"How One of the First Romance Comics Fought Fascism", by @ligerlillie
In 1941, writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby introduced the star-spangled supersoldier Captain America, who punched Hitler in his iconic debut. Premiering before America entered World War II, Captain America was a nationalist, anti-fascist fantasy at odds with American isolationism. After the war’s end, Simon and Kirby launched the first romance comic, an anthology-style series called Young Romance—and one of its first heroines was a fascist.
From the start, Young Romance mixed entertainment with moral instruction. In their quests for love, its heroines inevitably confronted their own flaws and temptations, whether that was dressing too provocatively (“I Was a Pick-Up!,” Young Romance #1) or concealing a criminal record (“Unwanted,” Young Romance #10). Some had to confront societal prejudice, too: in the 1951 story “Different” (Young Romance #30), heroine Irma is ostracized by her town—including her boyfriend—when it emerges that her family are German Jews. Annaliese, by contrast, is a heroine in name only. As “Fraulein Sweetheart”’s shocking twist reveals, Annaliese and Kate are Nazis. And while it would be easy to shrug off “Fraulein, Sweetheart” as a mid-century curiosity, at its heart lies a compassionate, whole-hearted condemnation of fascism."
Read more on Shelfdust!
