Elif Batuman reviews the latest Eisner hardback collection:
What you realise, reading The Dreamer, is that the story of the superhero's double identity is actually the story of American Jewish assimilation. In one spread, set in the Eisner & Iger studio, the cartoonists discover that they are nearly all Jewish. Eisner has changed their names, but a glossary at the back provides the key: 'Jack King' (né Klingensteiner) is based on Jack Kirby (né Jacob Kurtzberg), co-creator of Captain America and The Fly; 'Ken Corn' is based on Bob Kane (né Kahn), creator of Batman. The bespectacled Jews in their workshop, manufacturing superheroes under assumed names: it's a room full of Clark Kents.Read the full review here.