Conclusion

Abstract

According to Carr and Collingwood, all sources must be interrogated and ultimately recognised as works of narrative. In the case of comics, a factual record could be asserted in cases where contemporary data, now decipherable historical facts, have been accurately logged within the narrative of the comic book. In such works of narrative, character is all-important. In comics, character types need to be easily recognised and although unique identity tends not to be celebrated, characters can become metaphors, in the way that Haselden’s Colonel Dug-Out stood for the Home Front as a whole and formed part of the Mirror’s campaign for greater efficiency. Similarly Haselden’s personifications in ‘Sad Experiences Of Big and Little Willie’ became a metaphor for the discourse of the war, as the artist captured the humour of the British troops on leave from the front. His work, as an artefact of mass culture, contributed particularly to the British narrative of domestic British identity, and testified to the difficulties of a ‘normal life’ of work, leisure and consumerism in wartime. Allowing his reader to succinctly interpret many levels of meaning and representation within his work, Haselden’s use of cultural iconography in his comic strips clearly and concisely indicates nationality and various assumptions about national character.