Jeremy Dauber

Here are some of the key takeaways from the book:
Hitler set up” Joke Courts” to punish and silence opponents—5,286 sentences to death for political joke tellers. Someone asked a Nazi how to determine if a joke was criminal-he said the better the joke—the more dangerous the effect.
An Iranian had a contest for the most anti-Israel and antisemitic cartoons and an Israeli illustrator announced it should be open to Jews—we’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest and most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published.
Archie and Edith were disguised Jews according to the author!
Lorne Michaels hired Al Franken to writing staff of SNL.
This struck me as an unusual comedic form: When the holidays are fighting with one another—Hanukkah is telling Passover-no one can stomach your food. Hanukkah tells Purim that Purim is inferior because it only last one night-he last eight days and even that feels brief.
Allan Sherman did parodies of Broadway musicals-My Fair Sadie and South Passaic. He couldn’t release them on albums because of copyright issues so that’s why he used stuff in public domain.
To be truly offensive and vulgar is easy and artless. To be meaningfully vulgar and offensive so in a way that enlightens that has a long tradition—and done with love.
The negatives are that book sometimes get repetitive and analytical without making a clear point. And way too much stuff about Purim.
… (meer)

As boring as the cover. Stops being a history after the chapter on Underground Comics. The book becomes a rant on how Underground Comics are morally and creatively superior to Mainstream Comics. Brief comic book artist bios and relevant controversies and synopsis of works. (Instead of showing pictures) are given. The only criterion for the artists inclusion seems to be sharing Dauber's progressive ideology no other context is provided about why they are included. Dauber even tries to connect the election of Donald Trump to the rise of rapes at comic book conventions. In case you are wondering how ideologically driven this book is.… (meer)

This book is an impressive feat of research and writing. I fancy myself someone fairly literate about comics and comic history, and there were entire chapters of history that I had never heard about. I give a lot of credit to Jeremy Dauber for writing a historical work that also engages tackles head on the politics, business, and culture associated with comics.

But, an impressive feat of research and writing does not unfortunately make for a great read.

Rather, much of this was a slog. It seems that in Mr. Dauber's ambition to cover ALL of comics history, it was impossible -- in one volume -- to give appropriate attention to anything. As a result, the exhaustive history feels cursory; a 400+ page exercise in proving that one is familiar with seemingly every comic ever written.

The book's final third is particularly plodding, as it seems Mr. Dauber felt compelled to reference every relevant comic written in last 40 years. But, without pictures -- seriously, why are there no licensed illustrations in a book about comics? -- and without detail (beyond often a one sentence description), it becomes meaningless.

I can imagine that I will periodically return to American Comics as a reference book, but it wil be hard for me to recommend it for pleasure reading.… (meer)

In Adam Rovner’s book review that appeared in the Forward magazine, he does a wonderful job of explaining Dauber’s history of Jewish Humor: “Dauber examines how Jews in different places and eras have responded with humor to a variety of experiences, including anti-Semitism, assimilation and life in the Diaspora.” The New York Times review claimed that for most of their history Jews had a reputation, among gentiles, that they were humorless and glum. However, in 1978, Time magazine claimed that 80% of all stand-up comedians in the U.S. were Jewish. Freud theorized that Jewish humor was a defense mechanism. Although Dauber takes a very scholarly approach by dividing Jewish humor into seven categories from the Book of Esther to “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, his excursions into Jewish humor throughout history are lightened by his retelling of numerous jokes.… (meer)