Another response to Adolf Hitler:  A True American:

>> Can you cite the page number on this? I'd like to check the context as I have Volume 1 of Toland's biography on my shelf. <<

P. 202. Since I got this info from websites and you have the book, feel free to provide corrections or elaborations.

>> And it should be noted there were _lots_ of other influences on young Adolf. <<

Right, and I go into them in more detail on my site. I paint Hitler as the culmination of Western history, with its philosophy of domination and conquest, not just an offshoot of US history.

Of course, billions of people have grown up in a European or American society, so that itself isn't a sufficient cause to commit genocide. It's more like a philosophy underpinning the more proximate causes—Hitler's family life, his anger at Germany's defeat, etc.

>> However, this idea is worth consideration. "Manifest Destiny" isn't that far from a "Thousand Year Reich"... <<

And neither is that far from the Biblical concept of the "chosen people"—the people chosen by God to rule over others, that is. Hitler was steeped in Catholic lore, so he would've been familiar with that concept, too.

Anyway, you've got it. The point of my posting isn't to establish an exact and unbreakable linkage. It's to suggest some linkage where people might have thought there wasn't any.

This goes back to my reason for doing a comic about Native Americans. Our treatment of the Indians is essentially the history of American and Western civilization in a nutshell. Writing about them brings the whole range of political, social, and cultural issues into play. It's a much broader canvas than, say, storytelling about Batman on the rooftops or Peter Parker in high school.

Even heroes who can do anything or go anywhere—Superman, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men—uphold and defend the American/Western status quo. The classic scene in GREEN LANTERN #76 where the black man asks, "What have you done for US?" still rings true. In contrast, Indians are the perennial challenge to the American ideology—proof that we'll break treaties or wipe out species if we want to. They force us to rethink our traditional dogma and see its obvious flaws.

Hence, PEACE PARTY, a cultural critique as well as an action-packed adventure. <g>

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