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Racist comics

Started by shrunkenhead,

41 posts in this topic

shrunkenhead

shrunkenhead

Posted
Posted

Ok, so this is a topic that will likely rankle a few of you out there, but here goes...

 

My wife and I were talking about our growing comic collection yesterday, and how we've noticed that a lot of big bucks go to GA books that highlight, hmm, well, ethnic stereotypes shall we say? ahem.... Anyway, my wife and I are both into the GA stuff, and every now and then when flipping through a book, we'll come accross a disturbing image or two. Thick lips. Buck teeth. Sloppy grin. The works.

 

I suppose the two most obvious offenders are the japanese post-pearl harbor covers and the african american stuff. Timelys, Nedors, and then there's stuff like All-Negro #1, etc. I mean, a lot of the depictions of african-americans in those books looks like R. Crumb stuff, except they're not being the least bit metacritical about their subject material. I mean, it's not satire, it's just kinda ugly...isn't it?

 

So why do these books go for big dollars? What's the nature of the attraction? Who collects these comics? What do african-american comic collectors think about this stuff? (Anybody out there who can personally answer to that one?) Is it offensive that a comic that stereotypes a race sells for a bucket of money? Or is it simply historical fascination that attracts collectors to these books, just as some collectors may go after hitler covers or anti-commie propaganda?

 

Hey, I'm not trying to come down hard with my Mighty PC Hammer or anything, but I thought it was a question worth asking, and a topic worth discussing. Ok, getting off my Andy Rooney soapbox now. 893blahblah.gif

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rjpb

rjpb

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I must admit a fondness for GA with grossly stereotypical images on the cover. I think for a lot of people it is a fascination with images that are wholey inappropriate today, but weren't even considered provocative in their time.

 

I've read that a fair amount of racist memorabilia is actually collected by African-americans themselves, though how common that is I wouldn't know.

 

All-Negro comics, while it looks racist by today's standards was actually produced by an African-american for an African-american audience. This is probably why it is so scarce today.

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Jeffreykli

Jeffreykli

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I'm Asian-American, and I personally really like the anti-Japanese WWII propaganda covers. I think my attraction to these comics is the historical perception of Asians, taken in context of the War. I also would like them to illustrate that we're not really all that far from the 40s and 50s in our thinking. (For example, there was a big challenge to the changing of "Jap Road" in Texas, and a lot of residents who didn't want to change the name of the road couldn't understand how it was racist.)

 

Speaking of which, does anyone have a scan of Human Torch #12? I think that's the one in which the Human Torch cuts off a Japanese arm.

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143ksk

143ksk

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Posted
I've read that a fair amount of racist memorabilia is actually collected by African-americans themselves, though how common that is I wouldn't know.

 

 

I remember reading an article about Alan Page (Former Minnesota Viking and current Minnesota Supreme Court Justice) and his wife collecting this kind of memorabilia.

 

One of the things I really like about this kind of comic is that I think it gives a lot of insight into how things were in America at that time. Not just the racist stuff, but teen slang, fashion etc.

 

I don't think that the majority of comic creators of the time gave a second thought as to how their work would be received by the "society" of that time. Let alone how it would be perceived by us 60 years later. So what we are seeing is a very unguarded reflection of their assumptions, stereotypes and prejudices.

 

It's all just fascinating to me. Which I think is one of the reasons I like GA books better than later eras.

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Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer

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Anyway, my wife and I are both into the GA stuff. - You are a lucky man.

 

I suppose the two most obvious offenders are the japanese post-pearl harbor covers and the african american stuff. Timelys, Nedors, and then there's stuff like All-Negro #1, etc. I mean, a lot of the depictions of african-americans in those books looks like R. Crumb stuff, except they're not being the least bit metacritical about their subject material. I mean, it's not satire, it's just kinda ugly...isn't it?

 

So why do these books go for big dollars? What's the nature of the attraction? Who collects these comics? What do african-american comic collectors think about this stuff? (Anybody out there who can personally answer to that one?) Is it offensive that a comic that stereotypes a race sells for a bucket of money? Or is it simply historical fascination that attracts collectors to these books, just as some collectors may go after hitler covers or anti-commie propaganda?

