In the United States, a great many comics artists and writers have been Jewish. You might have heard of some of these men and not known their heritage because they changed their names to less ethnically identifiable names. Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, etc.? He was born Stanley Leiber. Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America (among other characters), was originally Jacob Kurtzberg, son of Austrian Jewish immigrants. He was determined to leave his poor, Lower East Side childhood behind. The other co-creator of Captain America, Joe Simon, was born Hymie
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At least in Japan they do! In the United States comics are mostly thought of as something for children or teenagers. In Japan, manga is popular with people of all ages. (Manga is the Japanese name for Japanese-style comics.) In fact, some types of manga are pretty adult in theme. Adult women in Japan are sometimes fans of “yaoi” or “boys love” – a genre of manga that is created for a female audience featuring men in romantic relationships with other men. Artists elsewhere, including other Asian countries, the United States and Europe, have created manga-style comics. The manga industry
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Comics have had a tumultuous time here in the United States. What we now know as a comic (comic strips, comic books, and eventually graphic novels) began to appear in the late nineteenth century. They grew in popularity as they evolved from newspaper items to comic books; but in the 1940s many people became shocked at the increasingly gory covers and artwork of horror and crime comics. A psychologist, Frederic Wertham, wrote “Seduction of the Innocent” in 1954 and claimed that comic books were a major cause of juvenile delinquency. A panic followed. Today we know that comics don't cause
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