How Jewish Immigrant Children Invented the American Comic Book Industry
Julian Voloj, who hails from Münster and has lived in New York City since 2002, is the author of numerous internationally successful graphic novels. For the 39th Berlin Jewish Cultural Days, he is creating three comic books, which will be made available to visitors free of charge.
Image gallery
Julian Voloj
Voloj, who has worked as a guest lecturer at renowned US universities and schools, will also provide an insight into the history of Jewish-American comics.
The comic strip ‘The Katzenjammer Kids’, published in 1897 by the German-born cartoonist Rudolph Dirks and heavily inspired by Wilhelm Busch’s ‘Max and Moritz’ (1865), is regarded as an early milestone in modern comics. The genre, which was initially met with derision, achieved unprecedented popularity with ‘Superman’ (1938). The character created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel immediately inspired a new genre: superheroes! This was followed by Batman, Captain America and then, in the 1960s, a renaissance of the superhero genre thanks to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who almost single-handedly created the Marvel Universe. Art Spiegelman eventually became the first comic artist to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for ‘Maus: A Survivor’s Tale’.
In his lecture, Voloj traces the evolution of the genre – from its origins right up to the present day – in a knowledgeable and entertaining manner.
Additional information
Dates
November 2026
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