The Comic Art of War

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Sample file The Comic Art of War A Critical Study of Military Cartoons, 1805–2014, with a Guide to Artists

Christina M. Knopf

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Knopf, Christina M., 1980– The comic art of war : a critical study of military cartoons, 1805–2014, with a guide to artists / Christina M. Knopf. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-9835-2 (softcover : acid free paper) ISBN 978-1-4766-2081-7 (ebook) ♾ 1. War—Caricatures and cartoons. 2. Soldiers—Caricatures and cartoons. 3. MilitarySample life—Caricatures file and cartoons. I. Title. U20.K58 2015 355.0022'2—dc23 2015024596

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

© 2015 Christina M. Knopf. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

On the cover: COMPANY DIS-MISSED! by Abian A. “Wally” Wallgren which appeared in the final World War I issue of Stars and Stripes (vol. 2 no. 19: p. 7) on June 18, 1919. It features the artist dismissing his models, or characters, from duty at the end of the war.

Printed in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Acknowledgments

It is said that writing is a solitary activity. This is true, but it fails to take into account the researching, planning, and revising stages, which are not solitary and indeed depend on the kindness and brilliance of others. Therefore, this book would not have been possible without the support of numerous people. My gratitude to all the professionals in their respective fields whose expertise and kindness was invaluable: Kent Bolke, curator of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum, whose parallel exhibits of Bill Mauldin’s Pine Camp cartoons and Steve Opet’s Camp Victory cartoons sparked the idea for this research; Walter Biggins, for seeing my conference paper title in the National Communication Association 2012 program and suggesting that it would make a good topic for a book; Jeffrey Boshart, at Eastern Illinois University, for helping a stranger find “Molly Marine,” and Nancy Wilt and Sara Phoenix of the Women of the Corps Collection, for introducing me to her; the staff of the Special Col- lections department at the E.S. Bird Library of Syracuse University, who granted me access to the Vic Herman papers;Sample the librarians file of the Veterans History Proj- ect at the Library of Congress, especially Megan Harris, for fulfilling my last- minute request to see the physical copies of Robert Bindig’s work; and the audi- ences and fellow panelists at the Eastern Sociological Society 2014, who showed tremendous interest in chapter 6 and offered their own thoughts and experiences to make the work better, and at the Rhetoric Society of America 2014, who asked probing questions of chapters 4 and 5. My eternal thanks to loved ones whose support is central to my success in all things: my mother, Sandra Knopf, who proofread the manuscript not once but twice with attentiveness and good humor and was my personal cheering section and any- time-of-day sounding board for every new comic discovered and every new idea conceived; my father, Donald Knopf, who long ago shared with me the secret of camouflage- by-clipboard, thus enhancing my appreciation for military humor; and Pixie, for the much- needed hugs while working—even if it did mean a lot of one- handed typing.

v vi Acknowledgments

I would be remiss if I did not also thank the comic artists, amateur and professional, who served their countries. I learned much through your work, and this book is an effort to bring your insights, your experiences, and your humor to others. I have tried to represent your work fairly and accurately, and if I have not always succeeded, no disrespect was intended. Special thanks to Doctrine Man and Steve Opet for allowing me to include their artwork in these pages.

Sample file Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v Preface: Recon 1 Introduction: Vocabularies of the Visual-Verbal 5

1. GI Joking: Military Humor and Graphic Narratives 21 2. Service Before Self: Military Life 41 3. Kiss My Brass: Military Hierarchy 60 4. Frenemies: Friends and Foes 73 5. Drawn Behind the Lines: Military Geography 91 6. Sex(es) in Battle: Gender and Sexuality 106 7. Drawing Fire: Combat andSample Casualties file 126 8. Sillyvillians: Civil- Military Interactions 138

Conclusion: SITREP—The Military’s Rhetorical Vision 153 Appendix: Comicography 163 Notes 179 Bibliography 221 Index 241

