Tijd voor copy & paste

Bij deze, 377 woorden die het Amerikaanse Department of Homeland Security heeft opgesteld als reden om jou en mij scherper in de gaten te houden. Combineer deze woorden op de blogs en/of sociale websites dan zal er geheid een alarmbelletje gaan rinkelen aan de andere kant van de oceaan. De woorden komen uit het “Analyst’s Desktopbinder”. Een soort werkboek voor internet-agenten van FBI of DHS.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Coast Guard (USCG)
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Border Patrol
Secret Service (USSS)
National Operations Center (NOC)
Homeland Defense
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Agent
Task Force
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Fusion Center
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Air Marshal
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
National Guard
Red Cross
United Nations (UN)
Assassination
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Domestic security
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Exercise
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Shots fired
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Chemical burn
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Epidemic
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Powder (white)
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Center for Disease Control (CDC)
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Terror Tuberculosis (TB)
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H1N1
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World Health Organization (WHO) (and components)
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
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Infrastructure security
Airport
CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
AMTRAK
Collapse
Computer infrastructure
Communications infrastructure
Telecommunications
Critical infrastructure
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Metro
WMATA
Airplane (and derivatives)
Chemical fire
Subway
BART
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Port Authority
NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
Transportation security
Grid
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Smart
Body scanner
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Failure or outage
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Port
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Gang
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Border
Mexico
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Southwest
Juarez
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Tijuana
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Yuma
Tucson
Decapitated
U.S. Consulate
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El Paso
Fort Hancock
San Diego
Ciudad Juarez
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Sonora
Colombia
Mara salvatrucha
MS13 or MS-13
Drug war
Mexican army
Methamphetamine
Cartel de Golfo
Gulf Cartel
La Familia
Reynosa
Nuevo Leon
Narcos
Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
Los Zetas
Shootout
Execution
Gunfight
Trafficking
Kidnap
Calderon
Reyosa
Bust
Tamaulipas
Meth Lab
Drug trade
Illegal immigrants
Smuggling (smugglers)
Matamoros
Michoacana
Guzman
Arellano-Felix
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Barrio Azteca
Artistic Assassins
Mexicles
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Al Qaeda (all spellings)
Terror
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Iraq
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Target
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IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
Abu Sayyaf
Hamas
FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
IRA (Irish Republican Army)
ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
Basque Separatists
Hezbollah
Tamil Tigers
PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization
Car bomb
Jihad
Taliban
Weapons cache
Suicide bomber
Suicide attack
Suspicious substance
AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
Yemen
Pirates
Extremism
Somalia
Nigeria
Radicals
Al-Shabaab
Home grown
Plot
Nationalist
Recruitment
Fundamentalism
Islamist
Emergency
Hurricane
Tornado
Twister
Tsunami
Earthquake
Tremor
Flood
Storm
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Temblor
Extreme weather
Forest fire
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Ice
Stranded/Stuck
Help
Hail
Wildfire
Tsunami Warning Center
Magnitude
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Shelter-in-place
Disaster
Snow
Blizzard
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Mud slide or Mudslide
Erosion
Power outage
Brown out
Warning
Watch
Lightening
Aid
Relief
Closure
Interstate
Burst
Emergency Broadcast System
Cyber security
Botnet
DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
Denial of service
Malware
Virus
Trojan
Keylogger
Cyber Command
2600
Spammer
Phishing
Rootkit
Phreaking
Cain and abel
Brute forcing
Mysql injection
Cyber attack
Cyber terror
Hacker
China
Conficker
Worm
Scammers
Social media

There is a war for everyone

They got a war for oil, a war for gold

A war for money and a war for souls

A war on terror, a war on drugs

A war on kindness and a war on hugs

A war on birds and a war on bees

They got a war on hippies tryin' save the trees

A war with jets and a war with missiles

A war with high seated, government officials

Wall Street war, on high finance

A war on people who just love to dance

A war on music, a war on speech

A war on teachers and the things they teach

A war for the last 500 years

War's just messin' up the atmosphere

A war on Muslims, a war on Jews

A war on Christians and Hindus

A whole lotta people just sayin' kill them all

They got a war on journalists

The war on weed, is a war that's failed

A war that's fillin' up the nations jails

World war one, two, three and four

Chemical weapons, biological war

Bush war 1, Bush war 2

They got a war for me, they got a war for you!

The social relevance of comicbooks - part 4

“Do superheroes provide an image of ‘friendly fascism’? Is the very idea that they know when and how to do the right thing inherently instilling a misguided sense of dependence on authority in those who partake of the fantasies? Is a society that idolizes a Superman one that will fall prey to a myth of an Aryan Übermensch? Do superheroes provide us with super-excuses?”
 -Danny Fingeroth, lectures comics at New York University

Can we learn about American society from comic books

Every piece of pop culture is a reflection and a product of the state of the USA. The action movies of the seventies had a lot of stories about inner-city inequality and drugs problems.  In the eighties, action movies usually told stories of a one-man wrecking crew against the Sovjets. The nineties featured movies about the war on drugs from South-America and Middle-America.

