Cleveland: Home of Heroes

New York City is famously the birthplace of comics; it’s wherever the paper syndicates were based, wherever the archetypal comic publication was created and sold, and wherever DC, Marvel, and astir of the different publishers were based for the archetypal 7 decades of the industry’s existence. It’s besides wherever astir each superheroes live… adjacent if they sometimes telephone it Metropolis oregon Gotham.

But the information is that from the earliest days of comics, determination was different important location: Cleveland, Ohio. It’s wherever Superman is really from, and it’s besides the root constituent for Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, Black Lightning, American Splendor, Emmie & Friends, and galore different characters, series, and creators. This is simply a past that’s world-famous successful Cleveland, but reasonably chartless everyplace else; now, however, a caller 4,000-square-foot accumulation astatine Cleveland’s renowned Maltz Museum is dedicated to exploring and celebrating this colorful backstory.

It’s an expanded mentation of a traveling exhibit, JewCE: Jewish Comics Experience, which primitively opened successful October 2023 astatine the Center for Jewish History successful New York and has been travelling ever since. The grounds has been renamed Icons successful Ink astatine the Maltz and exclusively doubled successful size with a caller section, “Cleveland: Home of Heroes!” It opened May 7, 2026 and runs done August 23, 2026, with a con time successful July (more connected that successful a bit).

Full disclosure: I’m the archetypal grounds co-curator and caller grounds pb curator. You tin work much astir the archetypal present and adjacent ticker a abbreviated documentary adaptation here.

Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Mariana Edelman Photography & Design and Aaron Bane.

The City of Steel

The comic publication manufacture and its proprietary genre, superheroes, were created successful the 1930s and ’40s astir wholly by first-generation American Jews, calved to immigrant-refugees from Eastern Europe. Between the Great Depression and institutionalized antisemitism, they couldn’t find work, truthful they created an manufacture of their own.

New York was past location to the largest Jewish assemblage successful the world, truthful it lone made consciousness for Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, Martin Goodman, Harry Donenfeld, and truthful galore different Golden Age pioneers to travel from there. But galore immigrants moved from New York to Cleveland successful hunt of a little outgo of surviving and the employment opportunities of the booming concern hub. Cleveland’s factories had earned it the nickname “City of Steel,” which would soon animate its astir celebrated creation: the Man of Steel.

One migrant household that made this travel were the Siegels; different were the Shusters, who alternatively of New York, came to Cleveland done Toronto conscionable crossed Lake Erie, wherever migration laws were laxer. In 1930, 15-year-olds Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster met successful Glenville High School and became champion friends. Jerry was an aspiring writer, and Joe an aspiring artist; unneurotic they created their ain illustrated fanzine and comic strips. In November 1934, crossed 1 sleepless nighttime and excited day, they came up with a caller thought — Superman, the archetypal superhero.

Cleveland celebrated this past past August erstwhile it dedicated a Superman Plaza downtown that features statues of Siegel and Shuster and a nine-and-a-half-foot Superman flying atop an eighteen-and-a-half-foot pillar. The archetypal artifact successful the Icons successful Ink grounds to invited visitors is the original, smaller maquette for the Superman statue by famed sculptor David Deming.

Cleveland’s factories had earned it the nickname “City of Steel,” which would soon animate its astir celebrated creation: the Man of Steel. “

The statue points to an ultra-rare transcript of Famous Funnies #1 (July 1934), wide recognized arsenic the archetypal comic book. What tin beryllium considered the archetypal comic art is an evolutionary question, spanning cave partition paintings to illuminated manuscripts and illustrated pulps. But the invention of comic books arsenic a mean is credited to M.C. Gaines, an unemployed teacher and novelty salesman from the Bronx who thought to licence aged comic strips from the paper syndicates and republish them successful mag form.

Possibly unneurotic with person Harry Wildenberg, a income manager astatine Eastern Color Printing, Gaines besides conceived of folding the tabloid sheets successful quarters to make smaller, much economical book-size pamphlets. The effect was Funnies connected Parade, published May 1933, a reprint postulation of strips produced by Eastern arsenic a promotional giveaway for Procter & Gamble. Gaines past followed with the thought of selling comics connected newsstands, investigating the waters with Famous Funnies; it proved a smash hit, giving emergence to an full industry.

The world’s archetypal comic book. Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Aaron Bane.

A Hero Comes Home

Siegel and Shuster famously spent 4 years unsuccessfully pitching their spaceman-in-spandex thought to each paper syndicate successful the country, but it wasn’t until determination was a comic publication manufacture — and a steadfast known contiguous arsenic DC was down deadline and hopeless for contented — that Superman debuted, practically by accident, successful June 1938’s Action Comics #1. Sales made Superman an instant success; portion a fewer top-selling comics reached 200,000 copies backmost then, Superman sold 1.3 million. By 1941, his 3 titles had a combined readership of 12 million, positive a paper portion successful 285 papers that was work by 25 million.

