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.