American manga: I drew Superman in the Great Depression

Comic books in the modern sense were born in the 1930s.

It is the product of the combination of two literary and artistic forms: popular literary publications and newspaper comics.

Before that, comic strips were mainly serialized in newspapers, called strips.

Affected by the way newspapers are published, comic strips are generally serialized with one line per day (the Sunday pages are longer), and the narrative techniques are relatively fixed. The content and style of comics are diverse. In addition to the well-known humorous "four-frame comics", there are also detective stories

and action themes.

Many well-received four-frame comic strips originate from popular novels, or draw a lot of inspiration from them. The representative one is "Tarzan", which is adapted from the novel of the same name. Although its plot is not original, it is similar to the simple one.

Compared with humor comics, this kind of comics has made great progress in drama.

However, the emergence of the economic crisis and the Great Depression changed the status quo of comics.

Readers are no longer satisfied with simple humor and comedy. The rising crime rate and helplessness towards reality make people expect a stronger and more dominant character to appear and reverse everything. He will be powerful, invincible and invincible.

; He will uphold justice, eliminate evil in the world, and bring hope to the world.

Crimes like "Bonnie and Clyde" are not uncommon, but they are not as famous as them. And except for a few fanatical pursuers of criminals, the vast majority of people are afraid and disgusted by them.

On the way home from get off work on weekends, people have to carefully guard their pay bags.

To guard against insidious and evil robberies and thefts.

In short, people are calling for heroes.

This is also one of the main reasons why detective comics such as "Dick Tracy" were born and popular. The "tough guy" private detective who fights against crime has become a projection of readers' reality, and Dick Tracy fights against evil in the comics.

The hard-core approach to crime also indirectly vents their dissatisfaction and frustration with real life.

Perhaps, this is an opportunity.

Looking away from the "Dick Tracy" comic in Little John's hand, the vague inspiration in Colin's heart became clearer.

The cohesion of the mark requires the will of [Faith], and comics seem to be a good choice.

It is not like the Courier in the past, which relied on hate speech to absorb some twisted [beliefs].

Instead, readers’ consciousness [belief] is instilled into the comic characters through deliberate guidance, just like in primitive society, people use all things as totems to start the path of faith.

Colin also plans to use comics as a pattern of imprints to absorb readers' beliefs.

So, my identity is actually a missionary?

No, no, I am neither a pedophile nor a pervert, so I am not qualified to be a priest.

…

Thinking of a way to change [Belief], the expression on Colin's face became a little excited.

Following his train of thought, he began to think seriously about the theme of the comic strip in The Courier.

As a time traveler who has been baptized by the Internet era, Colin's choices can be said to be extremely wide. There are all kinds of comics and even novels, movies and TV content for him to filter.

However, such a rich selection of materials, instead of providing convenience, actually became an obstacle to Colin in some aspects.

How to choose the most advantageous story among so many themes as the comic that will be serialized in the newspaper really tests Colin's vision.

"..."

An atmosphere of silence prevailed in the Courier newspaper office.

After looking at the content of the comic in front of him, Colin Little John suddenly fell into deep thought. He looked at Old John beside him with some anxiety. The latter shook his head and motioned for him to continue to stay quiet.

No, that's not right, maybe I'm thinking too complicated.

Shaking his head and collecting the countless thoughts that came to his mind, Colin began to think about all this from a realistic perspective.

The history of the world is currently in the Great Depression, so many comics that are too advanced or have themes that are not suitable for publication in this era. Then, considering the overall social atmosphere of this period and the acceptance of the people, Colin gradually has a feeling in his heart.

Got the idea.

Looking at the content in the newspaper about Dick Tracy's fight against criminals, the corners of Colin's mouth turned up slightly.

Since, people in this era are shouting and yearning for heroes.

Then give them a hero, and a superhero.

That's right, after Colin's careful consideration, he finally decided to define the story of the comic series as superhero content.

The Great Depression was the initial soil for the birth of superhero comics.

The bad economy has led to the growth of high crime. People living in this era not only have to endure economic problems, but also have to endure a more dangerous public security environment and a harsh living environment than in the past, which has led to the loss of public belief.

of vacillation.

Many people who originally were not religious lied about being religious in order to get the food and shelter provided by the Salvation Army.

People urgently need a faith and spiritual sustenance to escape from the difficult life and pain in the real world.

Broadcasting seized this opportunity and ushered in a golden age of rapid development. Comics were obviously also in the midst of such a special opportunity.

In fact, not long after "Dick Tracy" was serialized, a newspaper once serialized a comic "The Phantom" that was similar to or the prototype of modern superheroes. The protagonist in the comic was wearing a tights.

Wearing a mask and having a secret identity, except that he has no superpowers, he is not much different from a superhero in the traditional sense.

These qualities of "The Phantom" inspired many subsequent authors and became the precursor of superheroes.

Of course, the person Colin chose to serialize the comics could not be the so-called "The Phantom" or the Phantom Man or the Phantom Man.

Although this character has a phantom in his name, he is essentially just an ordinary person wearing tights. The storyline is mostly based on the framework of detective comics. It is not so much a superhero comic as a detective comic.

Variants of.

Since he chose superhero comics as his pattern to gain [faith] during the Great Depression, it was naturally impossible for Colin to abandon his martial arts skills and use an ordinary character without any superpowers as his target.

It is foreseeable that once he chooses "The Phantom" to condense the "Black Iron Mark", the result will not be much different from using Hoover.

On the contrary, since it is called a superhero.

Then, the character should be called Super, so that comic readers will associate the existence of this hero when they hear the name superhero.

Thinking of this, a name immediately came to Colin's mind.

Superman—Superman!