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Sample file Preface Recon

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laugh- ter.—Mark Twain

“Recon” is the shortened term for military reconnaissance, which is the gathering of information about unknown or outside areas for analysis and use. In essence, it is gathering information about what to expect, just as this preface will let you know what to expect of this book. There is an aphorism that claims generals are always fighting the last war; as such, it seems only fitting that this book on military comics begins with its backstory—a kind of tale of my own reconnaissance on warriors’ graphic narratives. It all started, though I did not know it then, on a winter’s day in late 2010. I was perusing the military history stacks at a local used bookstore when I discovered Barsis’s They’re All Yours, Uncle Sam!, a 1943 story of “babesSample in arms who file become women at arms.”1 I was at once enchanted and bemused by the gentle, gendered humor about WAACs and WAVES and wondered if there were other books of its kind. My search dis- covered two Winnie the WACs: the first created by Cpl. Vic Herman during World War II2 and the second created by Owen Fitzgerald in the 1950s as part of the Here’s Howie comics published by DC.3 I soon discovered other military and paramilitary heroines of the Second World War: Wonder Woman, of course, and War Nurse, Pat Parker and her Girl Commandos, Flyin’ Jenny,4 and then Molly Marine by real- life lady leatherneck Barbara Bristol5 and an autobio- graphical “ripple” by WAVE Dorothea Byerly.6 Before long, I happened upon other comics by and for military personnel. In November 2011, I visited the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum, on the Fort Drum base just sixty- five miles south of my university, SUNY Potsdam. On one wall, there was a small display of World War II–era cartoons by Bill Mauldin, who had trained there (when it was Pine Camp) with the 45th Division. On the opposite wall

1 2 Preface was a monitor scrolling through cartoons by 10th Mountain reservist Steve Opet drawn while he was deployed to Iraq in 2008. The following summer, I perused a small assortment of boot camp comic books while visiting the Samp- son Museum at the old Sampson Naval and Air Force Base in upstate New York. And in November of 2013, while in Washington, D.C., for the National Com- munication Association conference, I was delighted by an exhibit at the Smith- sonian’s National Museum of American History highlighting the role of the entertainment industry in World War II, with particular attention to animated cartoons and comic books with messages supporting the civilian and military war efforts. When I took on the mission of writing a book about military comics, I had no idea that during the next two years I would discover hundreds of military cartoonists spanning centuries and continents—the standards for which are Britain’s Bruce Bairnsfather of the Great War and America’s Bill Mauldin of the Second World War. Bairnsfather is sometimes credited as “the Man Who Won the War”7 because of his morale- boosting, if brutally honest, cartoons. His work was developed into a 1926 film, The Better ’Ole, starring Syd Chaplin. Mauldin was considered the Bairnsfather of World War II.8 Decades later, Steve Opet was called the Bill Mauldin of Iraq,9 and W.C. Pope was dubbed “the Bill Mauldin of the Air Force,”10 while Chris Grant’s Iraq cartoons prompted Stars and Stripes to proclaim: “Bill Mauldin, meet the ‘Bohica Blues.’ Like the famed creator of World War II’s Willie and Joe comic strip, Staff Sgt. Chris Grant is putting pen and ink on paper to humorously capture the feelings, desires and daily routine of soldiers deployed to Iraq.”11 Mauldin’s work not only has been repeatedly emulated, but alsoSample was given numerous file acknowledgments in popular culture by fan and fellow cartoonist Charles Schulz. Despite the centrality of Mauldin’s influence in military cartooning, the styles of art vary widely from the heavy and dark drawings of Bairnsfather and Mauldin, who both relied mostly on single- frame cartoons with captions placed below the usually black- and-white image, though Mauldin’s work was slightly less exaggerated, or “cartoonish,” than Bairnsfather’s. Opet’s cartoons were also single- frame images, but with combined speech/thought bubbles and captions. They appeared in either black and white or color, and the bold strokes and bright tints call to mind boardwalk caricatures. Pope’s cartoons, also color or black and white in single- frame, use either speech/thought bubbles or captions to give voice to simplistic drawings that emphasize characters. Grant’s single- frame, black- and-white cartoons rely on speech/thought bubbles and are sketchy in appearance, bringing small details to otherwise simple drawings. Other cartoonists have relied on stick figures, replicated and/or created by com- puters, digital graphics, and other mixed media to generate comic art that ranges from the gritty realism of Mauldin’s work, to assorted animals in military uni- Preface 3 forms, to androgynous geometric shapes—all conveying the experience of mil- itary service and warfare. As I neared the completion of the book’s first draft in April 2014 I read an article by Stephen Walt in Foreign Policy that asked when laughing at the mil- itary had become taboo. Walt’s article begins:

