JTA spoke with Voloj about the project and Jewish comic book history just before New York Comic Con, which starts Thursday.

(Voloj, who is Jewish, is also the author of the graphic novel “Ghetto Brother: Warrior to Peacemaker,” a Jewish and Puerto Rican gang leader in the Bronx.)

The story of these two Jewish comic book legends - Shuster the quiet, reserved artist, and Siegel the earnest, competitive writer - is dramatic and heartbreaking in its own right, and it’s now chronicled in a graphic novel titled “ The Joe Shuster Story: The Artist Behind Superman,” written by Julian Voloj and exquisitely illustrated by Thomas Campi. Sadly, they signed over the rights to the Man of Steel early on, dooming themselves to careers full of frustration and misfortune. They had bonded and began collaborating in high school in Cleveland, and although they were ambitious, they could not have conceived of how influential and popular the character would become. Of course, the character and his story - the arrival from another planet, his dual identities as mild-mannered reporter and flying, bulletproof crime fighter - would go on to change the comics industry in several ways and pave the way for the super-heroization of our popular culture.īut Siegel and Shuster originally just wanted to make a little income to support themselves and their families, who had both immigrated from Eastern Europe not long before.

( JTA) - When Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created the Superman character in the early 1930s, they were still living at their parents’ homes.

Superman jerry siegel and joe shuster