The End of an Era
Lois Lane died at the age of 93.
Jolan (Joanne) Kovacs was the model graphic artist Joe Shuster used for Lois Lane. She later married Superman's co-creator, Jerry Siegel.
Arguably, the Golden Age of Comics ended before I was born, when the U.S. Senate linked comic books to juvenile delinquency. Still, the death of "Lois" marks the end of an era.
For little boys of my father's generation, Shuster and Siegel were Jewish heroes, as were artists like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. For Jewish kids who wanted to be "all American," cartooning ranked somewhere around baseball and apple pie -- maybe higher. Dad and some of his friends studied graphic art at a vocational high school. Cartooning was serious business, but also Jewish business. It was a way to fight a hostile world with pen and ink.
Modern commentators link characters like Superman to the Golem of Prague. There is a legend that Rabbi Loeb created the Golem out of clay to defend the Jewish community in Poland from persecution. I don’t know how well the “superhero as golem” analysis holds up. Stan Lee did describe his “Hulk” as a type of Golem and Michael Chabon certainly embraces this view of the superhero in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
Still, I think for kids like my Dad, the cartoonists themselves were the real heroes. They found a niche in the world despite the anti-Semitism of their times. For those who had immigrant parents and desperately wanted to “fit in,” the success of Jewish graphic artists was the real triumph. Unlike their characters, the artists didn’t hide their true identities with alter egos.
Jolan (Joanne) Kovacs was the model graphic artist Joe Shuster used for Lois Lane. She later married Superman's co-creator, Jerry Siegel.
Arguably, the Golden Age of Comics ended before I was born, when the U.S. Senate linked comic books to juvenile delinquency. Still, the death of "Lois" marks the end of an era.
For little boys of my father's generation, Shuster and Siegel were Jewish heroes, as were artists like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. For Jewish kids who wanted to be "all American," cartooning ranked somewhere around baseball and apple pie -- maybe higher. Dad and some of his friends studied graphic art at a vocational high school. Cartooning was serious business, but also Jewish business. It was a way to fight a hostile world with pen and ink.
Modern commentators link characters like Superman to the Golem of Prague. There is a legend that Rabbi Loeb created the Golem out of clay to defend the Jewish community in Poland from persecution. I don’t know how well the “superhero as golem” analysis holds up. Stan Lee did describe his “Hulk” as a type of Golem and Michael Chabon certainly embraces this view of the superhero in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
Still, I think for kids like my Dad, the cartoonists themselves were the real heroes. They found a niche in the world despite the anti-Semitism of their times. For those who had immigrant parents and desperately wanted to “fit in,” the success of Jewish graphic artists was the real triumph. Unlike their characters, the artists didn’t hide their true identities with alter egos.