War is not a funny topic, but military life used to be a bountiful source of comic inspiration. The grim reality of the battlefield prompts plenty of black humor and the rigid orthodoxies of modern military organizations have been ripe fodder for satire in the past. Given that the United States has been at war for two out of every three years since the end of the Cold War, you’d think there would be lots of dark comedy and irreverent commentary on military topics, and not just when some randy commander gets caught with his pants down. Yet Americans no longer see the military as a worthy target for political satire.12

Walt goes on to argue that at the height of the Cold War until the 1970s, military humor was abundant in books such as Mister Roberts, films such as Kelly’s Heroes, television shows such as Gomer Pyle, USMC, and comic strips such as Beetle Bailey. But after the Vietnam War, a serious approach took hold through a series of anti- war works, and since the early 1980s mass- market treatment of the military has been mostly respectful. There have, of course, been some exceptions, such as Private Benjamin, Stripes, Hot Shots, Major Dad, and, more recently, Enlisted—but their humor does not work to undermine the military in any way. He suspects the reason that Americans do not joke about the military anymore is that most Americans do not serve in uniform anymore and so do not feel comfortable laughing at those who do. Additionally, the “supportSample the troops” file fervor of the post–Vietnam era, magnified by the post–9/11 “war on terror,” creates a climate inhospitable to mock- ing the military13: “Unfortunately, losing our ability to laugh at the military comes with a price. No human institution is perfect, and none should be given a free pass by the rest of society. Humor and ridicule are potent weapons when trying to keep powerful institutions under control.”14 Walt is partially right. Military humor is important for keeping the insti- tution in check and in perspective, and for serving a host of other social and political functions, which will be explored in this book. And a general popula- tion without military experience does contribute to a lack of mainstream mil- itary humor. After all, satire only works if an audience can recognize the conventions that are being lampooned.15 Additionally, the general population has simply grown weary of war narratives.16 But military humor has not disap- peared quite so completely. There is the satiric online military news source The Duffel Blog—like The Onion for the Armed Services—and gag comic strips such as Doctrine Man, Power Point Ranger, Terminal Lance, and Delta Bravo Sierra, to name just a few. In fact, insider military humor, such as that expressed 4 Preface through comics and cartoons, is a persistent and consistent aspect of military culture, as this book will demonstrate at length. Simply put, the work here focuses on the content of comics and cartoons— the stories told about the military and about war as seen through the inside jokes that are shared through the medium—and what we, as scholars, civilians, or fans, can learn about military experiences through that content. Beyond demonstrating how the military experience is constructed through cartoons and comics, it is hoped that this study will also contribute to an understanding of how comics work and how they serve cultural and identity functions, through its focus on comics developed within the tightly defined and rigidly constructed group of a military organization. Additionally, the work here will showcase the graphic works of artists and writers who may be little known to the broader public, introducing new audiences to this particular type of cartooning. A num- ber of the artists included here may be known through their work for Disney, Marvel, Harvey Comics, the New Yorker, or Madison Avenue, but may yet be unknown for these particular creations. Other artists are likely to be entirely new to the reader. The book interweaves the work and contributions of a great many people and multiple academic disciplines: the military artists themselves; other servicepersons; journalists; and researchers in communication and rhet- oric, sociology and political science, history and geography, psychology and medicine, and literature, art, and folklore. Hopefully none will feel misrepre- sented in the final picture I present, and for any errors of fact or misunder- standings of intention, I alone take full responsibility. Sample file Introduction Vocabularies of the Visual- Verbal

