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Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture--from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities--manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.

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Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture--from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities--manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.

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Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns

Overview

Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture--from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities--manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786449811
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 02/22/2012
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Chris York has taught English at Pine Technical College in Pine City, Minnesota. He has been an active participant in the Comics and Comic Art Area at the National Popular Culture Association Conference for nearly a decade, and his comics scholarship has appeared in the International Journal of Comic Art. Rafiel York is a teacher in Jackson, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     
Introduction: Frederic Wertham, Containment, and Comic Books
CHRIS YORK and RAFIEL YORK     

PART I : CONTAINING COMMUNISM, CONTROLLING THE ATOM
1. Lights, Camera, Action 101: A Brief Lesson on How to See an Atomic Bomb
NATHAN ATKINSON     
2. Decrypting Espionage Comic Books in 1950s America
PETER LEE     
3. “He Was a Living Breathing Human Being”: Harvey Kurtzman’s War Comics and the “Yellow Peril” in 1950s Containment Culture
CHRISTOPHER B. FIELD     
4. “I Can Pass Right Through Solid Matter!”: How the Flash Upheld American Values While Breaking the Speed Limit
FREDERICK A. WRIGHT     
5. Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown: Establishing Order in an Age of Anxiety
PHILLIP PAYNE and PAUL J. SPAETH     
6. Red Menace on the Moon: Containment in Space as Depicted in Comics of the 1950s
JOHN DONOVAN     

PART II: CONTAINING SEXUALITY IN THE COLD WAR
7. Girls Who Sinned in Secret and Paid in Public: Romance Comics, 1949–1954
JEANNE GARDNER     
8. Rebellion in Riverdale
RAFIEL YORK     
9. The Amazon Mystique: Subverting Cold War Domesticity in Wonder Woman Comics, 1948–1965
RUTH MCCLELLAND-NUGENT     
10. The Girls in White: Nurse Images in Early Cold War Era Romance and War Comics
CHRISTOPHER J. HAYTON and SHEILA HAYTON     
11. Horror Camp: Homoerotic Subtext in EC Comics
DIANA GREEN     

PART III: THE PROBLEM OF CONSENSUS
12. “Dedicated to the Youth of America”: Deviant Narration in Crime Does Not Pay
CHRIS YORK     
13. MAD’s Guest Writers
LAWRENCE RODMAN     
14. Beyond the Frontier: Turok, Son of Stone and the Native American in Cold War America
CHRIS YORK     
15. East Europeans in the Cold War Comic This Godless Communism
ALEXANDER MAXWELL     
16. The Fantastic Four: A Mirror of Cold War America
RAFIEL YORK     

About the Contributors     
Index     
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