Korean War Comic Books

by Leonard Rifas

Overview

Comic books have presented fictional and fact-based stories of the Korean War, as it was being fought and afterward. Comparing these comics with events that inspired them offers a deeper understanding of the comics industry, America's "forgotten war," and the anti-comics movement, championed by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, who criticized their brutalization of the imagination. Comics--both newsstand offerings and government propaganda--used fictions to justify the unpopular war as necessary and moral. This book examines the dramatization of events and issues, including the war's origins, germ warfare, brainwashing, Cold War espionage, the nuclear threat, African Americans in the military, mistreatment of POWs, and atrocities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786443963
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/30/2021
Pages:	345
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Leonard Rifas has been a cartoonist, comic book editor, founding proprietor of the educational comic book company EduComics, and a pioneering comics scholar. He teaches at Seattle Central College.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Part 1 Comic Books and the Korean War 7

1 Introduction 8

2 Realism, Harm and Responsibility 16

3 The Business 24

4 Strips 33

5 World War II Comic Books 42

6 Harvey Kurtzman 50

7 Critics 54

Illustrations 83

Part 2 The Korean War in Comic Books 95

8 Origins of the Korean War 96

9 Spies 107

10 African Americans 112

11 Germs 126

12 Brainwashing 131

13 POW! 137

14 Griping Against the War 141

15 Atrocities 151

16 Politics 160

17 The Bomb 166

18 Subversive Comics 178

19 The Korean War in Comics Since 1953 185

20 Conclusion 201

Chapter Notes 207

Bibliography 277

Index 317