Happy Purim!

The Festival of Purim is upon us once again.

As good an excuse as any to borrow (or buy) a copy of JT Waldman's Megillat Esther to read - even if you don't plan on attending a public reading of the Book of Esther.

If you don't know much about JT and his book (beyond what is on the website I linked to), you can read the article "Megillat Esther: The Graphic Novel By JT Waldman", which appeared in last month's The Jewish Press. Part of the impetus for the article was the exhibition of JT's original pages at the Bronfman Gallery, which continues until Easter Monday (March 24th).

7 E. 10th St.
NY, NY
Fri. 8 AM - 4 PM
Sun. 9 AM - 9 PM
Mon. 8 AM - 10 PM

Comics Journal interviews Jewish cartoonists

The February 2008 issue of The Comics Journal contains an interview with Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan by Joe Sacco, as well as an interview of Peter Kuper by Michael Dean.

Today (Sunday, March 16, 2008) is, unfortunately the last day for the free online preview of issue #288.

To read the interviews (today only), please go to the following sites :

Rutu Modan : http://www.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=785&Itemid=72

Peter Kuper : http://www.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=772&Itemid=72

1 Jewish reason not to attend New York Comic Con

The subject line above is tongue-in-cheek, a reference to other posts
I've made about "Jewish" reasons to attend previous comic conventions.

The Jewish reason not to attend New York Comic Con this year, however, is a reference to the fact that Javits was so successful at booking dates for events that the NYCC organizers had only 2 choixes available to
them by the time that they needed to book the days for the 2008 con :
(1) Choose not to hold the NYCC in 2008
(2) Book the only available block of dates that Javits had left to
offer them : April 18-20.

Alas, these dates conflict with Sabbath eve (Friday night) and the
first 2 nights of Passover.

The significance of Passover for most Jews - regardless of how
observant they are - is better expressed by others in the comics
community who have expressed disappointment at the unfortunate
scheduling, including cartoonist Neil Kleid.

Neil's open letter to NYCC may be found at
http://rantcomics.livejournal.com/183771.html, along with comments to his post. Among the replies is one from Lance Fensterman (Con Director of New York ComicCon).

An excerpt from Neil's letter :

"The Jewish comic book community may seem small, and its creators and fans fewer than the average, but remember that this industry began with names like Kirby, Eisner, Lieber, Kubert and more, many of whom did observe the holidays and rituals that I do. Many of them who might have objected as I do now, to a convention that coincides with the annual commemoration of a great moment in Jewish history and amazing miracles such as the Ten Plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea. Passover may not mean much to the average comic book fan or comic book creators... but I cannot imagine the comics community staying silent if Reed Exhibitions had decided to schedule the New York Comic-Con on Good Friday, Easter or Thanksgiving weekend."

An excerpt from Lance's response :

"Thanks for the open letter, my name is Lance Fensterman, and I run New York ComicCon. Needless to say, I'm none too happy about the Passover situation either, so let's get that out of the way right off the bat - we are really sorry about this and certainly intended no disrespect towards anyone. The unfortunate reality is that these were the dates we were given at the Javits Center. Javits is unlike most places in that the demand for the space far outstrips the availability, so customers, such as NYCC, are left with little to no choice as to what dates we are given. To that point, I'll announce here first that the show will be moving back to February next year - because we want to be in February? Nope. Quite simply, these are the only dates we can get next year."

Rutu Modan at San Diego Comic Con

Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan (author-illustrator of the graphic novel
Exit Wounds) will be one of the special guests at San Diego Comic Con International this year (July 24-27, 2008).

There is an interview with her in the Winter 2008 issue of Comic-Con
Magazine (p. 18-21), with a reprint of page 63 of the book.