He became the archetypal superhero to modulation into different media with the immensely fashionable vigor show, The Adventures of Superman. To beforehand it, DC’s co-owner, Harry Donenfeld, commissioned a life-size lipid coating successful 1940 to usage successful ads arsenic good arsenic show successful his office. It hung determination until 1957, erstwhile it mysteriously disappeared. Now 1 of the Maltz exhibit’s centerpieces, the representation — primitively painted by Hugh J. Ward with aboriginal reworking by Joseph Szokoli and perchance Stanley Kaye — became celebrated implicit the decades, gaining astir legendary presumption among fans and historians, having appeared successful the inheritance of respective property articles but thought mislaid to history.

It wasn’t until 2010 that it was recovered astatine New York’s Lehman College, having been donated by Donenfeld’s woman upon his decease successful 1965. Apparently, Donenfeld took it with him erstwhile helium retired to enactment up successful his townhouse. Lehman officials, either unaware oregon dismissive of its provenance, hung it successful the backmost of the library, wherever it was forgotten; Icons successful Ink marks the 2nd clip it’s ever been displayed publicly.

In beforehand of the painting, astatine the halfway of the grounds space, is Jerry Siegel’s penning table wherever helium wrote astir each Superman communicative since 1940, arsenic good arsenic the Spectre, Slam Bradley, Star-Spangled Kid, Robotman, and different characters. It was donated to the Cleveland Public Library successful 2017 by Jerry’s daughter, Laura, and is connected peculiar indebtedness to the museum. It’s a singular portion of past to person amidst each the Golden Age comics and Joe Shuster art.

Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Mariana Edelman Photography & Design and Aaron Bane.

Cleveland Splendor

Superman and his creators are undeniably the stars of this amusement — it’s the astir important Superman accumulation since the Smithsonian’s successful 1987 — but with implicit 100 carnal objects, including uncommon comic books, archetypal art, and humanities artifacts, Icons successful Ink is besides the biggest comics grounds successful Cleveland history. And if there’s 1 comics creator that’s associated with Cleveland arsenic overmuch arsenic Siegel and Shuster, it’s Harvey Pekar.

If Clark Kent is Superman, Harvey Pekar is Everyman; portion Superman was introduced with the bombastic “Look, up successful the sky,” Pekar’s comics utilized the tagline, “From disconnected the streets of Cleveland comes…” Pekar was a pioneer of autobiographical comix (as “underground” comics are sometimes called), self-publishing his yearly American Splendor bid from 1976 to 2008, with 39 issues total. Composed of abbreviated vignettes drawn by a assortment of esteemed artists (most famously Robert Crumb), and taking spot chiefly successful Cleveland, the curmudgeonly, cynical, and disheveled Pekar wrote with a dependable that was brutally honorable and often hilarious. His grayishness was truthful extreme, it was colorful.

By 1993, American Splendor achieved a ample capable pursuing to beryllium picked up by Dark Horse Comics, which distributed it until 2002, astatine which constituent DC’s Vertigo imprint published it until 2008. Pekar became a insignificant personage extracurricular comics arsenic well, becoming a recurring impermanent connected NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman betwixt 1986 and 1988, until a diagnostic on-air tirade against NBC’s ownership by General Electric led to Pekar being banned from appearing further. In 2003, an American Splendor movie adaptation starring Paul Giamatti won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The grounds features archetypal artwork from Pekar’s comics by Crumb, Gary Dumm, and Peter Kuper. Bringing things afloat ellipse is the two-page “What Superman Means to Me” from Snarf #12 (June 1989), successful which helium complains astir Superman and the remainder of the superhero genre monopolizing the mean of comics.

Bendisworld

One of the biggest names successful comics today, Brian Michael Bendis was calved and raised successful Cleveland, and studied astatine the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Art. He worked astatine a comic publication store successful the downtown Arcade — wherever the flying buss successful past year’s Superman was filmed, with Cleveland playing Metropolis successful the movie — and chopped his teeth arsenic a unit illustrator astatine Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. Bendis broke into comics with 2 creator-owned bid acceptable successful Cleveland: Jinx from Caliber Comics successful 1996, which helium some wrote and drew; and Torso from Image Comics successful 1998, which helium wrote, with creation by Marc Andreyko. That landed him the gig of penning Ultimate Spider-Man with creator Mark Bagley successful 2000, which turned him into an manufacture superstar; helium and Bagley went connected to interruption Marvel’s grounds for the longest consecutive tally by a originative squad with 111 issues.

Original artwork by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Aaron Bane.

Among his galore accomplishments since, Bendis created 2 mega-popular characters — Jessica Jones and Miles Morales. Both person go mainstays successful Marvel movies, TV shows, animation, and video games. Bendis besides became a founding subordinate of the Marvel Creative Committee, helping steer the MCU done its archetypal 15 movies. By 2018, Bendis had reached the pinnacle of his profession, but a sojourn to a Superman accumulation astatine the Cleveland Public Library inspired him to instrumentality a accidental connected thing new, and helium moved to DC to go the superior writer of Superman. Since 2022, he’s been co-producing his ain Jinxworld enactment of comics astatine Dark Horse, though past twelvemonth helium besides returned to penning for Marvel.

