blue-collar jobs forcing older siblings to look after the younger ones. Later, young girls, sometimes around the ages of 10 or 12, were employed in positions such as “general housework” or baby sitters. These children were expected to do this as they balanced homework and other duties.
Schools were plastered with posters encouraging students to do their bit. They were taught to avoid careless talk that might aid the enemy and to be on the lookout for spies, specifically Russian. Teachers taught lessons about the war overseas and Canada’s contributions to beating the enemy.

Helping the War Effort
Victory Gardens were encouraged, at school or at home, anywhere a free patch of soil could be found. Children planted seeds and tended to their vegetables. “Every bunch of carrots or canning of jam was portrayed as a blow in battling the Nazis,” (Canadian Encyclopedia).
To further the war efforts recycling was also depicted as essential to the war effort. Paper and metal scraps were gathered in large salvage drives. Canadians were instructed to recycle and reuse. Nothing was to be wasted in the fight.
Babysitting money and allowances went towards purchasing war stamps. The stamps were sold in schools and stores; children purchased each for 25 cents. Sixteen stamps filled up a $4 card, which was sent to the federal government. In return, the child received a War Savings Certificate worth $5, to be cashed in after the war, (Canadian Encyclopedia).

Harsh Realities:Germans, Italians and Japanese
Not all Canadian children were allowed to participate in the war effort. Canadians of German or Italian descent were teased, taunted or assaulted by other children at school and home.The victims sometimes fought back, insisting they were as Canadian as anyone else, but most slunk away to the shadows, not anxious to draw any more attention to their heritage, or firm the stereotypes portrayed in political propaganda.

The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945, and children were among the millions of Canadians who were swept up in the excitement. Most young people took pride in having done their bit, with their service marked by knitting socks, helping in the home or on the farm, having dirty fingernails from gardening, and collecting mountains of scrap metal for recycling (Canada War Museum).

Early Childhood Literature:
As a result of the Puritan belief much of the earliest children’s literature is concerned with saving children’s souls through instruction and by providing role models for their behaviour, (Reynolds). Children’s literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are enjoyed by children. Modern children’s literature is classified in two ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became known as the “Golden Age of Children’s Literature” as this period included the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics (Burke M. Eileen, 108). One of the engineer’s leading towards children’s literature is William Blake. His work in the Songs of Innocence and Experience illustrate and conceptualize the new image of the child that was formed in the romantic period. The content of these poems revolved around purity and the angelic child that falls into experience as they transition into adulthood. Blake’s work was printed in a two part series, the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience. This formatting created a divide in the content that was considered acceptable for children, and what happens after they live and experience. For example, the introduction to the Songs of Innocence illustrates the differences between the boy in the cloud and the piper who is tainted by his experience.

WOW Comics Literature:
As mentioned earlier the second issue of the WOW Comics can be seen a piece of literature that sets examples for children during the war time. With all the changes to their daily routine the children lacked the knowledge on how to accomplish what is expected of them. The ban on the importing of comics from the States allowed Canadian artists and writers to really gear the content towards the expectations of Canadian children in the 40s. The content of the Canadian Whites is specially geared towards the new image of the child surfacing during the war.

For example:

The Science of Wrestling: One side of the page is taken up with visuals of different wrestling holds, and how to successfully do them. On the other side of the page there is a detailed description of the holds, and how to perform the various holds if

Legault, E.T. (w). “The Science of Wrestling.” WOW Comics, no. 2, November, 1941, pp. 31. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

the images were not clear enough. This page is geared towards young boys, or men, training them so they feel confident when enlisting into the army. This page allowed the boys to feel as if they are part

of the movement and learning to fight is giving them a leg up in the fight. They now felt prepared to tackle whatever enemy came into Canada, or when they themselves were fortunate enough to fight overseas.

On the other hand, young girls were taught how to be submissive girls, calm and subdued.

Legault, E.T. (w). “Elaine Kenyon Cut-outs .” WOW Comics, no. 2, November, 1941, pp. 30. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Elaine Kenyon Cut-outs: On the page there is a female dressed in an undershirt with calve length boots, in red. And there are three dresses, 2 styles of hats and a pair of boots. A young child can cut them out and dress up the doll in various ways, and there will be more outfits in issues to come. Young females were basically told they do not need to learn to fight because the boys already know how, they just need to relax and let the men do the saving. Young girls were employed as babysitters and they were encouraged to garden because that is all they could possibly accomplish.

Super Hero Comic:

Dart Daring and Perils at Sea: Dart Daring, is a youthful, dare-devil, sword fighter and so forth, begins his story in this issue discovers a treasure at an old shipwreck. Dart faces many predators, the octopus, 2 sharks, Captain Ajabe Maruk, who captures Dart and punishes him. Lorraine rescues Dart. Savages take over the ship and Dart must help Ajabe and his crew. Dart and Lorraine jump over board find themselves lost at sea, waiting to be rescued by a passing ship. Dart is an average man, with the skills of an

Legault, E.T. (w). “Dart Daring and Perils at Sea.” WOW Comics, no. 2, November, 1941, pp. 10. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

experienced fighter. He takes on ever challenge thrown at him, whether it be wrestling sharks or seizing a ship all by himself. Dart is the example for what young boys should strive to be; the average man that can be a fighter and warrior. A heroic average man, ready to bravely tackle any enemy.

