By Sam Miller, Staff Writer
Mark Fertig, associate professor of art, presented the annual John C. Horn Lecture entitled “Take That Adolf! Comic Books During the Second World War” in Isaacs Auditorium on Nov. 9.
Fertig began his talk by covering comics prior to World War II and described how the first comic books were made of smaller comics that ran in news- papers around the East Coast.
Following the outbreak of the war in Europe, comics became more and more about war but never depicted Nazis or Nazi-related symbols, such as the swastika, until around 1940.
Fertig said that in comics, Hitler was often depicted as demonic or sub-human and the Japanese were often represented as rats.
Fertig explained that the reason behind this was to make it obvious to the public that the U.S. was on the correct side of the war.
Fertig also noted that comic book heroes rarely fought alongside the American soldiers overseas, other than Captain America, because they were promoting public support for the war effort.
In many comic books, the heroes would promote buying war bonds and collecting materials to ship overseas so as to not take away the heroism of the American soldiers fighting in Europe and the Pacific.
Fertig also said that many superheroes that are popular today almost died out after World War II.
For ten years after the end the war, heroes such as Captain America disappeared because Hitler was no longer the go-to enemy.
Attendees took away a more varied perspective of superheroes, rather than only what is popular in the media.
Senior Lauren Beaver said, “I think it’s very interesting to see how great [of] an influence the Second World War had on the creation and development of certain superheroes that are extremely popular today.”
Senior Gavin Cottrell agreed and said: “I have read comics when I was younger [and] many of them were brought up in tonight’s lecture. I found it very interesting to learn the origins.”
Fertig started working at Susquehanna in 2002 as a graphic design professor.
He teaches classes ranging from Visual Communications to Advanced Typography.
While at Susquehanna, Fertig has written two books, his latest covering comic books and the Second World War.
The John C. Horn Distin- guished Service Award is given annually to a faculty member as recognition for outstanding scholarship and service who then presents a public lecture.
The previous John C. Horn Lecture, “Self-Study and Storytelling: Tools for Personal Awareness, Disrupting Assumptions about the ‘Other’ and Informing Teacher Education,” was given by Valerie Allison, associate professor of education, in the spring.
