Fig. 6, 202K
Fig. 7, 139K
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On a Sunday morning in 1907, urban Americans, reading their Sunday comics section, chuckled at the antics of such characters as Little Ah Sid the Chinese Kid; Frenchmen, Alphonse and Gaston; Irish bumbler, Happy Hooligan; German mischief-makers, the Katzenjammer Kids; and Sambo, the black, bulbous-headed star of the strip "Sambo and his Funny Noises." The characters spoke with exaggerated accents, were slow-witted, got into trouble, and looked silly--at times, even subhuman (fig. 6). Today, almost eighty years later, a trip to a comic book store reveals a surprising contrast: ethnic characters as superheroes. Superman, Captain Marvel, and Batman, all of Anglo heritage, have been joined by Black Panther (African), White Tiger (Puerto Rican), Kitty Pryde (Jewish), Banshee (Irish), Colossus (Russian), Firebird (Mexican), (fig. 7) and more. No longer the butt of jokes, ethnic characters in the comics today are, with some important exceptions, treated positively and with increasing sensitivity.
What was the attitude toward ethnic stereotyping in those early years of the comic strip, and what caused such a dramatic change later on? No simple answers exist, but it is possible to point to a variety of events and trends, both within the comics industry and in society at large, which affected the ways in which ethnic characters were portrayed, and, therefore, can be seen as major agents in the evolution of these images. |
Early in the century, ethnic characters were considered to be great comic material. The "funny" characteristics of the newly-arrived European immigrants, as well as of "older" groups (Afro-Americans and Native Americans), were popular targets for the slapstick, and the sometimes cruel, humor of the times. Falling down the stairs, getting electrocuted, having an eye poked out by a goat's horn were typical gags, and, more often than not, bumbling ethnic characters, with heavy, slurred accents, were the victims. Today, these insensitive, and often blatantly prejudiced images shock us, yet, at the time, they were generally accepted and even encouraged. In a 1986 reprint of his 1940's strip, "The Spirit," Will Eisner explained this phenomenon:
"People write in connection with their times. They evoke humor from the perception of what's funny at the time.... Humor in those days was extracted from the incongruities of character. Part of that incongruity was the inept English the characters were portrayed as using. I grew up with that tradition, and it was still current when I was doing "The Spirit."
In the 1940's book Comics and their Creators, an article by Milton Caniff about the creation of his strip "Terry and the Pirates" is also indicative of attitudes toward ethnic characters at that time. The cartoonist describes how the syndicate editor convinced him to include Connie, the Chinese valet, in the strip, by explaining that a "screwy Chinese" would add exotic flavor to the new adventure strip.
Fig. 8, 133K
Eisner and Caniff might well have learned to draw ethnic stereotypes from the cartoonist manuals of the time. One such instruction book from 1944, How to Draw Funny Pictures, provides lessons on how to draw Irish, Jewish, Chinese and other ethnic groups (fig. 8). For sketching Afro-Americans, the author offers these tips:
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Fig. 2, 249K
| Though the cartoonists and editors who utilized condescending and demeaning ethnic stereotypes were often of Anglo heritage, it is important to note that ethnic cartoonists drew these stereotypes as well--and of their own ethnic group! Rudolph Dirks and Harold Knerr, both of German descent, drew the "Katzenjammer Kids." Harry Hershfield, a Jew, drew "Abie the Agent," about a Jewish immigrant salesman, and George McManus created "Bringing Up Father," about an Irish-American family trying to climb the social ladder (see fig. 2). |
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| Crude stereotyping of ethnic characters became less prevalent as the first half of the century progressed. Syndication, which transformed the comics industry in the 1920's, resulted in the use of fewer ethnic images. Also, the assimilation of certain immigrant groups into American society altered the way that these ethnic groups were portrayed in the comics. By the 1930's and 40's, "girl" and "kid" strips featured ethnic characters recognizable as ethnic only by their names: "Tillie the Toiler," "Scarlet O'Neil," "Little Annie Rooney," "Rusty Riley" and "Mitzi McCoy" (fig. 9). No accent or ethnic traits remained. They appeared in a city office, a western ranch, and Hometown, U.S.A. By 1958, even the Katzenjammer Kids had lost their accents. |
Fig. 10, 145K
| Assimilation in the comics, though, happened only to the easily assimilable--those of European stock. Characters of African, Asian, East Indian, and Native American heritage continued to be depicted in servile or stock, stereotyped roles as late as the 1960's. By the 40's, however, certain members of these groups began to express their outrage. In 1942 James Samuel Stemmons protested the depiction of Afro-Americans in the comics. In his essay, "Below the Belt" (Reading Press, Philadelphia, Pa.), Stemmons declared Ebony, the Black sidekick from Will Eisner's "The Spirit" (fig. 10) to be "..an unprecedented insult to Negroes...." |
"I have long watched with heart of lead, the widespread efforts which are being made to make Negroes the objects of scorn and contempt by picturing them as being stupid and slothful by nature, and sheer monstrosities in looks, but I have never seen a more offensive libel on Negroes than that of your Mr. Doe [i.e., Will Eisner],"
The NAACP mounted its own protest against this and other demeaning comic images in the late 40's--a protest which gathered momentum during the civil rights era.