 

 

 

 

The New Construction of Childhood

According to the Comics

The content of the comics challenges the ideas of the ideal childhood introduced by Blake and other writers in the Romantic period. These comics present themselves as a binary to innocence and experience. The formatting of a comic book is considered equivalent to a picture book, but these comics tackle much greater political themes and questions. The child in the 1940’s was one of great responsibility and knowledge, as well as the duties of the home and contributing to the war. An advantage towards the war effort in whatever way possible.

Works Cited
Benziman, Galia. Narratives of Child Neglect in Romantic and Victorian Culture. United States Of America: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.

Blake, William. “Songs of Innocence Introduction.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43667.Accessed 14 Feb.2017 (referenced the poem)

Burke, Eileen M. Early childhood literature: for love of child and book. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1986.

“Canada and The Second World War .” Canada War Museum , www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/chrono/1931crisis_e.shtml. Accessed 31 Mar. 2017.

Legault, E.T. (w). WOW Comics, no. 2, November, 1941, pp. 10. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Reynolds, Kimberly. “Perceptions of Childhood“ WordPress.com. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/perceptions-of-childhood, British Library. Accessed 15 Feb.2017.

The Relatable Hero: The Inception, Impact and Novelty of the Canadian Comic Hero During World War II in Commando Comics No. 16

2017 Canadian Whites, Commando, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Maxwell-Turanski, Victoria, Ryerson University

INTRODUCTION

When a time is remembered, it is most often for their heroes. Those who stand out as admirable are an embodiment of the epoch values and beliefs. Thus, to analyze a hero’s characterization is to know the impact of the time period on their personality. Furthermore, to seek out fictional work from a historical moment is to know the time-specific idealizations of a hero.

 

In studying the “Canadian Whites,” a comic collection dating back to before the Second World War, there is a rare chance to understand the idealized Canadian hero (Kocmarek 148). Not too often does Canadian work spread as quickly and widely as the Bell Features comics did. The success was the result of an American comic ban placed by the Canadian government at the start of the war (Kocmarek 149). It is important to note that despite a recognizably lower quality of work than American competitors, (due to a lack of resources and experience) the children of the nation devoured Canadian comics. Readership was high and expectations were unimportant because of limited competition, giving the “Canadian Whites’” authors and artists freedom to create anything that their hearts desired (and resources allowed, which was not much considering that their materials only stretched so far as to print in black and white; hence the name “Canadian Whites”) (Kocmarek 148). The result has been an intriguing combination of references to both historic realities and dreams that provide a peek into World War II and those heroes who were ‘true’ Canadians.

 

CONTEXT: A STEP BACK IN TIME

During the years 1939-1945 (World War II), Canadians were riddled with anxiety about the survival of loved ones. 1.1 million of the total 11-million-person population of Canada served in WWII (Granatstein). This large number of involved Canadians was reached only after years of careful, steady increases in governmental persuasion, working to make citizens into soldiers. With the extreme unease of potential enforced consignment, there was a desire for some reprieve (Granatstein). This came in the form of entertainment. Leisure during the war was defined by the government as citizen participation in activities that had the ultimate, overriding purpose of bettering the nation. In any case turning away from the war often resulted in turning to the arts that celebrated the underlying themes and feel of the nation, the war-stricken nation.

 

In this vein of thinking it became clear that the importation of the American comic books was an unwanted method of “Americanization” in the eyes of the Canadian government (Morton). In order to lessen the grip of American culture on the related but certainly not identical nation of Canada, the American comic ban came to fruition (Foster). This governmental act not only allowed for an economic opportunity, albeit a naive one in the long run, but held the microphone to the lips of Canadian authors and artists, giving them a chance for their voices to be heard across the country. This chance gave life to the curiously ordinary Canadian hero. Ordinary insofar as the supernatural abilities of other comic heroes prevalent in the American market were non-existent in the vast majority of their Canadian counterparts. They were, however, extraordinary in their unique representation of Canadian ideals and values.

 

ACKNOWLEDGING PREVALENT IDEOLOGIES

In order to encapsulate the contextually important belief system of the time, the term “ideology” helps us to discuss “the way comics reflect various social and cultural beliefs in a given society” (Berger 377). It is evident within the “Canadian Whites” that the ideology, specifically about a citizen’s role, works as an assumed, universal belief by the heroes and fellow characters. Most often this means that there is a promotion of certain ideologies that have already been proven to be important in Canadian society or in other words it is about: “reproduc[ing] the status quo,” which in effect makes the comic “an instrument for mainstream ideological reproduction … [one of the] tools of indoctrination” (Mellor 122) (Pineda and Jimenez-Varea 1157). To be asserting these ideologies as nationally held was unquestionably a product of the war-time heightened desire to find unity and strong relations on every level of life. Its implication was that a wide audience experienced this decisive stance and were in some way affected in their beliefs. This is something that Caswell argues when he describes the comic as both resulting from and adding to the narrative about the society from which it is birthed (219). From understanding the larger context of Canadian pressures during WWII, we must seek to explore the consequence on the Canadian comic hero, what Beaty calls “a hero who had no superhuman powers” also known as the “Fighting Civil Servant” (430). The Canadian hero’s personality was not larger than life, but instead relatable and on most platforms, achievable.

