"Jewish Side of ... ". MOCCA Festival 2007

Last week's annual MOCCA (Museum Of Comic and Cartoon Art) Festival in New York had several creators who have worked on Jewish comic stories (many of whom are Jewish themselves) who were present to talk about, display and sell their wares.

Among them was :

* Lauren Weinstein (author-illustrator of the anthology Girl Stories, which includes the story Chanukah Blues" and writer-illustrator of the story "Horse Camp" which appeared in the anthology Stuck in the Middle)

* Josh Bernstein (a contributor to the magazine Royal Flush which includes stories of the "Mitzvah 4")

* Nick Bertozzi (co-illustrator of Houdini : The Handcuff King)

* Evan Dorkin (writer-illustrator of the story "One-Punch Golberg" which will appear in Action Girl Co-Ed Special)

* Cheryl Gladstone (author-illustrator of the mini-comic Bernie, the Wackiest Jewlipino on Earth!)

* Miriam Katin (author-illustrator of We Are On Our Own)

* Neil Kleid (who has written {and sometimes illustrated} Brownsville, Stable Rods, "Shomer Negiah", Pilgrimage : Two Weeks in G-d's Country and is working on both Migdal David and The Big Khan)

* Miriam Libicki (author-illustrator of jobnik!)

* Diana Marsh (illustrator who adapted the short story "The Bleeding Tree")

* JT Waldman (author-illustrator of Megillat Esther)

Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon 2007

The "Jewish Side" of the 2007 Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon

This year's guests included :

* Saul Colt of SSS Comics (author-illustrator of Rope, which has the character Robin Goldman, described as "a young very pretty Jewish looking woman with thick curly hair and has her police badge clipped to her costume. "

* Justin Gray (co-crator of the 12-issue Monolith series which stars a golem)

* Joseph Michael Lisner (illustrator for the Cry for Dawn series, which had 1 issue in which a racist businessman learns that his grandfather was a Nazi)

* Gabriel Morrissette (illustrator of Angloman 2 and New Triumph)

* Jerry Robinson (one of the illustrators of Bible Tales for Young Folk)

* Gail Simone (author of a Simpsons Comics story which showed Krusty the Clown as a Jewish kid in school)

* Marv Wolfman (writer for Teen Titans, including a story in which a member of the Israeli military is shot and later transformed into a super-villain ; writer for Tomb of Dracula, including a story in which Dracula is repelled by a Jewish man's Star of David necklace ; and author of Homeland : The Illustrated History of the State of Israel)

* Liana Kirzner (aka Liana K) - co-host & producer of the syndicated cable show "Ed's Night Party", which inspired the 2 comic issues of Ed and Red's Comic Strip. She is also hard at work on a comic book with theologoical underpinnings called The Vessel, a series about a woman warrior-avenger. Liana showed me the ashcan and pointed out how the lead character (when in battle mode) has the equivalent of sidelocks (peyes) and is wearing tefillin on her arm and head. Not the kind of Jewish religious imagery one typically finds in comics.