Winnetou in Czech Comics

DuringCzech Republic oneWinnetou hundred years of theirComicsCzech comics history, comics haveStražovská, Petra survived on the edge of CzechCzech Republic literature. Comic books used to be considered a genre only for children or teenagers and were perceived as being of low artistic quality and not intellectually stimulating. This situation dramatically changed after the fall of the Iron CurtainIron Curtain. Now, Czech authors can draw inspiration and depict experiences from abroad, and many famous foreign comics have been translated into Czech. There is no external limitation for the writers, and even Czech universities have founded new comics studies departments. However, there is one particular subgenre that has been around since the beginning of Czech comics history—the adventure comicComics, inspired by life in America. This chapter describes five stages of the development of Czech adventure comicComicsadventure comics, focusing on the portrayal and role of the Indigenous characters. In the beginning, Czech adventure comicsComicsadventure comics were based on an overly idealized image that showed America as a dream country of freedom and welfare. In this stage, the “Indian” characters were stereotypicalStereotype, and their “function” in the texts was to be a part of the “Wild-West” landscape. Later, under the NaziNazi and then SovietSoviet Union regime, comic-book authors tried to describe real Indigenous people’s lifestyle, even if the storylines were still too romanticRomanticizing. The plots were mainly focused on the “Indians’” fight for freedom against the colonizers, which was the issue that resonated with Czech society. In the 1960s, the hype around the GermanGermany WinnetouWinnetou movies led to the third stage, characterized by adventure stories and an imitation of life in harmony with nature, as depicted in these films. The 1990s represent a period when authors tried to portray Indigenous culturesIndigenous cultures realistically. This phase was extremely short and resulted in the last nostalgic stage after the year 2000. In the last two decades, the comic-book portrayal of Indigenous peoples has again been marked by a tendency towards idealization, this time associated with nostalgiaNostalgia. These most recent comics harken back to the “good old days” and stories from childhood in which good was clearly separated from evil.