Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:03PM4 comments ›
Sat Aug 9, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Adams, Kubert and Lee Come To Aid Of Concentration Camp Artist
Six page story details Dina Gottieboa Babbit's plight
The perfect trifecta of living comic book legends – Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, and Stan Lee – have come to the aid of Nazi concentration camp survivor and animator Dina Gottlieboa Babbit in her fight to retrieve her long stolen artwork from a Polish museum.
According to today's New York Times, Ms. Babbit survived two years at the infamous Auschwitz Polish concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the notorious butcher of Aushwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele. Many of these paintings are in the possession of the Aushwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum; as her work, Ms. Babbit claims ownership and has long demanded its return. The Museum has refused, and Neal, Joe and Stan have taken up the effort.
To help raise awareness, Neal teamed up with Rafael Medoff, the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, to produce a six page comics story detailing the situation. The story was inked – in part – by Joe and sports an introduction from Stan.
They are presently looking for a publisher.
Since her liberation, Ms. Babbit had worked as an animator for Jay Ward Productions, Warner Bros. Animation, and MGM.
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Comments (4)
Russ Rogers (5:27 PM on Sat Aug 9, 2008)
If the point of publishing this six page comic is to educate the public, then Adams, Lee and Kubert should consider publishing the story directly to the web, maybe on a site like ComicMix. Maybe they feel they can get more press if the story sees print first.
Maybe the Aushwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum considers the paintings by Dina Gottliebova Babbit as being "work for hire." The initial unwritten contract was, "Paint portraits or you will get gassed."
Joe Kubert circulated a petition among comics professionals two years ago. ComicMix's John Ostrander is one of the signatories. Obviously it's not too late for other comics professionals to get on board. http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/letters...
Kubert had done a comic story several years ago called, "Yossel." It was a "what if" story, imagining what might have happened to Kubert himself IF his parents hadn't fled Poland with him as a boy. In the story, "Yossel" (which is Jewish for Joseph) ends up in a concentration camp and is kept alive because his cartoons amuse his captors. When he wrote the story, Kubert didn't know that there was a real story that was eiriely similar with Dina Gottlibova. Here Joe Kubert discusses "Yossel" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjw_Y-tJ-O8
I'm sorry this comment is so "link happy." But here is another petition on behalf of Dina Babbit. This one is open to everyone to sign. http://www.petitiononline.com/noogs1/petition.html
Russ Rogers (8:36 AM on Sun Aug 10, 2008)
Here is the six page comic published to the web: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/09/arts/Babbi...
Russ Rogers (2:56 PM on Tue Aug 12, 2008)
Because I can't let go. Here is Dina Babbit speaking for herself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DiSzjQRX44
Here is another 8-page comics classic that deals with the Holocaust. This is "Master Race," THE EC story that made Bernard Krigstein a Hall of Fame comics legend. Powerful stuff. Amazing. http://es.geocities.com/thegweb/berniekrigstein1.html
Is there any chance that ComicMix could get the rights to republish either "Master Race" and/or Neal Adams 6-page Dina Babbit story? Both are important and need more exposure and attention.
Mike Gold (3:11 PM on Tue Aug 12, 2008)
Reprint rights to Master Race is held by Diamond Publishing, under the stewardship of Russ Cochran. Russ has reprinted ALL of the EC comics (except for a handful of early stories that M.C. Gaines didn't own) in black-and-white hardcover form, most shot from the original art itself (check out my Creepy review, http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/08/10/review-creepy-arc...). Now Russ is going back and taking the film from that series, having the stories recolored using the original as guides, and publishing them in archive editions. It's all very, very highly recommended -- there's a reason why most comics historians regard EC as the pinnacle of America comics publishers. Check it out at http://gemstonepublishing.com/category.asp?CategoryID=438.
As for Bernie Krigstein, Fantagraphics has published both a biography (http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=270&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=118&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=62) and a retrospective of his work (http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=119&category_id=270&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=62).