The Jewish Comic Book Guys

Presented at the JCC of Ann Arbor

February 25th, 2016

The American comic book industry was, from its inception until modern times,

dominated by Jewish publishers, writers and artists. How this came about and what it says both about

that industry and about Jewish culture in America is the subject of this presentation.

The Early or Platinum Days – As has been the case in many of the fields that I have discussed before,

Jews entered the comic book industry through a combination of chance and lack of resistance. There

were so many professions that were either closed to Jews or where access was limited through quotas

or discrimination that Jews gravitated to those professions that were comparatively open.

The Eastern Color Printing Company opened in 1928 as an adjunct to the Waterbury Republican

newspaper1. The Eastern handled the full-color publishing duties, which were primarily the printing of

the comic strips for the paper, those serials known as the “Sunday funnies”. These included some of the

famous comics such as Joe Palooka and Mutt and Jeff. Eastern also printed the color covers for the

“racy” magazines known as the pulps.

In 1933, the general manager for Eastern was a man named Harry

Wildenberg. He took note of the increasing popularity of comics and

believed that they could be used as a vehicle to sell advertising. It was

about this time that an unemployed Jewish novelty salesman named

Maxwell Charles “M.C.” Gaines (formerly Max Ginzberg) joined the

company in the sales department2. Whether the idea of a full-color

magazine of these same Sunday comic strips originated with

Wildenberg or Ginzberg is not clear, but they were able to sell the idea

as a promotional opportunity. Thus was Famous Funnies born. Soon A

Century of Comics, and Skippy’s Own Book of Comics would follow, the

latter being the first modern comic dedicated to a single character.

Let me repeat that these were used as promotions, given away for

free to promote products. No one believed that children would pay

money for the same comic strips that came for free with newspapers.

Moreover, with Eastern’s success, competition had sprung up in the

form or rival publishers, also offering promotions. In 1935 Harry Donenfield3 would leave behind the

pulp “girlie” magazines (where he had been charged with obscenity) to launch his comic book New Fun.

We’ll talk more about Harry and how he and his partner Jack Liebowitz would launch Detective Comics.

Also on the scene was Martin “Moe” Goodman4 who had several publications of Funnies before

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Color_Printing 2 http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jews-in-comic-books/ 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Donenfeld 4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Goodman_(publisher)

launching Marvel Comics in 1939. As the popularity of comic books grew, an industry sprang up to meet

the demand.

The growing comic book business created opportunities for many young Jewish writers and illustrators

who had been shut out or more traditional avenues such as the advertising business. Ad agencies had

quotas restricting the number of Jewish employees that they would take on. Sometimes newspapers

would hire Jewish cartoonists such as Rube Goldberg5 or Milt Gross6 but these were the exception. In

Rube Goldberg’s case, the fact that his father was a San Francisco fire and police commissioner helped

him get his first job at the San Francisco Chronicle before moving to New York to work at the Evening

Mail. For Milt Gross, who came from the Bronx, he was able to capitalize on his Jewish immigrant roots,

writing stories in an idiom that combined Yiddish and English into Ying-lish as in a "Nize Ferry-tail from

Elledin witt de Wanderful Lemp" or "Jack witt de Binn Stuck". But again, it was far more likely that young

Jewish cartoonists could find work in the new world of comic books than in the newspaper business.

At least that was how it seemed to two students attending De Witt

Clinton High School in the Bronx in 19367. Young Bob Kane (who

would go on to create Batman) suggested to his friend Will Eisner

that he, Eisner, should try to sell his work to a new comic

book called Wow, What A Magazine! Jerry Iger8, the son of an

Austrian peddler and himself a cartoonist who had apprenticed

under Max Fleischer of Betty Boop fame, had become the

founding editor of Wow and accepted Eisner’s submission, an

adventure strip entitled Captain Scott Dalton. Wow only lasted

four issues from July to November 1936 (skipping October due to a

lack of funds) but Eisner contributed several strips in addition to

the Scott Dalton strip, including one about a pirate known as “The

Flame” and a secret agent “Harry Karry.” In only a few short years,

from 1933 to 1936, comic books had gone from reprinting Sunday

funnies to featuring original works of adventure fiction, often written by young, urban Jewish creators.

But the art form was about to take a giant step that would capture the public’s imagination. And the

inspiration for that would come from a most unlikely source.

Man and Superman – Inspiration can come from positive or negative influences. In this case the thing

that took comic books to the next level was the most negative possible.

In 1883, Friedrich Nietzche wrote in the prologue to his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also Sprach

Zarathustra) –

The Übermensch shall be the meaning of the earth!

