While reading the chapter on the Silver Age in "From Krakow to Krypton", I was amazed at how much the comic book industry was hurt after the 1954 Senate Hearings which claimed that children who were reading comic books were illiterate and becoming delinquents. I find it strange that people thought comic books were promoting illiteracy because even though they do have pictures they also have a lot of words as well so in order to fully enjoy them you need to be able to read. Shouldn't these parents have been happy that their children were at least reading something?

    The delinquency thing I don't understand either. By the time kids are old enough to read well they usually understand that the kinds of things they are reading in their comic books aren't actually real. They're not going to start jumping off of tall buildings and beating people up because this is what they read about in their books.

     This whole thing reminded me a little of when Harry Potter first became popular. There were a lot of parents who wouldn't let their kids read them and they thought that the books should be banned because they thought that they were going to turn their children evil and make them want to become witches and wizards. Children may like to pretend and dress up like wizards or their favorite super hero but they know that they can't actually fly or cast spells because these things are make believe. I would think that parents would be happy that their children are reading even if it's not a book that's educational; they are still learning to read better.

    I really enjoyed the article from "Up, Up, and Oy Vey!" I liked the style of writing and how it's less formal than a lot of text books and other scholarly works. It makes it more fun to read but at the same time I learned a lot from it.
    His writing seems to be pretty thorough in that he doesn't just discuss the Thing but he also talks about the other characters in the Fantastic Four and how they initially turned into super heroes. This is very helpful to me because I haven't seen the Fantastic Four movie and I haven't read any of the comic books. The background knowledge helps me understand who the Thing is and and where he fits into the comic book world.
    Something I found interesting in the article is when the author discusses the influence of Judaism in the Fantastic Four. Not only is the Thing a golem but the Fantastic Four focuses on family and trying to get along with each other and work together which as the author states is important in Judaism. Not only that but the fact that there are four members in this family is symbolic in that it shows completeness and symbolizes the four building blocks of matter.
    I like the fact that the Fantastic Four comic book went back and explored the Thing's past. I think it gives the character more depth and makes him seem more like an average person instead of a type of monster. It helps make the readers feel more sympathetic towards him.

     Something I found interesting in the first chapter of "From Krakow to Krypton" is how much Superman influenced other comic book super heroes. Superman was one of the first to wear a costume and have two different identities. One being his everyday/average person identity and the other being when he wears his disguise and fights crime. His costume, which includes tights and a cape, caused many other super heroes that were created afterwards, like Batman, Captain America, and many others, to wear this same type of outfit.
     Superman is portrayed as having super human strength and uses it to fight villains and other bad people who are hurting the other innocent good people. He is a kind of protector for everyone who is doing the right thing. The public really liked this about him which is why other super heroes became so much like him. The artists and writers of other comic books wanted their characters to be successful too. Some artists actually got in trouble for making their character too much like Superman.
    I find it interesting how much he has influenced the comic book world because if it wasn't for Superman, comic books and super heroes wouldn't be the same. Superman is what started it all and without him we wouldn't have characters like Spiderman, The Green Lantern, and many others. Not only did Superman make comic books the way they are today,but he also gave people hope when things weren't going well and when good people were being mistreated. This is one of the most important things about Superman.

    Overall I thought that "A Contract with God" by Will Eisner was an okay graphic novel. I like the fact that all of the stories connect with each other by showing what life was like in the city where the author grew up. I enjoy how it shows this kind of struggle to survive. A lot of the characters are struggeling to find some sort of identity and all of the characters are lonely and trying to deal with it in one way or another. Frimme Hersh lost his daughter and deals with his emptiness by blaming God, taking a mistress, and eventually writing a better contract so that God can't hurt him again. The Street Singer deals with his loneliness by getting drunk all the time. The Super is lonely and because of this he is angry and takes it out on other people so no one likes him. Once his only friend, his dog, dies he commits suicide because he lost the only thing that loved him. Rveryone in the story "A Cookalein" cannot wait to go on vacation because no one is happy with their life. By going on vacation they can ascape and live a completly different one. The younger characters are all desperate to find a husband or wife to take care of them.
     One thing I don't like about this graphic novel is the fact that none of these stories are happy. It doesn't seem to be a very accurate portrayal of this city. It couldn't have been that everyone's life was horrible and everyone was lonely. There had to have been at least a few people that had a good life and were happy. The only character who had a remotely happy story was the young woman in Cookalein who finally falls in love with the doctor and she doesn't even fall in love with him until after she was raped.

       Out of the four stories in "A Contract with God", the one that shocked me the most was The Street Singer. It shocked me because he lives his life singing in the streets for money everyday just to waist the money he makes on alcohol when he could be using it to take care of his family. He then goes home at the end of the day drunk and beats his wife and child. Then when he finds someone who can help him have an actual career singing he seems very disconected and doesn't pay attention to anything the woman, Diva Marta Maria, is saying. When she asks if he'd ever heard of her he asks if she has something to eat. When she tells him about her singing career and about her husband he is too buisy eating. He seems to be in a different place the whole time. It's hard for me to understand how he could care so little when someone is trying to get him a better job so that he can get his life back on track.
       Not only do I feel bad for the Street Singer's family but I also feel bad for Diva Marta Maria. Her husband was drunk all the time and beat her just like the Street Singer does to his family. I think she knows that he is a drunk too, which I don't see how she couldn't because of how he is acting when he was at her house, but doesn't really care because she is lonely and just wants someone that she can take care of again.