Rollins professor Julian Chambliss discusses the Jewish influence on the Golden Age of comics at the JCC

This installment of the JCC’s summer lecture series on what makes a hero stars one of our own heroes, professor Julian Chambliss. His areas of special interest – urban planning, minority history and comic books – intersect like Voltron to create the perfect tool to discuss tonight’s topic: the hidden current of Jewish identity politics in superhero literature. In the 1930s and ’40s, the so-called golden age of comics, the canon was established by men like Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane and Bill Finger – Jews all. Like any artists, their personal emotion and experience shaped their work. So Captain America, Batman and Superman are all the creations of Jews living in America, having narrowly escaped the Shoah but watching it decimate their people – hence infused with grief, survivor’s guilt and the desire for vengeance. Like one of his super friends, Chambliss flies off into the sunset at the end of the summer to take up a position at Michigan State University. Catch him while you can.

6:30 p.m. | Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando, 851 N. Maitland Ave., Maitland | 407-645-5933  | $5

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