World War II History in Comics & Cartoons

This is an archive page for materials & links related to residencies studying World War II through the lens of Comics & Local History.

Relevant Comics & Online Archives:

•  War Comics: Comics with a Military Theme
  A single-page lo-res cover archive from Australia.
•  Propaganda Extravaganza!
  A wartime cover archive on SuperDickery.com … You won’t BELIEVE what US publishers actually printed during the war!
•  Superhero & War Comics Cover Gallery
  Since many Golden Age superhero comics dealt with the war, this gallery combines the two categories. (Also links to amazing Romance & Horror galleries.)
•  “Norakuro” by by Suiho Tagawa (wartime manga about Japan’s fight with China):
  “Norakuro” on Lambiek.net
  “Norakuro” on Wikipedia
  More Norakuro page samples
•  Barefoot Gen
  One boy’s Hiroshima story
• “U.S. Petroleum Administration for War”educational comics(1943):
  •  “Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer”
  •   Undercover War
•  Dutch Comics During WWII
•  “How to Spot a Jap”
  US Army/Navy “educational” comic (1943) employing some seriously racist propaganda techniques!
• POLITICAL CARTOONS (Single-panels & Illustrations):
  • WWII Political Cartoon Archive
  • Nazi cartoons from Kladderadatsch
  • Cartoons from Brennessel (Nazi humor magazine)
  • Nazi cartoons about Winston Churchill
  • Nazi cartoons (1939)
  • Cartoons from Das Schwarze Korps (1943-1944) (Nazi SS weekly newspaper) (1943-1944)
  • Editorial cartoons from Das Reich (1940-1941) (Nazi weekly magazine)
  •  
    Editorial cartoons from Das Reich (1944-1945)
  • For related Nazi images, see: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm
  •  “Dr. Seuss Went to War”
    A well-organized collection of Theodore Geisel’s wartime political cartoons.
  •  Bill Mauldin: sample cartoons
•  Action Comics #1
  (June, 1938 – The first episode of Superman.)
•  Maus by Art Spiegelman
•  A Family Secret
  A Dutch teenager learns about his grandmother’s experiences during World War II.
•  The Search
  A Jewish survivor of the Holocaust tracks down the wartime stories of her family and friends.
• SLIDESHOW: Art Spiegelman discusses his creative process in Maus
• Check out this amazing 1944 cover of THE NEW YORKER:
  
  It depicts D-Day in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry (and for more on that, see CW’s Europe page) … “MONTY ET IKE MARE NAVIGAVIT” indeed!  (Also, note the mice & other items scampering around in the marginal ornamentation…)

Articles, Analysis, &c.:

• Types of War Comics
• US-European Theater:
  • “Golden Age of Comic Books” on Wikipedia (1930s-1940s)
  • “Kryptonomics: Why Superman’s Creators Got a Raw Deal” (The New Yorker, 24 June 2013)
  • Classic Comicson Suite101.com:
    • “Comic Books Helped to Fight World War II”
    • “The March of the Superhero-Patriots”
    • “Comic Books Fight the Cold War”
    • “Secret History of Superman: Jewish Traditions & Secret Identities Build Man of Steel”
• Education & Propaganda:
  • Superman & Literacy in WWII
  • WWII slogans in kids’ comics (1944)
• Manga (Japanese Comics) (See also: Japanese Culture & History in Manga):
  • About.com: Manga in WWII
• POSTWAR CENSORSHIP:
  •  Chris and Reggie’s Cosmic Treadmill: “Weird Comics History: The Comics Code”
    (5 episode series, March 2017)

Related Henniker & NH & US History Links

• Henniker Historical Society
  
• Library of Congress: “1930s-1940s in Color” Photo Stream 

• Nazi Visual Propaganda:
  Posters: 1933-1939 | 1939-1945

• NHPR: Stories re: “World War II”
  • “WWII and Seacoast Residents”
• “Unifying a Nation: WWII Posters from the NH State Library”
• WorldWar2History.info
• Wright Museum (Wolfeboro, NH)