Combining individual memory & collective memory? Classics Illustrated’s representation of World War II

WWII is widely remembered and represented. Keeping the memories ofthis international conflict alive, both within academic and popularhistory writing, occurred largely within various national frameworks. Onthe one hand, in the immediate post-war world many stories appearedabout the great events of the national war history, about heroesembodying national pride in dark times. On the other hand, more recentrepresentations of WWII chronicle a wider variety of individual destinies,in which personal victimhood (especially concerning the Holocaust) isemphasized. Comic books from the first postwar decade and recentgraphic memoirs illustrate the tension within this developing memoryculture.In this presentation I will discuss a well-known comic strip, World WarII, anonymously published in 1962 as Special Issue of the famouseducational series Classics Illustrated (Gilberton Inc.). This widespreadAmerican comic was translated into several Western languages duringthe 1960s. On the basis of this transnational example, I will analyze whatrole (authentic or fictitious) personal narratives and eyewitness storiesof famous protagonists and lesser-known individuals play in both textand image when representing a global conflict. In what manner areindividual memories incorporated in what appears to be a collectivetransnational memory and what is the significance of authentic quotesin this context? While answering these questions, I will reflect on thereception of these comics in various cultural contexts, related to otherpopular war representations from this period.