Jews and Comics: The Connection

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.