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Secret Identities: Graphic Literature And The Jewish-American Experience, Brian Klotz

Senior Honors Projects

During the 1930’s and 40’s, rampant anti-Semitism prevented many Jewish-Americans from getting hired to a respectable job in publishing. Around this same time, an industry sprang up around the idea that comic strips (which had previously been confined solely to the pages of newspapers) could be printed in pamphlet form and sold on newsstands for profit. These “comic books,” while commercially successful, were considered the lowest rung on the ladder of artistic respectability, a trashy medium for children and borderline illiterates. This attitude, however, allowed it to become a field into which young Jewish-American artists and writers were not barred …