A Fireside Tale of Why Every Comics Fan Should Celebrate Hanukkah In Spirit

It’s the Holiday season (no not those), I’m talking about Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. It’s time to celebrate the legend of the miracle of the oil, or the rededication of the Temple, no matter your holiday preference it’s a time of celebration. It’s also a time of giving, and the gift we will be talking about was given over 70 years ago. So go get your blanket (don’t want to get cold), find a comfortable seat (in case you get tired), and listen to the story of comic books and those who created them.

In 1934 in the month of February, two men of Jewish decent got together and created the first comic book. MC Gaines (Max Ginsburg) a salesman for Eastern Color Printing and his boss Henry Wildenberg were looking for a promotional idea to help with sales. They offered Famous Funnies a collection of cartoons from the McNaught Syndicate to Proctor and Gamble who turned it down. Knowing they had something here, they took the idea to Woolworths Department Stores as an in house giveaway. It was so successful that it was soon distributed by American News Company to news stands for ten cents a piece. By the mid 30′s they had run out of daily funnies to print, and started looking for writers and artists who couldn’t find work elsewhere to do original stories.

In the 1930′s, Ad agencies and newspaper syndicates had Anti-Semitic quotas, or would only hire the token “Jew,” so many of the fine folks who came to this calling were of Jewish origin. Will Eisner, creator of the Spirit, says it best with, “There were Jews in the medium because it was a crap medium…an easy medium to get into. So…you had a medium that was regarded as trash, that nobody really wanted to go into…and a group of people who…brought with them their 2,000-year history of storytelling…. The only way they communicated the technique of survival to each other was telling stories. They wrote the Bible.”

Remember up there when I said that Ad agencies and newspaper syndicates had the anti Semitic quota, and the token Jews?

The ugly fact is that it is entirely true, there were a few who made it like Rube Goldberg and Milt Gross, but for the most part being Jewish was a definite handicap in the advertising world and most others. Anti-Semitism in America was growing. Henry Ford and his weekly newspaper the Dearborn Michigan and radio personality Father James Coughlin, gave legitimacy to the anti-Semitic sentiments. By 1929 the Great Depression had occurred and what little jobs there were, went to ones own or not to Jews. Howard Sachar said “normal absorption of Jews within the American economic structure is now practically impossible.” The American Jewish Congress noted that “anti-Jewish restrictions in want ads had reached their highest level in history.”

Over in the publishing world though, it was a different matter entirely. Timely Comics was led by Martin Goodman and DC Comics was helmed by Harry Doenefeld. So these too young, too Jewish, writers and artists had found a creative outlet, and boy did they want to create.
1938 was the year Superheroes were born. Action Comics #1 was created by the team of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and it has often been rumored, but never proven, that Siegel had envisioned Clark Kent as a Jew. After all Superman’s name on Krypton is Kal-El, baring a strong resemblance to the Hebrew transliteration meaning “all that God is”. Michael Chabon also covered the rumor in his book The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, saying “Superman, you don’t think he’s Jewish? Coming over from the old country, changing his name like that. Clark Kent, only a Jew would pick a name like that for himself.”

Needless to say the comic book revolution was on and the shot heard around the world had been fired by a Jew. It didn’t end there. In May of 1939 another young man born Robert Kahn created a different type of superhero. That young man later changed his name to Bob Kane and the superhero he created was Batman.
World War II came, over at Timely Comics two men, Joe (Hymie) Simon and Jack (Jacob Kurtzberg) Kirby, had the perfect hero for the times. Steve Rogers took the serum that was developed by Professor Reinstein (Albert Einstein) and became Capt America. Here was a superhero that was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, who grew up as an academically gifted, scrawny, fine arts student, who if not for the blonde hair would have been a perfect Jewish stereotype. When asked about Captain America Jack Kirby said this “I found a way to help the war effort by portraying the times in the form of comic characters. I was saying what was on my mind, and I was extremely patriotic!”
The team of Simon and Kirby created a slew of other comic characters and were the pioneers of the romance comic book genre with their “Young Romance”. Simon went on to be the first editor of Timely Comics (Marvel) and Kirby became arguably the most influential comic book artist ever. Gil (Eli Katz) Kane said of Jack Kirby, “Jack was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel’s fortunes from the time he rejoined the company … It wasn’t merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but … Jack’s point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field … [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as a primer. They would get artists … and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby. … Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That’s what was told to me … It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view.”

Life is full of irony and in the comic book world; irony came right into the room and sat down at the table. You see in 1954 a book was published that would for all intents and purposes bring the comic book world to a crawl. The book “Seduction of the Innocent” was based on a 7 year study by Frederic Wertham, a Jewish Psychologist, who basically condemned the entire comic book world and would be the catalyst of the Comic Code Authority.

Once again the comic book world needed a spark and in 1961 that spark was delivered by two Jewish men. One relatively new on the scene, and a veteran to the 4 colored world. Stan (Stanley Martin Lieber) Lee had an idea that even superheroes would have problems and he along with Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four. This new super family was dysfunctional to a certain extent, not the sunny; everything is great, world of superheroes over at DC. The response was fantastic (pun included) and the Lee/ Kirby duo became the most prolific creators of an age. Among their many creations were Spider-man (Lee) Hulk, Iron Man, X-men, Thor, and Nick Fury.

Does anyone remember the table that irony sat at? Here we have a medium that was created by Jews, by and large dominated by Jews, and the Jews in this field still didn’t use their own name! Anti-Semitism had reared its ugly head in mainstream America, and as I have already said, it was hard for the Jews to find work in advertising or in any other fields at the time. What wasn’t said is that many publishers and creators feeling this hatred feared the worst would happen if most or all the comics coming out at that time had Jewish names on the cover. Although Hollywood had by now become somewhat of an excepted Jewish business, printing had not, and much like the backlash over the strong Jewish contingent in Hollywood, the Jews of comic book industry feared the same back lash over their medium. Once again, Spirit creator Will Eisner says it best with, “Remember there was a strong threat of assimilation here. Many of the Jewish artists in comics changed their names! . . . They felt if their names changed, it would be easier on them . . . they knew there would be no equity . . . What we’re talking about is a sociological explanation for the things that happened.” Simply put America was not ready to turn their kids over to a medium run by Jews for fear of assimilation. Jewish creators understood this and did what was needed to keep their families fed, they changed their names.

Today we not only celebrate the Jewish influence of comic books, but many Jewish themed books by known Jewish creators can be found. Joe Kuberts “Yossel” or Art Spiegelman’s Maus can be found at discerning comic book shops or on the shelves at the local Barnes and Nobles Bookstore.

So this Hanukkah when you prepare for the eight nights of celebration by lighting the Menorah, playing Dreidel games, and eating some Latkes. When you hand out the Hanukkah Gelt, hand out the gift first given 70 years ago…Comic Books!

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