The grounds includes archetypal creation from Bendis and a rogues’ assemblage of his collaborators, including Mark Bagley, Joe Quesada, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mike Deodato Jr., Art Thibert, Michael Avon Oeming, Michael Gaydos, David Marquez, Marc Andreyko, and others, making the grounds a travel done modern property comics past arsenic well.

Original artwork by Peter Kuper. Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Aaron Bane.

Mad Man

Peter Kuper is astir apt known to younger fans arsenic the writer and illustrator of MAD Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy” strip, which helium took implicit from creator Antonio Prohías successful 1997 and has been producing since, but he’s besides an internationally renowned graphic novelist and cartoonist whose enactment appears regularly successful The New Yorker, The Nation, and Charlie Hebdo. He’s presently nominated for the 2026 Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, and was this year’s finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his governmental cartoons.

Kuper’s “highbrow” comics research social, psychological, and humanities themes, usually done his signature bold, high-contrast benignant and usage of mixed media, including stencils, spray paints, and woodcut-like techniques. He grew up successful Cleveland, and the metropolis features heavy successful galore of his abbreviated stories arsenic good arsenic successful his 2007 autobiographical graphic novel, Stop Forgetting to Remember.

The grounds features Kuper’s creation from passim his career, from his wit enactment successful MAD to his autobio shorts to his caller entomology book, Insectopolis, showcasing conscionable however affluent and divers the artform tin be.

A sheet from Terri Libenson's Emmie & Friends series.

The Art of Growing Up

Another featured Clevelander is Terri Libenson, who’s known for her nationally syndicated comic strip, The Pajama Diaries (2006-2020), and middle-grade graphic caller bid Emmie & Friends, which has sold much than 2.3 cardinal copies worldwide and is astir to merchandise its tenth book.

Libenson started retired arsenic a writer and illustrator for the Cleveland-based American Greetings — the world’s 2nd largest greeting paper shaper aft Hallmark — wherever she learned the creation of humor, relatability, and concise ocular storytelling. Both her comic strips and graphic novels are slice-of-life stories often based connected her ain experiences concerning family, childhood, adolescence, and parenting, which person go known for capturing the delicate equilibrium of wit and poignancy. Libenson chiefly works digitally, and truthful her conception of the grounds mostly includes prints from her antithetic comics, tracing her improvement arsenic an creator and storyteller.

“Cleveland has ever punched mode supra its value creatively. There’s a restless vigor here,” Dr. Samantha Baskind, the exhibit’s consulting curator and a Distinguished Professor of Art History astatine Cleveland State University, told IGN. “Cleveland is portion working-class grit and portion taste powerhouse that makes the metropolis consciousness similar its ain benignant of mini–New York. Comics aren’t a footnote successful Cleveland; they’re woven into the city’s identity.”

"Comics aren’t a footnote successful Cleveland; they’re woven into the city’s identity.”“

Dr. Miriam Eve Mora, the archetypal exhibit’s pb curator and a historiographer of American migration and taste history, adds that “so galore comics based successful NYC, that metropolis of immigrants, are astir experiencing difference, astir coming to presumption with being outsiders successful a hard city. But successful Cleveland, the children of immigrants who made comics had a antithetic perspective. Whatever conclusions we mightiness gully astir the abundance of Cleveland comics endowment (whether astir the community, the geography, oregon if there’s thing successful the water), the expanded grounds is simply a fantastic accidental to item the bonzer works that person emerged from the streets of Cleveland to signifier comics, and from determination popular civilization arsenic a whole.”

At the extremity of the grounds is an all-ages play space, due to the fact that immoderate accumulation astir comics that isn’t amusive is missing the point. It includes a cosplay corner, replete with camera stands and elephantine comic publication covers for backgrounds, a comic publication instauration station, speechmaking library, and adjacent an old-timey existent telephone booth… successful lawsuit visitors request to alteration successful a hurry.

Dr. Samantha Baskind and Roy Schwartz striking the pose. Photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum; photography by Mariana Edelman Photography & Design.

On July 11–12, the Maltz Museum volition besides big “Icons Fest,” a con-like solemnisation of each things comics and popular civilization with panels, screenings, household workshops, vendors, and a ample creator alley filled with section up-and-coming creators arsenic good arsenic heavyweights similar Brian Michael Bendis, Terri Libenson, Peter Kuper, Jon Bogdanove, Joe Rubinstein, Stan Mack, Danny Fingeroth, Jenny Isabella, Jordan Gorfinkel, Gary Dumm, Ken Krimstein, Alisa Kwitney, and galore others, arsenic good arsenic the Siegel, Shuster, and Pekar families.

Cleveland whitethorn look similar a mild-mannered midwestern town, but don’t fto that fool you: When it comes to comics, its interaction is Super-sized.

Roy Schwartz is simply a popular civilization historiographer and author. He is the co-curator of the JewCE: Jewish Comics Experience grounds and pb curator of Cleveland: Home of Heroes! He besides led the caller Jack Kirby Way thoroughfare naming successful NYC. Follow him connected Instagram, Facebook, and X @RealRoySchwartz and astatine royschwartz.com.