Before the economic crisis of 2007, MTV had a lot of shows about excessive lifestyles. The zeitgeist allowed MTV to make these partially fictional shows. During and after the crisis MTV suddenly started airing ‘real life’ stories of ordinary people with their own small and big struggles.

All disciplines of American pop culture are subject to change.  Not even comic books are immune to this.  But there is a difference. The stories in comic books often rely on characters. Characters well established decennia ago. The most popular (and best-selling) characters haven’t changed in decades. Spiderman, Superman, Batman, X-men, Fantastic Four, all of them are more or less the same as when they sprung from the creative minds of their creators. Their back-story didn’t change and their major struggles (with villains) also stayed the same.

The stories do leave room for minor tweaks in the way these heroes think, act and generally behave towards major issues. Spidermans alter-ego Peter Parker used to be that simple one-dimensional high school kid who valued nothing more than his family. As his audience matured, his character matured as well. Suddenly he had to worry about real life issues like dealing with women, dealing with the moral issues surrounding life and death and trying to make sense of the madness around him by putting it in perspective.

That is the first lesson comic books teaches us. As eternal as values seem, they’re actually as contemporary as public opinion dictates. This has a direct correlation with sales numbers. The transition periods between the different ages of comics saw sales going down but stories changing to better suit the audience.

Terry Smith, the author of ‘What is contemporary art’ defines contemporary art as ‘much more than a mindless embrace of the present.’ He positions the contemporary within art history by contrasting it with modernism’s love of categorization and grand narrative. One of the characteristics he gives contemporary art is that it’s saturated with a detailed knowledge of art history’s place within history and current events.

Comic books fit that description. The characters and their motivation are timeless in its own right but the overhauling plotlines can’t be viewed without a frame of reference consisting of modern political knowledge and a sense of history.

Take Watchmen for example. The story is set in an alternative history where Watergate never happened and Nixon is still president, yet without knowledge of the 80’s, one couldn’t understand the difficult themes writer Alan Moore struggles with. Watchmen is one end of the spectrum. It’s very open for interpretation and to this day, many discuss the actual meaning. The over-arching theme is the god complex one suffers from when in possession of a weapon of mass destruction and men’s struggle with power. Watchmen forces us to think in terms of individual retribution are sacrificing a sum for the greater good.
To summarize the answer to the reason of this writing. It’s definitely a yes. We can learn a lot about the American society by reading comic books. The opinion of the different writers can be seen as a bonus or as propaganda, depending on who’s reading.

Almost all aspects of American pop culture are sales driven and comic books are no exception. All origins of new story arcs must be compelling to readers (or costumers), following this logic, the audience indirectly decides what is written and drawn in comic books. Therefore story arcs (usually) must be a modest description of society at that time. So the story arc usually represents the ongoing themes in American society but this doesn’t mean it’s propaganda in art form.

In contrary, David Hajdu wrote ‘The ten-cent plague’, a description of how conservatism and conformism handled comic books in the fifties.  He said: "The panic over comic books falls somewhere between the Red Scare and the frenzy over UFO sightings among the pathologies of postwar America".

The clampdown reached its apotheosis in 1954, when the U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency (the acronym is less familiar than HUAC, the thrust similar) began hearings — and pilloried William Gaines, head of the legendary, subversive EC Comics.

By the end of the hearing, the Comics Code had Botoxed the subversion out of the form, and Gaines was a broken man.

As McCarthy did with communism, Hajdu suggests, Comstockian legislators from both parties saw an opportunity to make political hay by demonizing comic books, aligning with the opportunistic Wertham in calling all such work "crime comics."

As this last example shows, it’s not just the content of the comic books which can be worth discussing, the semantics behind comic books are worth delving into as well. 

Comics teach art and story writing skills by their very nature and are used by storyboard artists in making films, doing animation and more. Comics have tried to teach us that the means are as important as the ends they produce, behind a background of social consciousness. Or as Rob Gustaveson, journalist and blogger once said:

‘The Comic Industry is a metaphor for life. A cosmic drama unfolding.’

Sources

Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero, by David Fingeroth and Stan lee
Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, by David Fingeroth
The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels, by David Fingeroth
The Blackwell Philosophy, by William Irwin
Watchmen, a Rorschach test, by Mark D. White
DMZ saga, by Brian Wood
Watchmen saga, by Alan Moore
Marvel online library

The social relevance of comicbooks - part 3

 

“The Hulk smashed through the walls of fear I’d been carrying inside me and feed me to feel everything I had been repressing: rage and pride and the hunger for power over my own life… He hadn’t smashed all my problems, but he’d led me to a new sense of myself.”                 
 - Gerard Jones, Killing Monsters

Do comic book writers choose sides, if so; does their opinion reflect the opinion of the masses?

