By Megan Ruge Asst. living and arts editor
The Lore Degenstein Gallery opened a new exhibit on Sept. 3. The exhibit, titled “Victory for a Dime: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War,” displays a chronicle of World War II era comic books. These comic books show in their cover art how media was affected by what America was experiencing at the time of the war.
The gallery opened with a talk by Mark Fertig, the department chair of art at Susquehanna. Fertig spoke briefly about each piece in the gallery, giving a small overview of how each piece was affected by history from the 1930s to the 1940s.
Fertig started his talk by introducing comic books as a whole, talking about where it all began before showing the audience how it all changed during wartime.
“You wouldn’t have comic books [now] if you didn’t have the second World War,” Fertig said. He then spoke about the first serial comic, “Funnies on Parade,” which was released in 1933.
“‘Funnies on Parade’ was an eight-page comic book made primarily of Sunday comic strip reprints,” Fertig said.
The first superhero comics were released in 1938 with Superman and 1939 with Batman. This set the stage for extraordinary heroes in an ordinary time, opening the door to unique propaganda for the American war effort. In the summer of 1939, comics began to reflect war themes. Cover art began to display unmarked war machines and other war related violence, reflecting the way America felt about the unsettling turmoil in Europe.
“It’s interesting how closely tied comic books are to American history and propaganda,” junior Kathie Rodgers said.
When the war began, comics started to depict it as best as they could. They used these depictions as motivation for the public to get involved. At one point, comics began to depict what an attack on American soil might look like. They showed Nazi bombers invading New York City from the air, Nazi troops tunneling under the city and Hitler himself disrupting traffic flow in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Around this time, the war set up comic creators for a patriotic hero to arrive on the scene. The original big American hero was called the Shield, but he only stuck around for a little while until Captain America was created. Captain America blew the Shield out of the water and motivated kids to find out more about what Captain America was up to in Europe.
Eventually, comic book creators had to decide what to do with these heroes to keep kids and families interested in the war while also not taking any glory away from the real heroes, the deployed soldiers. It was a constant struggle to humanize superheroes and make them the supporting characters in their own comics. Heroes like Superman became America’s cheerleaders; Batman became a delivery man to the war front.
It was about this time that comics took a different turn in society. Parents were asking for more nonfiction comics about war heroes and others were asking for something different all together. Boys’ comics about young heroes, sidekicks and even about ordinary bands of boys became more violent.
Comic books started to introduce a large amount of violence along with sexual content for their next largest audience, soldiers. More themes of sex, violence and racism found their way onto the pages of the comics.
“It was interesting to see how the values and fear brought on by the war shaped the values and fears portrayed in the comics,” junior Caroline Miller said.
When the war ended, comic books joined the country in welcoming the heroes home. Many comic book superheroes were shown welcoming home soldiers and other war heroes from the war front.
The covers spoken about in the talk are on display in the Lore Degenstien Gallery. The exhibit is open to the public until Oct. 2.
