Rock Against Racism

Sometimes I underestimate DC in the 1960s. Awhile ago I noted the absence of black characters in DC comics during the Silver Age, but as you can see, there's one on the cover of this mag, from November 1965. And he's even more prominently featured on the splash page:

The story starts off in a clearing somewhere in Western Europe. Rock, Wild Man and a new recruit named Jackie Johnson (the black guy) have been captured by a Nazi squadron, and the biggest German is having a bare-knuckled brawl against JJ, who refuses to fight back. Why? Rock knows:

In a flashback we learn of the first time Rock had seen Jackie Johnson:

Johnson indeed proved to be a comer, eventually winning the heavyweight championship. But he lost a crucial match against this same German:

This is a thinly-veiled retelling of the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rivalry; more on this at the end of the post.

In the story, Johnson didn't get his revenge match against the Storm Trooper, who went into the German Army, so this was their first meeting since the heavyweight fight. Later, Johnson joined Rock's unit in the Army, but was still haunted by his defeat in the ring:

But it looked like there would be no chance for a return match; after all the German fighter could be anywhere from France to Russia. But as it turned out they did meet, under less than optimal conditions, as the Americans were captured by the Storm Trooper's unit. And:

Bringing us up to where the story began. The Nazis make it clear that they will kill everyone if Jackie defeats the Storm Trooper, so the black man holds back. But:

The Nazis cannot tolerate this, so they shoot at both fighters, critically wounding the German, although Jackie manages to avoid the bullets. Rock and Wild Man attack their captors and reverse the situation. But the Storm Trooper needs a transfusion if he is to survive, and perhaps inevitably:

And in the end, the German realizes he was wrong:

Comments: Wow! What a terrific story! Kudos to Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert for providing what must be considered one of the Silver Age's finest tales.

Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. In 1936, Joe Louis looked unstoppable at 23-0. Max Schmeling was a former heavyweight champion, but he had won his title via a disqualification of when Jack Sharkey hit him with a low blow. So Schmeling was considered just a tune-up before Louis boxed for the championship. But Schmeling had trained hard for the fight and noticed a flaw in Louis' style which he was able to exploit in knocking out the Brown Bomber at Yankee Stadium in the 12th round.

Here's how kids were taught the story at the time, from a text story in Superman #118:

The reality is much more complex, as the Wikipedia entry on the rematch notes:

Schmeling did not relish being the focus of such propaganda. He was not a member of the Nazi Party and – although admittedly proud of his German nationality – denied the Nazi claims of racial superiority: "I am a fighter, not a politician. I am no superman in any way." Schmeling had a Jewish manager, Joe Jacobs, with whom he refused to part despite significant pressure, and, in a dangerous political gamble, refused the "Dagger of Honor" award offered by Adolf Hitler. In fact, Schmeling had been urged by his friend and legenday ex-champion Jack Dempsey to defect and declare American citizenship.

Nevertheless, the Nazi regime exploited Schmeling in its propaganda efforts, and took careful steps to at least ensure Schmeling's nominal compliance. Schmeling's wife and mother were kept from traveling with him to avoid the chances of defection. Schmeling's entourage also included an official Nazi Party publicist. The publicist not only controlled any possible contrarian remarks by Schmeling, but also issued statements that a black man could not defeat Schmeling, and that Schmeling's purse from the fight would be used to build more German tanks.

Both Louis and Schmeling did serve in their respective military forces in World War II, although of course they did not meet during those years, on the battlefield or elsewhere. After the war, they became close friends, with Schmeling serving as a pallbearer at Louis' funeral in 1981.

Update: Here's a video of the second bout:

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Number 179


Average White Goddess


Jun-Gal is from Blazing Comics #1, 1944. Blazing Comics is probably known for its cover feature, The Green Turtle, one of the few Golden Age comic book heroes--maybe the only one?--created and drawn by a Chinese-American, Chu Hing.

Jun-Gal is notable for at least a few reasons: The horrible pun name. The artwork, which is more suitable to the 1920s than the 1940s, and the racial attitudes, which permeate the story.

Jun-Gal's "real" name (in the story, anyway) is Joan Teal. Teal is Mrs. Pappy's maiden name, so that made me sit up and take notice.

