DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
Here is my original proposal along with Tom's comments:
Asians in
comic books is a great topic, but also a huge one. Looking at
how Asian are represented in superhero comics published by Marvel
in the years after WWII could be more than enough for this
project. It would be interesting to see if you can find any
material that would give us a sense of what and how people thought
about these comics--both the producers and the consumers.
Sometimes there are "Letters" sections in the front or back of
these comics. I wonder if you can find any information about
the creators of these characters or the artists who drew
them. I think the Hay Library here at Brown has a good
collection of comic books that would be worth investigating.
The reception of manga in the U.S. is another interesting question
that would be enough for its own project. Astro Boy and Speed
Racer are particularly interesting examples to explore. How
did American audiences form around these characters, how did they
understand them, and what did they make of them?
-Tom
Asians were
first depicted in American comics as a dangerous threat. It was
fall 1942; the US for almost a year was officially at war with the
axis powers. Back in the states, there was much fervor surrounding
America’s current situation. Walls were covered with patriotic
posters, theatres showed short accounts of the war in Europe, and
on the newsstands were images of Captain America and his sidekick
Bucky delivering some painful haymakers to two Japanese soldiers.
At least I think they were soldiers. Looking at the cover of
Captain America # 18, it almost appeared as though the costumed
crime fighters were tackling some Martians. The Japanese soldiers’
ears were drawn almost as large as their heads and extremely
twisted. The coloring of their skin was a dark yellow, sharp
vampire-like teeth hung from their mouths, and their eyes were
contorted into a menacing shape; to any kids picking up this issue,
there was no doubt that Asians were evil.
And yet, it
is interesting to see how this villainous representation evolves in
the next ten, twenty years. After World War II and just before the
Vietnam War, Asians were portrayed very little in American comics.
But when they were portrayed, it was not only as villains, but also
as heroes. In 1956, Marvel Comics released a comic entitled “The
Yellow Claw,” which featured Jimmy Woo, a Chinese American secret
agent. Woo’s main archenemy was a brilliant madman, know as the
Yellow Claw. The Claw’s appearance harkened back to the World War
II comics’ depiction of Asians; he sported a fu Manchu and teeth
resembling Dracula’s; his skin was also saturated yellow. Woo, on
the other hand, was clean-shaven and had perfect teeth. He was also
part of the FBI. This brings up an interesting thought; was Marvel
trying to say only foreigners were evil and that those who are
American citizens are not forever doomed to bad skin, teeth, and
evil thoughts? Despite its well-written plots, the series was
canceled within a few issues; the public just wasn’t
interested.
During the
50’s and early 60’s, Asians were illustrated more in Japanese manga
than in Western comics. An example of this was Astro boy, a robot
built by the kind Doctor Tenma. Race and ethnicity did not directly
associate with good or evil in manga as they did in American
comics. Astro boy caught on with an American audience when it was
adapted into a cartoon and has since been a classic icon in both
Japanese and American culture. I’m still looking and referring back
to different genres implementing the comic book medium at the
moment; some things that did pop up was the use of Asians as
villains again in the sixties. Tony Stark, later known as Iron Man,
was captured by Vietnamese communists and forced to build them a
powerful weapon. Peter Parker, the civilian identity of Spider-man,
battled a Vietnamese sorcerer who had captured his classmate Flash
Thompson when Thompson was drafted into the war. Very convoluted
stuff. In my paper, I hope to not only address more fully the
depictions of Asians and Asian Americans in comics, but also how
comics from Asia (and subsequently translated to English) as well
as their animated counterparts have made an impact on American pop
culture and its consumer market. You’d be hard-pressed to travel
back to 1999 and not find a fourth grader who wasn’t crazy about
pokemon.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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