Illustration:
ill. 6.17 (set: 6.16)
Author:
Mao's Good Student Jiao Yulu Comic Creation Group 《毛主席的好学生焦裕禄》连环画创作组
Date:
1972
Genre:
comic, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, grayscale; original source: print on paper, black-and-white
Source:
Mao Zhuxi de hao xuesheng Jiao Yulu 毛主席的好学生焦裕禄 (Mao’s good student, Jiao Yulu). Zhengzhou: Henan renmin, 1972:15.
Keywords:
comic, hero, model hero, fight, landlord, villain, leader, gesture, Cultural Revolution

Mao's Good Student Jiao Yulu (Mao Zhuxi de hao xuesheng Jiao Yulu 毛主席的好学生焦裕禄)

Not unlike any other artistic product created during this time, the ideal comic during the Cultural Revolution in its depiction of heroes and demons would have to abide quite clearly by the set of rules called the Three Prominences, which had first been developed for the model works. Three Prominences are achieved by making use of all artistic possibilities first to emphasize the good, second to emphasize the heroes among the good, and third to emphasize the main heroes among the heroes. In comics, this basic theory causes negative characters to disappear almost completely from sight, by, for example, effectively leaving them out of the panel frame, or by showing them from the back or the side but never in full view nor central to the picture. Instead, they are cast in the shadows, never straight and strong but sickly, crouched, and bent. Numerous examples can be given of comics published in the second half of the Cultural Revolution that abide by these rules: in this 1972 comic, Mao’s good student Jiao Yulu leads the people in their fight against rich landlords. Here, a sharp contrast is created between Jiao Yulu’s towering statue and that of the cowering landlord (Huang Laosan 黄老三).