The Men Behind Clark Kent: A Tribute to Jewish Cartoonists

February 12th, 2008 | by admin |

Original Post here: Snikkkt!

Superman, also known as Clark Kent, grabs Hitler by the collar, lifts him in the air and threatens a “strictly non-Aryan sock” on his jaw. That single frame from “How Superman Would End the War,” must have been vicariously titillating to an American generation which passed through the horrors of World War II.

It is part of a fascinating exhibition entitled “From Superman to the Rabbi’s Cat” (De Superman au Chat de Rabbin) that looks at the important role that Jewish cartoonists have played over one century. It just finished a run at the Musee d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme in Paris, and is moving on to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam from March 6 to mid-June and, perhaps London, after that.

The above Superman strip, and Superman himself, was created for D.C. Comics by two American Jews, Joseph Shuster and Jerome Siegel. They, like other Jewish cartoonists, including Bob Kane and Bill Finger, who created Batman, or Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, who created Captain America, were eager to assimilate. Superman was devoid of ethnic or religious identity.

Their heroes were driven by the universal values of good and justice at a time when fascism was on the march in Europe in the 1930s and and 1940s.

A later generation of cartoonists, like Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus, and the Frenchman Joann Sfar, who created the Rabbi’s Cat, embraced their religious and cultural roots and sometimes confronted issues like the Holocaust and antisemitism.

Jews didn’t invent cartooning, and they didn’t form a majority of the industry. But they were eager participants: For any newspaper delivery boy growing up in the melting pot of New York in the early 20th century, working on the “funnies” was a job, a leg up. And in those days it was akin to working in a sweatshop.

For those of us a generation later who were nourished on Mad Magazine (75 cents. Cheap!), it’s gratifying to know that its creator, Harvey Kurtzman — whose irreverent inversion of the American dream inspired a generation of underground comics — is featured in this exhibition.

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