 

CANADIAN COMMANDOS: THE HEROES

In the “Canadian Whites” comic collection, there are seven different types of comics produced and for the purposes of this study volume 16 of the Commando comics will be analyzed. There are distinctions to be made between the characters that populate the Commando comics but more significantly there are striking similarities between them. These similarities should be explained by the common traits of bravery, intelligence and good pilot skills. The traits are of course implications of the war time period, attested to by Beaty’s prescription of the comic hero being best “understood” through the examination of the ideology prevalent during their creation (428). Furthermore these specific traits add to the likelihood that the characters could be not only the heroes of the story but also that these representations of good Canadian character were attainable for the reader themselves, which was importantly not only suggested but encouraged.

 

In this volume the first enticement of being a hero is when there is an implicit acknowledgement of brotherhood and friendship in becoming a soldier. The Canadian soldier is the occupation most conducive with the aforementioned traits. This sense of brotherhood between soldiers is established best when the text utilizes common ground language. In the story “Clift Steele and the Island of Floating Death” the two Canadian soldiers refer to each other as “fella” and “brother,” which indicates a shared understanding, relationship and experience (Dorian 4). This is a recurring instance in many of the stories. Although this exploration may seem to lean towards discovering propagandistic tactics of persuasion for nationalistic agendas, I would insist that this is a different case. Despite promoting many of the same messages that government propaganda of the wartime typically would, propaganda is not meant to “foment enthusiasm or assent” (Skylar). This comic book very clearly incites enthusiasm and is implying desirability in terms of the conditions of a soldier’s life. The propagandistic feel of the text occurs simply from the inevitable leakage of ideology into the fictional heroes’ behaviours.

 

Further to this point of being inviting to the reader, the text addresses its audience’s present state of youth in terms of ability and maturity by how it presents its advertisements. In the commercial for “a barrel-body chariot,” “microscope made from a spool” and “pair of stirrups” the products are advertised as “both safe and comfortable,” which seems at curious odds with the idea of a brave, heroic Canadian (R.S. 16). The fact is that the comic acts as an invitation to the youthful reader. The invitation says: we know you are only young children right now, but we want to teach you how to be like these heroes, so begin here with safe learning and then aspire to be brave, intelligent and great pilots.

 

A comic page depicting children playing with a barrel-body chariot, microscope and stirrups.
R.S. Panel from “Fun For You ‘Shades of Ben Hur’.” Commando Comics, no. 16, March 1945, p. 16. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

 

Then the comic moves towards the next step, providing a more tangible motive to do these hard things. In the story “The Young Commandos” it is apparent that one action can lead to a specific reward. This is developed when the main character describes how his older brother “knocks down zeros” and then “gets medals and gals” (Lazare 11). Essentially, if you do this brave act then you get rewarded with the prominent desires of fame and love. The tale even ends with the reaffirming line: “That’s the story…and it only shows how brave the lads in our armed forces are!!!” (Lazare 15). This takes the hero character one step further to be inclusive of necessary participation in the armed forces and this is implied again to be the place most suitable for doing the heroic actions and then receiving the ideal rewards.

 

A comic page depicting a plane fight and the Canadians ultimately blowing up their enemy's plane and ammo.
Jerry Lazare. Panel from “The Young Commandos.” Commando Comics, no. 16, March 1945, p. 15. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

 

In an expansion of the possible actions, the stories each work to outline different methods for achieving the same heroic status. For instance in “Ace Bradley Again” the hero is known for “seizing the moment” while in “Lank the Yank” the hero becomes intelligent and creative with weapon making when noticing a boot that is “not dainty but definitely useful” (Thomson 22) (Brunt 25). In “Wings Over the Atlantic” the hero “keeps a sharp look-out” and “tries to stop” the enemy and similarly, in “Professor Punk” the hero tries “to solve the problem” as hard as he can (Andre 27) (Brunt 46). There are countless more defining actions of heroes in each of the comic stories. Evidently the greatest gift that the superpower-less hero gives its readers is the picture of reality that comes across as less sensational than American heroes but is really the best way to “attempt to bolster the morale” (Weigel). If the superheroes of Canadian comics were not “essentially hatless Mounties out of their scarlet tunics,” but instead supernatural, entirely fictional characters then the outcome would be far less potent for inspiration, potentially even ineffectual (Kocmarek). In a time of great horror plausible optimism seems to be the comic book’s answer to the unsure nation.

