The Presentation and Representation of Police Officers in comic books from 1930 to 2021 – Introduction

Guest blog by Sergeant Clayton Brown

Where did comic books come from and how do they relate to policing?

Comic books have been around in their current form since about 1933 and are currently enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity thanks, in no small part, to the success of such blockbuster movies as the ‘Avengers’ franchise, ‘Batman’ franchise and other modern superhero movies. These movies frequently featuring top name actresses and actors and comic book characters that have been around, in some cases, for as many as 80 years (Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman). 

Some scholars believe that the oldest comic book in the world is the Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck which was published in Europe in 1837. Although it would not be considered a ‘comic book’ by today’s standards, as it looked more like a picture book that what most of us would consider a modern comic book. Nevertheless, its author, Switzerland’s Rudolphe Topffer, is considered by many to be the creator of the picture story and comic strip. These visual entertainment formats were the precursors to what would eventually become the modern-day comic book and graphic novel. 

The first American comic book (and what would be far more familiar by today’s standards) was Funnies on Parade published in 1933.  This was not a book of original content but rather was a collection of reprinted comic strips from newspapers including; ‘Mutt and Jeff’, ‘Joe Palooka’ and ‘Skippy’. The popularity of this new form of entertainment led to the demand for more content and thus, led to the creation of new original content, often by aspiring artists suffering from high unemployment due to the great depression going on at the time.

In 1938, the beginning of the ‘Golden Age of Comic Books’ started with the creation of Jerry Siegal’s and Joe Shuster’s character Superman. Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1. To this day Superman is still considered by many to be the most recognizable comic book character of all time. During World War II sales of comics increased dramatically as people could not get enough of the inspirational stories of good over evil and new characters were being created on an almost daily basis.

Although many new characters were being created only a select few have lasted through the subsequent decades and many have faded into obscurity or fallen into the public domain due to the copyright laws of the time. No one knew at the time how valuable some of those books would become decades later.

Of all the real-life careers at the time compatible to being presented in comic books policing was by far the best fit. It was a career that seemed to be exciting and fit well with the good vs. evil portrayal in comic books. Policing had action and adventure and was a logical topic for portrayal in comic books. The only other career that comes close to the same amount of excitement, thrills and adventure was the military, which also has had its share of comics through the years as well, particularly during the war. Having said that, the interest in military comics has significantly decreased over the years as societal opinions and feelings have changed.

Police comics and characters are still going strong as both lead and support characters in current comic titles published by many different comic book companies. Police Officers of all types, ranks and roles have been the lead characters in comics and have also been supporting characters to the Super-Heroes that are often the lead or ‘title’ character of the book. Some have been realistic portals of the job and some have not. Some have been strong supportive representations and some have shown the police to be blundering and incompetent (at which point in time there would usually be a superhero to save the day).

The reason for this was often when the police were shown facing some type of super-villain that their ‘normal’ skills, equipment and abilities could not deal with. Having the superhero come in and save the day would only make the book more dramatic. After all, if the police could solve everything in these fictional worlds, we would not have the need for superhero comics.  

We have some police comics that try to stay accurate and realist, like The Job from Marvel, and some that embellish, such as Dream Police from Image Comics, purely for excitement and artistic purpose. We will see that as times change and society changes such things as technology, diversity and the roles of police represented in the comic book medium had adapted to reflect these changes. 

In these guest posts you will meet police officers of all types and all eras. You will see how they reflect the profession as it was perceived (usually) at that time and era plus how that presentation has changed through the years to reflect the changes in the career and society. 

For some of the police officers appearing in comic books they are full time officers and for some it is an alter ego, such as the 1930’s The Spectre — it is what they’re doing when they’re not being a superhero. Some police characters support other characters, like Police Commissioner Jim Gordon in 1930’s Batman, and some are the lead characters in the story such as 1992’s Cops: The Job. You will meet Police Officers that don’t look like people but who wear the police uniform, like 1980’s Savage Dragon, and then you will meet some that are Police Officers from other planets or for different sectors of the universe. They wear a completely different uniform, including 1960’s Hawkman and 1950’s Green Lantern, but are, basically, performing the role of a Police Officer just in a science fiction context. Some are good and some, not so much.

But through it all you will see that the Police have been embedded in the comic book art form for as long as that art form has existed. As society has changed, the portrayal of the policing profession has changed — from the presentation of uniforms and different roles within the organization to the integration of more diverse characters and the greater depth of storytelling plus portrayal of the job.  

Each era that I’m going to talk about will start with what was going on in the world and in policing for that time then what was going on in the comic book industry. I will talk about what was new in the policing career, what were the challenges, what were the milestones both in Canada and the U.S. and how was this shown in the characters appearing in comics at that time. I will then introduce you to police officers in comic books from that era in the hope that as we go through this content you will see that as the times changed so did the representations of Police Officers.

At the start of our journey, you will see that the reflection of officers is very much in step with the era. Officers are dominantly male and white — sexual orientation didn’t even exist as a term at the dawn of the comic book era. The stories were simpler, rougher and harder — for example, the bad guy commits a crime, gets caught and get punished. Things were pretty basic at the start of this art form with minimal character development.  

As time goes on the representations of the police shift with the times. We see more women being brought into the stories along with changes in equipment and uniforms, changes in police units and more diversity in the presentation of officers.  

The content and issues being dealt with become more reflective of the time. For example, such topics as sexual assault or domestic violence would never have been part of a comic in the 1920’s or 1930’s and terrorism would never have been in a comic in the 50’s or 60’s. PTSD, depression and mental health were topics that no one was talking about and which never would have been depicted in an early comic book. In fact, at one time there was a rule that officers could not be shown to get hurt, could not be shown as corrupt and always had to get the bad person at the end. This was the message of the day that comics had to show that “Crime does not pay”. In real life we know that portrayals such as these are not always realistic.

Comics are, and have always been, a reflection of society, fantasy reflecting reality, captured on paper and presented in full colour for our entertainment and for posterity.

Join us next month when the ongoing special about Policing in Comics continues with a look at the 1920s.