Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-316) and index.
Contents:
Part I: Comic books and the Korean War -- Introduction -- Realism, harm, and responsibility -- The business -- Strips -- World War II comic books -- Harvey Kurtzman -- Critics -- Part II: The Korean War in comic books -- Origins of the Korean War -- Spies -- African Americans -- Germs -- Brainwashing -- POW! -- Griping against the war -- Atrocities -- Politics -- The bomb -- Subversive comics -- The Korean War in comics since 1953 -- Conclusion.
Summary:
"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."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.