Stop 2: Ganefs

In September 1952, Bill Gaines, the son of Max Gaines the inventor of the comic book, by then the publisher of E.C. Comics standing for Entertainment Comics, came up with a novel idea: a wild humor magazine titled Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad. Originally a comic book and later a magazine in order to bypass increasingly angry censors, the very first story in MAD Magazine is title Ganefs, Yiddish for theives. MAD Magazine's irreverent, anti-establishment, self-depracating, and very Jewish humor ended up changing American humor forever. 

While Famous Funnies shows how comics originated as a popular, mass-produced format, MAD reveals how quickly the medium became a platform that both reflected and influenced American pop culture. Beginning with M.C. Gaines, Jewish creators continued to shape the industry as writers, illustrators, and innovators behind the scenes. This exhibition explores how comics remain a part of the modern Jewish story. In many ways, comics show us how that story is told. Next, we will see comics emerge as a vehicle for cultural expression, capturing humor, tradition, memory, and everyday life. Across languages and continents, Jewish creators used the medium to represent themselves and respond to the world around them.