You may also see reprints of pages 12 & 15-18 by going to the following sites :
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/comics_exitwounds_1 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/comics_exitwounds_2 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/comics_exitwounds_3 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/comics_exitwounds_4 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/comics_exitwounds_5

There are also reprinted panels at :
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=2 http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=3
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=4
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=5
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=6
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=7099&p=7

Israeli cartoon exhibition (UK)

New Spiro Ark Tzavta Centre
25-26 Enford St, W1

Sunday 17 February to 14 March 2008

Israeli cartoon exhibition

This cutting-edge contemporary exhibition highlights the work of a group of young Israeli illustrators and graphic novelists and is organized by some of the leading British experts in this field.

Feb. 17th at 7.30pm, opening and wine reception

£5

phone : 020 7723 9991

*****

Although I don't know which works or cartoonists will be featured in this exhibition, the graphic at http://www.jewishbookweek.com/new-books/events.php (where I copied thsi info from) suggests that artwork from Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds will be part of the exhibit.

Rutu Modan at Jewish Book Week 2008 (UK)

Rutu Modan, author-illustrator of the graphic novel Exit Wounds will be one of the featured guests at this year's Jewish Book Week. She will be one of the panelists discussing the portrayal of families & relationships in fiction. It's interesting to me that this year JBW has a cartoonist who is not on a panel alongside other cartoonists.

The description of the panel is below :

Family Affairs
Here, three highly distinctive writers explore dysfunctional families; mining relationships, love and betrayals, secrets and lies.

When We Were Bad, Charlotte Mendelson's novel, tells the story of a high profile woman rabbi’s family in total disarray. In Rutu Modan’s beautifully drawn graphic novel, Exit Wounds, the search for a man feared dead in a terrorist attack reveals someone neither his son nor his lover knew. Blake Morrison wrote two moving memoirs uncovering the lives of both his parents.

Rutu Modan, an illustrator and comic book creator, is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation. She has created comic strips for the Israeli newpapers Yedioth Acharonot and Maariv and illustrations for The New Yorker, Le Monde, The New York Times and many other publications. Her first graphic novel, Exit Wounds, will be published in June. Rutu Modan, usually based in Tel Aviv, is currently in Sheffield, England.

Charlotte Mendelson was born in London in 1972 and grew up in Oxford. She has written and reviewed for the Guardian, the TLS, the Independent on Sunday, the Observer and elsewhere. Her first novel, Love in Idleness, was largely written in her lunch breaks at work. For Daughters of Jerusalem, she was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Charlotte also received the London Arts New London Writers’ Award and was shortlisted for Le Prince Maurice Roman d’Amour Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her third novel, When We Were Bad, was published in May 2007. She has been named one of Waterstone’s 25 Authors for the Future.

Blake Morrison is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a former Chairman of the Poetry Book Society, a member of the Literature Panel of the Arts Council of England and Vice-Chairman of English PEN.
His non-fiction books include And When Did You Last See Your Father?, an honest and moving account of his father's life and death and Things My Mother Never Told Me, a memoir of his mother. As If is about the trial of the two young boys convicted of killing the toddler James Bulger in Liverpool. His poetry includes the collections Dark Glasses, The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripperand Pendle Witches. He is also a novelist, The Justification of Johann Gutenberg and most recently South of the River. He has written a number of essays, plays and a children’s book.

Hephzibah Anderson is Fiction Editor of the Daily Mail

In association with JLifestyle

Royal National Hotel
Bedford Way
London WC1 0DG

To purchase tickets, go to http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2008/tickets.php

"Maus is in the house"- Simpsons episode #407

Those who missed the episode the first time around (i.e. on Nov. 18, 2007) will have to wait for a rerun to air to hear Jewish cartoonist Art Spiegelman utter the phrase "Maus is in the house".

However, thanks to the screen captures in this post, you can see how Art was drawn - with and without the mask.

Jews, Comics, and Graphic Novels - course at Skirball Centre

8-session weekly course at the Skirball Center for Adult Learning at Temple Emanu-El in New York, taught by Danny Fingeroth

Jews, Comics, and Graphic Novels
Danny Fingeroth
Tues 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Jan. 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26, Mar. 4, 11, 18

Not unlike their role in movies, Jews have been key players in all aspects of the comic book and graphic novel on both creative and business levels. Discuss the Jewish aspects of the content of the comics and graphic novels, as well as the influence the Jewish backgrounds of key creators of the comics had on their work and on American popular culture in general. Read significant works from the past one hundred years, including the work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar. Touch on everything from the beginnings of comics during the days of radio drama to their modern incarnation in the graphic novel.

