Secret Origins, Alter Egos

You most likely have never heard of Robert Kahn, Jacob Kurtzberg and Stanley Lieber. But if you’re a comic book fan, you know them by their alter egos: Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee. As with their superhero creations, artists Kane (Batman) and Kirby (Fantastic Four, Hulk), and writer Lee (Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men) chose aliases; assimilated names to disguise their Jewish roots in an era when ethnicity could hinder careers. ‘ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comics Books, 1938-1950,’ a new Skirball Cultural Center exhibit, chronicles a multi-million dollar entertainment industry (paralleling Hollywood) built on a notable and disproportionate contribution from Jewish-Americans. The Golden Age of comic book superheroes is actually happening now in 2009, but in the multiplex. Last year, ‘The Dark Knight’ became the second biggest of movie of all time. The second biggest 2008 movie was based on Marvel Comics’ ‘Iron Man,’ while the first movie to enjoy a nine-digit opening weekend was Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ (2002), which spawned a $2.5 billion-grossing trilogy. Next week, the highly-anticipated adaptation of DC Comics’ ‘The Watchmen’ hits theaters. Only recently, it appears, has Hollywood’s special effects technology caught up with the epic imaginations of Kirby, Will Eisner (‘The Spirit’), et al. But in 1938 through 1950, long before television, the Internet and video games eroded comic-book circulations to mere thousands, such titles as ‘Action Comics’ and ‘Detective Comics”’which introduced Superman and Batman, respectively”sold millions of copies per month. Right from the 1938 birth of Superman by teenagers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the superhero idiom, a descendant of the Golem folk tale, has largely been a Jewish affair. What is the story of Superman, after all, if not a retelling of Moses: the lone baby floated out into the vast cosmos to become the larger-than-life deity among mortals. Superman was an immigrant from Krypton who assumed a new (WASPy) name and identity (Clark Kent) to fit into the mainstream; no doubt, an unconscious projection by how his Jewish creators felt about themselves, as they had cited in interviews how invisible they felt socially at high school. With Superman’s success, DC followed in 1939 with Batman, overseen by three young Jewish men, including ‘ZAP!’ curator Jerry Robinson [see sidebar]. The 1960s Marvel Comics architects were predominantly Jewish, as were DC and Marvel’s publishers and editors, many of MAD magazine’s creators, even the writers behind popular latter-day characters Wolverine and Blade. Former Marvel writer Danny Fingeroth authored the like-minded 2007 book ‘Disguised As Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation Of The Superhero.’ He spoke at ‘ZAP!’ at the William Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum in Atlanta, where the traveling exhibit originated. Fingeroth writes: ‘One can say that immigrants have an outsider’s view of a society and so understand it more clearly than someone born into that society. Still, one has to ask, how did Jews become so prominent in the entertainment area, more so than other immigrant groups? Maybe it was because where they emigrated from were not places where they felt any more at home than they did when they arrived in America.’ The beauty of ‘ZAP!’ is that it will appeal to the casual and diehard comic book appreciator alike. Family-friendly aspects include a rack of child-size costumes and ‘The Comic Studio,’ where kids can create their own superheroes. Installations recreating a World War II era newsstand and Superman’s phone booth, while ‘Batman’ and ‘Popeye’ themes play overhead, set the mood for visitors. A humorous high-point: the cute display of ‘Kryptonite.’ Of course, ‘ZAP!”s meat is the fantastic original art. The aforementioned creators are well-represented, topped by Shuster’s original Superman sketches and moonlighting cartoonist Robinson’s ‘Batman’ doodles on his college psychology-class notes. Other highlights: Robinson’s ‘Batman’ originals, a 1946 page of Joe Kubert’s signature Hawkman, and art by Mort Meskin (the biggest influence on original ‘Spider-Man’ artist Steve Ditko). Non-Jews are included, most notably: renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta’s cover art for ‘The Ghost Rider’ # 2; an ‘Iron Man’ page by co-creator Don Heck; and fan favorite John Romita’s ‘Spider-Man’ # 68 cover pencils. Fans of ‘Captain Marvel,’ ‘Green Lantern,’ ‘The Shadow,’ as well as ‘Popeye’ and ‘Dick Tracy’ strips, will also find plenty here. The Skirball’s own side-exhibit, ‘Lights, Camera, Action: Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television’ (included in the admission price), is a strong companion piece to the main event. It features vintage posters, the Batcycle from the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV show, Christopher Reeves’ costume from 1978’s ‘Superman,’ and Michael Keaton’s Batman costume, as well as myriad original first issues: ‘Fantastic Four’ (which launched Marvel Comics in 1961), ‘Spider-Man’ (this copy signed by Lee), and 1964’s ‘Avengers’ # 4 (in which Kirby revived his ’40s character Captain America). And then there’s the copy of the rare and expensive book that started it all: ‘Action Comics’ # 1. Fingeroth told the Palisadian-Post that ‘ZAP!’ benefits from ‘pioneer Jerry Robinson’s unique personal perspective. The show vividly demonstrates how and why the superhero became so prominent a part of the modern cultural vocabulary, not just of America, but of the world.   ’The show is both personal and universal,’ he added. Like the comics and its creators themselves. Through August 9. Tickets: $10 general; seniors and students, $7; children 2’12, $5; and free to members and children under 2. For information on the show, contact: 310-440-4500; www.skirball.org.