Comic Art Propaganda: A Graphic History - Softcover

Stromberg, Fredrik; Kuper, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312596790 ISBN 13: 9780312596798

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010

Synopsis

Comic Art Propaganda: A Graphic History is a fascinating visual history of some of the most outrageous, and unbelievable and politically charged comics ever published.

As one of the most effective and powerful forms of communication, it comes as no surprise that comic art has been misappropriated by governments, self-interest groups, do-gooders, and sinister organizations to spread their message. World War II comic book propaganda-with Superman, Batman, and Captain America raising war bonds, and bashing cartoon Japanese and Germans-was so ubiquitous that there was barely a US comic untainted by the war effort. The sub-textual sequential art continued well into the Ciold War, with both sides producing comics extolling themselves and defaming the enemy.

"The book covers Sex, Drugs, Race, Politics, War and Religion. Strömberg’s historic overviews of each subject and encyclopedic knowledge make for a breezy, informative read."--The Huffington Post

About this title

About the Author

Fredrik Stromberg is a journalist, author, and historian, who has studied comics since the early 1990s. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines about comics, heads the Comic Art School of Sweden, and sits on the editorial board for the International Journal of Comic Art.

From Booklist

As comics gain widespread acceptance, we are finding new ways to look at them. This book focuses on comics as both negative and positive propaganda vehicles. Lavishly illustrated, the discussion is served up in bite-size sections on racial stereotypes and images of war, communism, crime, religion, sexuality, and politics. Although Stromberg tries to present both sides of many propaganda-laden issues in comics, and for the most part succeeds, some topics (such as the negative aspects of war, the positives of communism, or the dangers of the Patriot Act) have few examples. He isn’t afraid to include some big-time comics in his discussion, dissecting the racism in Hergés Tintin stories and noting the simplicity of the mouse and cat images in Maus (1986). Mostly, though, the observations are simplistic and rely on the accompanying images to drive the message home, perhaps making the book’s most critical point: because of the immediacy of the visuals, the comics format is more handily used for propaganda than prose is, and it can be bent to serve any ideology. --Stephen Weiner

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0312596790
• ISBN 13: 9780312596798
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176