436 NAZIS
wife and children are sold, he cries out to God for justice, interpreting signs such as a
solar eclipse as a divinely-sanction call for vengeance.
Th e fi nal two sections of Nat Turner illustrate the slave uprising of August 1831
that resulted in the death of over 50 white adults and children. Baker’s visual narra-
tive is unfl inching in its depiction of carnage through crude images of bloody axes,
headless bodies and limbs that echo the prior treatment of slaves. Th e illustrations
also highlight the unraveling of the rebellion by depicting participants such as the
slave Sam, whose violent impulsiveness acts as a foil against Turner’s methodical
preparation. Th e stately image of Turner, broad-chested with sword in hand, is fur-
ther juxtaposed by the shortsighted behavior of the recruits who resort to drinking
and stealing during the night. Nevertheless, Baker carefully maintains the humanity
of Turner’s imposing fi gure from his capture to the moment of his execution, as he
quietly confronts the hanging rope and, with his chin lifted, ascends from murderer
to martyr.
In addition to being favorably compared to historical comics such as Art Spiegelman’s
Maus and Ho Che Anderson’s King , Baker’s complex rendering of Nat Turner adds a
new dimension to creative interpretations over the years by Harriet Beecher Stowe,
William Henry Shelton, Robert Hayden, William Styron, and other writers and artists.
Nat Turner has also received several industry awards including an Eisner Award for
Best Reality-Based Work (2006) as well as Glyph Comics Awards for Story of the Year
(2006) and Best Artist (2006, 2008).
Qiana J. Whitted
NAZIS. “Nazi” is a widely used abbreviation derived from the fascist National Socialist
Party that ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945, committing some
of the most egregious atrocities in modern history. Th e Nazis have long been staple
villains in comics, notably superhero comics. In the same year that the Nazis took
power in Germany, the modern American comic book format was born. By the end
of the 1930s American comics were full of anti-Nazi imagery, from humor comics to
the newly established superhero genre. Such popular propaganda sprung up all across
America, ridiculing the enemy from the pages and covers of comics and magazines,
on billboards and over the airwaves via radio, and through the cinema screen, with
newsreels, animated cartoons, and Hollywood fi lms pitting themselves against the
propaganda being produced by the Nazis. Much of this imagery demonized the enemy
as monsters, or ridiculed them, making the enemy, be they Nazi or Japanese, appear
inhuman, monstrous, or laughable.
Humor comics, including those based on Disney and Warner Bros. animated char-
acters, followed the example of animated fi lms, poking fun at the enemy. Superhero
comics adopted this strategy too, but being more orientated to adventure they usually
drew more from the war fi lms Hollywood was producing, such as Confessions of a
Nazis Spy (1939) or Guadalcanal Diary (1943), focusing on fantasies of espionage rings
and brutal combat with the enemy. However, whereas Hollywood fi lms were heavily