While civil rights activists agitated for more positive images of Afro-Americans in the comics, the actions of another pressure group, inspired by Dr. Frederick Wertham, almost wiped out ethnic images altogether. In The Seduction of the Innocents (Rhinehart & Co., 1954), Wertham wrote about the harmful effects of comic books on the minds of children. Under the pressure of his campaign, the comic book industry instituted the Comics Code in 1954, which forbade, among other things, graphic violence, crime, sex, and "Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group. . . . " Though the provision on religion and race was designed to end prejudiced stereotyping in the comics, it instead intimidated many cartoonists into avoiding ethnic images altogether. The result was a dramatic decrease in the number of ethnic characters created during the 50's. Mostly the old, stock, stereotyped images remained: Italian organ grinders, Irish cops, East Indian fortune teller--all in cute Wait Disney-type animal and kid comics.
Fig. 11, 154K
| Another powerful force in the evolution of ethnic images in the comics was the cartoonists themselves. Both before and after the era of the institution of the Comics Code, strong-minded cartoonists had used the powerful tool of their medium to express their views on many issues, including that of prejudice and stereotyping. In an interview shortly before his death, Al Capp, creator of "Li'l Abner," declared: "Comic art not only should say something about the status quo: it must." Al Capp's story about the square-eyed family who move into Dogpatch was a case study on the dynamics of prejudice. All the townspeople hated the family at first sight simply because they were different. Yet Mammy Yokum, who discovered the square-eyed baby caught in a wolf trap, crying "like any other chile," found that "Th' li'l diff'runces between folks shouldn't hide th'big things thass th'same 'bout all of us!!" (fig. 11) |
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| In the late 1940's and 50's, EC Comics was a significant agent of change within the industry. In addition to horror and crime comics, EC's cartoonists produced comics with hard-hitting messages about prejudice and racism. One 1950's issue of Weird Fantasy told the story of a heroic spaceman, who, at the end of the story, removed his space helmet to reveal, unexpectedly, that he was Black (fig. 12). EC also spawned Mad Magazine--well known for its social commentary. |
Many comic books of the 1970's and 80's have addressed the issue of prejudice head on in their story lines. The X-Men, a Marvel comics title, has approached the issue by creating a new minority group. The human mutant heroes have faced hatred and derision regularly from "normal" humans. "It's a Mutie!" the crowd jeers.
Contemporary cartoonists' attitudes toward ethnic images are being conveyed to future cartoonists through today's cartooning instruction books. Unlike the cartooning books of the 40's, the new books contain such messages as this: "When you caricature a person, use your eyes and mind and heart, not your preconceptions and someone else's prejudices." (Richardson, J.A., Complete Book of Cartooning, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1977).
Proof that the change runs deep lies in the fact that comic book readers now protest offensive ethnic images. Since the late 1960's the "letters" pages of comic books have periodically contained such complaints. Fans pointed out, for example, that the only Germans portrayed in the 1960's comic book Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, were enemy Nazis. The response of the cartoonists was to introduce an anti-Nazi German as a new member of the Commandos.
When the role of Green Lantern (originally a white superhero), was taken over by a Black character, a Black fan wrote, "Your decision to replace Green Lantern with a Black man was a complete reverse-prejudice motive, which isn't fair to both longtime and future readers. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but we want a hero who has his own origin, not one that has already been established for years by another man."
Ethnic images found in the comics today are a strange mix. They reflect a patchwork of forces: syndication of the strips, assimilation of ethnic groups into society, the civil rights movement, the Comics Code, activist cartoonists, and the demands of readers. In the 1970's, cartoonists like Garry Trudeau ("Doonesbury") dealt with the issue of racism, directly expressing their own ideals which, of course, were influenced by the civil rights movement. At the same time, other strips, like the 1970's version of Joe Palooka, reflected the impact Of assimilation and the Comics Code era. Having lost all his stereotyped ethnic traits (accent, dumbness, pugnaciousness), Joe has been transformed into a family man, surrounded by his white-skinned, blond-haired wife and children, all living in sanitized, "happy" suburbia.
Periodically, ethnic images pop up which are holdovers from earlier times. In a recent "Ziggy" strip, the stock image of the Italian organ grinder was used. Negative stereotypes, as blatantly racist as those at the turn of the century, can still be found as well, though such stereotyping today more often targets foreigners who are associated with American foreign policy disputes than immigrant ethnic groups. Such is the case with Arab stereotypes of the 1970's and 80's which have appeared in "Brenda Starr," "Little Orphan Annie," and other strips.
Fig. 13, 148K
| Despite the mixed results, there is an encouraging trend toward increasingly sensitive portrayal of ethnic characters in the comics. There is even evidence that cartoonists are going beyond the flatly positive images so prevalent in the depiction of today's ethnic heroes and superheroes. A few ethnic characters are now full participants in their comic world, not just tokens. The reader has the sense that the Black boy in Berke Breathed's "Bloom County" is not just in the strip because he is Black. His role is as the "brains" of the group, and it just so happens that he is Black (fig. 13). |
Pamela B. Nelson is Curatorial Assistant and Registrar in the Museum Department at The Balch Institute. She received her B.A. in Religion and French from Middlebury College in 1982.