During the 1960s, the United States was involved in conflicts in Vietnam. On United States soil, protestors flooded common areas of colleges and city streets. These protestors were the ones who formed the hippy movement in the United States. These times were all about peace and war was far from what any one wanted. Drugs became extremely popular during the hippy movement. This can be seen in the comic books of the late 1960s. Comic books became a big hit and were now created at an underground level. These comic books were not required to be checked by the comic code and comics such as Fritz the Cat featured sex that had not been featured before in comic books. These underground comic books were very representative of the rebellious times. Also the comic book The Amazing Spider-Man featured drugs in them as Peter Parker's best friend begins taking drugs in order to ease the pain of his girlfriend Mary Jane coming on to Peter. This is another aspect that had not yet been featured in comic books that is socially relevant in the 1960s.
Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
Comments