Danny Fingeroth was the longtime Group Editor of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man line and has written many comics featuring Spider-Man and other characters. He is the author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero and Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society, both published by Continuum. Danny is also editor-in-chief of Write Now! magazine (published by TwoMorrows) and teaches comics writing and analysis at The New School, New York University, and the Media Bistro.

Ninjews claymation cartoon by Josh Bass

I came across this animated cartoon years ago and made a link to it on my online bibliography page. Unfortunately, it became a dead link and I thought that I'd be unable to share it.

However, the author (Josh Bass) has given it a new home on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy0ZUuS_oAw

Technically, it's not a comic, but it would make a good comic if one freezed the frames and reproduced them on paper.

Alan Oirich recognized by Business Week

This week, Business Week takes a look at "five entrepreneurs whose companies reflect their beliefs". One of these businesspeople is Electric Comics founder Alan Oirich seen pictured in the fifth slide on its webiste. Also pictured are 4 models in costume, whom I assume are his wife and 3 kids.

review of Homeland graphic history book

Wolfman, Marv, Mario Ruiz, and William J. Rubin. Homeland : The Illustrated History of the State of Israel. Skokie, IL : Nachshon Press, 2007. 124 pp. $19.95. ISBN : 978-9771507-0-0 Pbk.

In 1958, on the occasion of Israel’s 10th anniversary, Thomas Yoseloff Inc. published Pictorial History of Israel, which used over 600 black-&-white photographs (as well as a small number of black-&-white illustrations) to show readers how Israelis live and have lived, how they came to establish the modern state and how its history has been a combination of joyous triumphs and bitter struggles. Two more (updated) editions followed. However, the latest edition (published in 1968) appeared just one year after the Six Day War, on the occasion of Israel’s 20th anniversary. As useful and interesting as these books have been, there has certainly been a need for a more contemporary treatment.

Earlier this year, Nachshon Press published Homeland : The Illustrated History of the State of Israel. A visual panorama of images for the eyes, the book not only includes previously published photos (color photos, as well as monochrome ones which stand out on the page, due to the use of varied color backgrounds), but also contains lushly painted colored illustrations rendered by the talented comic book artist Mario Ruiz. Though the book’s authors admit to their particular viewpoint and bias early on in the narrative (which takes the form of an academic class being taught), the book occasionally introduces contrary ones (e.g. pg. 42, where a student challenges the professor by asking if Zionists had considered the rights of the Arabs who were living in the country).

One of the beautiful visual “tricks” that Ruiz uses in the book could be described as “unity of vision”. On pages 12-13, when Moses looks out towards Israel from atop Mount Nebo, what the reader sees (through his eyes) is not an ancient land of fig trees and stone wells, but a somewhat blurry modern skyline. This image is mirrored on pages 42-43, but here it is Theodor Herzl who is viewed from behind and the skyline looks a bit clearer. On pages 118-119 – the final pages of the book – the photo of the skyline is shown in focus in front of a group of young students. Another visual “trick” occurs on pages 30-31. At first glance, there appears to be a single man’s face divided along the spine of the book. However, a closer examination shows that the left side is half of a face of a Muslim, while the right side is the face of a Christian crusader.

In addition to discussing the many aspects of Jewish & Israeli life that I expected it to cover (including a condensed account of Biblical history, various periods of invasions and wars, the Holocaust, terrorism), Homeland also touches on topics that surprised me (e.g. Shlomtzion [the first female Jewish ruler], the complexity of Zionism and its subgroups, and the explanation of the Birthright program). In my review copy, some of the text in the “1991-present” section was obscured by the photos, but I feel certain that this problem was corrected for the published editions. A newer 60th anniversary edition is planned for 2008.