Everybody has an opinion. Even the most righteous journalists have opinions. If there is one group of people who express their explicit opinion its artists. Graphic novelists have the means to express their opinion on social matters not only in word but also in graphic. The appreciation for experimenting with opinion and graphic novels even reached real journalism. Take Slate‘s recent presentation of the Sept. 11 Commission’s report in the form of an online graphic novel[1]. Some may argue this is entertainment in the vein of a Hollywood film like World Trade Center.

Art, including graphic novels, often have a reactionary opinion. During the classical age, Michelangelo and Da Vinci absolutely mastered the art of expressing opinions in their work. Now a day’s artists don’t have to fear the wrath of the Catholic church as much as Michelangelo and Da Vinci had to so their expression is more straight forward, more in line with the emphasis on the freedom of speech.

The Civil War run from Marvel is exemplary for combining entertainment in comic books with a political statement. As explained before, Civil War is a reaction to the United States government after enacting the USA Patriot Act after 9/11. During those troubling times, the public trusted their government for ensuring USA’s safety (and Al-Qaida’s destruction). Mass media treated the Patriot Act as necessary and didn’t set the right example (yet) questioning the government.  Mark Millar used the Marvel universe and all its colorful characters to question the Patriot Act. The tagline of this particular storyline is: Whose side are you on? He is referring to the classical conflict between freedom and security.  Millar already choose a side. He portrayed Iron Man (who supported the act) as a law loving, forceful, short-sighted, neurotic superhero who didn’t care for betraying his friends. Captain America however, was treated differently. He was the ideological caretaker of the weak.  

The outside cover alone indicates a lot of the conflict that takes place within the story. On the back, in bold, capital letters, the words “WHOSE SIDE… …ARE YOU ON?” occur. There is a line break in-between half of the question. The text, “WHOSE SIDE…” is in white, whereas “…ARE YOU ON?” is in red. You can even look at this disjuncture in the question to see that there are two different sides to the question. More importantly, the colors are white and red, two of America’s colors. The front cover is similar, where “CIVIL WAR” appears on two different lines and in two different colors: white and red. The portrayal of people/heroes on the cover shows everyone basically grim and serious. On the front cover, Captain America is present, whereas the back cover shows Iron Man. Both ideological figure heads are represented. When it’s all said and down, we can see that Marvel chose to put Captain America on the cover of the graphic novel because of his importance in America. In the end of Civil War, Captain America gives up because he realizes that even if he and his rebels are winning, they won’t really win the war because the people they’re supposed to be fighting for don’t support their rebellion.

From here on we see that Marvel has shown which side has won: the side for security. This idea is even furthered when Captain America, on his way to his trial for going against the Super Hero Registration Act, is assassinated. So, although the battle was over, the conflict continued. Stephanie Cox of graphicnovel.com said it best when she wrote, “While Americans are still battling out the pros and cons of freedom versus security, Marvel comics declared a loser with the symbolic death of Captain America, who the embodied the very idea of freedom and civil rights." Millar defends freedom when killing off Captain America, the symbol of American freedom. Thus, Millar made a stand in creating a commentary on the situation at hand in a post 9/11 America. 

In 2005, the polls showed an almost 50/50 standstill on support of the USA Patriot Act.[1] On February 8^th 2011, an extension of the Patriot Act was denied by seven votes in the House of Representatives.[2]

In hindsight, Millar didn’t support the popular voice but in the long run his take on the Patriot Act proved durable and in line with the consensus.

Brian Wood’s DMZ graphic novel portrays America in an alternative history. DMZ is set in a near-future version of America where the War on Terror and general economic calamity have taken the ultimate toll on the country. The book continues to draw upon current developments in the War on Terror and other present-day news. 

An example of current events influencing the series, the fourth story-arc, "Friendly Fire", strongly evoked images of the Haditha massacre in Iraq.[3] This arc sheds light on Day 204, an event well before the protagonist resides in the DMZ. On this fateful day, a military squadron gunned down a group of protesters who may or may not have presented a clear danger. Just as members of the Marine Corps were tried for their actions in Haditha, a handful of the soldiers involved in Day 204 were put on a very public trial.

Wood said, “This is the massacre story, following up on something I dropped into the story of Day 204. This was an example of DMZ reflecting current events – I remember scrapping a story to make room for this one, based on a new story I had just seen about the Haditha massacre in Iraq. This was a difficult arc to organize. It came out great, in the end, and this is one of my favorite DMZ stories.”  

His version of what happened in real-life Iraq was clear cut. He didn’t believe the cover-up and the slow investigations surrounding the Haditha story. Many journalists tend to agree with Woods.

