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What Hitler And Axis Covers Comics Do You Have?
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1,133 posts in this topic

Great thread, helps a lot with the research I found myself fascinated by… :)

 

During WWII, the Italians despised the Duce. Italian military at the time was a second class military and was suffering defeat after defeat. Read a little WWII history and you'll find out why

 

Hmm… It’s not so linear. I would not venture in such schematizations. And history books can be pretty misleading, since they tend to look more often just at external facts, than to the person.

In fact, this kind of research presents itself to me (I am italian) as a fascinating quest in history, since it can be done from all angles, and through the privileged means of comics' fiction. Problem is Germany did not have a comics tradition, and Japan matured its own "more modern" approach after the war.

 

Recently we have had a landmark study on the subject of fascist policy vs. the comics medium, conducted by some friends of mine. The book, of course, is in italian, and focuses on the syndicated strips production (which were the ones started, with Flash Gordon, to be published in large comics "newspapers" in the early 1930s (Superman made his debut on the pages on one of these)).

The book is titled "Eccetto Topolino" (Except Mickey Mouse), a title which refers to a supposed clearance Mussolini gave to the Walt Disney productions (his sons read comics), and to the general indulgence with which Disney and humor comics were tolerated as the MinCulPop (Ministry for the Popular Culture, a fascist institution) up to 1943. After that, the only publication which almost did not cease publication due to those restrictions applied to American comics was "Il Vittorioso", a weekly tabloid which published comics entirely written & drawn in Italy.

Here we had, among the many features, "Romano il legionario", a more patriotic than actually fascist hero which could be seen as a sort of italian counter-part to your Air-fighter comics genre (Blackhawk, Airboy, etc.). A lot more realistic, too, he was created by Kurt Caesar, which had singular positions towards nazist Germany and the alliance.

 

"Eccetto Topolino" studies all the story, up to the "liberation" of comics, and the restoration of the balloons (the use of balloons was prohibited by MinCulPop), up to the end of the war.

 

Here's the cover:

eccetto-topolino.jpg

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