Although this article concentrates on the wartime exploits of such forties comic book characters as Plastic Man and Blackhawk, it should be remembered that the primary American comic book heroes that we remember today were no slackers during the course of the war; Superman smashed the Siegfried Line prior to arresting Hitler as he luxuriated in his mountain retreat; Batman selflessly labored in the fields of counterintelligence while Captain America signed-up as a buck private.
The writer doesn’t spell it out for us, but by-and-by it dawned on us that among all the various “firsts” the World War Two generation had claim to, they were also the first generation to read comic books.
Pictured above are a handful of Japanese-American lads who were incarcerated at the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California (1943). The picture was provided our friends at the WW2db.com.
Click here to read a 1946 article about SUPERMAN
Click here to read an article about the predecessor to the American comic book: the “dime novel”.
If you would like to read a W.W. II story concerning 1940s comic strips and the failed plot to assassinate General Eisenhower, click here.
Click here food rationing at U.S. POW camps.
Click here to learn more about the American W.W. II home front…