Volgende week het vierde en tevens laatste deel

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[1] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/19/opinion/polls/main689507.shtml

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/08/AR2011020806345.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings

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[1] http://www.slate.com/id/2147309/

The social relevance of comicbooks - part 2

Vandaag deel 2 van mijn essay over Amerikaanse comic books.

‘I designed Buffy to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can’t be loved. Because it’s about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development, becoming an adult. And it mythologizes it in such a way, such a romantic way it basically says, “Everybody who made it through adolescence is a hero.’
– Joss Whedon, writer of Buffy, the vampireslayer.

What relevant themes are integrated into comic books?

So how does one sell comic books? How do we sell any product for that matter? Marketing gurus will tell you that one of the basic elements is the product itself. Is it absolutely necessary to own such a product? The case can be made for a vehicle, for a kitchen, for a house, maybe even for a closet. But for comic books, not so much. In its most depleted form it is nothing more than entertainment on a piece of paper. 

In the beginning of the comic era it was a mere novelty. New things tend to attract customers, especially when they were offered free with every newspaper.  Over time comic books became a medium on its own and writers quickly realized that in order to sell comic books readers had to relate to the characters and the stories.

The initial success of Spiderman lay in its ability to personify the life of the readers, which were mainly high school kids and college students. Spiderman´s alter ego Peter Parker was a nobody, a kid who tried to survive trough the rigors of high school. He always finished last (except in the science department), didn´t get noticed by the girls. He was also quite innocent and life didn´t give him anything. His parents died at a young age and his uncle and aunt tried their best to raise him (his uncle would eventually die because of Spiderman but that scar burdened him to live by the rule ´with great power comes great responsibility´). 

When Peter Parker eventually got his spider powers he never gave up on his simple life.  In fact, it got even better, by maintaining his humble way of life he eventually ended up with the schools hottest girl.

This is what young people (even in the long run) could relate to. Let´s try to compare this with Superman.

Superman crashed on earth as a baby. He was found and raised by simple farmers. They gave him the name Clark Kent, a typical average American name during the fifties. During his childhood he remained the boy with the superpowers. In contrary to Spiderman, who´s true identity was Peter Parker but when he put on the mask he became Spiderman, Superman´s identity was that of an alien named Superman, Clark Kent is his alter ego, Clark Kent´s face is his mask.

After making it through puberty as the popular kid in his village he moved to the big city of Metropolis. Within no time he became chief editor of a big newspaper and got a hot girlfriend. The writers really put the super in Superman. He couldn’t fail in his personal and superhero life. This worked well in the early stages of comic book history. On the long run however, his story became repetitive and sales plummeted.  

There are a lot of examples of individuals in comic books who readers can relate to. From people in a wheelchair to teenagers who struggle with the ever going popularity contest at school. Let’s shine a light on the broader themes that the comic industry tries to integrate into their books.

One of the social issues of the sixties was inequality. Especially the black civil movement made waves throughout the United States. That’s when the X-Men franchise arose. When the comic surfaced it quickly became clear that it was about much more than a super powered team of mutants. The stories initially focused on the inner struggles of the team. They were training and fighting bad guys. 

It later became clear that the background wasn’t just good vs. evil.  The X-Men were a group of mutants feared and rejected by society. Actually, not just the X-Men but all mutants in general were feared.  Magneto, the arch nemesis of the X-Men was fed up with the discrimination of Mutants and became pro-active in his violent ways. This was the writers own Malcolm X. The X-Men were led by Professor X (confusing isn’t it?). His ideals consisted of mutant acceptance with the human society by aiding mankind and fighting the bad mutants. This was more or less the comic books version of Martin Luther King.

So within the comic book and the movies of X-Men there is the struggle between different camps of mutants. Beside this battle there’s also the fight between militant humans and mutants. The conflict between mutants and normal humans is often compared to conflicts experienced by minority groups in America such as Jews, African Americans, Communists and the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). Also on an individual level, a number of X-Men serve a metaphorical function as their powers illustrate points about the nature of the outsider. 

• Anti-Semitism: Explicitly referenced in recent decades is the comparison between anti-mutant sentiment and anti-Semitism. Magneto, a Holocaust survivor, sees the situation of mutants as similar to those of Jews in Nazi Germany. At one point he even utters the words "never again" in a 1992 episode of the X-Men animated series. The mutant slave labor camps on the fictional island of Genosha, in which numbers were burned into mutant's foreheads; show much in common with Nazi concentration camps, as do the internment camps of the classic "Days of Future Past" storyline. Another notable reference is in the third X-Men film, when asked: "If you're so proud of being a mutant, then where's your mark?" Magneto shows his concentration camp tattoo, while mentioning that he will never let another needle touch his skin.