Overall, I would highly recommend this stunningly visual, textually engaging book for public, school and synagogue libraries. It is well-suited for elementary students, but adults should find it worthwhile as well.

followup to Edge City's current Hanukkah storyline

A big "thank you" goes to "dddegg", who pointed out to me that the Houston Chronicle keeps a 30-day current archive of the "Edge City" comic strip on their website.

I took a look and it seems that the current storyline about the menorah of Abby's great grandfather started on Monday, Nov. 26th, not yesterday as I had originally thought.

So, the links to this weeks' story is as follows :

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071126&name=Edge_City

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071127&name=Edge_City

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071128&name=Edge_City

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071129&name=Edge_City

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071130&name=Edge_City

Peter Sanderson looks at Disguised as Clark Kent

Comic Book critic and historian Peter Sanderson shares his thoughts on the Danny Fingeroth book Disguised as Clark Kent : Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero at his Comics in Context website.

Here's an excerpt :

Later in the book, Fingeroth discusses a Silver Age contribution to the Superman mythos: the Bottle City of Kandor, a Kryptonian city that had been reduced in size and stolen by the evil Brainiac, and thus survived the destruction of the planet. Superman recovered the miniaturized city and placed it in his Fortress of Solitude (whose name arguably alludes to Superman’s status as an alien on Earth), which Fingeroth correctly describes as “the survivor’s living museum to the memory of Krypton. He was now no longer fully alone and could revisit a piece of the culture and society from which he had been simultaneously saved and exiled” (Fingeroth p. 83).

Two years ago when I was listening to a BBC radio program “Is Superman Jewish?” (see “Comics in Context” #75: “The Rubber Band Theory of Cartoon Art”). I was startled when it made the argument that Kandor represented the nation of Israel: a community of Jews, small compared to the millions who once lived in Europe, that survived after the Holocaust.

Earlier, Sanderson interviewed Danny and the interview may be found at http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6493288.html?nid=2789.

"Jewish Mothers and Their Sons..." by Benita Epstein

I found the following one-panel cartoon earlier today :

"Jewish Mothers and Their Sons, The Doctors Annual Picnic"

Illustrated by Benita Epstein

To view, go to http://www.aish.com/jewlarious/comix/images/picnic%20comic.jpg

Palestine : The Special edition (Joe Sacco)

In celebration of the publication of Palestine : The Special Edition (written and illustrated by Joe Sacco), Fantagraphics hosted an exhibit of original artwork from the Palestine comic series which the special edition collects in one volume. The exhibit was held at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in late October.

Photos, video and audio from the evening may be accessed at the Fantagraphics blog :

Go to http://www.fantagraphics.com/blog/2007_10_21_fantagraphics_archive.html
#3111752547376532584 and http://www.fantagraphics.com/blog/2007_10_28_fantagraphics_archive.html (scroll down to "Sacco talk audio").

A new book of Joe's - Footnotes in Gaza is expected to be on shelves by the end of 2008.

Chanukah / Hanukkah Comix

I realize it may seem like I'm jumping the gun a bit, wishing all my readers an early "Happy Hanukkah", when the holiday doesn't start this year for another 5 days (well --- evenings, since all of the Jewish holidays start at sundown).

However, I'm not the only one getting psyched for the Festival of Lights.

Tery Laban, Jewish cartoonist of "Edge City" (co-written by his wife Patty) has already started a multi-part storyline in his syndicated comic strip. Since SFgate doesn't archive the strip and since the King Features page that does archive the strip only retains one week's worth of strips (and is over a month behind), you need to click on the following link to read what looks like part 1 of the current Hanukkah storyline: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/comics/Edge_City.dtl.

It is too early to read Hillary Price's Chanukah-themed cartoons in her syndicated comic strip "Rhymes with Orange" (assuming she does one this year), but it's never too early or too late to click on the following links and enjoy the ghosts of Hanukkah cartoons past :

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=19991219

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20001220

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20001222

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20041210

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20060102

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20061215

I also found the link to the Off the Mark Chanukah cartoons of Mark Parisi : http://www.offthemark.com/search-results/key/chanukah/, which I may not have posted about before.

