Shaloman
Continued from Page 27
“I noticed all the comic books that were out, or at
Wiesner created an origin story for Shaloman:
least most of them, had Jewish authors, but nothing
A trio of men in Israel named Justice, Equity and
in the story itself was Jewish in its entirety,”
Wisdom (or JEW) sheared the top off of a moun-
Wiesner recalled. So he took matters into his own
tain with lightning and turned it into the Hebrew
hands. Cape optional.
letter shin, the first letter of shalom.
First, he created a set of stories featuring the Y-
“Something the ‘regular’ world wanted and the
AL WIESNER
Guys after reading Stan Lee’s (or Stan Lieber’s) X-Men.
Jewish world wanted was peace,” he said.
“X-Men was very popular, and I thought, ‘How can
Though he was inspired by Superman’s story and
I make it Jewish?’” said Wiesner, who belongs to Ohev
powers, “I wasn’t going to make [Shaloman] a man of steel,”
Shalom of Bucks County. “After X comes Y, and the Y is for the
Wiesner said, “but I thought I could make him a man of stone
YMHA where young Jewish boys grew up. So I came up with Y-
because stone is permanent and stone is here to stay.”
Guys, as opposed to X-Men, and they were boys that had different
After looking at the letter shin, Wiesner noticed the top of the
mutant powers and they lived at the Y.”
letter looked almost like a man flexing his muscles, which
He even met Lee at one point and gave him a copy of Y-Guys.
informed Shaloman’s transformation from stone to man.
By 1983, after serving in the Air Force and spending 45 years
And when there’s trouble afoot, one just yells “oy vey!” and
as a women’s hairdresser in Oxford Circle, Wiesner was still think-
Shaloman transforms from stone and comes to save the day.
ing about the lack of Jewish superheroes.
Of course, Shaloman isn’t without his weaknesses. After all,
“I had said to my wife, ‘I really would like to get back to my
“stories are boring when nothing in the world can stop them or hurt
artwork.’” The time seemed right given Israel’s place in the world.
them and there’s no vulnerability to the superhero,” Wiesner said.
“With Israel becoming a country and a powerful country for its
So when the three wise men took the lightning and created the
size, I felt that now people could envision a Jewish superhero that
shin out of the mountaintop, the pieces that “flew every which
has strength as well as intelligence.”
way” became shinite, similar to Superman’s kryptonite. When
After a few exchanges with a DIY comics place in Norristown,
Shaloman gets too close, they drain his strength.
Wiesner started on the first of 42 issues that would feature his
Wiesner took cues from the radio shows he listened to growing
Jewish superhero: the Man of Stone, or Shaloman. He formed his
up and used them to create adventure stories for the Shaloman, as
own comic book publishing company, Mark 1 Comics, named for
well as using Jewish narratives he’d learned.
his son, and Shaloman debuted in 1988.
There are many Shaloman stories modeled after holidays. One
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story takes place on a ship called Bondage
and basically follows the Passover narrative;
another, based on Purim, takes a musical
approach as the rock King Swear (echoing the
name King Ahasuerus) wants to find a rock
queen, and Esther and her uncle Morty and a char-
acter modeled after Haman come into play.
In a Chanukah story, Shaloman is able to defeat terrorists by
luring them out of hiding by shooting flares — one of which lasts
eight minutes instead of one.
“I try to work in Jewish things with adventure stories and make
it interesting,” Wiesner said. “Even someone with knowledge of
Jewish history would have a jump.”
Shaloman battles terrorists and other villains — including a
clone of himself created by the evil Dr. Traif in the first issue.
He later introduced other characters like Shalomboy, aka Yoni,
who — after being injured in a terrorist bus explosion —
receives a bionic arm and leg at Hadassah Hospital and
gets his own superpowers.
Writing the comic has even earned Wiesner a trip to Israel.
When he wanted to create a Shaloman story set there, Wiesner
sought advertising from a travel company in New Jersey. When
they learned he hadn’t been to Israel, the company chipped in to
place advertisements as well as pay for half of a trip to Israel for
Wiesner so he could see it for himself.
When there’s
trouble afoot, one
just yells ‘oy vey!’ and
Shaloman transforms
from stone and
comes to save
the day.
His “crowning glory” came when he created a Shaloman story
about the Holocaust, for which he interviewed survivors. In the
story, Shaloman takes a Holocaust denier back in time so he can
see the atrocities for himself.
Through the years of creating Shaloman and writing the
comics, Wiesner has met some of his own heroes.
Ray Bradbury once praised him for being able to have a char-
acter go back in time without changing events in the future,
breaking Bradbury’s golden rule of science fiction: no time travel.
In 2010, Wiesner was honored at the San Diego Comic Con with
the Inkpot Award, given annually to recognize achievements in
“worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, anima-
tion, and fandom services.” He was seated next to Jerry Robinson,
the comic book artist known for his work on Batman, and nearby
Nathan Fillion of Castle and Stan Freberg.
“It was a wonderful time, and the best part is they paid for all
of it,” Wiesner said with a laugh.
He’s participated in other cons, such as Wizard World
See Shaloman, Page 30
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IN PHILADELPHIA —
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Relationships MARISSA STERN | JE STAFF
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on the front row from left: Nick Toocheck,
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NEXT TO CIGARS and its nightlife,
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