I have a profound need to share, to communicate, and comics are a wonderful form of communication that will be hugely important to our evolutionary development as a 21st-century species. —Ales Kot

This book can be conceptually divided into two parts. The first part, con- sisting of the preface, introduction, and chapter 1, offers an orientation to the subject matter. The second part explores the work of military cartoonists. To begin with, a brief overview of comics studies and of comics types is needed in order to situate a more specific discussion of military- created comics. This introduction will present a truncated history of the study and lexicon of comics, with special attention to those typesSample of works filerepresented by the military artists studied here. It will also provide an explanation of how the research for this project was conducted. Chapter 1 will then discuss military culture and cohesion with attention to the place of humor in the military environment, introduce humor types and trends in war and the military, and review how comics func- tion in the military setting. “Comics’ content and their social context are inextricably linked.”1 Com- prising a “bewildering assortment of artistic styles, stories, characters, and seeming purposes,”2 comics tell us about history—ours and theirs.3 But the very definition of comics is said to be “the most befuddling and widely debated point” in comics studies.4 One of the most used, and argued, definitions of comics calls them “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence.”5 In fact, comics have even been reduced to a simple “sequence of binary symbols.”6 Cartoons, on the other hand, have been defined as “any whimsical, facetious graphic expression which parodies any aspect of human behavior.”7 These defi-

5 6 Introduction nitions, however, omit one of the most significant components of comics and cartoons: They tell stories with their unique blending of visual and verbal. Even single- panel comics and gag comics tell stories, because the point or the punch- line is found in the implied storyline, of which only a single moment or brief time is seen. Relying on distortion and symbolic abstraction to tell these stories,8 comics are a language, “an original ensemble of productive mechanisms of meaning”9; they use universally accepted markings that represent physical, tem- poral, spatial, and emotional effects.10 Moreover, because so much of the story occurs between or outside the panels—in the “gutters”—comics actively engage the imagination of the readers, who must infer the information not on the page while processing the dynamics of the visual, linguistic, and spatial content of the panels. This individual self- creation with the multimodal rhetoric of comics subsequently supports a kind of pluralistic democratic individualism.11 The broader, if somewhat vague, moniker of “graphic narratives”12 is accepted for this project as a general term for the combination of images, including words and other symbols, in an apparent or implied sequence, acting as either a pictorial story or exposition.13 This term refers to the multiple approaches to graphic nar- ratives including comic strips, comic books, manga, and graphic novels, as well as gag and editorial cartoons—recognizing the medium of comics along cultural lines as a verbal/textual language, rather than according to structural elements.14 Fans and critics typically find it useful to make further delineations among these forms, because though the assorted types of graphic narratives share several key similarities, they are often seen as more different than alike. Comic strips are drawings that usually include dialogue, featuring the lives of particular characters for theSample audience’s fileentertainment.15 Rodolphe Töpffer, a Swiss teacher, author, and artist who lived 1799–1846, is considered the cre- ator of the comic strip. Töpffer used picture stories to satirize issues such as war, absolutism, bureaucracy, religion, and science.16 In the American context, comic strips were nourished by the cultural milieu and political changes of the 19th into the 20th centuries and became a staple of newspapers during the pub- lication war between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, an era marked by the character of the Yellow Kid.17 Their development has been clas- sified generationally: the Innocent Age includes somewhat naïve strips from the turn of the 20th century to the 1920s; the Modern Age covers approximately 1920 to 1960 with strips that were both nostalgic and prescient in their reflec- tions of society’s shift from a rural to an urban, mass production- consumption society; and the third generation of comics was dubbed the Age of Confusion and began with the turbulence of the 1960s and comics that became more socially aware and involved.18 The technical hallmarks of the comic strip are speech balloons, also known as fumetti, and narrative breakdown.19 Comic strips, nonetheless, need neither