Will Eisner’s comics consecration is generally associated with his trilogy including A Contract with Good, and Other Tenement Stories (1978), A Life Force (1988), and Dropsie Avenue (1995), and to his fortunate theorization of the “Graphic Novel”. In Eisner’s wide production, little attention has been paid to his “war comics,” except for a few essays and some chapters in biographical monographs on the author (Worchester 2005, Schumaker 2010, and Cord 2011). Yet, war represents the main theme of a considerable branch of Einser’s work, developed from the 1940s until the beginning of the 1970s. Eisner’s activity in war comics began in 1942 when he enlisted in the US Army and participated in the production of military manuals structured in comics strips – Army Motors (1942), PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly (1951-1971), and The M16A1 Rifle (1968) – aimed at teaching the US GIs maintenance procedures for their equipment. Eisner applied pedagogical strategies to the language and grammar of comics and later theorized this juncture as “instructional comics” in his volume Comics and Sequential Art (1985). His intuition on using comics as a pedagogical tool (notoriously expanded by Scott McCloud) relies on specific strategies to convey instructions depending on the readership: in the case of the army, he resorted to humor and sexuality. However, these strategies’ effects cross the borders of pedagogy and impact the representation of the US army, transformed into a receptacle of incompetents, anti-heroes, and naughty, sex-obsessed young Americans. By analyzing the pedagogical functions of these strategies PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, and The M16A1 Rifle, the purpose of my essay is to demonstrate the parodical “spillover effect” that Eisner’s instructional comics caused in the representation and perception of the world’s most powerful army, de-idealizing the US military myths that emerged during World War Two (Adams 1994; Pauwels 2002; Rose 2008).
When the Strip Teases: Humour, Sexism, and the Myth of the US Army in Will Eisner's War Comics
Nicola Paladin
2024-01-01
Abstract
Will Eisner’s comics consecration is generally associated with his trilogy including A Contract with Good, and Other Tenement Stories (1978), A Life Force (1988), and Dropsie Avenue (1995), and to his fortunate theorization of the “Graphic Novel”. In Eisner’s wide production, little attention has been paid to his “war comics,” except for a few essays and some chapters in biographical monographs on the author (Worchester 2005, Schumaker 2010, and Cord 2011). Yet, war represents the main theme of a considerable branch of Einser’s work, developed from the 1940s until the beginning of the 1970s. Eisner’s activity in war comics began in 1942 when he enlisted in the US Army and participated in the production of military manuals structured in comics strips – Army Motors (1942), PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly (1951-1971), and The M16A1 Rifle (1968) – aimed at teaching the US GIs maintenance procedures for their equipment. Eisner applied pedagogical strategies to the language and grammar of comics and later theorized this juncture as “instructional comics” in his volume Comics and Sequential Art (1985). His intuition on using comics as a pedagogical tool (notoriously expanded by Scott McCloud) relies on specific strategies to convey instructions depending on the readership: in the case of the army, he resorted to humor and sexuality. However, these strategies’ effects cross the borders of pedagogy and impact the representation of the US army, transformed into a receptacle of incompetents, anti-heroes, and naughty, sex-obsessed young Americans. By analyzing the pedagogical functions of these strategies PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, and The M16A1 Rifle, the purpose of my essay is to demonstrate the parodical “spillover effect” that Eisner’s instructional comics caused in the representation and perception of the world’s most powerful army, de-idealizing the US military myths that emerged during World War Two (Adams 1994; Pauwels 2002; Rose 2008).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