In 2003, Elena Steier did a "Ramprats" Hanuukah cartoon which featured Mothra (don't ask why ; just click on the link) : http://www.striporama.com/ramprats/mothra_Hanukkah_2003.jpg

Walter Hudsick over at the Recreation Annex blog discussed the backup story in Justice League of America (original series) #188 - "Miracle at 22,300 Miles" in December 2005, but I only just ran across it.

If anyone comes across any additional Chanukah comic strips, comic book stories or graphic novels that haven't been listed or mentioned in my online bibliography, Yahoo discussion forum or this blog, please send me an e-mail (safran-can@yahoo.com).

Happy Holidays, everyone - whatever & however you celebrate!

Toronto graphic memoir author-illustrator at Jewish Book Fair - Nov. 11

Sun., Nov. 11th
4:30 PM
Leah Posluns Theatre
4588 Bathurst Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2R 1W6
FREE!

Artist and author Simon Schneiderman shows slides and speaks on his new book Preoccupied with My Father. With paintings and poetry Simon Schneiderman has created a graphic memoir of his late father Yoel's life, changed forever by the Holocaust.

A collection of Schneiderman's paintings will be exhibited November 3-11 in the Leah Posluns Theatre lobby and at the Miles Nadal JCC.

To see sample pages from Preocuupied, go to
http://lipmanart.com/frames_gallery_schneiderman_book.html

2 Jewish graphic novel author-illustrators in Toronto - Oct. 20th

For the 3rd year in a row, Harbourfront Cenre is hosting a reading by a Jewish female cartoonist as part of its annual reading series.

The International Festival of Authors presents both Rutu Modan (author of Exit Wounds) and James Sturm (author of The Golem's Mighty Swing) on Oct. 20th at 12:00 noon in the Brigantine Room. The readings / Powerpoint presentations will be hosted by Peter Birkemoe, co-owner of The Beguiling (the best place in Toronto to shop for Jewish & Israeli comics and graphic novels).

Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario Canada
M5J 2G8

To purchase tickets, please go to http://www.readings.org/?q=ifoa/reading_presentation_rutu_modan_
james_sturm_emily_schultz

The Comic Torah

The Comic Torah is a new, weekly on-liner
based on the parsha hashavuah. It is created by comedian and NPR
commentator, Aaron Freeman and visual artist, Sharon Rosenzweig.

We have re-imagined the Hebrew bible as part family feud between YHWH and the rest of the Canaanite pantheon and part love story between YHWH (a green-skinned female) and Moses (a black bodybuilder.) The pages are certainly irreverent but we think Judaism will die of boredom long before it expires of sacrilege.

The Jewish Side of TCAF 2007

This weekend, Torontonians and visitors to Toronto will be able to experience the 3rd TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival). at Victoria College (on the University of Toronto campus).

There will be a diversity of publishers, writers, and artists at exhibitor tables showing off their wares, selling their products, signing their work and some will probably even do free sketches if you ask them nicely.

Among the guests will be people who have done what I classify as "Jewish comix work".

* Dave Sim
Dave Sim is internationally renown for his epic CEREBUS series, now completed in over 15 collected volumes. Since the completion of Cerebus, Sim has begun working on a series of new projects, some of which will debut at or just before TCAF this August. For those of you that miss seeing Cerebus on the stands, take note: Following Cerebus, a zine dedicated to the series and to its creators continues to be released several times per year.

The second-to-last collected trade paperback in the Cerebus collection was Latter Days, which reprinted Cerebus #266-288, in which Cerebus becomes "The Rabbi" and which has the only appearance of the Ben Gurions of the Universe.
Please note: Dave Sim will only be appearing on Saturday, August 18th.

