The Golem's Mighty Swing

Americana #1

by James Sturm

James Sturm pens this richly evocative graphic novel set in the 1920s. The Stars of David, a barnstorming Jewish baseball team, travel from town to town earning a living by playing local squads. They all sport beards, a gimmick to attract patrons but when financial difficulties threaten to end their season they cast their lot with a Chicago promoter who has just seen the hugely successful German silent film Der Golem... With the golem, a baseball game is transformed into a mythical pageant. Fear and curiosity fills the stadium, but it also stokes the flames of anti-Semitism. Winning the game for the Stars of David becomes less important then surviving it. With a sepia-tinted cinematic style, this compelling book reminds us that making it home is at the heart of baseball.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Historical Fiction, Baseball, Fiction, Jewish, Sports

100 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

James Sturm is the author of several award-winning graphic novels for children and adults, including James Sturm’s America, Market Day, The Golem’s Mighty Swing and Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. He is also the founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies and the National Association for Comics Art Educators. He created Adventures in Cartooning with collaborators Alexis Frederic-Frost and Andrew Arnold. Sturm, his wife, and two daughters live in White River Junction, Vermont.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jamess...

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from clay or mud. Sturm’s narrator has it: “A golem is a creature that man creates to be a companion, protector, servant.. . . “ but because they have no souls. . . “eventually they become destroyers.”

James Sturm, the Director of the Center for Cartoon Studies, is the author of Market Day, the Adventures in Cartooning series and Satchel Paige, many years a star of the Negro League who finally made it to the majors. Anyone who has heard of Satchel Paige, or Jackie Robinson, knows America’s “National Pastime’s” inescapable history of racism.The Golem’s Mighty Swing is a story of a traveling baseball team of Jews in the 1920s, and the target of anti-semitism. It was also a team that caved in to a huckster who advised them to have the one black member of the team dress as a Golem, to get more fans into the park when they rolled into town. Fans came to see the monster play and crush the opposition, which he often helped his team do.

The baseball aspect of the book here—according to this reviewer, who loves baseball and its history--is terrific, a very entertaining story, and the historical grounding of the sport in part in racism is also compelling. I have read stories of Jackie Robinson, Satchel Pzage, the Negro Leagues, and this is a similar story. What’s more important, winning the game or surviving? The art is terrific, from a master at his craft, spare and subtle, not (as the title might suggest) cheesy and juvenile. The effect is more like of a Yiddish tale with some suffering, some hilarity. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Stars of David is not to be confused with another religion-based team, The House of David, a Seventh Day Adventist team:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...

Nor is it the Israelite House of David Baseball club of the 1930s, known also as the “Jesus Boys”:

http://www.maryscityofdavid.org/html/...

[Kathrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took less than an hour to read. I don't care much for baseball, but the racial tensions expressed through historical American pop culture are compelling, and the art and simple storytelling are mesmerizing. Kind of frustrated the story ends so abruptly, but I get that's how serial novels keep you hooked. Not sure this is the right book for young reluctant readers; seems more to serve the interests of mature readers with some facility with the historical context.

[Przemysław Skoczyński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wygrzebałem za grosze w katowickiej Komiksiarni, wcześniej nie wiedząc nawet, że wydano u nas jeszcze coś tego autora oprócz "Dnia targowego" (do którego chyba muszę wrócić). Przeglądam sieć, mało dobrego pisało się o tym u nas, co trochę dziwi, bo ta miniaturka z pewnością zasługuje na uwagę. Historia żydowskiej drużyny baseballowej z bardzo sugestywnie przedstawioną problematyką rasizmu w Ameryce lat 20-tych i ciekawym odniesieniem do legendy o golemie. Szkoda, że przepadło, bo Sturm ma talent do budowania specyficznego klimatu i wzbudzania niepokoju.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid graphic novel about a travelling Jewish baseball team in the 1920s.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is billed in parentheses as Americana #1 and sure enough, this would probably have a great (or greater) interest to lovers of Americana. And what’s more American than baseball? Outside of apple pie, proud ignorance, and guns, that is.
Personally, I never understood the appeal of baseball and this book did nothing to change it. It barely seems like a sport. The muddled rules, the standing around, it seems almost specifically targeted to people who found all the other sports (soccer, basketball, etc.) too active.
The interesting thing about this book, this real life slice of American storied past, is that once upon a time there was an all Jewish baseball team that traveled the country in the 1920s amid the potent antisemitism one love to call bygone but one reads the news and playing various local yokel teams for money.
But that’s just it, one interesting historical sidenote for the entire book. Unless you’re really into baseball, it’s just a small trivia fact. Then again, at least the author had the decency to make it brief.
The art is your basically black and white cartoon art, nothing special at all.
So, it’s a quick read, but yeah, you really gotta love baseball to appreciate it. Antisemitism, much like racism and bigotry are nothing new to American(a), not even old news, sadly. Just everyday life. Though, to be fair, things have improved since the 1920s. So there…some good news.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following a fictional Jewish barnstorming team in the 1920s, The Golem's Mighty Swing tackles some of the antisemitism that they face. It's really good, though necessarily brief for its graphic format. I also thought the ending was rather abrupt, but not enough to dislike the rest of the book.

