Beachwood is about to lean hard into its superhero legacy. The Maltz Museum’s traveling exhibition Icons in Ink: The Jewish Comics Experience lands on May 7 and runs through August 23, turning a quiet suburban fixture into a summer destination for comics die‑hards and casual fans alike. The show assembles more than 100 original artworks and rare comic books in an expanded, nearly 4,000‑square‑foot layout that spotlights Cleveland’s oversized role in the birth of the superhero, with plenty of interactive touches sprinkled in for families and collectors.
What’s on view
The Maltz’s presentation breaks the exhibition into five focused micro‑galleries, moving from the Jewish origins of the comics industry to a Fighting Fascism section, then adds a freshly built Cleveland: Home of Heroes gallery. According to the Maltz Museum, visitors can expect original art, rare vintage comics, and an on‑site “comics laboratory” where guests can sketch, costume, and create their own characters.
A hometown story
Cleveland’s place in this story is not just symbolic, it is literal. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were schoolmates in the city, and Siegel’s writing desk is part of the display. As reported by Cleveland.com, the show includes a long‑lost H. J. Ward oil painting of Superman and a rare Joe Shuster sketch, along with newspaper strips and Golden Age issues. Co‑curators Roy Schwartz and Samantha Baskind use those objects to argue for both the medium’s global reach and its local roots, with Baskind calling Cleveland “a hub of comics,” and Schwartz pointing to early storylines that set Superman against fascist villains.
Family features and tickets
The exhibit’s family area leans into hands‑on fun, with interactive sketching, a reading library, a costume and photo zone, and a phone‑booth prop for anyone who has ever wanted to pose as Clark Kent mid‑change. Ticketing information on the museum site lists $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (60+) and students 12 and up, $5 for ages 5–11, and free admission for children 4 and under, according to the Maltz Museum ticket page. The Maltz also participates in Museums for All, offering free access to EBT and WIC holders.
Festival weekend and programming
Mid‑summer, the museum plans to turn things up a notch. A festival weekend on July 11–12, dubbed Icons Fest, will feature a “Superman’s Cleveland” bus tour, panels, screenings, and a joint public panel with members of the Siegel and Shuster families. As outlined in a museum press release, the two‑day program will pair family activities with late‑night screenings and scholarly panels. Event listings and coverage also note confirmed guests such as Cleveland‑born writer Brian Michael Bendis.
Why it matters
Icons in Ink is not just a nostalgia trip for cape collectors, it traces how Jewish creators and editors helped shape both the industrial machinery and the artistic language of American comics and how those artists wrestled with the moral questions of their own eras. Coverage and the museum’s curatorial notes highlight work ranging from Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer‑winning Maus to wartime Superman strips that used the medium to confront fascism on the printed page, as noted by Cleveland.com.
Icons in Ink: The Jewish Comics Experience opens May 7 and stays on view through August 23 at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, at 2929 Richmond Road. For tickets and the full program schedule, visit the museum’s website or call the Maltz Museum box office.
