The New Adventures of Hitler

"The New Adventures of Hitler" is a creator-owned British comic story. It was initially partially published in the magazine Cut in 1989, and then in its entirety in the adult-orientated comic Crisis. Written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Steve Yeowell, the story is based on Bridget Dowling's debated assertion that Adolf Hitler spent time in Liverpool shortly before the outbreak of World War I. "The New Adventures of Hitler" uses several anachronisms to comment on present-day politics at the time of publication, and caused some controversy in Britain. Creation Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell had broken through to critical acclaim with the revisionist superhero story "Zenith" in 2000 AD in 1987, and Morrison rapidly become one of the best-known British comic writers - including being headhunted by DC Comics. However, the writer continued to concurrently work on smaller-scale comics projects, as well as plays. With the boom in adult interest in comics following the mainstream success of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, many different publications began showing interest in the medium - including Complete Print International, a Scottish publisher putting together a new music and culture magazine called Cut. Inspired by what they saw as the worrying parallels between 1930s Nazi Germany and the policies of the then-incumbent Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher, Morrison and Yeowell devised "The New Adventures of Hitler" for serialisation in the magazine. The premise that Adolf Hitler visited Liverpool is not given credence by most mainstream historians. Bridget Dowling's claims and unpublished autobiography My Brother-in-Law Adolf, detailing his stay with Dowling and her then-husband Alois Hitler, as an invention to make money following the end of World War II. Nevertheless, the idea had led to the 1978 satirical novel Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge and John Antrobus' 1980 play Hitler in Liverpool; Morrison was likewise uninterested in the historical veracity of the story, and used the idea to create a satirical story. As such, "The New Adventures of Hitler" featured numerous anachronistic devices - including appearances by John Lennon singing "Working Class Hero", Morrisey (then of The Smiths) singing "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and a spectral vision of Thatcher herself. Morrison used socialist and Jewish friends as a sounding board for the script and to identify any potential issues.