672 WAR COMICS
Statements such as “We are the walking dead,” in issue #24, provide moments of pause
within the narrative for characters and readers alike to think about the gravity of a
real-life apocalyptic world.
Th e successful launch and reception of Th e Walking Dead gave rise to several more
zombie series including the reprised Deadworld in 2005 by Image Comics. Addition-
ally, Marvel Comics hired Kirkman to write a miniseries about the end of the Marvel
Universe through its own zombie apocalypse, which won many accolades and spawned
several sequels and spin-off s.
Th e fi rst six issues of Th e Walking Dead were drawn by Tony Moore, who would
continue on as cover artist for the fi rst 24 issues. Moore received an Eisner Award
nomination in 2005 for Best Cover Artist, while the series itself was nominated for an
Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2004. Charlie Adlard has served as story artist and
eventually cover artist up through 2009. Th e entire series is drawn in grayscale black
and white, nostalgically evoking Romero’s original black-and-white Night of the Living
Dead (1968), while also helping to create an eerie atmosphere that is appropriate to the
subject matter of the series.
See also: Vampires and Zombies
Lance Eaton
WAR COMICS. Comics have long been deeply implicated in presenting military themes,
and in times of war, providing commentary, either in support of the state, or in opposi-
tion to it. Th is association between war and comics should come as no surprise, given
the close historical association of comics with politics and propaganda. After all, comics
excel at presenting caricatures and at celebrating mythological heroes and exaggerated
villains, which makes them an ideal medium for propaganda.
Th e fi rst example of an editorial cartoon in an American newspaper was Benjamin
Franklin’s 1754 illustration of a snake with a severed head, representative of the various
colonies, with the slogan “Join, or Die.” Th is appeal to form a union that would eventu-
ally become the United States was intended as a call to arms, and is therefore the fi rst
American propaganda cartoon. Editorial cartoons with clearly political purposes later
appeared in cartoon magazines like Puck and have remained an important form ever
since. Meanwhile, comic strips in newspapers, know as the Funnies, began to appear.
Primarily designed to entertain, these strips often featured adventure strips alongside
humor, and these adventure strips frequently featured military and war themes. In the
1930s, newspaper strips transformed into comic books. Th e adventure strips once again
proved extremely popular, and superheroes dominated the market from the late 1930s
onwards, with a peak in their popularity during World War II. With the onset of the
war the superhero comics, and indeed, all genres, dealt with military and war themes
explicitly. Since then comics have responded in one way or another to all the major
world confl icts, often simplifying these complex political circumstances to straight-
forward battles between good and evil. From their origins to the present day, comics
