Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents 'My Take On': Disguised As Clark Kent Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero!   By Danny Fingeroth & Published by The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3601 -  I recently review blogged another book by Danny Fingeroth, 'The Stan Lee Universe', as seen by this link.

Today's blog post is on an earlier book by Danny, and here is the promotional literature on that:

"Fingeroth's book is an easy, intriguing read, exploring the histories of superheroes and their creators. This is clearly a topic in which Fingeroth is eminently well-versed."
—Jewish Book World

"Like a Yiddish theater play on the old Jewish Second Avenue, or like a really good comic book, Danny will make you laugh, cry and, best of all, he'll make you think."
—From the foreword by Stan Lee

In Disguised as Clark Kent, Danny Fingeroth—a long-time executive in the comics business who wrote and edited Spider-Man as well as other famous lines for Marvel—reflects on the phenomenon of the heavily Jewish elements that, consciously or not, went into the creation of the superhero.
Centering on questions of Jewish identity, which is historically about the push and pull toward and away from that very identity, Disguised as Clark Kent brings valuable insight into the fantasies that fuel our imaginations and entertainment industry, as well as many significant and often hidden aspects of our society."

I found this book to have the following chapters:

Foreword by Stan Lee

1) Secret Identities: What's So Jewish About Superheroes, Anyway?

2) Genesis of the Superhero:  Who He Is and How He Came to Be

3) A Stranger Among Us:  The Birth of Superman

4) A Great Multitude: Batman and Beyond

5) The Perplexing Guide: Frederic Wertham's Superhero complex

6) Rebuilding the Temple:  The Silver Age of Comics

7) Why Are These Heroes Different?:  The Marvel Revolution

8) Love Thy Neighbor as thyself:  The X-Men and the Seventies

9) As a Matter of Fact, I Am Jewish:  The Modern Age

10) Unto the Next Generation:  The Jewish Superhero Future

Those were the chapters that are listed in this book!  As for my reading them...

I found that the Foreword by Stan Lee was a good one, in that it showed his thoughts on the topic at hand in this book. 

The 1st chapter engaged me, and each chapter thereafter brought me closer into the American Jewish Dream.  The pages in each chapter took the time to point out what Danny was striving to point out to the reader, and were well crafted.

My own thoughts on the additional chapters were in keeping with what Danny had to say about each of them.  I found that Danny placed emphasis on several key comic book characters, and that I pretty much agreed with his thoughts...

This is a good book for this topic.  What is also nice is the 'Select Bibliography' on books, magazines, web sources, and comics & graphic novels at the end of the book!

Thus my comic book grade for this book is a NEAR MINT (NM) 9.4 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale!

The author, Danny Fingeroth, doesn't have any more of these books in stock, thus I'm suggesting to you to purchase a copy from Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero!

My thanks to Danny for bringing this book to my attention!

~Michael D Hamersky On Comics! 

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,601 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

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Note:  My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

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