Jewish Side of San Diego Comic Con (SDCCI) 2022 - an abridged post

 Those who've been following my blog for over 2 years might recall that I usually put quite a bit of time and effort into highlighting the Jewish content of comic conventions. Alas, while life got busy for me personally, I kept putting off looking into this year's SDCCI until I had already missed day 1.

Therefore, this will be a very brief post highlighting the most significant individuals I wish I would have been able to meet (or meet again) and panels I wish I could have attended, had I been able to get to San Diego this year. I apologize for what I'm certain will be many unintended omissions, but I chose brevity and speed over trying to be thorough and not getting the post published before I head to sleep.

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The SDCCI (which officially started today [July 21st] and had its preview night [July 20th]) will have plenty of Jewish comics professionals in attendance, as well as some non-Jewish comics professionals who have done "Jewish" work and 5 sessions which I would specifically recommend to those who will be there.

Friday, July 22, 2022

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Room 28DE

The New Face of Jewish Comics

DESCRIPTION :

The portrayal of Jews in comics and Jewish people making comics has grown and changed immensely from titles involving Nazis or neurotic New Yorker stereotypes. This panel profiles the best and brighest up-and-coming Jewish talent and titles, moderated by Barbra Dillon (editor-in-chief, Fanbase Press). Barbra has kindly shared with me that the panelists will include Dani Colman, Fabrice Sapolsky (past organizer of Jewish Comic Con), Ramy Dubrow, and Arnon Shorr (writer of the PJ Library graphic novel José and the Pirate Captain Toledano).

Friday, July 22, 2022

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Room 28DE

Spotlight on Danny Fingeroth

DESCRIPTION

Danny Fingeroth has had a long and accomplished career in and around the comics industry. After 18 years as a writer and Group Editor at Marvel, best known for his work on Spider-Man, Danny has worked in executive positions at digital entertainment companies Virtual Comics and Visionary Media and created and packaged Write Now! magazine for TwoMorrows. He’s taught comics-related topics at venues including NYU and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, where he was the director of education. Danny serves as Chair of Will Eisner Week for Will Eisner Studios and as a consultant to the current traveling exhibition. His books on popular culture include Superman on the Couch and Disguised as Clark Kent : Jews Comics and the Creation of the Superhero. His most recent book is A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee, chosen as an Entertainment Book of the Year by the Times of London and SyFy. Danny discusses his life and career with pop culture historian Jerry Beck (The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons).

Saturday, July 23, 2022

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Sails Pavilion: AA07

Real Comics, Real Issues

Panelists include Jerry Craft (Class Act), Johnnie Christmas (Swim Team), Terri Libenson (Remarkably Ruby, the comic strip The Pajama Diaries, and a compilation of strips titled Bat-Zilla), Laura Gao (Messy Roots), Yehudi Mercado (Chunky, Chunky Goes To Camp, Throne of Secrets)

Sunday, July 24, 2022

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Room 4

Spotlight on Miriam Libicki

DESCRIPTION

Comic book author, illustrator, and critic Deb Aoki (Bento Box) interviews Miriam Libicki (jobnik!,  But I Live, illustrated essays "Towards a Hot Jew: The Israeli Soldier as Fetish Object" and "Jewish Memoir Goes Pow! Zap! Oy!" & the illustrated mini-journals Ceasefire and Fierce Ease) about her path in comics, from art school to the indie con circuit, academia and beyond. Miriam is a pioneer of the graphic essay and plumbs American-Jewish identity using multiple perspectives and mediums.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room 26AB

Comics Arts Conference Session #15: The Jewish Graphic Novel: From A Contract with God to Tunnels

DESCRIPTION

When asked to compare his graphic novels to the prose work of Jewish-American novelist Saul Bellow, Will Eisner replied, “Bellow is doing nothing more than I'm doing . . . I've been selling the same pretzel on the same corner." Having innovated comics in the 1940s with his legendary The Spirit, Eisner burst back onto the scene with his pioneering 1978 graphic novel A Contract with God. He devoted the rest of his career to telling stories of Jewish life in 20th-century America. In Contract’s wake, new generations of Jewish graphic novelists followed in Eisner’s footsteps. Trina Robbins (A Minyn Yidn Un Andere Zakhn), Ken Krimstein (When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers), and Karen Green (Columbia University) discuss how the Jewish graphic novel developed in the years after Eisner’s groundbreaking publications. Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero) moderates.

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It's too late to announce these, but I would like to recognize two interesting panels which I wish I had promoted in time to let people know about them.

Thursday, July 21, 2022

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Neil Morgan Auditorium, San Diego Central Library

Podcasting 101

DESCRIPTION

Aziz Al-Doory (History of Westeros, Podcast of Surprise), Jonathan Eigen (Sagas and Sass, Vassals of Kingsgrave Podcast), Michal Schick (Nice Jewish Fangirls, Podcast of Surprise), and David Hsieh (CEO of GlocalStar, Bastards of Kingsgrave Podcast) offer tips and tricks for and the intricacies of planning, recording, editing, releasing, and promoting your own podcast. Moderated by Amin Javadi (A Podcast of Ice and Fire). 