 

THE READERSHIP AND PROLIFERATION OF COMIC HERO MESSAGES

After consideration of the traits that the comic heroes ascribe to, it is important to establish the likely impact on its readers. Knowing that the “Canadian Whites” heroes were “based on the real life exploits [of Canadian heroes] … [and that] most of their characters and stories had Canadian backgrounds and connections,” it becomes a reaffirmation and further repetition of the things that one must do to become great (Kocmarek). The audience was largely males ages eight to twelve who were born into a time of distress and would naturally be motivated and interested in solving the problems that they faced daily (Foster). The messages that were conveyed by the portrayal of the Canadian hero were doable things that a child could hold onto. It was also a means to negotiate the role that they saw their nation playing in the conflict.

 

For adults war was interpreted through news that was circulated. In a Toronto Daily Star article from 1944 a soldier is described with the utmost admiration for his heroic actions that saved lives because of his bravery in the face of fear (“Canadian Hero of Ortona”). This was celebrated because Canadians desperately needed something to be hopeful about. The heroes were discussed at length because they were meant to inspire people to do the tough things that humans are tempted to shy away from.

 

The young men who read comics were likewise establishing themselves in a narrative. While they knew the hardships of war, they did not have much information on the state of the conflict, in fact: “The comics provided that young audience, which did not read newspapers … with probably their only source of information on the war” (Kocmarek). With little real information the comic book audience may have been subjected to a “clever way of sugaring an ideological pill,” but they inevitably also gained hope from those heroes who did not seem quite so far away from their reality (Mellor 123). These arguably goofy, short comic stories were a way to give “interpretive agency to the reader (an empowerment perhaps especially important to readers in the liminal state of adolescence)” and one that could very well have made all the difference in a choice between mediocrity and heroism (Hatfield and Svonkin 433). These comic book heroes were role models that gave unique hope to their avid readers.

 

 

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.

Continue reading The Relatable Hero: The Inception, Impact and Novelty of the Canadian Comic Hero During World War II in Commando Comics No. 16 →

Superheroes as a Spokesperson to Children through the Visual Indistinct illustration of Soldiers in the 13th Edition of the Triumph Comics

2017 Canadian Whites, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, Triumph, , , ,

© Copyright 2017 Julia Cicchelli, Ryerson University

Introduction:

The Second World War was a global war that occurred from 1939-1945.  It was branded as the most widespread armed war in history and directly involved over 100 million people and over thirty countries, including the United States of America, Germany, and Canada (Encyclopedia of Espionage).  During this time, wartime legislation banned “foreign periodicals” (Loubert and Hirsh) from entering domestic countries and as a result the United States of America was no longer allowed to provide Canada with popular periodicals such as magazines and comics that Canadians relied on for entertainment (Martin and Sarfati).

The absences of these comics lead to the creation and the short lived success of the Canadian Whites.  The “whites” were a lineup of comics written, drawn and published by Canadians in the 1940s (Loubert and Hirsh).  These comics monopolized the superhero comic genre, which was a sensation during this time, and illustrated a diverse range of heroes that ranged from unworldly and magical, such as Nelvana of the Northern Lights, to more realistic heroes who were “everyday men “such as Ace Barton or the Black Avenger.  These comics also included Canadian advertisements promoting subscriptions to other comic issues created by the “whites” as well advertisements for toys about war that directly targeted children reading the comics.

There are numerous papers and articles that examine the relationship between war and its effects on children as well as articles and papers on children and their relationship to comics but I was not able to find any scholarly works that examined war related comics and their effects and relationship with the children who made up their target audience.  Therefore I want to use my paper to explore how these comics portrayed superheroes as “every day men” and left them visually indistinct so as to generate the widest possible range of kids to see themselves in their heroes.  I want to juxtapose this to the use of advertisements promoting toys about the war that targeted children.  I believe that these comics used superheroes as a hard hitting spokesperson to children in order to fulfill the need to recruit fresh soldiers for the war effort in addition to fulfilling the economic needs for profit and the entertainment needs of children.

The Changes to Everyday Life Caused By WW2:

The six year long war brought many changes to the Canadian lives and families impacted by the Second World War.  The majority of adult men present in a child’s life were recruited and posted across seas in order to serve in the armed forces, which left many women to enter the paid work force to sustain the economic needs of their family in addition to allowing them to contribute to the war efforts. The Canadian Historica Encyclopedia provides an explanation regarding the many Canadian families that dealt with shortages in sugar, meat, butter and gasoline which lead to rationing coupons being issued in order to provide a fair share to all (Cooke).

In addition, there were housing shortages in larger Canadian cities which forced working class families to house together with other families (Cooke).  Ian Cooke examines in his article “Children’s experiences and propaganda” how children were “bombarded with propaganda encouraging them to be on the lookout and avoid careless talk that could aid enemy spies hiding in their communities” (Cooke).  Schools focused their teachings on lessons about the “famous battles occurring overseas, war heroes, and warships and aircraft bombings that were devastating cities” (Cooke) in order make children aware of the global happenings as well as the threats that they were vulnerable to.