* Cameron Stewart
Artist Cameron Stewart is probably best known for illustrating the adventures SEAGUY (co-created with Grant Morrison), SEVEN SOLDIERS: GUARDIAN, and CATWOMAN for DC Comics. He recently illustrated the Eisner Award-nominated Vietnam war graphic novel THE OTHER SIDE, and this summer will see the release of the new graphic novel APOCALIPSTIX from Oni Press, with co-creator Ray Fawkes.

The first issue of Seven Soldiers : The Manhattan Guardian had the title hero face off against a Jewish golem. Alas, the word YHWH wasn't done from right-to-left as Cameron was trying to get done, but it's still a nice effort.

* Sarah Dyer & Evan Dorkin
Sarah Dyer is a writer/artist/colourist, and founder/editor of the ACTION GIRL! comics anthology. She's coloured just about every illustration husband Evan Dorkin has ever made, and in addition she also runs JinJur.com, a collection of articles and commentary on more "domestic" pursuits.

The notorious creator of MILK & CHEESE and DORK will be joining the Toronto Comic Arts Festival for his first-ever comics event in Toronto! After starting at Marvel Comics, Dorkin made his name on hip, contemporary looks at youth in popular culture through his series HECTIC PLANET and his short humour strips in anthologies including INSTANT PIANO. Currently, Dorkin's work can be seen in annual issues of DORK and in Nickelodeon Magazine, MAD Magazine, and on the cover of the new Larry Doyle novel I Love You Beth Cooper. Also this summer, Slave Labor Graphics will release vinyl toy figures of MILK & CHEESE, and we've all got our fingers crossed that they'll show up in time for TCAF.

Back in mid-Jan. 2004, Dorkin made reference in his Livejournal to a "fully-drawn 16 page One Punch Goldberg story waiting for when we can find the time to put together the long delayed Action Girl Co-Ed Special". One Punch Goldberg has been described as a "female Jewish boxer".

* Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based freelance journalist, curator, lecturer, writer and broadcaster, who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over twenty years, including co-publishing the highly-influential ECLIPSE from 1983-1989.
His extensive knowledge of comics and graphic novels is reflected in his two books, GRAPHIC NOVELS: STORIES TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE and MANGA: 60 YEARS OF JAPANESE CULTURE. The former is a rich, layered examination of contemporary graphic novels; a wonderful entry point for newcomers to the medium and a wonderful guide to the breadth of material available for even the most advanced reader. Meanwhile, his book on Manga has quickly become the book of note on an iteration of the comics medium that is gripping the world. His most recent book, GREAT BRITISH COMICS, is a very thick one that covers exactly what the title promises.
Paul Gravett will be speaking on multiple subjects at TCAF, please see the Events page for further details.

Paul Gravett is the author of the online essay "After Maus : The Jewish Experience in American Graphic Novels" (circa 2002) and the essay "De l’influence des quelques auteurs juifs sur les graphic novels" in the ever-delayed French anthology La diaspora des bulles : bandes dessinees et judeites (Denoël, 2007?). Paul also moderated 2 panels on Jewish graphic novels at the annual Jewish Book Week in London, England in 2006 and 2007.

* Paul Pope
In America, he's been called the "comics destroyer;" in France, he's been called the "Jim Morrison of comics" and "comics' Petit Prince." New York’s Paul Pope creates comics that defy genre and period, straddling the line between artistic capriciousness and commercial appeal. One of a handful of young cartoonists consistently gaining critical praise and media attention, Pope has been featured in Canada on MuchMusic and Space channel, among others, and his work has appeared in print outlets like Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Jalouse, V Magazine and The Village Voice. He is also the only American cartoonist to have worked for Japan's largest manga publisher (Kodansha), for more than five years now. Pope’s recent work includes the near-future sci-fi romance 100%, the career spanning THB, as well as recent stints on iconic comic character series like Batman and Spider-Man. Just in time for TCAF, Adhouse Books will release PULPHOPE: THE ART OF PAUL POPE. It's going to be great.

Paul wrote and illustrated the story "Berlin Batman" in The Batman Chronicles #11, in which Batman is a Jewish painter named Baruch Wane.

