Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought-provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

WW2 category: Cartoons and World War II  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'Collectors', 'Scale Models: Military', 'Fourth Reich: Neo Nazis'.

How Superman really helped America win World War II     comicmix.com :: 2009-12-10
During the second world war, almost every comic shifted to a wartime footing, with covers of American heroes kicking the crap out of Nazis. But in at least one case, superheroes did a lot more. The US Army had a problem at the time: they were drafting thousands of men, but many had no education, with certain percentage of them illiterate. They had to learn how to read, and fast. So with the help of National Periodical Publications, the predecessor to DC Comics, special edition of Superman was produced by the War Department with simplified dialogue and word balloons. Hundreds of thousands of copies were sent to GIs, and it helped them learn to read and to pass the time.    

Episodes from Auschwitz: Polish comic book series covers Nazi camps     ynet.co.il :: 2009-08-09
A Nazi death camp may not seem a topic for comic books but a new series with real-life stories from Auschwitz has emerged - in Polish and English - to teach kids about the Holocaust. The drawings are offset by the humanity of real, historically documented prisoners and Nazi guard - like the doomed, young lovers in the first adventure, "Love in the Shadow of Death". Beata Klos and Jacek Lech thought about the idea for years and the format (40page soft-cover comic books) was carefully thought: "We think the history of the death camps isn't sufficiently taught to the younger generations and rarely in a way that would draw their interest."    

War comic "Battlefields: The Night Witches" focuses on German and Soviet soldiers     philly.com :: 2008-12-01
Article no longer available from the original source.
First, "Battlefields: The Night Witches" is a war comic, a tough sell in an industry that is dominated by superheroes. Second, the book focuses on German and Soviet soldiers during World War Two and there is not a single American GI to root for - so the challenge of finding an audience becomes that much harder. Third, the book puts the spotlight on women soldiers. it's a miracle that the project was given a green light. While depicting German troops in WWII as sympathetic has caused controversy for publishers in the past, Garth Ennis gets away with it by showing them as soldiers who go through the universal glories and horrors of war.    

Russian political cartoonist Boris Yefimov lived in daily fear of a call from Stalin     cbc.ca :: 2008-10-02
Russia's Boris Yefimov, a World War II propaganda artist and famed political cartoonist who satirised the communist state from the Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union, has passed away. He started out as a cartoonist in Kiev in 1919 and did cartoons about the Soviet Union, and its enemies, until the collapse of the communist state in 1991. As a boy he once saw the last tsar Nicholas II, and later he met Lenin, Trotsky and Bukharin and worked under Josef Stalin. His life covered both world wars, the revolution, the Cold War and several changes of guard in the Soviet system. The cartoonist said he lived in daily fear of a call from Stalin.    

Caricaturist Arthur Szyk - Mocking Hitler and Mussolini     nytimes.com :: 2008-09-09
Arthur Szyk was a Jewish caricaturist campaigned against the Nazis and, later, for Israel and civil rights. Born in 1894 in what is now Poland, he served in the Russian Army on the German front in the First World War, then moved during the 1920s to Paris. From Paris he travelled to London and onward to New York, having established a reputation with several shows. During the 1940s he became renowned as an illustrator of books and magazine covers for Time, Collier's, Esquire and others, and as a political cartoonist. He made Goebbels into a skunk, Göring into a fat Cossack, Marshal Pétain into Pierrot and the Japanese into bats and gorillas.    

Graphic novel Maus tells Holocaust survivor story in different, unique style     andthevalleyshook.com :: 2008-08-10
The world is flooded with stories of the Holocaust. None of them are quite like Maus. Holocaust memoirs have trouble standing out, because they're often the same horrific story: Live the idyllic life in some country. German Army comes in and ships everyone out. Witness horrors beyond all imagining. Survive somehow. Mourn for those who did not make it. The need to tell one's story is understandable. But for the reader the stories are pretty much all the same. Maus, a graphic novel, manages to stick out. Art Spiegelman takes advantage of the flexibility of his medium by creating a fantasy world where Jews are represented by mice, Germans are cats, Americans are dogs, etc.    

1941 comic book "Mean Scamp-F" pokes fun at Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf     ottawacitizen :: 2008-08-05
This 60-page comic book is about the early days of World War II and was published in 1941 by the Musson Book Company Ltd. The title is "Mean Scamp-F" and the author is Pte. Harry Hall, from the 46th Battalion Canadian Infantry, 1914-1918. It's a really interesting piece. Very few paper collectibles survive the years, and that's why they're called ephemera (short-lived). Adolf Hitler was convicted of treason in 1923 after a coup attempt. To clear his name he wrote Mein Kampf. The title of this comic book, Mean Scamp-F, is a parody of Mein Kampf. But because there seem to be no sales records for this particular comic, it's hard to appraise.     [Mein Kampf & The Second Book]