Basically, children were living in fear for their loved ones fighting across seas as well as their own safety.  In addition to this fear instilled into them, children were given increased responsibilities and roles as a result of the gaps left by their absent parents and siblings, leaving them to balance more chores, look after siblings, and taking on employment at ages as young as ten.

 The Role of the “Whites” for Entertainment:

The Canadian comics illustrated in the “Whites” were able to fulfill the entertainment needs of children in a time where entertainment was scarce in addition to being a beacon of hope in a time where children were feeling helpless and hopeless.

The comics were filled with stories of superheroes fighting against and defeating foreign enemies, who were illustrated as Nazi Germans and Japanese soldiers, in order to represent real enemies who were actually fighting against Canadian soldiers in the war.  Superhero stories followed heroes such as the Black Avenger and Ace Barton.  The Black Avenger was a British spy who, in this particular issue of the Triumph Comic that I am analyzing, was hired to rescue a fellow spy who was captured and being held in a Nazi camp.  Ace Barton on the other hand was an English R.A.F. pilot who was captured in this issue by Nazi soldiers and was being tortured by them in order to reveal where he hid some African diamonds that he was transporting to England.  Both the Black Avenger and Ace Barton are successful in escaping from the Nazis by over powering and out thinking them and successfully completing their task. These heroes are depicted as bold and adventurous soldiers who bravely fight against German Nazis in unrealistically glamorized battles that result in their continuous and therefore impending victory.

In a time where children were robbed of their childhood and forced into being responsible, working individuals, these comic heroes represented a way of escape in the sense that it allowed the child to enjoy childlike entertainment.  As Avrom Fleishman argues in his paper “The Genre of the Good Soldier” war related comics provide children with glamorized war stories and an image of “golden soldiers” (Fleishman) which allowed children to slip off into an imaginary world in which they did not have any responsibilities to uphold.  These responsibilities and any war related worries were put at ease by the image of these “golden soldiers” (Fleishman) who would protect them unfailingly from the foreign threats.

In addition to children needing a form of entertainment,   children were also feeling helpless and hopeless, buried under their constant fears for the safety of their loved ones as well as themselves.  By creating this image of a “golden soldier” (Fleishman) these comics were able to create an illusion that the war was not as bad as they believed it to be and it was something that Canadians were going to emerge victorious from because heroes like Ace Barton and the Black Avenger were fighting on Canada’s side.  Comics could be understood as a beacon of hope for these children who desperately needed something to hold on to.

“Every Day Men” as Heroes to Recruit New Soldiers to the War Force:

The two heroes that I mentioned previously, the Black Avenger and Ace Barton, were both depicted in the comic as a realistic, though glamorized representation of real life heroes.  Both heroes were soldiers who possessed no unworldly powers, instead they simply relied on their physical abilities and minds to successfully beat their enemies.  Both heroes are shown to be strong and rely on their muscles as well as war artillery to fight off threats in addition to their quick wit to think their way out of tough situations.  However neither hero was indestructible and both were as vulnerable to the physical threats of a gun or another man’s strength as any man would be.

Since both heroes possessed realistic abilities both relied heavily on their access to war weaponry, such as guns and planes in order to assist in their defeat of their enemy.  By giving these soldiers realistic abilities, children reading the comic could easily interpret the actions of their heroes as something plausible for them to recreate, which encourages their desire to become a soldier so that they too could become just like their heroes.

“Ace Barton”. Comic from Triumph Comic. 13 edition, 1943.

In addition to the heroes possessing realistic abilities, the comic illustrates both the Black Avenger and Ace Barton as visually indistinct as possible.  The Black Avenger wears a black mask over his entire face which leaves his identity a mystery while Ace Barton is drawn so simply in comparison to the detail given to the faces of the German Nazi soldiers, making him look compatible with any man.

By illustrating both heroes in such non distinct ways, the comic is able to mythologize these heroes as “everyday men” by generating the widest possible range of children who see their dads, their brothers and themselves in their heroes. Doing so again creates an illusion that children can easily become just like their heroes, which encourages their desire to embody the actions and position of their heroes by becoming a soldier.

Toys about War, Conditioning Children but also Profit for Economic Needs:

Machin and Leeuwen explain in their paper “Toys as Discourse: Children’s War Toys and the War on Terror” that war related toys became a popular discourse during WW2 because they “allowed children to enact with the discourses and values of war in play while also making a profit”.  Additionally, Machin and Leeuwen explain how Canada’s economy during the Second World War was not as disastrous as the First World War but any war leaves a country in economic debt and creates shortages and the need to ration.   Therefore selling these war related toys was able to allow toy companies to create a profit, keep people employed within the company which allowed them to be able to sustain their lives as well as their families.

