JewCE 2023 Celebrates the Influence of Jewish Culture in Comics

by Noam Steinerman

“A comics and pop culture convention with a Jewish flavor.”

Thanks to Comics Beat, I used to be capable of get the first hand scoop of JewCE: Jewish Comics Experience on Sunday, November eleventh at the Center for Jewish History (CJH) in Manhattan.

This exhibit, which remains to be on show, is for anybody who loves Jewish American historical past, comedian guide historical past, and pop-culture historical past. Comics and the Jewish American expertise are inextricably linked, as the first comedian books had been principally the product of creators like Will Eisner, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman, and whole books have been written about how the alien from Krypton displays the Jewish immigrant expertise.

Some notable highlights of JewCE had been the morning panel “From Strength to Strength,” the place the artists talked about the origins of Jewish comics adopted by a energetic Q&A.

I spoke with the moderator for “Strength to Strength,” Roy Schwartz, a popular culture historian and journalist, and requested him to share how this comedian occasion differs from different conventions and what epitomizes the JewCe expertise.

“For one, it’s the Jewish Comics Experience. The emphasis is on Jewish. This is not exclusively by Jews about Jews for Jews by any means, any more than a Jazz exhibit would be only by and only for Black Americans,” he instructed me. “JewCE is a celebration of origins and adding layers of meaning. Nothing like this has ever been done, not at this scale, depth and breadth…with a number of original rare historical artifacts, original artworks, and historical exploration.”

Panels exploring the affect of Jewish tradition in comics featured creators akin to Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Miller, Danny Fingeroth, Arie Kaplan and Simcha Wienstein to call just a few. Jesse Simon, the grandson of Captain America’s creator Joe Simon, additionally participated. ShieldMaster is a personality created by Jesse’s dad, Jim Simon. Jesse teamed up together with his father and grandfather to convey the ShieldMaster to print via a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign.

This gathering introduced collectively a bunch of exceptional comedian guide creators, historians and readers from throughout to kick off the JewCE exhibit presently on show. It reveals the affect of Jewish tradition on the comedian guide medium and can be at the CJH till December thirty first. Entrance is free, so test it out when you nonetheless can!