Albert Speer's aide Hans Stefan mocked Adolf Hitler's Germania in cartoons     scotsman.com :: 2008-07-19
This is one of the plans for Germania that Adolf Hitler did not sign off - and ones that would have seen their author decapitated if the Fuhrer had seen them. The cartoons, which poke fun at the excess vision of Hitler for a super-capital of his 1,000-year Reich were thought lost in the Berlin bombing, but they turned up recently and are showed at the Architectural Museum of the Technical University of Berlin. The cartoon sketches were made by Hans Stefan, an architect on the staff of Albert Speer, who in 1937 was tasked with the planning for the megalopolis that would show the might of the Ayran rulers.     [Albert Speer]

We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons     cbc :: 2008-03-21
Swastikas can be funny, says cartoonist Sam Gross, whose book is devoted to cartoons featuring the symbol most often linked with the German Nazi Party. The swastika is the focus of the jokes in "We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons". The idea came to him during a news story about a boy who was drawing the swastika symbol on garage doors. Gross didn't realize why the story made headline news. "The symbol is held in such awe and terror. I just got so angry that I decided to have fun with it." The goal was both to take the power out of the swastika.     [Swastika: Nazi Sign, Symbol & Emblem]

Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front - Biography traces life of WW2 cartoonist     pittsburghlive :: 2008-03-16
In 2002 Bill Mauldin was living out the last days of his life. So many get-well cards were sent by World War II veterans that when Mauldin died, boxes of mail remained unopened. When Todd DePastino began writing "Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front", Mauldin's family let him open some of the unread mail. One letter touched DePastino. A widow of a soldier who died in battle had kept cartoons her husband clipped. "She knew what Mauldin had meant to her husband, and she was thanking him 60 years later. That letter told me so much: How fresh her grief was... and how intimately connected Bill Mauldin was to her grief."     [Cartoons and World War II]

Anzacs at War released comic compilation - Ironic fun or racist rubbish?     nzherald :: 2008-03-02
Anthology of war comics: Ironic fun or racist rubbish. Anzacs at War is a compilation of 12 stories originally issued by Scottish company DC Thomson. Maori warriors are presented as savage barbarians, Japanese soldiers are dismissed as "Nips" and Germans are "Jerries". Dylan Horrocks said the comics dated from a time of "pervasive everyday racism". "Commando comics have always been racist..." But he didn't think the collection should be banned. "It's all part of the genre of WWII. Part of what people like about the reprints is the old-fashioned, retro attitudes. It's all very ironic and people laugh about it."    

Cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler discovered by Norwegian museum director?     nzherald :: 2008-02-22
William Hakvaag says he has found cartoons by Adolf Hitler, who made a living as an artist before going into politics. He had found the drawings concealed in a painting signed "A.Hitler" that he bought. He found 3 coloured cartoons of dwarfs from the 1937 film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", signed A.H., and an unsigned "Pinocchio" sketch. Tests on the paintings dated from 1940. "I am 100% sure that these are drawings by Hitler... If one wanted to make a forgery, one would never hide it in the back of a picture, where it might never be discovered." The initials and the signature are consistent with Hitler's handwriting.     [Art & Paintings by Artist Adolf Hitler]

Germany teaches its youth about the Holocaust with a graphic novel     dailymail.co.uk :: 2008-02-02
No one can accuse the Germans of dismissing the horrors of the Nazi past. So concerned have they become about a lack of knowledge of the Holocaust among kids that they are spreading a new book in schools describing their country's genocide in an easily accessible graphic novel. The "comic book" format is seen as the best way to get a whole new generation of children to confront the most terrible period of German history. The book - called The Search - shows a grandmother recounting her grandson the circumstances of how her father and her brother, Bob, were sent to Auschwitz during Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution".     [Holocaust: Teaching, Study, Education]

War through the eyes of a PoW in Japan - See pictures, sketches     telegraph.co.uk :: 2007-11-24
Sketches by World War II Serviceman Fred Goodwin, tracing his experiences from RAF bases to a Japanese P-O-W camp, are to be exhibited for the first time. After the Battle of Britain he was sent to the Dutch East Indies with 605 Squadron. However, the planes were equipped for desert warfare and were worthless against Japanese Zero fighters. Goodwin was captured, and as a POW he witnessed unutterable horrors. However, throughout the war he made drawings and paintings. The exhibition including his collection comes weeks after the death of Air Cdre Ricky Wright, one of the most talented flyers of 605 Squadron.    

Bill Mauldin's World War II Cartoons to Be Collected in 2-Volume Set     fantagraphics.com :: 2007-07-25
More than 600 of Bill Mauldin's World War Two cartoons - many never reprinted before - will be collected in a 2-volume set that Fantagraphics Books is publishing. "Willie & Joe: The WWII Years" totals 650 pages. It's edited by Todd DePastino, whose biography of the cartoonist - "Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front" - is also slated to be published. Mauldin used his Willie and Joe characters to comment on WWII through the eyes of average soldiers. The WWII veteran won a 1945 Pulitzer Prize for those United Feature Syndicate cartoons, and won another Pulitzer in 1959.     [Cartoons and World War II]

Nazi cartoon by Tom Scott censored because of German swastika ban     stuff :: 2007-06-14
Article no longer available from the original source.
Tom Scott has found his super-mouse in Nazi uniform is too strong for German distributors of his drug education book. The cartoon - in The Great Brain Robbery, written with Trevor Grice - has been left out of a German edition. It accompanied a paragraph on a special breed of mice bred, which had a gene essential to the synthesis of the nitric oxide blocked. "Fast, fearless, insanely amorous, murderous male mice resulted." This led Scott to conclude the ferocious behaviour was reminiscent of the Nazi regime. To illustrate this, he drew a male uber mouse dressed like Adolf Hitler, complete with jackboots, Iron Cross on the breast pocket and swastika on the left armband.    