I entreat you my brethren, remain true to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of supra-

terrestrial hopes! …

Behold, I teach you the Übermensch: he is this lightning, he is this madness! …

5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milt_Gross 7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Eisner 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Iger

Behold, I am a prophet of the lightning and a heavy drop from the cloud: but this lightning is called

Übermensch.9

Nietzsche was himself adamantly opposed to anti-

Semitism (he once declared that “all anti-Semites

ought to be shot”10) by 1934 his writings had been

subverted to fit the Nazi philosophy and the

Ubermensch (translated as Superman by G.B. Shaw

in his play Man and Superman11) had become the

paragon of the Third Reich. Hitler believed that the

German soldier was an Ubermensch, a Superman,

destined to conquer the world. And that others,

Jews in particular, were inferior beings, fit only for

service or worse.

Two young Jewish boys from Cleveland disagreed. Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster had broken into the

comic business with a strip for New Fun about a musketeer-type character called “Henri Duval.12” They

would follow this with a strip about a crime-fighter with magical powers called “Doctor Occult.”

Siegel authored a story about a villain with

mind-reading powers bent on world

conquest entitled The Reign of the

Superman, which appeared in the magazine

Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future

Civilization. In this story, the Superman was

evil. A mad scientist, Professor Ernest

Smalley, entices Bill Dunn, a vagrant, to

participate in an experiment in exchange for

a meal and a change of clothing. The

professor gives Dunn a potion that conveys

telepathic powers, but also a mad lust for

power. Dunn kills the professor, only to find

that the potion wears off. We are left with the implication that Dunn returns to poverty.

Siegel would subsequently rewrite the story. Now the Superman was a hero, a private detective. But the

story still didn’t catch on. Five years would go by. One day Siegel happened to see a comic book about

Detective Dan. Getting his friend Joe Schuster to do the illustrations, they created a comic book about

The Superman. And….it still didn’t sell. Siegel became so frustrated that he burned all the pages; only the

cover survived because Siegel rescued it.

The pair had success creating the character of Slam Bradley for Detective Comics #1. Detective Comics

was a joint venture between entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, publisher of Fun comics

9 https://philosophynow.org/issues/93/Nietzsches_Ubermensch_A_Hero_of_Our_Time 10 http://www.jta.org/1934/11/01/archive/all-anti-semites-ought-to-be-shot-nietzsche-once-wrote 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_and_Superman 12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Siegel

Hitler receiving Nietzsche's favorite walking stick from Nietsche’s sister, Lisbeth. http://www.f-nietzsche.de/efn.htm

and Harry Donenfield and his partner Jack Liebowitz. Wheeler-Nicholson was in financial trouble and

would be forced out of the company after one year. It would take some time, but Detective Comics

would go on to become DC Comics, one of the most valuable brand names not just in the comics

industry, but in the world of entertainment.

In June of 1938, Superman would finally receive his just due. He would

grace the cover of Action Comics #1. Despite what we know now about

Superman’s eventual popularity, the Man of Steel would share space with

a number of other stories: "Chuck Dawson: The 4-G Gang (Part 1)", "The

Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies", "South Sea Strategy (Part I)",

"Sticky-Mitt Stimson", "The Adventures of Marco Polo (Part I)", "The Light

Heavyweight Championship", "The International Jewel Thief" and

"Murder in England"13. Something for everyone.

Despite having to share space with a number of other stories, Superman

would go on to become the most successful comic book hero of all time,

ushering in the Golden Age of Comics and giving rise to a merchandise

empire that would include multiple comic book versions, toys, movies

and TV shows.

Is Superman Jewish? - That question has been asked, answered and debated on multiple occasions and

by various authorities. The answer is, of course, yes. I’ll provide a short, but far from comprehensive list

of the reasons that have been offered:

- We have discussed how Siegel originally conceived the first Superman story as a reaction to the

Nazi’s use of the term Ubermensch. Initially a “bad guy” seeking world domination, akin to the

Nazis, Superman would change into a hero, the defender of the weak.

- As Superman became a force for good, he was given super-powers. Authors have cited the

Golem of Prague as the inspiration; Siegel in an interview said he drew on the Biblical figure of

Samson.14

- On planet Krypton, Superman’s family name was “El.” His name was Kal-El and his father was

Jor-El. This is a reference to Elohim and is used in names of Hebrew origin, such as Samu-El,

Dani-El and, of course, Isra-El. Kal-el roughly equates to the voice of vessel of G-d.

- To save his life, Kal-el’s parents put him in a small spaceship and send off to Earth, where he will

be adopted by the Kent family. This seems to have been inspired by the story of Moses in the

bulrushes.

13 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Action_Comics_Vol_1_1 14 http://forward.com/culture/178454/10-reasons-superman-is-really-jewish/

- The motto of “Truth, justice and the American way” is very similar to the saying of Rabbi Shimon

ben Gamliel who said that the “The world endures on three things: truth, justice and peace.”

Peace was not so popular as the world was about to enter into World War II.

