Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman: The First Jewish Superhero, from the Creators of Superman

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Description

Documenting the amazing back story of the world's first Jewish superhero, Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman is an important document of comics and Jewish history. Funnyman, aka Larry Davis, is a red-haired television comedian whose agent talks him into performing a superhero-like stunt in order to obtain publicity. This stunt goes wrong when Larry finds himself in a real crime scene. Larry stops this criminal, not knowing what he is doing is real until after the fact. Discovering that he enjoys fighting crime, Larry begins a career as the costumed crime fighter Funnyman.

Reviews

"Funnymans immediate historical relevance is as the character Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created as their follow-up to Superman, but underlying that is a point of larger cultural importance. Andrae and Gordon approach the character as the most straightforward expression of Jewishness in comics at the time, and as a springboard to a wider discussion of the history of Jewish humorFunnyman was the result of Siegel and Shuster turning a specific ethnic style into a more universal one. Funnyman might come from Jewish tradition, but in comics form he becomes any goofy guy who has to stand up against brute force of any sort. Hes far more reflective of the reading audience, as well as the creators, than Superman ever was, though Clark Kent was an attempt to rectify that. The Yiddishisms might have whispered to one audience, but the 'schlemiel' is something many people can identify with" Publishers Weekly
"Funnymans immediate historical relevance is as the character Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created as their follow-up to Superman, but underlying that is a point of larger cultural importance. Andrae and Gordon approach the character as the most straightforward expression of Jewishness in comics at the time, and as a springboard to a wider discussion of the history of Jewish humorFunnyman was the result of Siegel and Shuster turning a specific ethnic style into a more universal one. Funnyman might come from Jewish tradition, but in comics form he becomes any goofy guy who has to stand up against brute force of any sort. Hes far more reflective of the reading audience, as well as the creators, than Superman ever was, though Clark Kent was an attempt to rectify that. The Yiddishisms might have whispered to one audience, but the 'schlemiel' is something many people can identify with" Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

The co-creator of "Superman" and "Funnyman," who died at the age of 81 in 1996. The Canadian-born artist was a co-creator of Superman and Funnyman.