Tag Archives: judaism

controversy, from the Internet

A Superhero against…Goyim?

In September, Tzion Publishing put out the call for all interested parties to submit contact information for their forthcoming Spring 2017 comic book series, Shabbat Man. Featuring “Joshua Polmar, an adult convert to Judaism,” the comic will square him off against “Jerome Goyim is the epitome of evil in the world and he is a slave to his wicked animal soul,” according to Tzion’s website.

Curiously, many of the characters in the dramatis personae are either adult converts to Judaism or struggling with their Jewish identity. Combine that quirk with Tzion’s stating that Shabbat Man “is designed to teach the reader about one or more of the 613 commandments and about Judaism, in general.  The adventures delve into the finer points of Judaism making non-Jews more aware of Jewish traditions.” Do we have the makings here of proselytizing Jewish comic book?

Of course, “Shabbat Man fights for justice on behalf of all people,” despite the questionable name of his arch-nemesis. And, there are product placement opportunities open to one and all…

…particularly in the areas of “lady’s high heeled shoes” and “beverages.”

Jerome Goyim

contributors, controversy

Questioning Frank Miller and Superman’s “Jewish Essence”

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I have been asked to comment on a short piece that was published yesterday on CBR.com, which I have to agree calls out for a response and fact-check. The piece announced that Frank Miller has said in an New York Comic-Con interview that he wants to “tackle one of the oldest, but oft overlooked, origin stories in the entire industry: Superman’s Jewish heritage.” The article then goes on to make a few questionable claims, many of which I have seen before, in my research on Superman and the so-called “Jewish-comics connection.” This notion holds that Superman, and – depending on who you read – the superhero genre, the US comics industry, or the comics medium itself, were created by Jews and has a sort of “Jewish essence.”

Let us return to the quoted line about Superman’s supposed, but “oft overlooked” origin story and Jewish heritage. It does not take much effort to poke a hole in the claim that this is an overlooked topic. In the past ten years alone, numerous books have been published that have this issue as their central focus: in 2006, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein published Up, Up, and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero; in 2007, comics writer and writing teacher Danny Fingeroth published Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; in 2008 comedian and journalist Arie Kaplan published From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books; and in 2012 masculinity scholar Harry Brod published Superman is Jewish? How Comic Book Superheroes Came to Serve Truth Justice, and the Jewish-American Way. On top of this, there are several other books about Superman or Jews and comics more generally, as well as innumerable newspaper and online articles, in which claims about Superman’s “Jewish origins” are similarly made. Let us also not forget that what Miller proposes has already been done; in 1998, for Superman’s 60th anniversary, DC put out a series of Man of Steel comic books in which the superhero traveled back in time to face the Nazis and in which Siegel and Shuster’s Jewish heritage got a nod.

As entertaining and interesting reading as the books and articles mentioned may provide, they suffer from a lack of support for their arguments, and rely mostly on recycling the same tropes and claims in a sort of internal feedback loop. This has led to a collection of common assumptions about what Superman “is,” based on nothing but the fact that his creators were Jewish. But once you shine a light on these claims, they start to fall apart. I will not go into a more general charting of these books or their claims here – for that, you can check out my forthcoming book on the subject or this post on my old, now-defunct blog – but will focus only on the latest article.

Continue reading Questioning Frank Miller and Superman’s “Jewish Essence” →

academic, contributors

Martin Lund Reconstructs Superman’s Judaism

Superman puzzleThis Fall, Palgrave Pivot is releasing Re-Constructing the Man of Steel: Superman 1938–1941, Jewish American History, and the Invention of the Jewish–Comics Connection by S&S’s own Martin Lund. The super-sized title only hints at the herculean task Lund has taken on: To objectively explore the Judaic origins to the Last Son of Krypton’s publications, too often a site of distortion an mythicism. Rather than discard Superman’s Jewishness wholly, Lund “offers a new understanding of the Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the mid-1930s, presenting him as an authentically Jewish American character in his own time, for good and ill.”

The book is due out this October and is available now for preorder. It is the second title in Palgrave Pivot’s “Contemporary Religion and Popular Culture” series.

events

Brooklyn’s Jewish Comic Con & Gentiles

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This November, Congregation Kol Israel, in conjunction with The Brooklyn Jewish Art Gallery at CKI will be running the first Jewish Comic Con, “a place to explore how Jewish identity has influenced comics both on the page and behind the scenes.”

Jewish Comic Con

Both programming and guests have yet to be announced, but their open call for interested artists to reserve free tables (provided they donate a piece of their art to CKI) raises an intriguing point: In their FAQ, the organizers note that one needn’t be Jewish to exhibit:

You have to have somewhat of a connection to Jewish characters or have Jewish themes in your body of work. If you’re from another minority and you feel we have a lot in common, please come too, we’d love to have you!

These inclusive, interfaith sentiments are quite laudable, though it will be interesting to see, when programming is released to their sign-up list, whether this proves to be an insular event or one in more of an pluralistic vein.