- Young Kal-el would have his name Americanized, just as so many of the comic book authors,

including Siegel and Schuster early in their careers, would in order to achieve acceptance. Clark

Kent, Superman’s bespectacled, clumsy, socially-awkward alter-ego is the classic example of the

nebbish.

- The Nazis certainly regarded Superman as having Jewish roots. In 1940, an article published in

Das Schwarze Korps, which was the newspaper of the SS, referred to Siegel as the “intellectually

and physically circumcised chap who has his headquarters in New York” and went on to say that

Superman had been created to sow “hate, suspicion, evil, laziness and criminality” among the

youth of America.

With that said, one of the challenges that Siegel and

Schuster would face was to explain why Superman, with all

his powers, didn’t go to war against the Axis. Couldn’t he

have ended World War II in a single day? Early on,

Superman did fight both the Nazis and the Japanese15. In

Superman 17 (Oct. 1942) the term “Japanazis" was coined to

describe his foes. He was shown sinking battleships, lifting

submarines out of the oceans and destroying tanks.

Superman 17 even featured The Man of Steel holding Hitler

and Emperor Hirohito by the scruffs of their necks.

But Superman would have to stay in America to fight his old

foes here. He had to guard the home front from the likes of

Luthor, The Prankster, Toyman and the Insect Master. To

make this somewhat plausible, Clark Kent failed his military

physical when he inadvertently used his X-Ray vision to read

the eyechart in the next room. In keeping with his role as

the nebbish, Kent would be declared 4-F and unfit for

service.

15 http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/comics.php?topic=articles/supes-war

Fighting these supervillains led to one issue that is worth noting. In 1944 Siegel wrote a Superman story

where Lex Luthor had a new and powerful weapon: an atom bomb. Since the Manhattan Project was

top-secret at this time, when word of this story somehow leaked, government agents showed up at the

DC offices and demanded that the story be held until official clearance was given. This must have

mystified the comic book guys, who may have realized that they has stumbled on something out of the

ordinary. The story entitled “Battle of the Atoms” was allowed to come out in January of 1946, after the

bombs had been dropped and the war was over.

Superman was, of course, not the only superhero who had to stay in America to fight crime.

Enter The Batman – As previously mentioned, Bob Kane attended De Witt Clinton High School along

with Will Eisner. He would go on to study art at Cooper Union, then would work at the Max Fleisher

Studio as a trainee animator. After two years, in 1936, he would leave to work in the comic book

industry16.

Bob (he had legally changed his name from Robert) began as a free-lance selling his work to Jerry Iger's

comic book Wow, What A Magazine! When Iger opened a studio with Will Eisner, Bob began working

there. Eisner & Iger produced comics “on demand” for publishers. A publisher wanted an animal comic?

Kane could come up with “Peter Pupp” for them.

Bob Kane’s ability to create comic characters brought him to

the attention of Vin Sullivan, an editor at DC Comics17. By 1939,

Superman had become the most successful character at the

company which published Adventure Comics, Action Comics

and Detective Comics. Sullivan was looking for a character that

would capture the public’s imagination in the same way,

including the skintight outfit and flowing cape. Kane credits

Sullivan as being “instrumental” in the creation of Batman.

Kane would also draw inspiration from the 1930 movie “The

Bat Whispers”18 where people search and abandoned mansion

for hidden treasure while a costumed killer murders them one

at a time and from the movie Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks as

the main character, a movie which Kane had seen as a boy. In

May of 1939, the Batman, as he was originally called, made his

first appearance in Detective Comics # 27. As can be seen from

the “ribs” of the Batman’s wings, Kane drew his visual

inspiration from Da Vinci’s drawings of an ornithopter, a flying

machine. Kane’s hero (or antihero) wore tights like Superman, a

black mask like Zorro and could fly or glide using wings inspired by Da Vinci.

Although Bob Kane has always received most of the credit for the creation of Batman, the contributions

of Milton “Bill” Finger may be just as great19. Born in Denver. Colorado in 1914, Milton was the son of a

16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kane 17 Batman: The Complete History, Les Daniels, Chronicle Books, 2004 18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_Whispers 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Finger

Jewish tailor. The family would move to the Bronx, New York, where Finger would also attend De Witt

Clinton High School, graduating in 1933. An aspiring writer, Milton would work as a shoe salesman until

1938, when he ran into Bob Kane at a party. Motivated in part because they had both attended De Witt

Clinton, Kane would ask Finger to join his team.

Kane would tell Finger about his concept for a new character:

...had an idea for a character called 'Batman', and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to

Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of ... reddish

tights, I believe, with boots ... no gloves, no gauntlets ... with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope.

He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign ...

BATMAN.20

It was Finger that suggested giving the character a cowl instead of the domino mask, a cape instead of

wings, adding gloves, and removing the red sections from the original costume, creating the character

that we know as Batman. Finger would say that he had drawn his inspiration for this from Lee Falk’s The

Phantom, a character from the Sunday comics.

