Jules Feiffer and Golden Age memories

“I was a creature of the newspaper comic strips, which I worshipped, and they were iconic,” Jules Feiffer says from his studio in the Upper West Side, a corner room in his apartment, with windows affording a view of the city. Built-in bookcases line the walls, packed with an assortment that includes some copies of his own work, as well as the work of the classic cartoonists he grew up on. “This was extraordinary talent doing extraordinary stuff, and with comic books, it was more like early rock ‘n’ roll – we felt anybody could do it. These were artists, particularly in the early days, who drew very crudely, particularly Joe Shuster (who I loved, particularly in his early Superman and before that Slam Bradley and Spy), whose stuff I could imitate and almost do as well at. It was that way with others: Bob Kane could barely draw.’

“...I loved comic books and, if you read enough of them, they’d give you a sort of caffeine high. I loved The Human Torch and I loved the Sub-Mariner, particularly because he was, before Spider-Man, the first really complicated hero who did bad things.”

“The book was taken seriously, so the form gained a new lease on life and new respect, none of which interests me particularly, except in what I did to redeem Will Eisner’s career. That was, for me, a major interest in that this was a guy who was no longer heard of, was completely forgotten, had forgotten himself and was no longer doing comics. I was happy that, in a sense, I was able to bring him back from the dead or, at the very least, from exile.”