Comics and the World Wars

随着1914-1918年百年纪念的临近，以及第二次世界大战结束75周年的纪念活动，这些史诗般的事件将在世界范围内获得高度的公众关注。因此，这个适时的项目提出了这样一个问题：漫画形式对这些全球经验的文化遗产有什么贡献&出现了哪些不同的历史意义？该项目的研究以及随之而来的两个主要展览--一个是比利时漫画地带博物馆的第一次世界大战漫画展览，另一个是伦敦卡通博物馆的第二次世界大战漫画展览--将向遗产行业强调漫画作为文化艺术品的潜力。许多人都有童年对漫画的记忆，以及经常与熟悉的人物一起讲述战争故事的记忆。漫画形式现在已经从针对儿童的连环漫画和杂志扩展到针对成人的书籍，催生了一种新的以事实为基础的故事类型。在被称为“第九艺术”的法国，一本5卷的系列漫画的出版引发了历史漫画的亚流派，该系列描述了18世纪一个奴隶女孩从欧洲暴风雨海岸到非洲，然后到新大陆的旅程，所有这些都被无可挑剔地记录下来。紧随其后的是《Paroles d‘Eililes》--这位明星的话--一系列电台采访，逐字逐句地发表个人感言，首先以书的形式印刷，然后是一本漫画书，作为对逃离大屠杀的隐藏犹太儿童的记忆-被迫采用虚假身份生存。在英国，世界大战故事从20世纪80年代中期开始逐渐衰落，而法语和亚洲漫画至今仍在制作。因此，对第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战的跨国比较方法可能会揭示每个国家作为不败或被占领的土地和人民的不同方面的经历。漫画可以是为了儿童教育的目的，也可以是针对成人观众的政治信息，或者包含隐藏在儿童漫画中的隐蔽宣传，例如最初于20世纪50年代印刷的德国《老鼠》(1979)占领比利时，以及《施特隆普菲西姆》(1978)中咆哮着墨索里尼风格的金色法西斯主义蓝精灵。研究人员正在研究漫画在世界大战历史的特定方面提供的观点，这些方面通常不太受关注，比如一战的濒危遗产因普遍强调第二次世界大战而黯然失色。对于战壕战争的残酷现实，或者对英雄、敌人和受害者的漫画描述，有没有一种独特的洞察形式？《红色男爵》和《我和布洛克一起飞》是英雄的典范，而《查利的战争》和《C‘était la Guerre des Places》则描绘了残酷的战争机器。研究人员还在调查创作者、出版商和读者之间的关系以及相互影响，某些流行人物和格式的长期生存证明了这一点。此外，该项目通过对亚洲战场以及美国黑人英雄的描绘来关注种族问题，报纸以拳击手乔·路易斯和Speedo Jaxon为原型，在报纸上展示了乔中士(1943)的形象。女性作为体贴的母亲或穿着制服的工人的角色正在受到密切关注；研究人员将研究目击证人的描述和个人证词与说明性幻想元素的互动方式，以代表诸如大屠杀和广岛等无法代表的事件。因此，这个项目将开辟一个新的辩论领域，引起公众对重新审视旧漫画的必要性的关注。传达的信息是，这些文化艺术品可以提供关于态度、情感和性格类型的流行记录。研究结果可能会表明，历史学家使用的文化档案作为来源的范围应该扩大，包括一些事实漫画&未来的公共历史(现在由流行电影和电视决定)也应该包括这些事实漫画。

With the centenary of 1914-18 approaching, followed by commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2, these epic events will receive a high public profile worldwide. This timely project therefore asks the question: what is the contribution of the comic form to the cultural heritage of these global experiences & what different kinds of historical meaning emerge? The project research & the two major exhibitions that go with it - one on World War One comics at the Belgian Comic Strip Museum, & one on Second World War comics at London's Cartoon Museum- will emphasise to the heritage industry the potential of comics as a cultural artefact.Many people have childhood memories of comic strips and of following war stories with familiar characters on a regular basis. The comic format has now expanded from strips and magazines aimed at children, to books aimed at adults, spawning a new 'genre' of factually based stories. In France, where comics are referred to as the '9th art', a sub-genre of historical comics was sparked off by the publication of a 5 volume series depicting the journeys of an 18th century slave girl from the stormy coasts of Europe to Africa and then to the New World, all impeccably documented. It was followed by 'Paroles d'Etoiles'-the words of the star-a series of radio interviews with verbatim personal testimonials that were printed first in book form, followed by a comic book, as memories of hidden Jewish children who had fled the Holocaust & were forced to assume false identities to survive. In the UK world war stories faded into decline from the mid 1980s, whereas Francophone and Asian comics are still being produced today. So, a transnational comparative approach to WW1 & WW2 strips may reveal different aspects of each country's experience as either undefeated, or occupied lands and peoples. Comics can be for children's educative purposes, or have a political message focused upon adult audiences, or contain covert propaganda 'hidden' in children's comics, such as German 'rats' taking over Belgium in Chlorophylle (1979), originally printed in the 1950s, and a golden fascist smurf ranting Mussolini style in Schtroumpfissime (1978). Researchers are examining the kind of views that comics offer in specific aspects of world war history that usually receive less attention, such as the endangered heritage of The Great War that has become overshadowed by the popular emphasis on World War 2. Is there a unique form of insight into the harsh realities of trench warfare or in comic depictions of heroes, enemy and victims? The 'Red Baron' & 'I Flew with Braddock' are good examples of heroes whereas 'Charley's War' and 'C'était la Guerre des Tranches' depict the brutal war machine. Researchers are also investigating the relationship between creators, publisher & reader & the mutual influence upon each other, demonstrated by the long term survival of certain popular characters & formats. In addition, the project looks at ethnic issues through depictions of the Asian theatre of war as well as American black heroes, featured in the newspaper personae of 'Sergeant Joe' (1943), modelled on the boxer Joe Louis, and of 'Speedo Jaxon'. The role of women either as caring mothers or uniformed workers is being scrutinised; researchers will look at the way eye witness accounts & personal testimony interact with elements of illustrative fantasy in order to represent events that are 'un-representable' such as the Holocaust and Hiroshima. Thus this project will open up a new area of debate, drawing attention publically to the need to revisit old comics. The message is that these cultural artefacts can offer a popular record of attitudes, feelings & character types. Findings are likely to suggest that the range of cultural archives used by historians as sources should be widened to include some factualcomics & that future 'public history' (now determined by popular film & TV) should also include them.