Finger wrote the script for the initial comic and would write many of the early works. It was Finger that

named the alter ego Bruce Wayne (a combination of the Scottish Robert Bruce and Revolutionary War

general “Mad” Anthony Wayne); Finger would contribute to the character of Batman’s nemesis The

Joker; Finger that suggested making Robin the orphan of circus performers. Finger created or co-created

the Batmobile and the Batcave and gave Batman a utility belt. Finger named Gotham City.

But Bob Kane showed Vin Sullivan Batman without mentioning Finger; he cut a deal to provide the

comics without including Finger. Finger’s name does not appear on any of the original Batman stories or

adaptations. It wasn’t until after Finger died in 1974 that Kane would acknowledge his contributions

saying that Finger was:

"… a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante

when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective."

Finger’s contributions would be recognized after his death. He would be posthumously inducted into the

Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2005, Comic-Con

International established the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, which is given each

year to two writers: one living and one deceased.

Finger eventually left Kane’s studio to work directly for DC. He would soon be called upon to help

another artist turn his concept into a comic.

The Green Lantern – Martin Nodell was the son of Jewish immigrants who had settled in Philadelphia21.

He attended the Art Institute in Chicago, then moved to New York to study at Pratt Institute. Beginning

in 1938, he did work as a freelancer. One of his clients was Sheldon Mayer, an editor at All-American

Publications, one of three companies that would merge to form DC. In January of 1940 inspiration for a

20 The Steranko History of Comics., Jim Steranko, Supergraphics, 1970. 21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Nodell

new comic character came to Nodell in an unlikely place, the New York City subway. As Nodell described

it:

“I picked out the name from the train man on the tracks who was waving a lantern, going from red to

green.... Green meant go and I decided that was it. Then I needed a colorful and interesting costume. I

was interested in Greek mythology and so the costume took on elements of that. It just all fell into place.

When I sent it in, I waited into the second week before I heard the word to come in. I was ushered into

Mr. [Max] Gaines office, publisher, and after sitting a long time and flipping through the pages of my

presentation, he announced, 'We like it!' And then, 'Get to work!' I did the first five pages of an eight

page story, and then they called in Bill Finger to help. We worked on it for seven years.”

The first adventure, drawn by Nodell and written by Bill Finger hit the

newsstands in July of 1940. Nodell did not use his own name for

several months, even though he was moderately successful. He

explained this in an interview: “Comics were a forbidden literature,

culturally unacceptable. It wasn't something you were proud of.”

The Green Lantern became popular enough that he was given his

own comic. Nodell continued to work on the character until 1947,

when he would leave DC to join a competitor, Timely Comics, the

forerunner of what would be Marvel Comics.

Marvel Comics - Moe “Martin” Goodman was the oldest son of Isaac

Goodman and Anna Gleichenhaus, immigrants from Vilna in Lithuania

who met here in America22. Born in Brooklyn, he was the oldest of 13

children. As a young man, he traveled around the country, sometimes

living in hobo camps. As the 1920s drew to a close, Martin was hired

by Louis Silberkleit, circulation manager of Eastern Publishing

Company, to join his department. (Silberkleit would later become co-founder of Archie Comics.)

By the 1930s he had become a publisher of pulp magazines,

paperback books and men’s adventure magazines. In 1939, he saw

the potential in comic books featuring super=heroes and contracted

with Funnies, Inc. to provide a test run of Marvel Comics #1. The

comic introduced the characters of The Human Torch, originally an

android created in a lab in Brooklyn by a scientist, and an anti-hero

who lived under the seas, the Sub-Mariner. In October 1939 the first

edition went out and sold 80,000 units. It was so successful that

Goodman had a second run done in November that sold 800,000

units. Goodman had a hit on his hands.

While the comics industry was new and no one was sure as yet what

would work and what wouldn’t (it was only six years since the

publication of the first issue of Famous Funnies) Goodman had a

natural feel for what would work. He had a hero that was made of

22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Goodman_(publisher)

fire and one that lived underwater; naturally they should meet and do battle. And so they did Marvel

Mystery Comics #9 published in July 1940. And thus was that staple of the comic book industry, the

cross-over, conceived.

In addition to The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, the Marvel titles

included Ka-Zar, a Tarzan-like character, and a Western character, the

Masked Raider. Goodman had hired Joe Simon23 as editor and writer.

Joe, born Hymie Simon, had come from Rochester, New York. The son of

a tailor, his family was so poor that they lived in a first-floor flat that was

also the tailor shop. Joe had been a freelancer that had done work for

Funnies, Inc. When he was hired at Timely, he brought along an

illustrator that he had met, a young man named Jack Kirby. Joe recounts

the way that they had first met:

“I had a suit and Jack thought that was really nice. He'd never seen a

comic book artist with a suit before. The reason I had a suit was that my

father was a tailor. Jack's father was a tailor too, but he made pants!”

