AMERICAN COMICS: A HISTORY
Channel: US National Archives
Date: 14/12/2021

Author Jeremy Dauber will discuss the sweeping story of cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels and their century-long hold on the American imagination. Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, Dauber whizzes readers through comics’ progress in the 20th century and beyond: from the golden age of newspaper comic strips (Krazy Kat, Yellow Kid, Dick Tracy) to the midcentury superhero boom (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman); from the moral panic of the Eisenhower era to the underground comix movement. Dauber shows not only how comics have changed but how American politics and history have changed them. He describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself through whose stories comics tell.