JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 684 Blog Bookstore
The popular culture of WWII was--and continues to be--enormous, beyond that military interest in the Civil War, or so it seems. There were literally hundreds of World War II movies (among the Allies, here in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, The Soviet Union), tens of thousands of books, millions of articles and newspaper accounts--trillions and trillions (and perhaps an order or orders (?) of magnitude more) of words (professionally) spoken and written. In all of this I believe I've never considered the popular medium directed at children or very casual readers: wartime comic books. That's why, I'm guessing, these American comic book covers registered as such a surprise with me--not only for their very graphic cover design (which seem to tell about the entire story with a single glance) but for their great numbers. No doubt the great empowered heroes in these pages--who were single handedly defeating Japan and Germany--helped quiet many a child's nerves back there in 1941-1945, and unsweattied many a night-time pillow. The comics (all of which below were published during the American years of the war) have a calming effect even today.
It was during the early part of the European War (1939 and late 1941) that saw the introduction of some of the great standard comic book heroes: Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, Aquaman, Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and of course the most popular of them all at the time, Captain Marvel. Superman, the soon-to-be crowned king, appeared just a little earlier, in 1938. It seems that many myths were created in response to large forces pressing against a people, and I guess that these comic book heroes are no different.
I have no idea offhand about this sort of publication appearing in the other countries at war.
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