• Diversity: Characters within the X-Men mythos hail from a wide variety of nationalities. These characters also reflect religious, ethnic or sexual minorities. Examples of Jewish characters include Shadowcat, Sabra and Magneto, whilst Dust is a devout Muslim, Nightcrawler a devout Catholic, and Thunderbird is a follower of the Hindu faith. Storm (Ororo Munroe) represents two aspects of the African diaspora as her father was African American and her mother was Kenyan. Karma was portrayed as a devout Catholic from Vietnam, who regularly attended confession groups. Different nationalities included Wolverine as a Canadian, Colossus from Russia, Banshee from Ireland, Gambit who is a Cajun, Psylocke from the U.K., Armor from Japan, Nightcrawler from Germany, etc.

• LGBT Rights: Another metaphor that has been applied to the X-Men is that of LGBT rights. Comparisons have been made between the mutants' situation, including concealment of their powers and the age they realize these powers, and homosexuality. Several scenes in the X-Men films, two of which were directed by openly gay director Bryan Singer, illustrate this theme. The first film featured a scene in which Senator Robert Kelly questioned whether mutants should be allowed to teach children in school, mirroring such debates as that over Section 28[1], in which Sir Ian McKellen (who played Magneto in the film, and who is also openly gay) was involved. Bobby Drake "comes out" as a mutant to his parents in X2. In response, Bobby's mother condescendingly asks him, "Have you tried not being a mutant?", referencing the belief that homosexuality is not inherent but rather a lifestyle choice. Also in X2, Nightcrawler has a conversation with Mystique in which he asks her why she doesn't use her shapeshifting ability to blend in among non-mutant humans all the time (an option Nightcrawler evidently wishes he had). Mystique replies simply, "Because we shouldn't have to. The comic books delved into the AIDS epidemic during the early 1990s with a long-running plot line about the Legacy Virus[2], a seemingly incurable disease similarly thought at first to attack only mutants. Ironically, while the X-Men had the Legacy Virus, they are incapable of getting AIDS due to their genetic mutation being able to combat the disease.

• Racism: Professor X has come to be compared to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Magneto to the more militant Malcolm X. The X-Men’s purpose is sometimes referred to as achieving "Xavier’s dream", perhaps a reference to King’s historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Magneto, in the first film, quotes Malcolm X with the line "By any means necessary". X-Men comic books have often portrayed mutants as victims of mob violence, evoking images of the lynching of African Americans in the age before the American civil rights movement. Sentinels and anti-mutant hate groups such as Friends of Humanity, Humanity's Last Stand, the Church of Humanity and Stryker's Purifiers are thought to often represent oppressive forces like the KKK giving a form to denial of civil rights and amendments. In the 1980s, the comic featured a plot involving the fictional island nation of Genosha, where mutants were segregated and enslaved by an apartheid state. This is widely interpreted as having been a reference to the situation in South Africa at the time.
  
• Red Scare: Occasionally, undercurrents of the "Red Scare" are present. Senator Robert Kelly's proposal of a Mutant Registration Act is similar to the efforts of United States Congress to effectively ban Communism in the United States. In the 2000 X-Men film Kelly exclaims, 'We must know who these mutants are and what they can do,' even brandishing a "list" of known mutants (a reference to Senator Joseph McCarthy's list of Communist Party USA members who were working in the government[3]).

• Religion: Religion is an integral part of several X-Men storylines. It is presented as both a positive and negative force, sometimes in the same story. The comics explore religious fundamentalism through the person of William Stryker and his Purifiers, an anti-mutant group that emerged in the 1982 graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills. The Purifiers believe that mutants are not human beings but children of the devil, and have attempted to exterminate them several times, most recently in the "Childhood's End" storyline. By contrast, religion is also central to the lives of several X-Men, such as Nightcrawler, a devout Catholic, and Dust, a devout Sunni Muslim who observes Islamic Hijab. This recalls the religious roots of social activists like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, as well as their opponents such as the Ku Klux Klan or Nathuram Godse (the Hindu radical who assassinated Gandhi).
  

Beside the social issues there’s also the artist interpretation of recent events. Publisher Vertigo released the series DMZ by Bryan Wood. DMZ (demilitarized zone) is a worldwide phenomenon and its most famous representative being the zone between the two Koreas. The focus of the comic book DMZ is on Manhattan. There’s a second civil war in the United States and the nation is divided in two major camps. Except for the DMZ, the DMZ is a neutral no-man’s land. The conflict concerns two primary forces: the federal government of the United States of America and the "Free States" armies. The stories protagonist’s Matty Roth, a low ranked journalist who accidently ended up in the DMZ. 

The series doesn't immediately go into any further depth regarding America's political structure, but later story arcs shed more light on the beginnings of the second Civil War. Readers learn that the Free States movement began in rural Montana and quickly spread east. Among other things, these rebels decry the government's habit of intervening in foreign affairs while ignoring crippling social problems at home. In many ways, the political reality in DMZ is different from the real world only by a matter of degrees. For example, the plummeting of the value of houses which left many Americans homeless when at the same time billions of dollars were pumped into the army for middle-eastern policies.

