Gumby as an Incarnation of Jewish Folklore?

We spent a little bit of time in class discussing the origins of the golem and it just occurred to me that the comic book cover shown on page 18 of Kaplan's From Krakow to Krypton depicts Gumby.  You know, claymation, was-on-the-air-for-forever-and-three-days Gumby.

This guy:


What catches me off guard is that this seems like a pretty obvious piece of trivia but a google search of 'gumby' and 'golem' turns up nothing for the first few pages and even Gumby's wiki page, usually the first place for such trivia, makes no reference to the golem tie although it does mention the comic book (which won the Eisner award in 2007 for Best Publication for a Younger Audience).

In any case it's really interesting that an aspect of Jewish folklore, often explored in the early years of comics, was reinterpreted in 2006 with an easily recognizable children's television character.  It's an interesting demonstration of how ideas move across cultures and time and are transformed for different purposes.

I'd be really interested to see how that specific comic book handles the whole Gumby as a golem angle.