Pulp Empire explores the relationship between the U.S. government and the U.S. comic book industry from World War II to the 1960s, arguing that comic books became a central component of American cultural imperialism and Cold War propaganda. Comic books—cheap to produce, often melodramatic and lurid, compelling to both children and adults—became important weapons in the U.S government’s global fights against fascism and communism. As part of this effort, U.S. policymakers, working with cultural elites and law enforcement agencies, pressured comic book companies to produce pro-American messages, censored publishers and creators who jeopardized America’s global reputation, and distributed millions of propagandistic comic books to Europe, Latin America, and the decolonizing world. Ultimately, Paul S. Hirsh contends that “the American government shaped the form and content of the comic book” as much as “the comic book shape[d] U.S. foreign policy” (p. 35).
The book’s seven chapters tell this story chronologically, beginning...
University of California Press