Comics, history, ideology
Increasingly often comics in Poland starts to act as a popularizer of a difficult message and a medium to more easily get through to the young. Pictures can speak more explicitly, distinctly, and they are supposed to enchant the reader without any problem. This conviction is nothing new, and it dates back to PRL (People’s Republic of Poland, i.e. Poland before the breakthrough in 1989). The difference, however, is that Relax or Żbik were all communist propaganda, they dealt with the construction of socialist mythology and lied about history, while today editors of some comic books attempt to catch curiosity of young people and turn it towards history. History cleaned from suppressions and lies of the former system. Moreover, it is supposed to be “cool” and attractive. The problem of picture publications of apparently popularising character is, however, that it is easy to fall into a black-and-white creation of the world, not demanding any thinking and to repeat the clichés of communist Poland’s comic books. It is not difficult when we take into consideration the fact that the young generation authors were brought up on the comic strips, and the 90-ties practically brought no new Polish comic books onto the market.
The authors born in the 70-ties and 80-ties are readers of Kloss, Tytus or difficult-to-get Relax, the recipients of the old and unworthy comics’ tradition.
Many of today’s maniacs and collectors of comic books were in their youth similar to Stanisław Barańczak’s son recalled in a sarcastic and intelligent essay Blurp! from the collection of essays Książki najgorsze (The Worst Books) (primarily published in an underground magazine “Zapis” (Entry) – footnote by the editors of “Lampa”). The later author of Chirurgiczna precyzja (Surgical Precision) examined the propaganda mechanism on the example of a cult comics magazine “Relax” to show how it influenced the mind of a little child. Today we can easily unmask that manipulation, but when one read “Relax” the Polish-Soviet friendship was obviousness, there was no evidence of the Katyń issue or Auschwitz concentration camp as its presence might have been crushing for an immature reader. What history then could we have learned from that comic books? Barańczak ironically drafts a figure of a socialist superhero, who fights with hostile, often invisible powers. He is noble, though for his class enemies he has no mercy. Dedicated to the idea – he actually has no private or emotional life. He is fully dedicated to the case. Additionally, what Barańczak points out, the biggest heroes and leaders come from the Soviet Union. He writes: “My son surely remembers from his reading (e.i. from “Relax”) that to be a Soviet Union citizen is much more and better than to be just a man”. The whole trick, however, was to include the ideological load in an apparently neutral adventurous plot, light and simple. Constructing a plot based on more or less complicated quest excluded any analysis of the hero’s motivation. Nobody wondered about the sense of actions, everybody knew where the so-called truth lied. After all, the motto of “Relax” was “to teach without boredom”. This slogan could be easily extended upon other comic books in PRL: Kloss, Żbik, and even Pilot Śmigłowca (The Pilot of a Helicopter). Despite appearances the last title was an excellent tool of propaganda, because the lieutenant Karski was not only gentle, handsome, attracting women’s hearts, but also flying such a great machine. Its description was always placed on the comic book covers. An officer of the Polish army was undoubtedly a fulfilled and happy man. Publicity of the army and the helicopter factory in Świdnik, all in one. It is a wonder that the Ministry of National Defence did not think of a similar agitation in case of the Polish invasion on Iraq. However, the most lessons under the motto “to teach without boredom” we received from the perfectly prepared Kloss who met people’s partisans, and strangely enough has never come across any Armia Krajowa (Home Army) detachment. The history of the WW2 attached to the comic book did not mention the formation either. What’s interesting, the hero forced to live a double-life put on an Abwehra uniform, which proved later on to belong to the “less mean” Germans. Isn’t it strange that in the comic book the worst bastards were, including Brunner ( a major German character), only Gestapo soldiers and ss-men? Negative characters were rather rare in Abwehra, and for sure they could not be alike Brunner’s buddies. Kloss was never helpless, he always was brilliant. In the last but one episode the Grüppenführer Wolf helped the slow-witted, keeping their boots on the table Yanks to foil a conspiracy action. Themselves they would rather not guess that a mysterious “wolf” means four ss-men. It should be admitted, however, that the Captain Kloss comic book did not offer such a boorish propaganda, as it was in the case of one of most perfidious comics in PRL, namely “Było to na Podhalu” (It happened at Podhale). In this a few page story, drawn by Wróblewski (unfortunately), and written by an Ankudowicz the reader can see how a “forest gang” kills a little child, a daughter of a farmer who was just granted land from the people’s authorities. Partisans are equaled to murderers acting without any clear motivation. And unlike smoothly-shaved militiamen they look as the worst bandits.
No wonder then that such a hot potato like war and history in the tradition of the Polish comics, has not been seriuosly touched upon since the publication of the antology Wrzesień (September). An exception is Achtung Zelig!, published in „AQQ”, which was not noticed at all. It is a pity that Spiegelman’s translation appeared on the Polish market before any of Polish comics’ authors managed to present the tragedy of concentration camps or the Jews. Wrzesień (September) is after all a breakthrough collection in many aspects. In most cases the presented stories break up with a plot pattern of “playing war” and treat the subject either in a grotesque way or very dramatically and emotionally. Right after Wrzesień there appeared a clumsy-told and drawn comics album Westerplatte. The form could have been forgiven to the authors, as they wanted to present precisely and in a detailed way the story of the legendary place, and at the same time to break up with the myth of Sucharski, who in reality was not interested in the battle, and that the actual hero of Westerplatte proved to be Franciszek Dąbrowski.