Simon and Kirby: Captain America - In December of 1940 (that was the actual sale date, even though

the cover date in March of 1941) Timely would introduce a new super-hero, one that that would capture

America’s patriotic fervor. Issue #1 of Captain America showed the Red-White-and-Blue garbed hero

punching Adolph Hitler. The issue would sell almost a million copies.

Captain America is arguably the first super-hero developed specifically

around a World War II theme. His uniform is clearly based on the

American flag, even more than Superman’s was. He fought the Nazis and

his nemesis, the Red Skull, was a Nazi agent. Steve Rogers, Captain

America’s civilian identity, gains his powers when he fails his enlistment

physical, but comes to the attention of General Phillips because of his

determination to go fight despite his frail body. He is given a potion that

turns him into a super-soldier.

Joe Simon wrote about the creation of Captain America. Remember that

the first issue came out a year before Pearl Harbor, before the United

States entered the war. Simon and Kirby were making a deliberate

political statement about how they felt about the events in Europe: "The

opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have

our say too." Captain America was not universally appreciated in America. They received threatening

letters and hate mail; a police guard was posted outside their offices. But others appreciated “Cap.”

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally contacted Simon and Kirby to offer his support

One might have thought that, given the ties to the war, Captain America would have held limited

interest once the war was over. He didn’t have cool super powers or a mysterious back story. But he

didn’t fade away and is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel universe today. His character

appears in both the current Avengers movies, as well as his own movies, Captain America: The First

23 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Simon

Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America: Civil War is a future title. Captain

America was the first Marvel hero to make it to the big screen, in a 1944 movie starring Dick Purcell.

Jack Kirby was almost cut from the initial production of Captain America. Filling a comic book with

stories based on a single character seemed a daunting task to Joe Simon and he was worried that the

workload would be too much for Kirby. There were two young artists from Connecticut looking for a

break (Al Avison and Al Gabriele, together known as the “Als”) and Simon was ready to give the work to

them. He told Kirby “You're still number one, Jack. It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first

issue." Kirby became emotional and replied “I'll make the deadline. I'll pencil it myself and make the

deadline." Simon. Surprised at how strongly Kirby felt, would go along with Kirby’s wishes. Looking back

on this years later, Simon commented on how fortunate this was. “There might have been two Als, but

there was only one Jack Kirby.” It was Kirby that gave Captain America his physique and gave the action

an added dimension. The partnership proved successful: the first run of the comic sold out in only days

and the second run was set at a million copies.

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan24. His

father was a garment worker. Kirby liked to draw and saw art as his ticket out of the neighborhood. He

taught himself to draw, using the comics as models. At age 14 he was accepted to the Pratt Institute, but

he only lasted a week there. He explained “I wasn't the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They

wanted people who would work on something forever. I didn't want to work on any project forever. I

intended to get things done.”

Just as Bob Kane and others had done, Jack got his start in the comic book industry working at Eisner &

Iger. His work was first published in Wild Boy Magazine. He worked on a variety of comic strips,

spanning genres that included science fiction, Westerns, swashbucklers and comedy. He used a variety

of pen names at this time. Eventually he would settle on Jack Kirby.

In 1940, his family moved to Brooklyn, where he would meet and

eventually marry Rosalind “Roz” Goldstein. He left Eisner & Iger for a job at

Fox Feature Syndicate where he worked on The Blue Beetle, his first super-

hero comic. At Fox, Kirby was paid $15 a week, a salary that he was happy

with. It was also at Fox that he meet and become friends with Joe Simon,

who was working as a cartoonist and editor. When Simon left Fox to go to

Timely, he took Kirby with him. Simon became the company’s editor and

after the success of Captain America, he promoted Kirby to the role of art

director.

Simon had negotiated a deal with Timely that included a share of the profits

from their work. With the success of Captain America, Simon felt that they

not receiving their fair share, that they were in fact being swindled. Simon went to the competition, to

National Comics (which would later become part of DC) and negotiated a deal. At Timely, Simon and

Kirby were paid $85 and $75 a week respectively. At National the pair were paid a combined $500 a

week. When Moe Goodman found out that they were negotiating with the competition, he told them to

24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby

leave after finishing up work on Captain America #10. One of the people who had known of their plans

was a 19-year old editorial assistant named Stan Lee.

Once the pair arrived at National, no one seemed to know what to do with

them. They tried filling in as ghost writers, but that didn’t work. Finally Jack

Liebowitz told them “just do what you want.” The pair took over the

Sandman feature from Adventure comics and created a new super-hero,

Manhunter. Both were successful.

