comic book cover reading blog

This is a comic book cover from a very long time ago and that is obvious by the illustration. What we are looking at is comic from around the time of WW II and there us a mad scientist on the cover with a microscope and little people running around, they look like test subjects. The mad scientist is portrayed in the stereotypical manner that Japanese people are thought to look like. He is wearing glasses and has exaggerated large teeth and has eerie long fingernails. He has angry eyebrows, red eyes and a stereotypical evil mustache. The glasses and the microscope further the stereotype that all Japanese are smart. The scary smile with the exposed teeth, the fingernails, even the furrowed brow and red eyes give us the idea that he is mad (crazy). But the fact that he is a mad scientist contradicts the fact that people of Asian descent are the “model minority”. However we must take into account that this is an American comic and this was made around the time of WW II, then the fact that the scientist is mad and possibly killing the other people on the cover makes more sense then it would today.
Then we have the people running around, possible test subjects of the scientist. There is a man in a red and white striped shirt and what looks to be a berret, a hat commonly seen on French people. Again the French character on the cover is portrayed in a stereotypical manner, using the stripes and the berret. This cover shows that the scientist is even attacking a country that wasn’t even involved. There is also a person dressed like a farmer as well as what looks to be just two out of the ordinary Americans.
As the caption says, as long as there are superheroes there are going to be villains. Obviously the thesis of the whole comic book is that the Japanese are bad people who want to kill or destroy everyone. All this can be seen just on the cover of the comic. There is an old saying that goes “ don’t judge a book by its cover,” however I think in this case it is safe to say that the cover really does describe the whole story that lies behind it.
Of all the choices we had, I chose this comic book cover because it is obvious that the scientist is Japanese, because of the stereotypical portrait that is given. I thought this was a good cover to write about because in today’s standards it would not go over very smoothly. Especially now, because Asian are the “model minority” because they are supposedly quiet and smart and don’t want to cause trouble. And this cover contradicts that whole line of thinking.
I am kind of appalled by this cover, it is wrong to portray anyone this way. But in a way I can understand it, because it was done during the WW II era and the Japanese were thought to be evil. I’m sure that if I were alive during that period I would have thought of them as evil too. Still the things that people could get away with back in the day surprises me, not just about Japanese but also how Blacks, especially, were portrayed.