Del cuarto de los trebejos III

Aquí tenemos más reseñas blasfemas del aguerrido, hereje y protestante Kyle Kempis... esta vez es una novela sobre caricaturistas judíos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial:



The Jewish Cartoonists

By K. Kempis

Prior to the Second World War, the United States lived a very curious age, first, in the 1920´s everyone was interested in having fun, celebrating and throwing money away, but when Wall Street crashed in 1929, Northamerican life suffered a serious setback, almost everyone had little or no money at all, they were unemployed and almost starving. In this ironic era, the comic book appeared as a new way of published entretainment, like books or newspapers.

In these years takes place The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel by Michael Chabon, telling us the history of two cousins: Josef Kavalier and Samuel Klayman, the first one makes a daring escape from nazi-occupied Prague in the coffin of the famous Golem (the artificially created automaton of jewish folklore), travels through Asia and the Pacific to land in the room of the later in Brooklyn. In that precise moment, a great friendship develops, one that will change pop cilture forever.

Thanks to Sammy´s drive and Josef´s art, they will create numerous super-heroes like The Escapist, The Monitor and Luna Moth, construct a empire and become true legends in the comic-book circuit. Chabon explains how comic books where a ceratin type of war propaganda, where the villians were german or japanese and how the most part of the super-heroes were creations of jewish inmigrants or at least with jewish heritage, so that in a way, they were figting their war again the dreaded nazis and japanese.

Chabon´s style is a swift and enjoyable one, concocting the plot with information from those specific years managing to mix it with historical characters or comic book personalities like Orson Welles and Salvador Dalí or Stan Lee, founder of Marvel Comics or Wlliam M. Gaines, creator of MAD Magazine, in fact, the book won the prestigious Pulizer Prize in 2001, demonstrating to be one of the best recent narrative works. This is the story of how two inmigrants meet and make it in the american dream and how this same consumist society limits them, and sometimes takes them away all money and prestige.

A most enjoyable read about american pop culture, offering you facts about comic books and things that only your grandfathers knew... Oy Vey!