Zombies, Werewolves, and Vampires, Oh My!: The History, Department of of Horror in Comics

Following the second World War, America’s war against the Axis powers came to a close both on battlefields and on the superhero-emblazoned pages of wartime comic books. Pioneered by Entertaining Comics (EC Comics), the horror genre emerged from the ashes of a comic book industry in which star-spangled superheroes had no more fascist villains to defeat. The reconstruction of America’s postwar national identity under McCarthyism fueled public fear that horror comics promoted corruption and delinquency in the country’s youth, leading to federal regulation and the end of EC Comics. This project explores how 1950s horror comics speak to efforts at reshaping American national identity after World War II and how the comic book form specifically suggests this search for identity.