It seems that history returned to the Polish comics for good, however pictures are to have almost utalitarian value, and the historic comic books return to the formula “to teach without boredom”. It is hard to resist the impression that reading the two recent albums: Epizody Powstania Warszawskiego (The Warsaw Uprising Episodes) and Solidarność – 25 lat. Nadzieja zwykłych ludzi (Solidarity – 25 Years. The Hope of Common People). How do the “comics lessons” look like? Firstly, they are on two completely different levels.
The lesson of the Warsaw Uprising looks very rough and happens in rough-and-ready conditions. Its authors and editors probably did not learn basic rules of comics reform, which in short says that it is not enough to draw anything on a knee and “everything’s gonna be all right”, as it is only a comic book. The Museum of Warsaw Uprising announced a contest for presentation of uprising stories and apparently did not expect such lousy results. To tell the truth – the quality of works is exactly equal to the editorial quality of the anthology. It is worse than poor. This comics were to celebrate the insurgents memory, and such an important event deserves something more than a modest, glued notebook with pale, brown print and unattractive pictures. The only advantage of the anthology is an opportunity to see that young authors treat the uprising with respect, and at the same time see the war in a very simplified way. As if Różewicz, Białoszewski, or Baczyński’s poetry did not exist. The majority of scripts are reports of particular army units’ actions, and although they were based on true stories of insurgents, they miss deepened portraits. Unfortunately, the authors return to the subject of shooting to the enemy and by the force of events they duplicate patterns from PRL. There is no place for characters’ fear, neither for panic nor premonition of extermination. We do not know whom they miss and whom they left deciding to fight. We have no insight to the characters’ mind, we cannot see their inner breakdown and lack of hope. We can only see shots and delegated tasks. We also do not receive any broader context of the 44’ events. In order to achieve all this the authors must have been able to use the comics’ language, which they are not really able to. We miss somebody like Joe Sacco, the author of comics’ war reports, known for excellent Palestine. Epizody Powstania Warszawskiego (The Warsaw Uprising Episodes) do not show anything new. They are not able to popularize a patriotic legend as visually they push back any comics’ fans, not mentioning its opponents. The anthology is extremely amateurish, and apart the first prize winners – Karol Konwersk i Rafał Szłapa – the rest of works make an impression that they were awarded as there was nothing better to award. We should feel sorry for Tomek Leśniak and Rafał Skarżycki who were in the jury.
“I hope that the readers of this collection will be mostly young people, fortunate enough to be born in free Poland” – Lech Wałęsa writes in the introduction to the comic book Solidarność. Nadzieja zwykłych ludzi (Solidarity. The Hope of Common People). From the very beginning we know the target group of this album, which also is an anthology. Unlike Epizody (Episodes) the comics was drawn by professionals, including among others Michalski, Janicki, Ordon, and the script of individual short stories was written by Maciej Jasiński. The album’s editors used also an achievement of the PRL comics and included texts among story pictures. We can find here a short article by professor Roszkowski, commentary of Jan Rulewski, or a profile of the priest Popiełuszko, which should broaden the knowledge of the comic book reader. The stories themselves form a picture legend of Solidarity, avoiding pathos though. Sometimes there appear short lectures, as if taken from a school textbook, however the authors focus on the conflict between the society and the authorities. It must be admitted that individual comics stories complement one another and present August events from different perspectives. In the story drawn by Michalski we will see caricatures of Jaruzelski and other communist leaders, who already in danger, discuss using new-speech what to do with the protesting crowd. Michalski’s line and his framing very well build the atmosphere of the street and the communists’ room. Also the portrait of Popiełuszko is interesting. Although here he is a man of very determined ideas and a true authority to the believers, however we can also see him tired, with a sick look of fear on his face. Jasiński, following the title, presented also stories of common people: women from the butcher’s, children or a young husband, who initially does not want to join the strike as he is afraid to lose his job and being parted with his family.
Solidarność… (Solidarity…) is much better in its role than Epizody (Episodes), only does it have to put on the educational mask? We have a paradox here. Both Lech Wałęsa and the editors of Epizody… count on young readers. And it is well known for a long time that according to „Marciniak’s curse” comics is the only of mass literary genre which did not adopt itself in Poland. The young people do not read comic books too often. The recently published by “Gazeta” (Gazeta Wyborcza) survey confirms it. The picture art has quite a small audience, which will not grow after reading such rubbish as Epizody. Comics should not even attempt to teach history, but it is a genre which is very good at commenting upon it, and changing it into author- or personal relationships. It is enough to recall “Maus”. In case of such comic books as Solidarność… well realized, but published under a pressure of circumstances or the anniversary, its univocality is glaring. Solidarność… misses discussion over the heritage of the August ideals, which have been taking place for many years. It is enough to recall the book Spór o PRL (Dispute on PRL) in which Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (and not only him) execrated historic amnesia, talks in Magdalenka and lack of decommunization. The best example of how the ideals of that time were rejected in our country is the story of Anna Walentynowicz. Her story is not included in the collection, she is not mentioned by Wałęsa in the introduction.
Polish comics undertaking history should not “teach without boredom”, but to provoke and dispute, otherwise it still will be treated as a simple and primitive genre.
Sebastian Frąckiewicz
Translated by Małgorzata Pilewska
The article comes from the monthly "Lampa" issue no. 9 (18) 2005