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| Jewish Immigration, Popular Culture,
and the Birth of the Comic Book |
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Lesson
Student Exercise One
- Have students research the immigration of the late
nineteenth century. For a general account, the following
site is useful: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module15/index.php
- an immigration overview from the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History
- The following web sites provide a photographic
account of immigration:
a. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/photo_album/photo_album.html
- On the Trail of the Immigrant by Edward A.
Steiner
b. http://www.idbsu.edu/socwork/dhuff/history/
gallery/Hine/welcome-H.htm - photographs taken
by Lewis Hine
c. http://www.mcny.org/Exhibitions/riis/riis3.htm
- the Jacob Riis collection at the Museum of the City
of New York
- Discussion should begin with the characteristics
of the "new immigrants" of this era and then focus
on the experience of Jewish immigrants.
Student Exercise Two
- Analysis of biographies of four comic book authors/artists:
Will Eisner, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Bob Kane
(Bob Kahn) on the following web sites:
Eisner
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/index_e.htm#e
http://www.lambiek.net/eisner.htm
Siegel and Shuster
http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/
superart/JOE_SHUSTER.htm
Kane
http://www.batman-superman.com/bobkane.html
Begin a discussion about a strategy for identifying
information in the biographies. The students should
formulate questions they might ask in order to identify
relevant information about these individuals:
- Where and when were they born?
- What is their family history and religion?
- What historical events affected their lives?
- What common experiences did they share?
- Is it significant that these individuals are
not first-generation immigrants?
- Analysis of some of the comics these four authors
created. Write a model for analysis that will help
the students read the documents with a critical eye.
Students should understand that they will be using
their research to develop an understanding of how
the comics reflected the lives and experiences of
the authors, and the culture and time in which they
lived. Their research will also enrich their understanding
of that era in history.
- Questions should cover the identity of the
hero, the theme or plot, and when and where the
story takes place.
- Questions about the author's purpose and the
sources for his ideas will also help to clarify
the context in which the comics were written.
Guide the discussion toward questions about the
intersection of religion, ethnicity, and class.
Student Exercise Three
- Divide the class into three groups. Assign each
group the sites associated with a comic book hero.
The following websites provide digitized images from
the works of the four authors/artists:
The Spirit
http://www.deniskitchen.com/thestore/prods/PO_DG_spirit.html
http://www.angelfire.com/art/wildwood/briefhis.html
Superman
http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/superart/JOE_SHUSTER.htm
Batman
http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/batman/Batmanpage.htm
http://members.aol.com/MG4273/batman.htm#Batman
- Ask the students to use the model to read the comic
segments and evaluate the information found. Each
group should compile the information gleaned from
the assigned comic.
- Restructure the groups so that each new group has
a representative from each of the original groups.
Ask these restructured groups to share information
from the documents.
- Ask the students to come together as a class and
to draw on the information they have gathered to discuss
the following question: What generalizations can be
made about the lives and times of the heroes and their
creators?
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