Within the thirteenth issue of Triumph Comics, two advertisements were found immediately after the Black Avenger and the Ace Barton comic, advertisements selling toys about war.  The first advertisement shows what is called an “Identoplane Kit” which is a plane set made up of twenty four different war planes that children were encouraged to construct and play with.  The other advertisement was for the new “Commander” a wooden toy gun that made a real bang as to fully represent an actual gun.

“The New Super Commander.” Ad in Triumph Comics, 13th ed., The Canadian White, 1943, p. 39.

Both of these advertisements targeted children and promoted them purchasing and playing with these war related toys in order to become “young commanders”.  These two advertisements are the only of the eleven advertisements included in the comics that promote war related toys for children and are conveniently located directly after the stories of soldier heroes who are reliant on such tools in their adventures.  This placement led me to believe that these ads were knowingly placed here because toy companies understood that children would want to re-enact the actions of these heroes, who relied on guns and planes and children are led to believe that in order to become like these heroes they too need to use and become familiar and knowledgeable in such tools in order to properly and effectively embody their heroes.

Therefore I understood this as another form of conditioning children by making them aware of the tools that they will need to become familiar with in addition to making them play soldier as prep for becoming actual soldiers/ real life heroes like the Black Avenger and Ace Barton.

 Conclusion:

The Canadian Whites were an important addition to Canadian life during WW2, particularly for the children who read these comics.  These comics acted as a source of entertainment in a time where entertainment was scarce as well as a beacon of hope that allowed children to escape from the realities of the war.  The depiction of soldiers as heroes who claimed no unworldly superpowers in addition to their illustration as visually indistinct generated the widest possible range of children to see themselves in their heroes.  The comics used these heroes as spokespeople to children in order to encourage them at an early age to want to be active members in war, like their heroes.  Doing so fulfilled Canada’s need to recruit fresh soldiers to the war effort in addition to fulfilling the entertainment needs of children.

The juxtaposition between these comics and the advertisements promoting war related toys was essential not only in conditioning children to enact the discourses and values of war through play but also as a way of profit to support economic needs created by the war.  Therefore the overlapping of social and political needs for fresh soldiers for the war effort, the economic needs for profit and the entertainment needs of kids were all represented in these comics and through these “everyday” soldier heroes.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Work Cited

Armstrong, Martin. “Propaganda & Children : Always the First Target of Leaders.” Blog. Armstrong Economics. N.p., 3 May 2014. Web. Accessed March 6 2017.

Fleishman, Avrom. “The Genre of ‘the Good Soldier’: Ford’s Comic Mastery.” Studies in the Literary Imagination; Atlanta, Ga. 13.1 (1980): 12. Web. Accessed March 18 2017

Cooke, Ian. Children’s Experiences and Propaganda. British Library. Web. World War 1.

Cooke, Tim. “Canadian Children and the Second World War.” The Canadian Encyclopedia (2016): n. pag. Web. Accessed March 22 2017

Loubert, Patrick and Hirsh, Michawl. Superheroes to Call Our Own. CBC Radio Canada, 5 Oct. 1971. Web. Accessed March 2 2017

Machin, David, and Leeuwen, Theo Van. “Toys as Discourse: Children’s War Toys and the War on Terror.” Critical Discourse Studies 6.1 (2009): 51-63. Web. Accessed March 14 2017

Martin, Sandra and  Sarfati, Sonia. “Magazines.”The Canadian Encyclopedia (2012): n p.Web.

Ross, Sheryl Tuttle. “Propaganda and Art: A Philosophical Analysis”. Military Engagements. Disseration / Thesis. University of Winconsin, 1999. Web. Accessed March 28 201

Stern, J.P. “War and the Comic Muse: The Good Soldier Schweik and Catch-22.” Compatative Literature 20.3 (1968): 193. Web. Accessed March 28 2017

“World War II.” Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security. n.p. Web. Accessed March 29 2017

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.

 

 

A Difference in Discrimination in Commando Comics No. 12

2017 Canadian Whites, Commando, ENG810-022 Monique Tschofen, , ,

© Copyright 2017 Malcolm Abbas, Ryerson University

Comic books, a unique medium that uses panel type illustrations mixed with dialogue and narration. Telling fantastical stories, comic books intended audience has always been children.  Housing stories of super heroes defeating villains trying to wrong with pictures depicting these event, kids fell in love with comic books.

Gaining popularity in the early 20th century, the comic book medium saw its rise during a very hectic time in society’s history. At the time when comic books were gaining popularity among youth, the world was still recuperating from World War I, while at the same time having World War II loom in the back of people’s minds. Eventually people’s fears were realized as World War II came into fruition. And even the comic book industry could not escape the effects of World War II.

Due to the war, American comics were not able to make their way past the border and into the hands of Canadian kids. Seeing an industry untapped, Canadian companies like Maple Leaf and Bell Features decided to jump into the market and create Canadian comic books. What followed was a variety of different home grown comics hitting Canadian shelves. One of these comics went by the name “Commando comics.”