“Blood in the Game” which ran an as-yet unparalleled total of six parts, was an almost direct response to the historical presidential campaign run by then-Senator Barack Obama. Published co-terminus with the 2008 presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Obama and Clinton and Republican candidate McCain, the story arc revolves around the DMZ’s first election.

 

The final storyarc of year three, two-part story “The Island”, chronicles in excruciating detail the traumatic events of Matty Roth’s trip to Staten Island where the US Army forces have dug in and headquartered themselves. In a surprise twist, as Roth discovers when he first lands, the soldiers on both sides of the conflict have enacted a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ resulting in a de facto truce. But no argument on ethics holds sway over the situation. The facts on the ground are simple; soldiers on both sides have long histories together stretching as far back as childhood, and both sides have something the other wants. Staten Island, the headquarters of the US Army, has become ground zero for smuggling contraband.

But an unfortunate turn of events plays out. The US Army commander responsible for Staten Island has a can of the neurotoxin ricin stolen. This bio-weapon was little more than a souvenir taken by the commander on an earlier mission. But the chance of the canister being weaponized by the insurgent Free States Army, quickly allows the situation to descend into Abu Ghraib-style interrogation. The true psychological horror lies in the ease how friend turns on friend. Americans torturing Americans is almost too much to abide. Yet this is not simply torture pornography, Wood is making a clear statement about the overarching political system that allows for such horrors to exist.

Another example is Watchmen. Before the story was brought to the big screen it was a twelve issue comic book released in 1987. The story was awarded by Time magazine, calling it ‘a superlative feat of imagination, combining sci-fi, political satire, knowing evocations of comics past and bold reworkings of current graphic formats into a dystopian mysterious story.’

The story revolves around a couple superheroes. Each and every one of them symbolizes a part of the American identity.

One of them is Dr. Manhattan. His hero powers are beyond measurement. One must note that the story took place during the turbulent 80’s when there were still nuclear treats from the Sovjets and the United States. Dr. Manhattan symbolized the treat and the safety. Manhattan's politics seem to represent the ultra-egalitarian "we are all the same" variety. He equalizes all of human endeavor to the same level.

As to subject matter, it wasn’t just a comic book. It hit all the issues from the 80’s. Homosexuality, rape, war with Russia and the bomb, crooked US politicians, corruption, murder, sexual impotency, welfare families and homicidal maniacs were all aspects of the story line. It even indulges in demonization of Nixon directly, and Ronald Reagan by inference. But its philosophy of nihilism and anarchy was the underlying message (according to me, many hold different opinions).

In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the preceding events within the American government, America had been stood upside-down on its head as a clash of ideals began. People were scared and felt vulnerable. In just 45 days after the attacks on September 11, The USA PATRIOT Act had been passed and a majority of Americans had traded in civil liberties for safety. However, in a post-9/11 society where people in America were now subject to constant surveillance, there were still people fighting for civil liberty and freedom. Marvel Comics’ story-arc, Civil War, made a commentary on this clash of ideals. It revolves around two camps of heroes and villains. The pro-PATRIOT Act group was led by Iron Man, who valued security over freedom. The opposite group was led by Captain America, the ultimate patriot who believes in America’s ideal of freedom, even if the current government says otherwise. In the Civil War story-arc heroes are forced to identify their true selves and work for the government, or get jailed.

The story begins with a fight between some heroes and villains near a school. During the fight, one of the villains explodes and kills 600 people. The government act is reactionary and tries to instill a law where superheroes have to register. This is a direct commentary on America’s (or Bushes) reaction on the twin towers attack.

Volgende week woensdag, deel 3!

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[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/613023.stm

[2] http://stason.org/TULARC/art/comics-xbooks/60-What-is-the-Legacy-Virus-Who-s-had-it-Hasn-t-there-been.html

[3] http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456

The social relevance of comicbooks - part 1

Een tijdje terug ben ik begonnen aan een essay voor het vak Amerikanistiek. Het viel me op dat we in een tijd leven waarin geen gebrek is aan stripverfilmingen. The Dark Knight, Iron Man, 300, Kick Ass, allemaal enorme blockbusters die ook nog eens goed werden ontvangen. Dit zette me aan het denken. De Amerikaanse entertainment industrie heeft nogal een oppervlakkig imago en het medium stripboeken met al haar in spandex geklede protagonisten komt nou niet echt volwassen over. Toch zijn veel stripverfilmingen vrij populair, en niet alleen bij kids. Hier en daar kwam ik volwassen onderwerpen tegen. Vandaag een intro van mijn essay over de sociaal maatschappelijke thema's in Amerikaanse comics.