Thursday, July 21, 2022

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room 4

Art from The Holocaust: Art as a Lifeline

DESCRIPTION

David Beck Brown (artist/creator, The Unknown Artist-History Erased), Sandra Scheller (USC Shoah Foundation interviewer), Stephen D. Smith (CEO, StoryFiles), and Heidi S. Straus (USC Shoah Foundation interviewer, Holocaust educator) examine and discuss drawings, illustrations, and graphics made by Holocaust prisoners in the face of potentially mortal consequences. They will discuss such prisoner artists as Horst Rosenthal, Dina Babbitt, and Otto Ungar and offer a special tribute to Neal Adams, creator of the Artist from Auschwitz graphic. 

The Jewish Side of TCAF 2022 - this weekend

 On Saturday, June 18th & Sunday, June 19th, readers, writers, artists, publishers and fans of comix will converge at the Toronto Reference Library ( and nearby venues)  to take part in the the FREE Toronto Comic Arts Festival (aka TCAF).

Among the talented people who will be at TCAF this year are a small number of comix professionals who have done (or researched) comic art using Jewish characters or themes, as well as a visiting Israeli cartoonist.

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Ben Kahn is the author of the graphic novel Heavenly Blues.

Fantagraphics Books is the publisher of Jewish Images in the Comics, Palestine, and Barracuda in the Attic.

First Second Books is the publisher of Klezmer : Tales of the Wild East, the Rabbi's Cat books, and the Resistance series.

Fredrik Strömberg, author of the book Jewish Images in the Comics, will be one of the panelists on the Nordic Bridges panel on Sunday afternoon (2:00-3:00 PM) in the Learning Centre.

Ido Yogev is an illustrator and cartoonist currently residing in Givatayim, Israel. His work has been published in the Haaretz newspaper.

Jonathan Baylis is the author of the So ... Buttons minicomics series. his Jewishness is evident in many of the stories in this comic, including "So ... My Dad Got Drafted" (in which Jonathan's father expresses his disdain for France because "Dey hate da Jews" and Jonathan mentions (after their dinner of ribs) that their stomachs were full of pork "like the good Jews we are"  ; "So ... Only Nixon Could've Gone to China" shows Jonathan visiting a concentration camp while on a trip to Germany. Incidentally, I enjoyed that last story better when I read it on Baylis's website, since it had the music playing in the background while you read the last page.

Jonathan Rotsztain is the author-illustrator of the self-published works Self-Loving Jew and Journey into Jonathan. The first issue of his new series  Self-Loving Jew Needs Love will debut at TCAF.

Josh Rosen is the illustrator of the book The Good Fight, inspired by the infamous Chrstie Pits Riot. The book was long-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award in 2021.

Mattie Lubchansky is a cartoonist who writes and illustrates the webcomic Please Listen to Me. Their 3-ingredient Passover brisket recipe comic was published online at Saveur and their response to the use of Holocaust imagery in Trump's America was included in the piece "Never Again?" (The Nib).

Neil Gaiman (appearing virtually) contributed scripts for stories that appeared in the anthology Outrageous Tales of the Old Testament. Cyril Camus discussed how Neil's Jewish background contributed both to certain characters and concepts in the Sandman series, as well as to the critical way that he presented his adaptations in the Knockabout anthology (see The "Outsider": Neil Gaiman and the Old Testament in Shofar :An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies vol. 29, N°2). On Sunday, a pre-recorded conversation between Neil and Mark Askwith will take place in the Hilton Learning Theatre from 3-4 PM.

NBM Graphic Novels  is the publisher of the Jew in Communist Prague books, Brownsville, The Big Khan, and the Isaac the Pirate books.

Penguin Books is the current publisher of the Pulitzer-winner Holocaust graphic memoir Maus.

Robert Sikoryak is a cartoonist who has adapted classic stories into comic-style retellings, including a Dagwood-style "Adam and Eve", which was reprinted in Masterpiece Comics.

Rotem Anna Diamant is the founder and librarian of the Canada Comics Open Library, as well as a self-taught artist. Among her published works is the zine Cute Nose.

S. Bear Bergman is the author of the book Special Topics in Being a Human. One of the essays not included in the book is "How to Have a Disagreement without Having a Fight", which was published on the Jewish Book Council website.

Saul Freedman-Lawson is the illustrator  of the book Special Topics in Being a Human. One of the essays not included in the book is "How to Have a Disagreement without Having a Fight", which was published on the Jewish Book Council website.

Shira Neiss is a freelance illustrator and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is an irreverant, satirical exploration of her Ultra Orthodox Jewish upbringing.

Shira Spector , self-described as "an infertile, high-femme, low income, non-biological Jewish mom, dyke drama queen, and ectopic pregnancy survivor" is the author-illustrator of the graphic memoir Red Rock Baby Candy.

TO Comix Press is the publisher of anthologies of comic stories that take place in Toronto, written and drawn by Torontonian talents. One of the stories in the book Osgoode as Gold is "Finkel and Sons" by Sam Ruano, Xan Grey, Nechama Frier, and Andrew Thomas. Taking place during the infamous Chrstie Pits Riot, the tale invlolves a shopkeeper's son who must quickly decide how best to protect his family.