Also, don't be fooled by the title, there's never an actual golem in this book. :)

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have liked to see a little more of the supporting characters, but there's only so much you can do in a comic of a certain length, and I wouldn't have wanted that to come at the expense of anything that made the cut.

CW: antisemitism and antisemitic violence, racism and mentions of racist violence/lynchings

[Dariusz Płochocki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lata 20, Stany Zjednoczone, liga okręgowa bejsbolu i drużyna złożona z samych Żydów i jednego afroamerykanina. Czy to ma szanse się powieść? Niewielkie, szczególnie, że kamanda ta klepie głównie biedę, jeździ rozlatującym się rzęchem po niewielkich, prowincjonalnych, pełnych antysemityzmu i rasizmu miejscowościach. Ale gdyby tak podgrzać atmosferę i wrzucić tu szczyptę marketingu...
Ciekawa opowieść Sturma o planach, nadziejach, którą muszą zmierzyć się z szarą rzeczywistością.

[Tony Cafiso · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Golem's Mighty Swing is a story about the first Jewish baseball team. It goes into detail on two games in specific and the bad experiences they had in one certain town that they played in. To summarize, other players and fans all hate them because they are Jewish. One player gets beaten up pretty badly at a bar in town and the next day many of the fans jump down from the stairs and try to attack them during a game.
It is always interesting to learn about baseball back when it was just starting and compare it to baseball today. The way players were treated for example, I can't believe that players were that badly just for being Jewish. Today in baseball, players are practically treated like gods and payed a thousand times more than what they were payed back then. I would recommend this book to anyone interesting in the origins of baseball.

[Reuven Fischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A secular Jewish Minor league team discovers there are no atheists in the dugout. The Golem's Mighty Swing looks at the religious tensions encountered by The Stars of David, a Jewish touring Minor League baseball team in the 1920's. With a lot of Play-by-Play action, this book should be a hit with Baseball fans, The anti semitic tensions coupled with the teams secret weapon... A "Golem" makes for an exciting story. The last section of the book appears to be filler loosely based on the main story. I thought this took away from the book. I would have enjoyed the book more if it was left out... A Good Read

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good comic book. Detailed history with realistic dialogue and proper attention to even minor characters. But there is not much here. I don't know what this is based on. I assume there could have been some Jewish baseball teams. I know Jews dominated basketball to a degree where people started calling Jews the super talents of basketball.

I don't really know much about baseball as it doesn't exist in Europe. So most of the games felt a tad weird and plotless. No explanation given. Unfortunately the story was not that deep. We just follow this team on a few games and then they are gone. They were made into this joke team to get more viewers and enough money to travel. Then just disbanded or something. It's all quite pointless story wise. The drawings also often are too simplistic. It's a good story that needed a stronger plot to really make sense. I think it's a high quality book and baseball fans will enjoy it. But for the rest it's just a bit of history. And I think the racism aspect was done very well here compared to 99% of movies even though it definitely was made extreme and over the top. We really needed to see what happened to each person and what happened to their season. But overall I would have loved to follow a real team as I'm not sure what this is.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrated by Noah Strauss or as he calls himself “the Zion Lion,” manager and third baseman for the Stars of David minor league baseball club touring and playing other teams sometime in the early decades of the twentieth century. When the Stars of David, “The Bearded Wandering Wonders,” are hit with a perfect storm of economic woes, they turn to a promoter who proposes dressing their one African American player, Henry, or as he’s known on the field, “Hershl Bloom (member of the lost tribe),” into the costume of a golem to bring in the crowds and enrich the box office, and in turn the team. It’s a plan that has unanticipated results. Strum’s well-crafted and drawn story portrays American small town life with the unifying social mores of baseball and the divisive mores of antisemitism and racism.

[Alex Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this book is historic fiction or not but the idea of a Golem is fairly powerful. This story follows early baseball games as a Jewish American baseball team through economic hardship "sells out" to a profiteer who offers them more money if they are able to capitalize on their Jewishness to sell tickets. In an anti-semitic America, this backfires and nearly gets them violently punished when an anti-semite crafts a team who tries to destroy them. Their "golem" then protects the team -- but really the golem they created is to play with their image as a Jewish team -- that is what goes out of hand on a destructive rampage. Ultimately they are saved as the game is rained out.