In 1942, Simon and Kirby created Boy Commandos, a sort of fusion or mash-

up of “kid gang” and war comics. The Boy Commandos featured an

international cast of kids that joined together to battle the Nazis. This comic

would be very well-received and was the first work to be published on its

own. (At that time, Sandman and Manhunter were both strips that ran

within Adventure.)

By this point, the team of Simon and Kirby had established themselves as geniuses, having produced hit

comics for the organizations that would become Marvel and DC. They were starting to be compared to

the team of Siegel and Schuster, then men who began the comic book business.

But then came the war. Simon would join the Coast Guard. After two

years of patrolling New Jersey beaches, Simon would run into NY Post

columnist Milt Gross. The two would hit it off and Simon and Gross

would produce a comic called Adventure Is My Career, developed as a

recruiting tool. Simon would not be the only cartoonist to serve the War

Department in this type of capacity.

Jack Kirby, on the other hand, served in a more dangerous capacity. He

was assigned to the 11th Infantry Regiment. When his commander

learned that he had been an illustrator, he assigned him scouting duties.

Kirby would be sent into towns in advance of the troops to draw maps, a

hazardous duty. During the winter of 1944, he suffered severe frostbite

of the legs. He would be sent home and would finish his military career

working in a motor pool. In 1945 he received his honorable discharge.

After the war, Kirby and Simon returned to the comic business. They began

working on kid-gang adventures for Harvey Comics. Alfred Harvey, born

Alfred Wiernikoff, had known Simon and Kirby from their days at Fox. Alfred

Harvey, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, was the creator of comic book

characters Little Dot and Richie Rich and his company published comics

featuring Caspar the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Baby Huey

and Sad Sack. But the team’s greatest success came after they left Harvey for

Crestwood Publications. In 1947, Joe Simon invented a whole new comic

book genre beginning with Young Romance. Again, Simon negotiated a deal

where he and Kirby were to receive a percentage of the profits. And again

they had both a hit comic (selling millions of copies) and a bitter struggle to

get their money.

Kirby and Simon continued to work together for some time, taking a variety of jobs, even opening their

own company. But by 1955, after 15 years of partnership, the two came to a parting of the ways. Simon

went into a career in advertising, while Kirby stayed in the comics industry. In 1958, he began

freelancing for a variety of comic books, including Classic Comics. Finally Kirby returned to Marvel

Comics.

Stan Lee: Marvel Comics – By 1960, Stan Lee had risen to the position of Editor-In-Chief at Marvel

Comics. After almost 20 years, he still held a grudge against Kirby for having left to work for the

competition. At first Kirby worked as a freelancer and had to work 10 to 12 hours a day because of the

low page rates that he was being paid. But then, in 1961, he began one of the most famous

collaborations in comic book history. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked together to create The Fantastic

Four.

Stan Lee, born Stanley Martin Lieber, was the son of Romanian Jewish parents. His early life was spent in

Washington Heights in Manhattan. By the time he was a teenager his family had moved to University

Avenue in the Bronx. Stan also attended De Witt Clinton High School. At age 19, he was able to get a job

at Timely Comics through the intervention of his uncle. His cousin, Jean, was married to Moe Goodman.

Ironically it was Joe Simon that formalized the hiring.

When Simon and Kirby left, Stan Lee became first the interim editor, then editor-in-chief and then had

the title of art director added. At first his duties included seeing that the inkwells were filled for the

artists, getting them lunch, erasing pencil marks and proof-reading. But he was learning the business. By

1941, he wrote his first comic, a Captain America. It was here that he invented the shield toss that would

become a trademark.

During World War II, he served first in the Army Signal Corps, then

in the Training Film Division, where his duties included writing

manuals, slogans and occasionally cartooning. When he returned

home, he wrote all kinds of stories including romance, Westerns,

humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror and suspense.

But it was with the Fantastic Four and in collaboration with Jack

Kirby that Lee hit his stride.

Why did the Fantastic Four resonate with the 1960s audience? At

first it seems unlikely. There are many derivative elements to it.

The character of the Human Torch had been around for decades,

although not as Johnny Storm. Super hero teams were nothing

new either. Julius Schwartz25, over at DC, had created the Justice

League years before.

Yet Lee took a gamble, creating characters that were tragically

flawed, that a teenage audience could empathize with. This was a

departure from all that had gone before, when super-heroes and

their alter-egos were supposed to be perfect.

25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Schwartz

The four members of the team were:

Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, a scientist-type, developed the ability to stretch. (Nothing really new,

Plastic Man had been around since 1941.) In love with Sue Storm.

Sue Storm, aka The Invisible Girl, later updated to the Invisible Woman. She was the first female super-

hero created in Marvel’s Silver Age. Love interest with Reed, interests with Dr. Doom and Sub-Mariner.

Sister to Johnny Storm.

Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. Wise-cracking, teenage hero. Charismatic (and good looking) he

was designed to appeal to teens.

