Book looks at at Jewish roots of ‘Funnyman,’ by Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

The first superhero created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, you’ve heard of. The pair created Superman, who is often considered one of the five most famous fictional characters in the world.

They split with DC Comics over the rights to Superman in 1946, and in 1947 took their next creation, “Funnyman,” to competing publisher Magazine Enterprises. Funnyman is a slapstick superhero that resembled Danny Kaye. He failed to find much of an audience, with only six issues and a yearlong comic strip to his name before fading into oblivion. Siegel and Shuster never worked together again.

Authors Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon look at the creation and antecedents of this character in “Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman: The First Jewish Superhero, from the Creators of Superman.” The book, set for release in July, explores the inspirations for Funnyman, by looking at the history of Jewish humor. They also provide a particular Jewish tie-in for Superman: 1920s strongman Siegmund Breitbart, who was billed as a “Superman of Strength” at a 1923 event in Cleveland, where Siegel then lived.

In addition to the essays, the book collects 35 pages of the “Funnyman” comic book stories, 11 Sunday strips and 57 daily comic strips. Synopses are included for the non-collected comic books and some of the strips.

The assertion of the title – that Funnyman was the first Jewish superhero — isn’t specifically supported, though the use of Yiddish terms by Funnyman is a good way to make that argument.

In the comic, Funnyman was TV comedian Larry Davis, who dresses as a superhero for a publicity stunt. But when he encounters a real criminal instead, he uses practical joke techniques to bring him down. Davis enjoys fighting crime, he decides, and goes on fighting crime in a clown suit, cracking jokes all the while, as “Funnyman.”