World War II and Comics

As I said in my previous post, Jewish comic book writers put many themes of their lives in the comic books that they were writing. Not only Jewish authors, but comic book writers of all races were affected by World War II and it showed in many of their works. Many authors put Nazi's in their comics as the villains that need to be stopped by the heroes in their stories. In the end the hero of the story would end up killing or stopping the Nazi's. Many times this ended with the war being over. Themes like this have continued going on today. We see war themes in many new comics and the movies that come from those comics. I really liked the comparison of the Superman comic to Watchmen. I have not read watchmen, but I did see the movie. Within the movie Dr. Manhattan is placed in a war and the outcome of the war is changed because of his contributions. I think authors write stories like this to express their views on the war.

Along with directly writing about wars that are going on, authors in "The Golden Age" were affected away from their own jobs as well. I thought the story of DC and All-American Comics was very interesting. Both had sort of opposite views on the war and what should be done from their stance as comic book companies. However, after Pearl Harbor was attacked, both sides became pro war and began putting statements such as "Keep 'Em Flying" in their comics showing their loyalty to the troops and the war. While I am not really for people having their opinions about war and politics all over the media (it gets annoying to be honest), this small statement showed how the comic book companies stuck together and were able to create the major comic book empires that we see today.

Jewish Influence On The History of Comic Books

Prior to reading part one of Arie Kaplan's book "From Krakow To Krypton," I didn't realize how much Jewish influence there was in comic books and graphic novels. Almost all of the main comics we know of today were created by Jewish authors and artists. Many of these authors, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, created many of these comic books with Jewish themes.

Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were two of the main Jewish influences that helped shape the history of comics. Being Jewish, Shuster and Siegel put many themes in their comic books that they themselves (being Jewish during World War II) had to deal with. I thought it was interesting how many parallels there were between the Superman stories they created and what was going on in their real lives. As we discussed in class, it almost seemed as if the creation of Superman as a higher power coming to save people from their problems was a way for Jewish people to cope with what was happening in the real world. It was as if Superman was like a fictional God. Whether they meant to or not, it was a way for them to keep hope that someday the horrors of World War II would end and God would eventually step in and stop all of the madness. I believe that the fact that Superman's real name was Kal El (meaning voice of god in hebrew) only strengthens my beliefs that they meant for Superman to be some sort of a God figure. Once Superman became known throughout the nation, many other comics were created with Jewish themes as well, and many comics wrote about the war directly within their comics.

The Super

There is one story that I found more troubling than the rest of the stories and that was "The Super." This story was the one that stayed with me the most after I was done reading it. Throughout the story I felt many different emotions towards the super himself. As the story began I felt as though he was just a mean man that didn't do his job for the tenants in his building. However, I believe that the tenants only thought this of him because he worked for the landlord, who was "the enemy," and also because they never really got to know him. This went on so long that the only thing he had was his dog and pornography.

I believe the theme of this story was loneliness. All in all, the super acted the way he did because he didn't have anybody to talk to or connect with. He was mean to the tenants because they refused to give him a chance and get to know him. This eventually led to the horrifying ending in which he was played by a 10 year old girl. She was the first and only person to really come and talk to him and when he let her in, she not only stole his money but also killed his dog (the only friend he had). I believe he killed himself in the end because he realized that he would never be able to have a real connection with anyone and would be alone forever. In the end, none of the tenants really even cared that he was gone.

Will Eisner's A Contract With God

Honestly, before reading "A Contract With God," I really didn't know what to expect. This was the first graphic novel that I have ever read and I found it interesting to read on many different levels. I noticed many differences compared to just reading a normal novel or book. One thing that I noticed was how the pictures really added to the writing within the novel. Each picture really backed up or enhanced what Eisner was saying. This also made it easier to follow and was able to keep my attention throughout all four stories.

Now if we focus on the stories themselves, the story that I found to be the most interesting and less "disturbing" than the rest of the stories was the title story "A Contract With God." I think that the main theme of the story was that people always have a relationship with god whether they have a contract or not.  Frimme focused too much on the contract that he had made with god. Some things don't always go the way we want them to, but god is always there. Frimme Hersh failed to realize this in the story. 

Another theme related to god that I thought the epilogue brought up was that anyone is capable of having a relationship with god and spreading the word of their faith. When Shloime found Frimme Hersh's contract with god, he decided that he would also have the same relationship with god. It was as if Frimme's good deeds and devotion carried on to Shoime after Frimme died.