Thursday, November 1, 2007

Jews and Comics: The Connection

filed under: batman, frank miller, jack kirby, musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme, r. crumb, stan lee, superman, will eisner

So… my baby boy was just born!! Kalel Sage Lewis, less than two weeks ago, 10/22/07. For those of you not reared on Marvel and DC Comics as children, Superman – arguably the greatest, most well-known superhero of them all – was born Kal-El on the planet Krypton before rocketing to Earth as the planet’s sole survivor, blah blah. The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in the Marais district of Paris is currently running De Superman au Chat du Rabbin (From Superman to the Rabbi’s Cat), described in the program as

[A]n exhibition on Jewish cartoons and graphic novels illustrating how the comic strip contributed to the construction of contemporary Jewish collective memory… to show how, from the end of the 19th century until the late 20th century, the cartoon strip and graphic novel played a role in the creation of imagery and partially enriched and disseminated visions of the Jewish past.

If I named my son after Superman (in a roundabout way), it would seem the museum would have had me at “hello” with this one. But comic fans are notorious for being impossibly, nerdly critical when it comes to our shit. All in all, I think they nailed it. They established the Jewish connection mainly on the basis of legendary writers and artists of the comic artform who were Jews: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (the creators of Superman), Bill Finger and Bob Kane (creators of Batman), Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

A wing of the exhibit was dedicated to Will Eisner, creator of both The Spirit and the graphic novel medium. I was never really into The Spirit, but Sin City director Frank Miller is about do a film on him. The museum displayed comics behind glass cases; I always find it funny to see pop art so revered: Action Comics #252 (the first appearance of Supergirl) and the groundbreaking tone of the “This Man, This Monster” storyline of Fantastic Four #51 among others. Underground comics got some light, particularly the influence of R. Crumb (who’s expatriated to Sauve, a village in the south of France) on French comics; so did the renegade legacy of Mad magazine, which Mom (like many other American moms) would never let me read. All us kids snuck them anyway.

Most important nugget of knowledge: comics come from The Bronx, the invention of Jewish salesman Max Gaines. If ya don’t know, now ya know.

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Comments

Michael A. Gonzales at 5:50 AM on 11/02/07:

my favorite jewish comic creator is the wonderful howard chaykin…who had a few mean things to say about will eisner: http://www.aspiritedlife.com/blog/2006/06/howard-chaykin-interview.html

MML at 9:06 AM on 11/02/07:

this is a great link, mike. when chaykin (whose ‘american flagg’ i always loved) says eisner was ‘effective in controlling his own image and his own press. i think he was a great bamboozler. i think he manipulated the people who adored him, and used them to manipulate his own image,’ it strikes me as kind of, you know, what you’re supposed to do in order to blow up in america. (haha!) looks like it worked.

madeleine at 3:08 PM on 11/02/07:

I can only imagine the sleight-of-hand ((léger de main for those of us who live in Paris) that it took to convince your wife to name your sone Kalel. That being said, I hope blessings follow your family always.

MML at 3:21 PM on 11/02/07:

yeah, i’ve got friends who named their children zy-moon, saturn, chosen, seven… our first son’s name was her choice; kalel was mine.

Michael A. Gonzales at 4:40 PM on 11/02/07:

i think you should’ve named the kids either mingus, monk or coltrane…i’m just saying.

MML at 9:31 PM on 11/02/07:

how predictable. {yawn} lucas already has coltrane’s birthday.

Valérie at 11:02 PM on 11/02/07:

Hello Miles !
I like your website. I’m in Madrid now but I wanted to tell U that my brother has his best friend who works in the Musée d’art et du Judaïsme in the Marais. His name is Richard Metz. If U want, I can see with my brother if U want to meet him to discuss about this exhibition… Bye… and I love Kalel & Lucas’s names..

MML at 2:36 AM on 11/03/07:

hey valérie! i like madrid, have fun. i’d like to talk with richard, maybe for next month though. some interesting future exhibits are happening there.

Michael A. Gonzales at 8:08 AM on 11/03/07:

ok, so uncle mike is predictable…but can the other god parents do this (bam): www.ralphbakshi.com…yet another cool jewish artist; and, another fave of mine.

Carla at 4:27 PM on 11/03/07:

YAY My-yules! Another baby boy. Mazel Tov..

When he grows up and realizes he was named after a comic book character, it will either start him on the path to an extraordinary life, or he’ll be a comic con geek and never get laid. Time will tell.

Sadly, I don’t have a favorite Jewish comic book creator. But I DO like Max Fleischer who created Betty Boop. The early cartoons he did in the 20’s were some of the dirtiest, lewd and suggestive stuff I ever saw. After the 30’s when they started to rate movies and cleaned things up, she got all cutesy. But if you ever get a chance to see pre-ratings Betty Boop cartoons, you might get a little turned on.

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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Jews and Comics: The Connection

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