COMMUNISM IN AMERICAN MEDIA: COMIC BOOKS AND CULT CLASSICS

POP CULTURE VERSUS PROPAGANDA

By Zina Hutton (3008354)

INTRODUCTION
Comic strips and cartoons have been used as propaganda since as early as the time of the French Revolution During the French Revolution, cartoons were used to paint a

picture of Marie Antoinette as the source of all evils

The use of propaganda really has not lessened in recent years and has spread from gaudy cartoons to comic books that are given to children

COMIC BOOKS

EARLY HISTORY
One of the earliest comics in American newsstands was 1933s Funnies on Parade which sold for ten cents The first instance of a modern action comic book was created in

1936 with New Comics

It focused on FBI agents and was a nod to how fascinated Americans were with their government. Two years later, the first issue of Action Comics was released and comics were never the same.

WAR AND COMICS

ANTI-COMMUNISM VS COMICS
Even though comic book heroes often fought against (highly stereotyped) versions of Communist villains in their monthly adventures, during the era of the MacCarthy trials, many comics book publishers were brought to task for potentially publishing materials that were subversive and corrupting to that eras youth. In addition to the general anti-communist air that these trials had, other deviancies used to hold comic books up to public scrutiny were things like:
showing law enforcement/government in a negative light Anti-American stories Most kinds of sexuality Horror and Gore

After the period of trials, many publishers had to go out of business and the comics industry
was thrown into jeopardy.

MARVEL

COMIC BOOK PATRIOTISM

Captain America
Captain America stands as the greatest example of propaganda in an American leading character. Created in the 1930s by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Captain America is introduced to the American public with a cover that has him socking Adolf Hitler in the jaw. For a first look at the character, such an introduction is sensational, and so the image of Captain America will always be somewhat intertwined with those early reaches of Americans in the 50s as they strive to obtain the American Dream Unbelievably patriotic (with a uniform covered in the American stars and stripes), Captain America is even more intertwined with ideas of wholesome Americana and the safety of capitalism than his DC counterpart, Superman

 One of the reasons why Captain America and his own particular brand of
patriotism has survived for so very long even in the wake of internal disruption comes from the article, Captain America's Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics by Jason Dittmer:
The character of Captain America connects these scales by literally embodying American identity, presenting for readers a hero both of, and for, the nation. Younger readers may even fantasize about being Captain America, connecting themselves to the nation in their imaginations. His characterization as an explicitly American superhero, establishes him as both a representative of the idealized American nation and as a defender of the American status quo.

CHARACTERS CREATED TO FIGHT THE COMMUNISTS

Iron Man
Where Captain America was created to fight the Nazi horde during the nineteen forties, Iron Man was created in the late 1950s in order to take up the fight against the communists. He was a wild character with character flaws that made him extremely relatable. Most of his main stable of villains were communists (Black Widow, Crimson Dynamo, etc.)

The Fantastic Four

Their origin story has them rushing to try and beat the Russians to space. The word commie is used in an interview with the teams creator Stan Lee so there can be no missing their original implications

DC

A BRIEF HISTORY

NOATABLE COMMUNIST VILLAINS IN DC COMICS

The KGBeast was one of the Batmans foes during the Eighties
Born Anatoli Knyazev, the character that would become one of the DC Universes most ruthless killers had no chance at a normal life from the moment that he hit the scene in March of 1988. Created by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo, the KGBeast was to represent a major antagonistic character for the Batman mythos. He was ruthless and completely without regard for human life, playing up on the fears that most Americans had as far as Communists were concerned.

NKVDemon
The protg of the KGBeast, Gregor Dosynski takes up the moniker of the NKVDemon and holds a similar role as his mentor in the period of time just prior to the destruction of the Berlin wall. The NKVDemon only lives for two issues until he is killed in a police shootout, but his legacy as a stereotyped Communist villain lives on

HAMMER AND SICKLE

With their first appearance in DC continutity in the pages of Outsiders #10 in the 1980s, the brother/sister team

has made life difficult for Batman and his

associates. In 2007, the Communist duo returns for revenge on Batmans closest ally

Catwoman and the Communist imagery

is never far from hand.

