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Canadian Identity in Triumph Comics #18

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

© Copyright 2017 Gillian Dizon, Ryerson University

Introduction

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

Comics: Mythology for Kids!

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

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

Antagonists: The Japanese

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

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

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

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

Germans

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

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

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

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

Nelvana …and then the rest of the Natives

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

Continue reading Canadian Identity in Triumph Comics #18 →

A Women’s Role in the War Effort in Russell Braddon’s Woman in Arms: the story of Nancy Wake

2014, Children's Books and War, , , , , ,
Front cover of Russell Braddon’s Woman in Arms: The Story of Nancy Wake.

© Samantha Ruinsky, Ryerson University 2014

Traditional war heroes of past literature have often been associated with the memories and images of brave and strapping young men, ready to do battle on the field with other brave and strapping young men. Russell Braddon’s Woman in Arms: the story of Nancy Wake, abridged junior edition published in 1963, turns the traditional ideal of a war hero on its heels and introduces us to the life story of one of the most decorated servicewomen serving the Allies’ in the Second World War. 

Title and author on the book's spine
Title and author on the book’s spine. Photograph taken by Samantha Ruinsky 2014.

The physical edition of Russell Braddon’s book is found in the Children’s Literature Archive Collection at Ryerson University, published in London by Collins in 1963 (originally published in 1956). Its genre falls into several categories, including non-fiction, biography and history (WW2). There are only a few images in this book, including a map of France and scans of photographs of Nancy and her friends, allies and fellow servicemen. In relation to the greater topic of Children’s Books and War it is important to look at the influence Wake’s story had on those reading the novel when it was published, and those reading it today. Looking at Wake’s influence as a celebrated heroine of World War Two, and by looking at resources such as newspaper clippings and historical accounts, the authority of women in the war effort will develop as a crucial approach to the theme of Children’s Books and War.

In order to stipulate the books contents into the larger umbrella theme of children’s books in war, it is important to understand its context and specifics about certain aspects of the war, pertaining to the events described. By looking at certain ideological such as gender and sexuality, understanding the context and the meaning of the book becomes important as we can begin to understand the books intentions on its audience. By asking questions about gender roles, masculinity, and issues surrounding power and authority, we can begin to understand this books critical role in the discussion of its position in the theme of children’s books in war.

Background to French Resistance in The Second World War

 World War II as a war fought between the Axis Powers and the Allies (Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA), after Germany had disregarded accordance’s with the Treaty of Versailles, invading Poland and other Eastern European nations. Germany refuses to leave Poland and Britain declares war in September 1939. In 1940, 3/5 of France fell to Germany in rapid succession, while the rest of France was established as a neutral state with its government at Vichy (Wright, 2013). The Vichy Government was a pro-German puppet to administer unoccupied France and the colonies. The Maquis, with whom Wake worked with closely with for years, was the underground patriotic movement in France from 1939-1945 (Hoad 2003).

Description of the Text as a Physical Object

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Photo of Nancy Wake’s Forged Identity Card, taken from the book, and photographer unknown.

This Junior Edition of Women in Arms: the story of Nancy Wake is a small book that fits roughly in the size of your hand. The book itself is short (192 pages) and has 14 illustrations throughout, including maps, photographs of family, membership cars, and photographs of the real characters discussed in the book. The sources of the photographs are unknown as there are no captions describing such, and no extra notes provided by Braddon about its citation. There are no inscriptions in the inside cover of the front or back of the book, except the pencil scribbles of the book’s call number.

Summary 

The book follows the true story of a native New Zealander participating in the French Resistance movements and eventually joining the Special Operations Executive (a branch of the British Army), during the Second World War in Europe. With her work on the resistance front and as a British Agent, Wake, also known as the White Mouse as she ran laps around the Gestapo, became one of Churchill’s most highly decorated special agents (Willsher, 2011). The story starts off with a more than brief introduction into Wake’s emigration to France and her marriage to Henri, a wealthy industrialist from Marseille at the breakout of World War Two. With the occupation of France by the Nazis, Wake learns to drive a truck and becomes a courier of first messages, then later soldiers (Ward, 2000). She next gets involved with the movement of helping wounded or deserter soldiers exit France. Her fiery personality and natural ability to sweet-talk anyone and everyone within a 20-mile radius of her propelled her success and popularity amongst those involved in the resistance movement.

Map of areas where Nancy was during the Resistance Movement and fighting with the SOE
Map of areas where Nancy was during the Resistance Movement and fighting with the SOE. Image taken from the novel. Illustrator is unknown.

Throughout this time she is arrested and questioned and ultimately released, weaving a web of intricate and detailed lies. Once she became a well-known enemy of the Gestapo, she had to make an exit from Marseille to avoid capture. Travelling from Spain and eventually to London, she becomes involved as a British Agent working with the Special Operation Executive. After parachuting into Auvergne, central France, to organize the Maquis and its Resistance preparation for D-Day, Wake led thousands of men into guerrilla style warfare while inflicting severe damage on German troops and facilities. A year after Wake had left France, she learnt, her husband had been tortured and killed by the Germans, after refusing to give information on where she might be. (Ward, 2000). As Braddon concludes in the last chapter of his book, Wake remained in Paris until 1947, returned to the Australia of her youth, dabbling in politics of the Commonwealth Liberal Party, and eventually returning to Britain in the fifties, where she remained- completely unaffected by her high military awards from the United States, Britain and France (Braddon). Not included in the book because of its publishing date, but Nancy Wake died on August 7 2011 in a London Hospital, at the age of 98.

