“Scared Witless”

doi:10.1017/9781009379311.011

9 - “Scared Witless”

War in the American Graphic Novel

from Part I - History and Genre

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024

Edited by

Hugo Frey and

Jan Baetens: Affiliation:
KU Leuven, Belgium
Hugo Frey: Affiliation:
University of Chichester
Fabrice Leroy: Affiliation:
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

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Summary

This chapter addresses the representation of war in the American graphic novel. It begins with a historical discussion of the decline of the war comic in light of social change in the 1960s. While pop art appropriation of war comics questioned the jingoistic content of the tradition, older-generation comics artists (Milton Caniff, Jack Kubert, et al.) and the National Cartoonist Society continued to promote American militarism in their work. In this culturally compromised context, war comics declined in status and circulation, facilitating the rise of the American graphic novel, which inverted the aesthetics of the old war comics. By contrast, war graphic novels account for the suffering of war, reveal personal and family tragedies, bring forward women’s experiences, and (in translation) offer an international perspective. The recognition given to graphic novels in the public sphere has also facilitated the exhibition and republication of previously marginalized works (e.g., material from Vietnam War veteran Vernon Grant). The chapter concludes with a discussion of Florent Silloray’s graphic novel biography of the famous war photographer Robert Capa, which includes a new theorization of the status of the war image and the human cost of military violence.

Keywords

military history autobiography Barry Windsor-Smith curation Florent Silloray pop art Robert Capa Roy Lichtenstein Vernon Grant

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel , pp. 155 - 174

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009379311.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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9 - “Scared Witless”

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