UK's sole surviving war comic, Commando, has made it to issue 4,000     bbc :: 2007-04-28
The Britain's sole surviving war comic, Commando, has made it to issue 4,000 - titled "Aces All". In their heyday British war comics (Victor, Valiant, Warlord) shifted by the Bedford lorry load. Commando, which began in 1961, is all that remains of this history, and continues to sell healthily. "We were always very, very careful to differentiate between ordinary Germans and Nazis." Each edition houses a 63-page black and white saga of heroes and villains (mostly Teutonic types exclaiming "Achtung!" when surprised, and "Schnell!" when in a rush), clashing mostly on the World War II battlefield.    

WWII Cartoonist Bill Mauldin battled General George Patton     tulsaworld :: 2007-04-02
"I need a couple guys what don't owe me no money for a little routine patrol." Was the caption under a WWII cartoon by Sgt. Bill Mauldin depicting an Army sergeant talking to men. The cartoons, featuring soldiers named Willie and Joe, were popular with the GIs. General George Patton considered them "attempts to undermine military discipline" and threatened to have Stars and Stripes banned from his 3rd Army unless it dropped them. Mauldin was summoned to an audience with Patton in 1945. After listening to the general's lecture, "I came out with my hide on. We parted friends, but I don't think we changed each other's mind" - a comment that infuriated Patton.    

Adolf Hitler Cartoons     ucsd :: 2007-02-07
Political cartoons about Adolf Hitler, Third Reich and World War II.    

Disney and World War II - Emblems, posters and propaganda     ohmynews :: 2006-11-04
Just prior to America's entry into the war, the U.S. Navy asked Disney Studios to assist in designing an emblem for one of the new American warships. The creation proved popular and further requests were made. Over the next 6 years Studios devoted 94% of its facilities to support the allied war effort through the creation of over 1,200 unit emblems, posters and designs for war bonds. It also produced short cartoons for propaganda purposes. According to Bruce B. Herman, an expert on military antiques, one German pilot painted an image of Mickey Mouse on his airplane. "It annoyed Walt Disney no end that the Nazis were using his creation."     [Third Reich: Culture ]

Hitler cartoon short film "Der Bonker" causes storm in Germany     guardian :: 2006-09-21
A satirical cartoon about Adolf Hitler, where he sits on the toilet complaining about Winston Churchill, is causing controversy. Walter Moers is famous for his comic books depicting the dictator as a frustrated little man. But with the release of the short film "Der Bonker", Germans seem to feel he has gone too far. Despite thousands of fans making the clip one of this week's most shown, many have complained at the comic portryal of the mass-murdering dictator. A caricatured version of Hitler is shown in the bathroom of his bunker in 1945, singing angrily to himself about the way the war is going.     [Springtime for Hitler]

Sketches capture the raw emotions of 19-year-old infantry serviceman     zoominfo :: 2006-04-07
There is a famous drawing by Bill Mauldin, where two officers are gazing at spectacular mountain scenery and one turns to the other and says, "Beautiful view. Is there one for the enlisted men?" Sergio Bonotto laughs so hard remembering the cartoon that tears start to flow. He and his fellow GIs witnessed equal opportunity misery - waiting around for something to happen or trudging through the mud, rain and cold and early spring near Dusseldorf. Because his Army experience was so intense, he carried a notebook and pencils with him, and whenever he could he sketched scenes that recaptured moments of his life in the infantry.     [Cartoons and World War II]

Gallery traces anti-Semitism in political cartoons     redorbit :: 2005-12-10
Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitic if it uses the same kinds of images as those long used to attack Jews? That question will be posed by an exhibition appearing in London early next year. Certain themes persist in anti-Semitic imagery and can be found in the Middle Ages, 19th century Europe, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and contemporary Arab media. Cohen has images of Jews portrayed as hairy apes, bloodsucking spiders and greedy merchants. His collection includes a 15th century German print that shows Jews taking a child's blood, and another from France about the same time that shows a Jewish serpent with children's legs hanging from its jaws.     [Anti-semitism: History, WWII, Nazis]

Book of Hitler cartoons to go under the hammer     icWales :: 2005-08-18
A book containing a collection of newspaper and magazine cartoons lampooning Adolf Hitler is to go under the hammer later this month. Shropshire-based auction house Mullock Madeley said the volume, published in Germany in 1933, was expected to attract significant interest because it was officially commended by Hitler himself.     [Cartoons and World War II]

See also:
'Collectors'
'Scale Models: Military'
'Fourth Reich: Neo Nazis'.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2010. All rights reserved.