“I’m glad I was there. I’m glad I did what I did. I hate ward and violence but, if they come, then I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud good-bye and then knit them balaclavas.”- Nancy Wake, Final Chapter in Braddon’s Book.

A Typical Children’s Book?

Within the larger context of children’s books and war, Nancy Wake is a representation of a different take on a book for children about the Second World War, because of its lack of traditional characteristic’s children’s books generally have, such as colourful pictures, larger text, and a bright and vivid welcoming front cover. The fact that this book has virtually none of those characteristics allows it to become one of its own and stands out from what is commonly referred to as the children’s books.

Published Archival Text on Braddon’s Book

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Advertisement in “The Times”. Image taken from The Times Digital Archive, under the section, Multiple Display Advertisements.

Published by The Times in London, England is an advertisement (see left) for a conference  put on by “The Society of Women Writers and Journalists”, in which Russell Braddon was slated to present at. This speaks volumes of the novels response by women, as being chosen to speak at such an event becomes an important connection into discovering the books likability, as a woman’s story told by a man.

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An Advertisment for Braddon’s book on Nancy Wake. Taken from “The Times Digital Archive”, under the section Index.

Russell Braddon wrote this book in 1963, almost a decade after it was originally published in 1956 (See advertisement on the right). The book was published in a time when the world was in the middle of an inter-war period, with an almost imminent daily threat of war, between the continuation tensions of the Cold War and Vietnam on the brink of a civil war. The early sixties was also a time where gender roles and specifically the traditional role of a woman, was a continually discussed hot topic. The publication of this book and the story that it tells, become as I believe, a triumph for women in the discussion about “gender roles in war”, as it tells a story embracing a heroine, and showcases the strong willed and successful life of a female resistance fighter.

Production by Braddon & His Interest in Historical Biographies

The production of the novel was not something out of the sort for Braddon, as his specialty was in writing non-fiction and even more specifically non-fiction and war. His first novel was the retelling of his own story as a prisoner of war during World War Two by the Japanese (Starck 2009). Braddon himself met with almost every one of the characters Wake mentions in her story, travelling all over Paris, Nice, Marseile and London, who, as he describes, pieced together her story for me and brought back for me what they had known of her (Braddon 2009).

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Author’s Note: A Message From Nancy Wake.

Russell Braddon’s retelling of Nancy Wake’s heroic experiences in The Second World War is a story written in an inter-war period, for children and young readers with an appetite for a different and new perspective besides that of the traditional male soldier story. New research has found that children’s books are dominated by male central characters, creating a gender disparity sending a message to children that, women and girls occupy a less important role in society than men or boys” (Flood 2011). Braddon’s novel confirms the importance of erasing this message, and aims to provide a more inclusionary one to send to young readers. A Woman in Arms‘ crucial connection to the overriding theme of children’s books in war, familiarizes readers with the ever growing discussion regarding gender roles, by examining the expansive role of women in war time from all walks of life.

                        “My war was full of laughter and people I loved”

                                                                                 -Nancy Wake ( Braddon 2009)

 

Works Cited

Braddon, Russell. Woman in Arms: The Story of Nancy Wake. Abridged Junior Edition. St. James Place, London: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1963. Print. Ryerson University Children’s Literature Archive.

Braddon, Russell. Nancy Wake: SOE’s Greatest Heroine. Gloucestershire: The History Press. 2009. E-book.

Flood, Alison. “Study finds huge gender imbalance in children’s literature: New research reveals male characters far outnumber females, pointing to ‘symbolic annihilation of women and girls”. The Guardian. May 6, 2011. Accessed March 21 2014.

Hoad, T.T., ed. “The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.” Maquis Published online 2003: 1. The Oxford English Dictionary.

“Index.” Times [London, England] 10 Dec. 1959: 13. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 22. Mar. 2014.

“Multiple Display Advertisements.” Times [London, England] 22 Nov. 1956: 13. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

Starck, Nigel. “The Mind of Russell.” The National Library Magazine September 2009 (2009): 12–15. Print.

Ward, Paul. “Nancy Wake: The White Mouse.” NZEDGE.COM- The Global Life of New Zealanders. 19 Apr. 2000. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. http://www.nzedge.com/nancy-wake/

Wright, Edmund, ed. “A Dictionary of World History.” Vichy government (1940-1945) Published online 2007 : 1. Dictionary of World History.

—, ed. “A Dictionary of World History (2nd Ed.).” Gestapo Published online 2007 : 1.

Dictionary of World History.

Willsher, Kim. “Farewell to Nancy Wake, the Mouse Who Ran Rings around the Nazis.” The Guardian. 8. Aug. 2011: 1. Web