D-Day on the Comics Page

Saturdays being often a bit slack on the comics page, I decided to anticipate Monday's anniversary date and do some looking back to the comics you'd have seen then, if the news weren't a bit more on your mind.

I really expected that it would be the June 7, 1944 newspapers that would cover D-Day, but the time difference between Europe and North America, plus the number of afternoon papers in those days, made the June 6 papers the ones to search, particularly since the morning papers ran Extras later in the day so that, by June 7, even they were providing follow-up coverage.

It was pretty clear, too, that, while the exact timing of the invasion on the Western Front (the Italian campaign being in full swing) was secret, it was known to be coming, since businesses were prepared to move quickly with ads supporting it. The June 6 papers were full of announcements like these.

 

And "crashing the web site" is only a modern version of the tangle we were used to even decades later on phone lines, trying to call on Mother's Day or Christmas. Obviously, this was not a time to replicate that phenomenon:


The newspapers were on a war footing to begin with, despite having lost all ads for cars, major appliances and other products that had ceased production in favor of defense industry efforts. And Rosie wasn't the only Riveter in those factories, as this on-going feature attests (click to embiggen, it's interesting to see what it seemed like at the time, rather than in the afterglow of history):

This feature surprised me, because, while I had seen its like in the pages of "Yank," I didn't realize sketch artists were being featured in civilian papers alongside Ernie Pyle and other "you are there" pieces:

You'll see in the comics of June 6, 1944 a mix of strips that were specifically geared for the war effort, others that referenced it, and some that went merrily on their way, providing a distraction. 

In no particular order, here's what I came across:

(Was surprised to find Mxyztplk around in 1944 -- assumed he was a much later addition!)

 

Comments

[Richard John Marcej]

And Years and years and years after D-Day, when I was a kid reading the newspaper comics in the late 60's and early 70's, I remember it was Charles Schulz reminding the readers, to remember D-Day. Usual;y with a strip of Snoopy as the sop with camel pilot(even though he was representing a different war) commenting about it. I suppose with his gravitas and position in the paper Schulz was one of the few who could devote a strip to it's remembrance.

[Brian Fies]

Fascinating slice of time. Thanks for compiling it!