Government Issue: Comics for the People, 1940s-2000s
Captain America fights drugs, Li’l Abner promotes military recruitment, and Supergirl encourages seat-belt use in the public-service comics produced by federal and state government agencies, compiled here by Graham, a librarian who curates the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s digital collection of government comics. In the 1940s, comics legends Will Eisner and Milton Caniff produced instructional comics for the military (Eisner’s efforts were recently collected in PS Magazine: The Best of the Preventative Maintenance Monthly, 2011); other prominent cartoonists represented in the volume include Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz, and Neal Adams. But most of the hands behind these publications were anonymous artists with varying abilities who taught the public about such matters as public safety, civil defense, and financial literacy. Many are kitschy glimpses into the era’s culture, touting fallout shelters in the 1950s and offering shrill antidrug messages in the 1960s. Recent examples include the late 1990s Captain Abstinence (crudely drawn by high-school students) and Dignity and Respect, a low-key guide for soldiers on the Homosexual Conduct Policy initiated by the Clinton administration but withdrawn by President Bush. Most of the comics are excerpted; a scannable code provides access to the full comics online. --Gordon Flagg