Focused on World War II, Commando comics was one of the marque Canadian comic books during the period between the 1930s – 1940s. Commando Comics multiple series all were primarily about Canadian soldiers besting the Japanese and Germans, Canada’s main enemies during the war. These Canadians soldiers, who almost always had no superpowers, would be able to beat the Japanese and Germans through their brains or brawn.

Despite both being portrayed as the main antagonists, the Germans and Japanese in the twelfth issue of Commando comics were completely different. While the Germans were drawn normally, accurately capturing how Germans looked, the Japanese were drawn to look like inaccurate caricatures of themselves. Exaggerating certain features such as their eyes and teeth, the Japanese in Commando comics looked nothing like their real world counterparts.

Why was there a huge disparity in the depiction of these two races in Commando comics #12, despite both being Canada’s wartime enemies? Well, there’s a few reasons why this phenomenon occurred.

They’re no threat to us

Although one of Canada’s main adversaries during World War II was Germany, people of German descent received very little discrimination in the country during war time. Unlike other ethnic groups, Germans were not faced with a huge amount of systemic propaganda by the media, or burning epithets on the streets. At this point in Canadian history, there were around 360,000 individuals of German descent living in the country, making up 11.2% of the nation’s population (attitude towards Germans 18). Considering the time period and percentage, this statistic meant that those with German ethnicity made up a significant portion of Canada’s population. Canada, even if they wanted to instill an anti-German sentiment onto the country, the Canadian government would face major backlash from a significant part of their population. Logistically this proposition would lean towards being unfeasible.

Although it would be difficult, if Canada really wanted to push an anti-German agenda, there would be good reason to believe that the government would find a way. Though Canada did not want to alienate not only German Canadians, but also Germany itself. William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s prime minister from 1935 – 1948 had a unique perspective on the events leading up World War II. Unlike the leaders of Britain and France, before war broke out, King’s opinion of Hitler was positive. Feeling empathy towards the strife Hitler and Germany were going through post Versailles conference, after meeting with the leader of Germany in 1937, King came away feeling that Hitler was a good man, trying to to do the best for his country, which at the time were in an economic crisis.  (Attitude Towards Germans 19). This empathy extended all the way up to Germany’s invasion of Danzig. In his diaries, King revealed that he thought Germany’s invasion of Poland was partly due to Britain and France (King Diaries). If Britain and France had given Hitler and Germany some leniency on the restrictions created at Versailles, this invasion would have never come into fruition (King Diaries). With all this good faith King was trying to build with Hitler/Germany, there was no way he would throw away this hard work by authorizing slanderous propaganda of Germans.

Additionally, during the start of World War II, Canadians were informed by the government that while all Nazis were bad, not all Germans were Nazis. This move by the government got Canadians to focus their anger and rage not on German Canadians, but at the Nazis living within the nation. This caused an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to find and takedown all Nazi affiliated organizations in Canada (Agents Within the Gates). This investigation resulted in the Canadian government assuring its citizens that all Canadian-based Nazi organizations were taken down, thus giving Canadians peace of mind (attitude towards Germans 17).

A Nazi spy
Smith, Gordon. Panel from “The Young commandos.” Commando comics. No. 12, July 1944, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 13. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

Throughout Commando Comics issue #12, you can see this chain effects translate into different stories. In The Young Commandos (Smith 17), one of the comics in the issue, the Canadian soldiers meet a many different German people, who looked much like the soldiers themselves. The only person depicted in a distorted manner was the lone Nazi spy, who made his reveal nearing the end of the comic.

Why not the Japanese

Why not offer the Japanese the same level of empathy and understanding the German population received? Like with most prevalent issues of the early 20th century, it was because of race. While many of the Germans in Canada during World War II were immigrants, they still looked like the other Canadians in the sense that they shared the same skin colour/facial features, practiced the same religions of Canadians, and for the most part had an easy time integrating within Canadian society. Japanese immigrants on the other hand were quite the opposite. The Japanese looked entirely different from “White Canada”. The Japanese spoke a foreign language, Followed different social queues, practiced different religions, and the list goes on.

When Asians first started immigrating to Canada at the beginning of the 20th century, Caucasian Canadians, who made up almost Canada’s entire population began to feel threatened. Dubbed the “yellow peril”, Canadians felt that the Asians were trying to change Canada’s identity as a nation, slowly forcing Canadians to bend to their ideals (Kawai 112).

Japan’s actions during World War II also made it very easy for Canadians to both fear and hate their countrymen. Aside from their battles against Canada, Japan was engaging in villainous acts across the world during World War II.  While the war was occurring, Japan made an attempt to invade and take over neighboring nation, China. While their efforts ultimately failed, during this invade, Japan committed gruesome atrocities towards the Chinese, the most notable act being the Nanking Massacre (Guo 3). When the Japanese made it to Nanking, the capital of China at the time, Japanese soldiers engaged in mass murder and rape of Chinese civilians, spanning over the course of six weeks (Levene 28).