 

Hey, I'm not trying to come down hard with my Mighty PC Hammer or anything, but I thought it was a question worth asking, and a topic worth discussing. Ok, getting off my Andy Rooney soapbox now. 893blahblah.gif

 

I think for those of us who are too young to have lived through that era we will probably never truly be able to appreciate the hardship our parents went through. Young men going off to war to defend countries that they are being leveled, the hundreds of people that were bombed in Pearl Harbour, the concentration camps, potentially their very future and way of life was being threatened. Sure there have been wars since then but most of us could sit in the comfort of our homes and carry on as if it is an every day occurence. We are not doing paper drives, rationing raw materials to support the troops these days. In the scheme of things countries were really just beginning to develop with the industrial revolution at the turn of the century. Canada was only formed a 100 years prior so I can understand how everyone wanted to protect their own ground. Multiculturalism wasn't even a term back then but Canada and U.S. was being built on the back of immigrants who came from all over the world. Can you imagine the tensions and pressure felt by Japanese and German immigrants when the U.S was bombed at Pearl Harbour.

 

I always find it amazing how Marvel Mystery Comics covers basically depicted war scenes on almost every cover for five years. We couldn't even imagine that being the case in today's world. Was it ugly yes, but given the circumstances most of it is understandable. As an aisde, when 9/11 happened apparently there was clapping and cheers from a group of young middle eastern men at a local gym in town and it almost sparked a full fledged brawl.

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rjpb

rjpb

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Speaking of which, does anyone have a scan of Human Torch #12? I think that's the one in which the Human Torch cuts off a Japanese arm.

 

 

I must admit, a favorite of mine.

 

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nearmint

nearmint

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Um...I can't help wonder if my "Nedors on Parade" thread brought this topic to mind. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of WW2 covers, more specifically those that feature superheroes, and especially those drawn by Schomburg.

 

My dad was twelve when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He read these very comics, built model airplanes, participated in air-raid drills, watched as his big brother enlisted, and wished with all his heart that he was old enough to tag along.

 

My dad is still alive and well, but I see these comics as a connection to him, and the America he grew up in. It was not an easy time to live through, but I wish I could have experienced a time when this country pulled together to the extent it did in those years.

 

In comics, and other media, the Germans were represented as bumbling, and the Japanese as monstrous. I suspect this ugly depiction of the Japanese is a direct result of Pearl Harbor, which was considered by all a monstrous act. Also, the world was a much bigger place back then. The VAST majority of Americans had never been to Japan, or had the benefit of television to familiarize itself with that nation and its culture. The average American was ripe to buy into whatever depiction the media fed them.

 

The world is smaller now, and depicting "Muslim extremists" in a similar fashion just wouldn't fly. Today, the media tries, at least to some degree, to present us with their thoughts and motivations...their side of the story. Some even try to explain all the terrible things the U.S. has done to make Muslims hate us.

 

These covers, as ugly as they can be, reflect a simpler time, when the enemy was the enemy. There was no gray area. We were the good guys, coming to the aid of the free world. They were the bad guys, trying to enslave it.

 

So I guess it's nostalgia for a simpler time, when Americans had a unifying faith that our country was doing the right thing. My, how things have changed.

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rjpb

rjpb

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This is probably the most over the top depiction of the Japanese on a comic cover. I don't know who the artist is.

 

As for Schomburg, who did many incredible Japanese war covers, the interesting thing is that when he depicted a Chinese person, they were not caricatured - so, at least in his case, the depiction of the Japanese as sneaky buck tooth sub-humans probably had more to do with an understandable anti-Japanese bias, than a racist attitude towards Asians in general.

 

 

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nearmint

nearmint

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I love this cover, but on the other hand, when I think about what's actually happening in that scene, it's pretty horrific. Imagine a contemporary issue of Captain America with a cover drawn by Cassiday, showing Cap doing this to the resistance in Iraq...

 

exciting35.jpg

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Jeffreykli

Jeffreykli

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This is probably the most over the top depiction of the Japanese on a comic cover. I don't know who the artist is.

 

The worst depiction of a Japanese that I've seen a picture of is an issue featuring Blackhawk, I think. The cover is a picture of a airplane shooting Japanese soldiers, but they have caricatured faces and the body of rats! Does anyone have this cover?

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Jeffreykli

Jeffreykli

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It is an issue of Air Fighters. Unfortunately not one I own or I would post a pic

 

I found a scan on Heritage...thanks for identifying it as Air Fighters, actually it's #6. Note, let's put this in historical perspective, but I think everyone can agree that this depiction is pretty bad. The idea was to demonize the enemy so that we didn't mind killing them.

 

AirFighters6.jpg

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