45 Days Of CCS, #40: Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen follows up on illustrating a work of graphic history with another one, this time focusing on the home front of World War II in the US. Working with writer Kate Hannigan, World War II: Fight On The Home Front (a part of the History Comics series from First Second) is a pretty typical middle-grade book. Hannigan does her best to get at some of the racial and gender inequality in the US and how the demands of the war temporarily changed things, but the book still dipped into a bit of that "V for Victory" spirit that was so prominent in media and culture at that time in the US. 

Rosen's character design is the star of the show, from the four kids who are the narrators of the story to funny caricatures of world leaders to more naturalistic drawings of important figures from history. The fascinating thing about the book is how it details the way in which the US went about engaging in total war, nationalizing many of its industries to go into manufacturing goods for its war effort. The propaganda machine was a big part of this (and Hannigan actually did use that term once in the book), trying to convince the populace that doing things like rationing resources, going on extended scrap hunts for metal and rubber, and even establishing "victory gardens" in every corner of the city to help bolster food on the home front were worth the sacrifice. 

Propaganda or not, and despite an extended anti-war movement (with various motives, including a pro-German Bund movement), it was still astonishing to see a country founded on rugged individualism buy into a collective good as widely as the US did at that time. Of course, this was during the FDR administration, where the collapse of the US economy allowed for widespread socialist programs that had a profound and wide positive impact. This collective action against a decidedly malignant foe in Nazi Germany kept the populace at home engaged, as everyone was made to feel they were doing their part. What's interesting is how this engaged marginalized groups. That included women, who had limited employment and educational opportunities. It included Black people, who forced their way into jobs and then better-paying jobs because bodies were needed. It didn't include Japanese-Americans, as Hannigan does make extensive mention of the internment camps. 

Hannigan's strategy of telling the story through some neighborhood kids only works because Rosen was so good at using them to directly comment on the narrative itself. Their snarkiness toward the "victory" propaganda was funny, even as the kids still were active in many ways. However, they also reflected the difficulties of rationing, especially when things like sugar and dairy rationing meant that ice cream stopped being a part of daily life. Hannigan notes that surplus of goods following the war, with plenty of sourced anecdotes and statistics (like gallons of ice cream eaten!). All told, this is a solid primer brought to life by Rosen's expressive and varied characters. The color scheme was pretty much the First Second house style, meaning it wasn't especially interesting nor intrusive; it did the job and thankfully didn't interfere with Rosen's line art.