‘I am lying in bed counting sheep when all of a sudden it hits me. I conceive a character like Samson, Hercules, and all the strong men I have ever heard tell of rolled into one. Only more so. I hop right out of bed and write this down, and then I go back and think some more for about two hours and get up again and write that down. This goes on all night at two-hour intervals, until in the morning I have a complete script.’               -              Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman

What started out as a simple combination of words and graphics on the back of a newspaper back in the twenties is now a multi-million dollar business. Money generated out of comics, related movies and merchandising has given the comic industry new life and new opportunities.

Not only did the business model change, the content changed drastically. To keep comic books interesting, especially superhero comic books, readers had to relate to the stories. For example, we now have Spiderman whose secret identity consists of being a nerdy teenager (no coincidence, those same nerdy teenagers are a big target audience). 

This essay will try to answer the question, can we learn from comic books in regard to the American society?

To find an adequate answer we must break down the main question into separate questions:

•          What kind of comic books are there? 
•          What relevant themes are integrated into comic books? 
•          Do comic book writers choose sides and do they reflect the opinion of the masses?

 

'Commercial fiction panders to low tastes and traffics in scandal, violence and sentimentality; the art novel appeals to cultivated tastes and traffics in the same commodities, but in a more genteel way.’  
Thomas M. Disch, The dreams our stuff is made of

 

What kind of comic books are out there?

This essay will focus on the teachings of comic books on the American society. Hence the reason to ignore the big comic business of Europe(Flemish and French) and Japan (Manga). The comic book industry in the United States started off in the early thirties. As a relief to the ‘great depression’ and to sell more, newspapers started to add a half page of small comics. Child friendly, funny comics.

The first American comic book, Funnies on Parade, was a giveaway anthology reprinting comic strips from the newspapers. Wanting to get rid of undistributed copies, the story goes, someone slapped a 10 cent tag on them and dropped them off at a few newsstands. They sold out in a flash and thus, in 1934, the comics industry was born.

The first stand-alone comic books were made of reprinted newspaper comics. Within a few years, though, these were replaced with original content. It was cheaper for the publishers to purchase new material from aspiring cartoonists, suffering from the effects of the Depression and desperate for any kind of work, than to buy reprint rights from the syndicates. Many early comic-book creators had no love for the medium. The pay was meager, the work grueling and usually uncredited. They worked in comic books in the hope that one day they'd "make it" and "graduate" to newspaper comic strips.[ii]

One of those newspaper comics became very popular. Ironically, the first big comic-book hit was a feature that had been turned down for years by the comic-strip syndicates: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman.

Superman paved the way for a new group of superhero comic book adaptations. During the second world war the likes of Captain America, Plastic Man, Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman and many others.[iii]

Before the 1960s the comic-book format featured many genres including humor, Westerns, romance, horror, military fiction, crime fiction, biography, and adaptations of classic literature. Nowadays non-superhero comics have continued to exist as a niche publishing also known as the independent and alternative genre.

The two biggest players who shape the American comic book landscape are DC comics and Marvel comics.

What started out as an innocent small extra for newspaper readers quickly became a multimillion business. The industry became so big that experts used heavy American rhetoric to dub different ages. 

The Golden Age generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s. During this time, modern comic books were first published and enjoyed a surge of popularity; the archetype of the superhero was created and defined. The period saw the arrival of the comic book as a mainstream art form, and the defining of the medium's artistic vocabulary and creative conventions by its first generation of writers, artists, and editors.

The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the period from 1956 to circa 1970. The popularity and circulation of comic books about superheroes declined following the Second World War, and comic books about horror, crime and romance took larger shares of the market. However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency, focusing in particular on crime and horror titles. In 1954, publishers implemented the Comics Code Authority to regulate comic content. In the wake of these changes, publishers began introducing superhero stories again.

The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of mainstream American comic books usually said to run from 1971 to 1985. The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with brightly colored superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However darker plot elements and more mature storylines featuring real-world issues, such as drug use, began to appear during the period. The Magnum Opus of the Bronze Age of Comic Books is Watchmen, a super hero story that deals with the daily threats of a nuclear war between the USSR and the USA.

The Modern Age of Comic Books is an informal name for the period in the history of mainstream American comic books generally considered to last from the mid-1980s until present day. In this period, comic book characters generally became darker and more psychologically complex, creators became better-known and active in changing the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized.

As said before, DC and Marvel are the two biggest players in the comic book industry. Together they publish more than 90 percent of all superhero related comics in the States[iv]. DC also bought a couple independent studios such as Vertigo[v], which doesn’t necessarily focus on superheroes. Hence they now own the rights to the DMZ series. DMZ will be featured a lot in the coming pages. 

