At this week’s seder, I mentioned that there was a connection between Passover and Superman, expecting maybe someone to know what I was talking about. Instead, there were blank stares. That’s what happens, I suppose, when you are a fanatic in a world of normal people.
In 2003, the theme for our son Jonathan’s bar mitzvah was The People of the Comic Book: The Jewish Heroes Behind the Superheroes. In posters, party favors, and especially in a small booklet I created, we told our guests how the superhero comic book world was built by Jewish businessmen and creators, and especially about how one of the world’s most iconic characters was created out of Jewish history and culture.
Following is the text of that booklet. It barely scratches the surface of this fascinating story, about which there are hundreds of books and articles, but for those who don’t know the story, it is a start.
Bob
The People of the Comic Book: The Jewish Heroes Behind the Superheroes
Along with jazz, the comic book is one of America’s few indigenous art forms, but unlike jazz it’s a specifically Jewish contribution to American culture…
Comic books are to art what Yiddish is to language, a vulgar tongue that incorporates other languages into its mix, a vital and expressive language that talks with its hands.
—Art Spiegelman, artist and writer, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
It is said that God created man because God loves stories. Comic books are the great storytelling medium of the 20th Century, and from the beginning it was Jewish publishers, editors, writers and artists who helped create the comics we know and love.
In the 1930s and 1940s, comic books were a disreputable and low-class business. So it was natural that ambitious and creative young men would flock to the industry and turn it into a successful mass market art. Many of these men were Jewish, immigrants or sons of immigrants, and they brought with them unique cultural sensibilities and traditions.
Only a Jew would think of calling himself Clark Kent.
—cartoonist Jules Feiffer
When two Cleveland teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created Superman in the 1930s, they were telling a story that was thousands of years old: a refugee baby sent far away in an interplanetary basket made by his parents, a stranger in a strange land who had to hide his identity and origins, who wanted only to use his powers for good. Even his Kryptonian name—Kal-El—is Hebrew for “Voice of God.”
These and other traditional Jewish characters and themes appear again and again—sometimes literally, sometimes as subtext—and they continue in comic books today. With acclaimed contemporary Jewish creators such as Art Spiegelman (Maus), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), and Ben Katchor (The Jew of New York), the storytelling connection between Jews and comic books remains unbroken.
Featured Creators:
Stan Lee (Stanley Lieber)
Head of Marvel Comics, who along with Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzberg) created Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and many more legendary characters.
Bob Kane (Bob Kahn)
Creator of Batman
Dedicated to Will Eisner
Will Eisner is the heart and mind of American comics.
—Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics
Will Eisner is considered by many the greatest figure in the history of comics. From his creation of The Spirit in the 1940s, he went on to pioneer the appreciation of comics as a visual medium (through his courses and his groundbreaking book Comics & Sequential Art). The major award for achievement in comic books is named for him.
In 1978 Will Eisner broke the boundaries by creating a book length comic book called A Contract with God—stories of growing up poor and Jewish in the Bronx tenements. To interest book publishers, he gave this work the fancy name “graphic novel.” The revolutionary new form of comic book he had invented changed the industry and the art. Will Eisner is in his 80s and still at work in his studio in Tamarac, Florida.
[Note: Will Eisner was invited but could not attend the bar mitzvah. He did kindly send a treasured gift, greetings for Jonathan in the form of a drawing of The Spirit. Will Eisner died on January 3, 2005, at the age of 87.]