The drawings are simple but really speak much about the straightforwardness of this America. I liked this comic, although I thought it an odd concept when I first began.

[Tyrone_Slothrop (ex-MB) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando il baseball era un circo e gli ebrei erano freaks

Un bianco-e-nero forte e antico che arriva dai primi anni del secolo in una America rurale, primitiva e terragna. Il “national past-time” diviene il campo dove le pulsioni più reazionarie e conservatrici dell’America profonda si sfogano e qualunque minoranza che tenta di correre sulle basi rischia grosso.
In questa vicenda è una squadra di ebrei che viaggia nel MidWest incontrando (e sconfiggendo) squadre locali, dannandosi per mettere insieme il pranzo con la cena. Un impresario propone di aggiungere un po’ di spettacolo inserendo nel lineup nientemeno che il Golem, ma alla fine sarà proprio grazie a questa squallida trovata che il team eviterà il linciaggio da parte dai buoni americani patrioti....

[Maxwell Bauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a copy of this graphic novel at AWP in Portland. Anything with a golem in it will peak my interest. As luck would have it, James Sturm was there and not only signed my copy, but he did a little illustration too!
Sturm tackles the issues of anti-Semitism and racism in the lens of a Jewish baseball team (the Stars of David) playing in the 1920s. The story made me think of Bernard Malamud's "The Natural," another story of Jews playing baseball.
This was a fun, quick read. I finished in one sitting. (Something I couldn't say about Malamud.) If you're a baseball fan, or read about outsiders fighting back against hatred, this book is for you.

[Brian Sierkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thin, quick read that attempts to tackle a complex issue (antisemitism) through the lens of 1920s American baseball culture. The author paints a colorful background to set the stage, then seems in a rush to close things out just as the climax hits. A hundred pages aren't enough for even the best conventional storyteller to pull off a multifaceted tale that deals with intricate topics; within a graphic novel format it is closer to impossible. An author as talented as Sturm could crush this as a more substantial tome, but as it is presented it simply comes across as an unevenly presented comic.

[William Hume · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Golem’s Mighty Swing” provides a window into the world of baseball in the 1920s when barnstorming teams brought the game to backroads America rather than America making the trek to the nearest MLB city. The story centers on the team that was called The House of David which was a team comprised of Jewish ballplayers. As you can imagine, they were met with particular vitriol as the local boys all wanted their chance to put them in their place. The simplistic artwork evoked a simpler time. Although I enjoyed the work, I can’t help but feel that it ended mid-story and so many parts were unresolved. Recommended

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a little odd. First, it was definitely not what I expected out of James Sturm, mostly because I'm familiar with him through Adventures in Cartooning. I get that it's a historical fiction comic book, but it still didn't really hit home for me - it felt like there were pages missing here and there, because there wasn't necessarily a clear through-line from some parts to others.

[Erin]

A thrilling account of a Jewish Baseball team in the 1920s. They experience wins, losses, and violent anti-Semitism.

Missing the backmatter that would have offered some perspective on how this story came to be, how much is historically accurate, or whether this was based on any particular team or event. In a brief quest to find out whether this team was based on reality, I discovered a piece of Michigan Jewish history: https://mashable.com/feature/house-of...

[Tim Hayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The graphic novel style suits this novel's plot. This reader found that the storyline seemed fragmented at times but with a close examination of the artwork in the panels, one could augment their grasp of the story. Embedded in the text is a story of triumph, a struggle to be included, and a subculture within a subculture that makes up religion and sport. Read this one especially if you have read The Chosen; less boy more sport.

[Jocelyn H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic novel about a 1920s Jewish barnstorming baseball team. A good baseball book and a look at the racism and anti-Semitism prevalent at the time. The first half is stronger than the second half. Unfortunately, there was not a single female character in the entire book. Not one.

[Kellan Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takes maybe an hour to read entirely. Loved the art style. Set in the 1920s it discusses violence against black people and antisemitism in baseballs early history. Love the use of the Golem as it's a Jewish folk lore character. It's a decent story.

[Vi · Rating 4 out of 5]

race relations. told in two parts.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is great. Baseball, racism, anti-Semitism, histories we ignore, very good art.

[catechism · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I read this? I don't like baseball.

[Cameron Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read, enjoyed it. Interesting story

[Sierra Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for TLP

Really enjoyed this one.

[Daniel Krolik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief but involving Jewish supernatural take on Casey at the Bat. Vivid and movingly drawn, and the anti semetic incidients are incredibly lifelike and upsetting.

[Marshaferz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but powerful. The drawings are very evocative and the story fascinating.

[Richard Archambault · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Quick read. Provoked a few smiles and a chuckle.