As drawn, Joan is a beautiful blonde girl in a sarong. They were going for the Dorothy Lamour look, which was hugely popular during World War II. While Sheena and others went around in animal skins, Jun-Gal wore her sarong. Jun-Gal is given powers of strength from the "Pit Of Death," an ever-burning hole full of radium. Apparently it doesn't affect the black people the same way. Because she's blonde, she becomes the queen, the goddess figure to the superstitious and uneducated natives. Maybe African-Americans of the era viewed this sort of thing with trepidation, but to white America it was pretty much business as usual with attitudes toward "coloreds." Tarzan movies were made up of this sort of stereotyping. The natives are cruel, stupid, superstitious and treacherous. The whites, just by virtue of their race, are made to be masters over the blacks.


What's most interesting to me is the racial viewpoint. This is standard fare for the era. The characters are stock. The blacks are "natives;" not Africans, just "natives." They have bulging lips drawn in a minstrel style. The white people are set upon and the parents killed by the "bad natives." Joan is raised by her "mammy," in the midst of the village of her parents' killers.

I'm presenting this as it was, over 60 years ago. The irony isn't lost on us that when this was published we were fighting an enemy whose philosophy of superiority was repugnant to us. But it was repugnance in words, not deeds. Over in morally superior America we felt it was OK to discriminate based on race, all the while excoriating our enemies for doing the same.

OK, that was then, this is now. I've climbed down from my soapbox. Blazing Comics was short-lived, only five issues, and I own only the first issue. I can't tell you if Jun-Gal lasted for the entire run. The Comic Book Price Guide doesn't help, and the Grand Comics Database doesn't even list Blazing Comics. I don't know what happened to Jun-Gal after her origin story, and I don't know who wrote or drew her adventure(s). That's really a lot I don't know about Jun-Gal, isn't it?

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Number 134

EC: Preachy-ing to The Choir


Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, as publisher and editor of EC Comics, had social consciousness. They published several stories they called "preachies," which were stories told, EC-style, to demonstrate the racist and uglier side of life in America.

The preachy in Shock Suspenstories #11* is "In Gratitude," drawn by Wally Wood. The message is straightforward. A young soldier, Joey, returns home a hero from Korea. He has been wounded and lost his hand. His best buddy threw himself on a hand grenade and saved Joey's life. Because his buddy, Hank, had no family Joey has his remains sent home for burial in the town cemetery. The undertaker calls Joey's parents, as well as other townies, and they protest having this black person buried in their cemetery.

Click on pictures for full-size images.

  In the climactic scene Joey gets up to the podium and chews out the bigots, then sits down and cries while they walk out in silence.

Maybe no one thought about this in 1953 when it was published, but the only people shown in the story are white people. Hank, when he's shown, is pictured so his race can't be easily determined.

In a nutshell this was what I find nowadays to be outdated about the EC Preachies. White people were most often the springboards for their stories. The minority group members, blacks, Jews, Mexicans, whomever, were just props. Because of the strict storytelling strictures of EC Comics there had to be a shock ending, so the minority characters were often just a way of fooling the reader until the denouement.

"In Gratitude" was spotlighted in the documentary on the first Tales From The Crypt TV series DVD, "Tales From The Crypt: From Comic Books to Television." What wasn't mentioned that put it in some sort of historical context is that the story appeared a year before the landmark "Brown v Board Of Education" ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, two years before the savage murder of Emmett Till, three years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and ten years before the March on Washington, all watershed events in the history of Civil Rights. In all of those events African-Americans were the group that had to take action. They couldn't just depend on white people, even well-meaning white people producing comic books in New York, to precipitate the action.

As well-meaning as "In Gratitude" was, I believe that anyone who believed strongly in segregation wouldn't be swayed by this story, and the readers who would most likely be in agreement with the story would be people who had a predisposition to that philosophy. I don't think the Preachies changed anybody's minds, but even while saying that, it was brave of EC to publish them. In those days of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, Civil Rights as an issue was viewed in about the same light as Communism. It was a threat to the American way of white people having absolute power and minorities knowing their "place."


*In case you're interested, two other stories from Shock Suspenstories #11 are covered in Pappy's #102 and Pappy's #99 .

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