Ben Grimm, aka The Thing. Ben Grimm was the tragic hero that really

made these comics different. For one thing, he was Jewish26. (This

would be hinted at, but not revealed until 2002.) Benjamin Jacob

Grimm was from Yancy Street on the Lower East Side. He grew up in a

rough neighborhood, he lost his brother to gang violence. (He was

actually modeled after Jack Kirby, who came from Delancey Street on

the Lower East Side and who lost his older brother as a child. Jack’s

father was named Ben.)

Ben was an Air Force hero, although the time frame changed from

World War II to later years. Despite his colloquial way of speaking

(loosely modeled on Jimmy Durante) he was brilliant, having met Reed

while attending college on full scholarship. And he was handsome.

But the cosmic radiation that gave them all their super-powers

transformed Ben into a horrible creature, a true “Thing.” He was ugly.

He always felt out of place, unwanted. He would find a girlfriend (the blind Alicia Masters) but even then

love would elude him. In short he was the perfect character for teens to identify with.

Marvel’s success with the Fantastic Four led to a host of other flawed yet truly human super-heroes.

They got angry and depressed. They had fights with their girlfriends. Spider-man, as Peter Parker,

worried about how he was going to pay his rent.

Lee and Kirby created the Hulk (the ultimate outcast), Thor, Iron Man and the X-men. With Steve Ditko

(not Jewish, the son of Slovakian immigrants) the failed surgeon and alcoholic Dr. Strange and Marvel’s

greatest hero, Spider-man.

Marvel would become the leader not only in comic book realism, but also in introducing contemporary

politics into comics. In November of 2015 Iceman of the X-men team became the most prominent (but

far from the only) superhero to “come out.” Marvel authors were also outspoken in opposing what they

saw as right-wing politics. Captain America once fought the Tea Party!

Steve Ditko has long been a follower of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. When he left Marvel, he

used the last issue of Spider-man that he worked on to mock Vietnam War protestors.

26 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(comics)

Redefining the Medium: The Life of Will Eisner – Will Eisner had been in the comics industry almost

since the beginning, starting in 1936. At age 19, he partnered with Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger to open

Eisner & Iger, also known as Syndicated Features Corporation. Eisner had worked with Jerry Iger at

Wow! What A Magazine, where Iger had been editor. When that magazine closed, the two were out of

work. Each man offered a different version of how the business got started (Jerry’s is more realistic, he

had been doing publishing on his own) but whatever the case the company did two things: served as

teaching ground for the next generation of comic artists (Bob Kane, Lou Fine and Jack Kirby are only

some of the alumni. Dick Briefer, Chuck Mazoujian, Bill Bossert, Bob Powell and George Tuska also came

through Eisner & Eiger); and established young Will Eisner as a giant in the field.

In 1940, Will left the firm to begin working full-time on The Spirit.

Eisner had been approached by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold with a

proposition. The newspapers were concerned that they were

losing audience to the comic book people. As comic books had

initially offered collections of Sunday comics for free, now the

newspapers wanted to offer a comic book, dedicated to just one

character, as a free insert for Sundays. This was to be called a

“comic book insert.” Eisner would sell his share of the company

to Iger for $20,000.

In a 1997 interview, Eisner explained why he left his successful

business: "They gave me an adult audience and I wanted to write

better things than superheroes. Comic books were a ghetto. I

sold my part of the enterprise to my associate and then began

The Spirit. They wanted a heroic character, a costumed

character. They asked me if he'd have a costume. And I put a

mask on him and said, 'Yes, he has a costume!””

The Spirit was an urban crime-fighter and each week a seven or eight page comic was included in the

Sunday papers. Eisner filled out the section with two smaller features, Mr. Mystic and Lady Luck. At its

peak, the “Spirit Section” was included in 20 newspapers with a combined circulation of five million

copies. Again, Eisner had been very successful.

It should also be noted that during this initial period of creating The Spirit Eisner had (uncredited)

assistance from artists Jack Cole and Wally Wood and a young writer named Jules Feiffer.27

Then came World War II. In his Introduction to the book “Last Day In Vietnam” Eisner would write:

“I began military service with the Ordinance Department of the US Army early in the spring of 1942.

After my induction I found myself in Aberdeen Proving Grounds, an Army camp in Maryland.”

Eisner was not anxious to be sent overseas and into combat. He looked for ways to extend his time

stateside.

27 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_(comics)

He soon found himself assigned to a new program called

“preventative maintenance.” The idea was to reduce

equipment failure due to neglect. Eisner continued “It

was obvious to me that comics would be the best way to

publish information about field-fixes and to teach

bootstrap repair under combat conditions. The concept

was easy to sell; in wartime the military is responsive to

innovation.” Eisner had become a cartoonist for the

military, a position that he would hold in either full or

part-time capacity until 1972; from World War II

through Korea and Vietnam.