Deel twee komt volgende week

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[i] Cartoon history of the united states, by Larry Gonnick

[ii] The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw

[iii] The golden age of comic books, 1937-1945, by Richard O’Brien

[iv] http://www.comicsbulletin.com/soapbox/12264262354837.htm, marvels and dc’s marketshare

[v] http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2982260, a brief history of the comic book industry

Other sources:

Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero, by David Fingeroth and Stan lee

Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, by David Fingeroth

The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels, by David Fingeroth

The Blackwell Philosophy, by William Irwin

Watchmen, a Rorschach test, by Mark D. White

DMZ saga, by Brian Wood
Watchmen saga, by Alan Moore
Marvel online library

Tien jaar later

Ik geloofde heilig in Stanley Kubrick. Vanaf het moment dat ik bij zinnen was (rond de opkomst van de Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) wachtte ik op het jaar 2001. Er werd mij voorgehouden dat we tegen die tijd een hypermodern en technologisch geavanceerd tijdperk zouden ingaan. Inclusief vliegende auto’s. HAL 9000 zou korte metten maken met iedereen. Het tegenovergestelde bleek waar. Vlak voor het allereerste Oud en Nieuw waarbij ik officieel alcohol mocht drinken werd er nog paniek gezaaid met de lange adem van het Y2K virus. Als zelfs mijn pentium 2 niet opgewassen is tegen zoiets simpels als het verstrijken van de tijd, hoe kan het rode lampje uit 2001: A Space Odyssey dan ooit zelfbewust worden?

Nadat mijn eerste Oud en Nieuw-kater mijn hoofd langzaam verliet, kwam het besef van de cafébrand in Volendam. Dit was lang voordat Jan Smit, Nick en Simon en al die anderen niet noemenswaardige volkszangers furore maakten met hun talenten. Volendam kende ik alleen als het dorpje waar Japanners graag heen gingen.

Het jaar begon met een nationaal drama. Mijn medeleven ging uit naar al die feestgangers die het er niet heelhuids vanaf hebben gebracht. Er is altijd een schokkende gebeurtenis nodig voor er een discussie op gang komt. Ditmaal ging de discussie over veiligheid in het uitgaansleven.

Een aantal weken later kwam er een kleine man met een bekende achternaam aan de macht. Vanaf het eerste moment blonk George W. Bush al uit in het creatief gebruik maken van de Engels taal. Bushism was geboren. Mijn favoriet:

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"

Verdere hoogte- en dieptepunten in dat jaar:
De MKZ crisis
Het eerste homohuwelijk van Nederland
Een royale familieslachting in Nepal
Het einde van Herman Brood

Toen kwam 11 september. Ik fietste in alle rust van school naar huis en eenmaal thuis trof ik mijn moeder met een bleek gezicht en rood doorlopen ogen aan. Ik verwachtte het ergste, misschien een familiedrama? Al gauw bleek dat het drama zich op een veel globaler schaal had afgespeeld.

Ik ging naast mijn moeder zitten, sloeg een arm om haar heen en samen keken we naar de televisie. De eerste toren was zojuist geramd door een vliegtuig. Als iemand mij dit had verteld had ik hem niet geloofd. Als zestienjarig stoertje voelde ik me het onkwetsbare mannetje. Niet op die dag. Niet toen het veiligste en machtigste land op aarde in het hart gestoken werd.

Niet veel later waren mijn moeder en ik getuige van wat leek op een exacte kopie. Een tweede vliegtuig vloog recht in de tweede toren. We zagen het gebeuren, brand, kantoorclerks die uit ramen sprongen, moedige brandweermannen, verbijsterde en verslagen gezichten, schreeuwende mensen en heel veel terreur. Wij zaten allang niet meer op de bank. Wij waren ook in New York.

Door die middag, door die aanslagen, zou de wereld veranderen. Dat wisten wij destijds niet en het enige wat mij bezig hield was het welzijn van de New Yorkers. Al gauw werd er een vermoedelijke dader gevonden. Osama Bin Laden zou er achter zitten. Door deze verdachtmaking is de hele verhouding tussen de Westerse samenlevingen en de Islam teruggeworpen naar de middeleeuwen.

Het is alweer een decennium geleden. Tien lange jaren die eigenlijk helemaal geen invloed hebben gehad op mijn herinneringen aan 11 september 2001. Het voelt als de dag van gister en misschien was het ook wel gisteren. Nog steeds voel je de naschokken van de aanvallen op de Twin Towers. Het resoneert door in de collectieve geest van onze samenleving, van de militaire aanwezigheid in het Midden-Oosten en eens in de zoveel tijd als er weer een zogenaamde terroristische dreiging in Nederland is.

Er is nu al een generatie scholieren opgestaan die 9/11 niet bewust hebben meegemaakt en alleen de verhalen kennen. Voor onder andere die kids heeft de National Geographic Channel deze week een 9/11 themaweek. Zeker de moeite waard. Nu rest mij de vraag, waar was jij die dag en wat herinner jij er nog van?