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Goodreads Israel Comix Bookshelf

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

1960s

During the 1960's, superhero comics made a comeback, partly due to their incorporation of sci-fi elements, such as time travel, aliens, and robots.

In the following Superman comic, Superman (and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen) travel back to the days of ancient Israel to help save Samson. While there, Jimmy introduces the Israelites to Beatles music. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #79 (Sept. 1964).

Jimmy Olsen performing for a group of ancient Israelite groupies

Buy Jimmy Olsen #79

One of the new series developed was Green Lantern, a comic about an intergalactic police force. When it was decided to introduce a race of identical-looking blue-skinned aliens who would oversee these Green Lanterns, someone thought it would be a great idea to model these Guradians of the Universe after Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion. Though they've never had a series of their own, the Guardians have sporadically appeared in comics published by DC right up to this year, 35 yerars after Ben-Gurion's death.

the Guardians of the Universe

A short-lived series that debuted in the '60s was The Fightin' Five (Charlton Comics, 1964-1967 ; reprinted 1981-1982), about a multi-cultural team of spies. Among the specialists is Irv "The Nerve" Haganah (called Irv David in the story).

Irv 'The Nerve' Haganah is number FF2, lying along the ground