Comics and Empire

[babington]

We often hear about racism and violence in old comics, but I've never seen any discussion of how comics reflected Britain's status as an imperial power. It's obvious that comics were full of references to colonial derring-do prior to the 1960s, and maybe adventure stories did their bit to inspire young people to careers abroad in the service. But which comic was most overtly about the empire? What were the best (and worst) stories about imperial adventures? Was there ever any discussion about featuring the empire in comics, or did it just die out as colonies gained independence? Did the Commonwealth ever feature in comics? Who distributed comics to British colonies, and how successful were different titles outside Britain?

[felneymike]

The older story papers (pre 1890's, with the probable exception of The Boys' Own Paper and the earlier Union Jack) usually just used the Empire as an interesting place to set stories in, but later ones (from Chums & Harmsworth onwards) would often feature stories about the builders of the empire, such as General Gordon (or, at least, stories about a soldier / batman serving under these famous people).
Some of the higher-minded papers would feature articles about how Britain had "improved" parts of the world, by stamping our tribal practices like human sacrifice, and "civilising" the natives. There's one actually-quite-inspiring article in either Young England or The Captain, which I have been meaning to look up again.

Overt, deliberate racism and talk of converting the natives to "the one true religion" are surprising for their rarity in the story papers of this era. Though words that we would not consider offensive are bandied about with impunity, that was probably no more than naievity on the part of the writers (then again, what makes the "offence"? People can't be upset by a language they can't understand!). In earlier stories, apart from those set in wars such as the Indian Mutiny and the Ashanti uprisings, the natives are often just the pawns of white villains, usually Germans, Russians or rogue Brits.
Many annuals of the 40's and early 50's with imperial adventures usually present the British rulers as wise advisors, who prevent wars between tribes before they start.

Also, once on Ebay I saw an issue of a British-produced comic aimed at independent Nigeria for sale. I think it was from the 70's, and contained a mix of Buster-style humour, superheroes and ordinary adventure. I didn't buy it, though.

[stevezodiac]

There were actually a couple of rivals to The Boy's Own Paper called Boys Of Our Empire and Boys Of The Empire from the 1890s and one had full colour illustrations - I have a few of each.

[paddybrown]

The most obviously colonialist strip I can think of is George Beardmore and Frank Bellamy's "Fraser of Africa" from the Eagle, with its white hero bringing law to the natives and defending them against other, bad Europeans - and Dan Dare was metaphorically pretty colonialist, an English hero exploring the darkest solar system and rescuing the simple, savage natives from their own despotic rulers.

Wikipedia has a page on the British Empire in fiction, which has a section on comics. Typical of Wikipedia, there was nothing on it earlier than 1999, so I added Fraser of Africa and the Wolf of Kabul. No doubt a bit of thought will come up with others.

[Phoenix]

Wikipedia has a page on the British Empire in fiction, which has a section on comics. Typical of Wikipedia, there was nothing on it earlier than 1999, so I added Fraser of Africa and the Wolf of Kabul.

The Wolf of Kabul is a welcome addition to that page, Paddy, but unfortunately, your dates are wrong at both ends. The first story about the Wolf only appeared in The Wizard in January 1930, and as there was a series about him in The Victor in 1986, I would suggest you change mid-1970s to late-1980s.

[paddybrown]

They're not my dates, they're the dates on Wikipedia's page on the Wolf of Kabul. You know what they're like about cites.

[Digifiend]

Wikipedia has a page on the British Empire in fiction, which has a section on comics. Typical of Wikipedia, there was nothing on it earlier than 1999, so I added Fraser of Africa and the Wolf of Kabul. No doubt a bit of thought will come up with others.

Flagged it for recentism. I'm not familiar with many strips set in the empire (Wolf of Kabul was the only one to come to mind), but there must be more than just the examples you added. I've also fixed those dates for the Wolf, as they weren't cited anyway. If someone can find a citable source, I'd add it. This forum shouldn't be used due to the WP:SPS rule.

[Phoenix]

I've also fixed those dates for the Wolf, as they weren't cited anyway. If someone can find a citable source, I'd add it.

Thanks for that, Digi. I also noticed on that Wikipedia page that they couldn't make their mind up as to whether to use Sampson or Samson. For the record, there was never a 'p' in Samson in any series in The Wizard. By the way, what exactly is a citable source?