As silly as it might sound, Eisner’s work was very popular

with the troops and was considered successful enough

that the Army kept him on as a civilian employee after

the war. As part of his duties, he toured the war zones

and met with troops. The work that he created was both

groundbreaking and poignant.

From the first panel of the title story “Last Day In

Vietnam” you know that you are in for something

different. For one thing, the story is told entirely from

the first person perspective, instead of the standard

third-person point of view.

The main character is a high-ranking civilian being given a tour of combat positions in Vietnam. His

guide is an officer who explains early that this is his “Last day in Vietnam.”

The story itself

juxtaposes lighter

images at the

beginning of the

story, the car ride to

the helicopter for

example, with

grimmer scenes of

the combat veterans

as we get closer to

the frontlines.

Not long after take-off the helicopter carrying our protagonist and his guide stops to pick up three

frontline soldiers. Using simple techniques Eisner is able to convey the weariness and despondency of

these three soldiers who never utter a word. The last that we see of them is as they head back into the

jungle.

“Last Day In Vietnam” was first

published in 2000, well after even

the latest events covered in the

book were over. But some of the

ideas had been with Eisner since his

time in the military during the

1940s.

When Eisner returned to civilian life

after the war, he went back to

working on The Spirit. The majority

of work for that series was done during this period. He also tried to launch several new comic book

series, including Baseball, John Law, Kewpies, and Nubbin the Shoeshine Boy. None of these succeeded.

Seeing that newspaper subscriptions were declining during the post-war period, and since he had an

ongoing contract with the US Army, Eisner launched the American Visuals Corporation, a company that

produced instructional materials. RCA and the NFL were clients.

But by the 1970s, Eisner was ready for bigger and more serious projects. He had in mind a series of book

length illustrated titles about Jewish life and history. When he tried to describe these to his publisher, he

was met with skepticism. Who ever heard of a comic so long and of such serious content? Eisner

explained that no, these weren’t comics. These would be something new, a “graphic novel.”

Beginning with “The Contract With God” books (A Contract With God, A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue)

and continuing on through “The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” Eisner

redefined what could be done by combining text with images. The Plot is the last book that Eisner wrote

and is an account of the creation of the anti-Semitic hoax The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,

how this was commissioned to be fabricated in Tsarist Russia and continues to be a plague today. It is an

amazing work and is a fitting tribute published after Eisner’s death.

Will Eisner used the term “Sequential art” to describe how comics told stories. Many of the individual

panels that appeared in comics would, on their own, be considered art. Yet for some reason when they

are bound together to tell a complete story we regard them as something less.

From Superman through The Plot Jewish artists and writers, and those they influenced, used comics to

tell stories about good versus evil, of gods and demons, of people who wanted to repair the world. This

was their story.

Honorable Mention –

William Moulton Marston was a psychologist, a lawyer and an inventor.

He is credited with inventing the systolic blood pressure test, which

became one part of the polygraph test. His wife, Elizabeth, is said to

have suggested the relationship between blood pressure and lying,

which perhaps explains why Marston would give his comic book

creation, Wonder Woman, the magic Lasso of Truth.

In 1940, Marston gave an interview to a former student named Olive

Byrne that would be published in The Family Circle magazine28. He said

that he saw “great educational potential” in comics, a phrase that

caught the attention of publisher Max Gaines. Gaines hired Marston as

an Educational Consultant for what would become DC.

Again it was Elizabeth who suggested that people would like a female

superhero or superheroine in this case. And that is how Wonder Woman came about. Originally

described by Marston as what he thought of as the feminine ideal, Wonder Woman was to be "tender,

submissive, peace loving as good women are.” Instead, Wonder Woman would combine super strength,

agility, a cool flying plane and mystic powers. Her appearance was based on a combination of Elizabeth

Marston and Olive Byrne.

Classics Illustrated was a line of comics created by Russian-born Albert

Lewis Kanter in 194129. The first three issues published under this brand

were The Three Musketeers, followed by Ivanhoe and then The Count of

Monte Cristo. The illustrations were done by a variety of artists, often in a

particularly garish style. Beginning with issue #23, Oliver Twist, Eisner & Iger

were contributors.

For a lot of kids, Classics Illustrated were the comics that you were allowed

to read when you weren’t allowed to read other comics. A secondary line

aimed at younger children was marketed under Classics Illustrated Junior

and featured mainly fairy tales. In 1971, Classics

ceased publication, although the brand name

was used for movies.

Gold Key Comics started publishing in 1962. Primarily Gold Key served to

produce comics for the Warner Bros. and Disney brands (Bugs Bunny,

Donald Duck, The Lone Ranger, Star Trek, et al) but also produced some

original content: Magnus, Robot Fighter and Turok, Son of Stone being the

most famous. By 1984, the parent company, Western Publishing, was out of

the comic business.

28 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moulton_Marston 29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics_Illustrated

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