SUPERMAN: RED SON

An Elseworlds tale written in 2003 by Mark Millar, Superman: Red Son explores the idea of Kyrptons last son growing up in the heart of the Soviet Union rather than in the American heartland along with the idea of a predestination paradox. Lasting three issues, Superman: Red Son serves as an example of how the Cold War and communism continue to influence modern media

 Instead of apple pie and American ideals, this version of Superman is raised in a communist collective on the outskirts of until he is an adult. Superman travels to the capitol of Soviet Russia where he serves as a beacon of hope and solidarity for the Communist party. Similar to his role in the main comics, the people of Russia look to Superman for aid whenever it is needed. Following the in-comic death of Stalin, Superman becomes the new

leader of the Soviet Union and slowly starts to remake the state in his
image.

 Look! Up in the sky! Its a bird! Its a plane! Its Superman! Superman: strange visitor from another world! Who can change the course of the mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands And who, as the champion of the common worker, fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, Socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.

Superman: Red Son #1 page 5

CULT CLASSICS

 Many films and television shows during the time of the Cold War period were subtle (or not-so-subtle) pieces of propaganda for American citizens. Just as comic books were getting children and young adults to think a certain way and look up to a certain kind of ideal, films and cartoons of the era were set up to guide viewers in specific directions.

MARKETED TOWARDS WHOM?

CHILDREN
GI Joe
Much like the role that Captain America played in getting children in the forties interested in war and patriotism, GI Joe served to pull the children of the Eighties into a kind of pro-America mentality using a diverse animated cast and the old standby of stereotyped villains and reformed Communist characters

TEENAGERS
Red Dawn
A group of teenagers go head to head with Communist invaders during this film that is directly marketed towards teenagers.

ADULTS
Rambo III (1988) Rocky IV

 Sylvester Stallone had two of the most famous anti-Communist/Soviet films in his career and serves as the model for the All-American hero in the Eighties with his portrayals of the rugged fighter Rambo and the determined boxer, Rocky.

Both films were obvious in their anti-Communist message with Rambo III taking
place in Vietnam and having a high death toll of Communists while Rocky Balboa goes toe to toe with a brutish Russian boxer who has no regard for human life

 During this fight, I've seen a lot of changing, in the way you feel about
me, and in the way I feel about you. In here, there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that's better than twenty million. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!
Addressing the Russian crowd after the match with Drago has ended.

CONCLUSION
In 2011, X-Men: First Class was released and had a significant part of the plot revolving around Communist Russia and the Cuban Missile Crisis In addition to that, there are rumors of a planned remake of Red Dawn that

is set to start filming next year.

Modern media shows us that no matter how long Soviet Russia has been broken up and communism, kept to places like China and Cuba, American media will find a way to introduce little red scares of their own. Americans will never get tired of walking the tenuous line between pop culture and propaganda.

REFERENCE MATERIALS
Comic Book Confidential. Dir. Ron Mann. Perf. Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Sue Coe and Robert Crumb. Cinecom, 2002. DVD. Cowsill, Alan, Alex Irvine, Matthew K. Manning, Daniel Wallace, and Michael McAvennie. DC

Comics Year by Year: a Visual Chronicle. New York, NY: DK, 2010. Print.
Dittmer, Jason. "Captain America's Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post9/11 Geopolitics." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95.3 (2005): 625-43. JSTOR. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3693960>.

Millar, Mark, Dave Johnson, and Kilian Plunkett. Superman Red Son. New York: DC Comics, 2004.
Print. Rambo III. Dir. Peter MacDonald. Perf. Sylvester Stallone. TriStar Pictures, 1988. DVD. Whitfield, Stephen J. The Culture of the Cold War. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. Print.

Beatty, Scott, and Daniel Wallace. The DC Comics Encyclopedia: the Definitive Guide to the Characters of
the DC Universe. New York: DK Pub., 2008. Print. Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked (TV 2003) - IMDb. Dir. Steve Kroopnick. Perf. Peta Wilson, Denny O'Neil and Jim Steranko. Triage Entertainment, 2003. DVD.