Author Event: Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman

22nd Annual Contra Costa Jewish Book and Arts Festival presents:

Author Event: Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman

About the event: U.C. Berkeley Professor Mel Gordon traces the origins of Jewish comedy in his latest book, Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman. Funnyman was a comic strip character who, dressed in a clown suit and resembling Danny Kaye, fought criminals by cracking jokes and telling puns. Related to Superman through Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (who used their sense of Jewish history and culture to create both super heroes), Funnyman nearly made it to becoming the "lead" in a Disney film. Gordon's book is more than an exploration of a 1940's comic strip. It is a "springboard to a wider discussion of the history of Jewish humor, as well the ethnic origins of the Man of Steel."

Cost: $10