With the addition of Japan’s hellacious war time acts stacked atop of Canadian’s already prejudice thoughts towards Asians, and a nationwide hatred for Japanese citizens in Canada is created. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese only made up a tiny percentage of Canada’s population (McAllister 146), meaning that there was almost no way to fight against this discrimination. Eventually Canada’s fear and hatred of the Japanese grew so large that they created and sent the Japanese to internment camps during World War II (144).

How does this relate to Commando comics #12? Well, during this time period war time focused comic books like Commando comics were used as a tool to indoctrinate the youth with the ideologies of the state (Scott 328). These comics would feature villains of the same race/ethnicity of those Canada were fighting as a way to get children to also grow a hatred towards those foreign groups. For Canada, this indoctrination tool was especially needed given their circumstances. Sending an entire ethnic group to internment camps, Canada needed to make sure that the youth “understood” why the Japanese were considered evil and needed to be sent away.

Thus, Canadian children were greeted with Commando comics #12, an issue which predominantly targeted the Japanese.  In the various comics within the issue that featured the Japanese, they were always without fail drawn to be inaccurate caricatures of themselves, with the artists giving the Japanese buck teeth and slit eyes.

A Japanese pilot speaking to a comrade
Darion,. Panel from “CLIFT STEELE.”Commando comics. No. 12, July 1944, Commercial Signs of Canada, p. 2. Bell Features Collection, Library and Archives Canada.

In Lank the Yank, the second comic featured in Commando comics #12, the protagonist calls a Japanese soldier “nip” (Brunt 10). This Japanese racial slur coined during World War II is written into Lank’s dialogue as if the word was part of everyday speech. This type derogatory language was normal to see in these old war time Comics.

Reading comics like Commando comics #12, Canadian youth subtly were indoctrinated to the anti-Japanese mindset of Canada.

Back to present day

As you can see, comic books historically have been politically motivated. During World War II, the rise of Canadian comics, society was able to use the medium to fuel racially driven issues. Commando Comics #12 was an example of this.

A comic based around the World War II, one read through any almost anyone would notice a difference in the depictions of the Germans and Japanese, the two main villains in the stories. While the Germans were drawn accurately, the Japanese were depicted to look like terrible caricatures of themselves.

And as we have learned, there a myriad of factors that caused this difference of discrimination. But among these factors, the two most prevalent were the backroom politics dealings between William Lyon Mackenzie King and Germany, as well as the already existing racism towards Asians in Canada in the early 20th century. If anything Commando comics #12 serves to show how far Canada has come in the 70 years since the comic’s release. Now looking back it is shocking to think that a comic once given to children is now looked back upon with disgust.

Works Cited

Bassler, Gerhard P. “Silent or Silenced Co-Founders of Canada? Reflections on the History            of German Canadians.” Canadian Ethnic Studies= Etudes Ethniques au Canada 22.1                (1990): 38. ProQuest

Brunt, Harry (w). “Lank the Yank.” Commando Comics, no. 12, July 1944, pp 10-12.                              Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special                        Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Darion, John (w). “CLIFT STEELE.” Commando Comics, no. 12, July 1944, pp 2-9. Canadian             Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special Collections,                   Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Guo, Sheng-Ping. “The Living Goddess of Mercy at the Rape of Nanking: Minnie Vautrin and          the Ginling Refugee Camp in World War II (1937–1938).” Religions, vol. 7, no. 12, 2016,             pp. 150. doi:10.3390/rel7120150

Kawai, Yuko. “Stereotyping Asian Americans: The dialectic of the model minority and the            yellow peril.” The Howard Journal of Communications 16.2 (2005): 109-130. doi:                         10.1080/10646170590948974, Scholars portal

Keyserlingk, Robert H. “‘Agents within the Gates’: The Search for Nazi Subversives in                     Canada during World War II.” Canadian Historical Review, vol. 66, no. 2, 1985, pp. 211-             239. ProQuest

Keyserlingk, Robert H. “The Canadian Government’s Attitude Towards Germans and                    German Canadians in World War Two.” Canadian ethnic studies= Études ethniques au              Canada, vol. 16, no. 1, 1984, pp. 16. ProQuest

Lee, Erika. “The ““Yellow Peril”” and Asian Exclusion in the Americas.” Pacific Historical                Review 76.4 (2007): 537-562. ProQuest

Levene, Mark, and Penny Roberts. The massacre in history. Vol. 1. Berghahn Books, 1999.

McAllister, Kirsten. “Photographs of a Japanese Canadian internment camp: mourning loss     and invoking a future 1.” Visual Studies, vol. 21, .no. 2, 2006, pp. 133-156. doi:                               10.1080/14725860600944989, Scholars Portal

Scott, Cord. “Written in red, white, and blue: A comparison of comic book propaganda               from World War II and September 11.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 40, no. 2, 2007,     pp.  325-343. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00381.x, ProQuest

Smith, Gordon, C. (w). “The Young Commandos.” Commando Comics, no. 12, July 1944, pp       12-17. Canadian Whites Comic Book Collection, 1941-1946. RULA Archives and Special           Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

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.