* Emily Holton
Emily Holton will be debuting her new book, Little Lessons In Safety at the Conundrum Press table (see publisher listings for signing times). It is a collection of Holton's bookworks and drawings, produced over the past five years. Her "scratchy intelligent line drawings" (Broken Pencil) and lean text play with the format of children's readers, comics, celebrity fashion magazines, and cut and paste murder mysteries. Smart, strange, and funny, Holton's work recalls artist Raymond Pettibon, filmmaker Miranda July and southern gothic writer Carson McCullers - all at once. There is a boy with a bird for hair, feral children who grow up to be cowboys, treeplanters who never come back, and fashionista Karl Lagerfeld perfoming a bris. Her stories, "exploring a richer, weirder understanding of language and sentiment" (Brian Joseph Davis), reveal themselves in layers - eerily straightforward and yet never quite what they seem.

* Miss Lasko-Gross
Though not listed as a guest at the TCAF website, Miss announced in a ComicSpace Bulletin that she will be there. Apparently she will be sharing a table with Becky and Hwan.

Miss is the author-illustrator of the autobiographical graphic book Escape from "Special". From an online review : "For Melissa, special is a title bestowed upon her by parents, teachers and other adults in her life. She doesn't quite fit in with those around her. She continually finds herself in awkward situations that further alienate her from family, friends, and classmates. Her leftist Jewish parents attempt to help via therapists, new schools, and surprise parties, but of course, these fall miserably flat or worse, backfire on Melissa."

---

* James Turner
James Turner is a Toronto illustrator whose first graphic novel, NIL, sort of came out of nowhere and surprised an awful lot of people with how very good, and unique, it is. James has since created the ongoing comic series REX LIBRIS, about a team of gun-wielding librarians, which has become quite popular indeed.

No Jewish comix work (yet) as far as I know, but I felt I also had to acknowledge the only cartoonist in attendance who is writing a comic series about librarians --- gun-wielding librarians, yet. I'll need to remember that one if I ever decide to start a "Librarians in Comics" blog.

Israeli Comics Cartoon and Animation Festival 2007

from the July 29, 2007 Haaretz, as reprinted at the Haaretz website.

An uncensored alternative to mainstream comics
by Nirit Anderman

There were dolls representing Superman, Spiderman and X-men, crates full of comic books featuring Batman, Wonder Woman, Hulk and the other American super heroes, book stands run by publishers like Keter, Am Oved and Modan, dozens of colorful comic books in Hebrew and English on chromo paper, computer games, a television journalist wandering among the stands - dressed up as Catwoman - fingering the furry ears on top of her head as she chatted with children and teens smiling shyly at the camera, and excited children who pull their tired parents from one stand to another.

In the hustle and bustle of the third Israeli Comics Cartoon and Animation Festival held at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque lobby last week, only the sharp-eyed would have noticed the pale poster with the colored felt marker letters indicating the location of the alternative comics exhibition on the upper floor, above the washrooms. The lights at that exhibition were a bit dimmer, while the stands - which primarily displayed amateurish, homemade looking comic books without colors or chromo paper - were set up close to each other beside the staircase. The throngs of festival visitors did not reach the alternative exhibition, nor did the cool climate-controlled air from below. Two large industrial fans stood on the floor doing their best to move the humid air a bit, occasionally lifting a rogue comic book into the air, where it fluttered and fell to the floor.

Miri Kluner, who offered editions of her comic book, "Anti," recalled how for a moment in the afternoon, a cool breeze had swept through the area. That happened, she says with sparkling eyes, when the movie ended, and the air-conditioned theater's doors opened. "After that, we tried to open the doors again to enjoy some of the air conditioning, but we couldn't."

This year, for the first time, the festival's management decided to give the alternative comics their own space in order to enlarge the variety of cartoon styles on display at the festival. "It is important for us to provide a stage for the youngsters who are fresher and uncensored, who cannot publish professionally," says Nissim Hizkiyahu, the festival's art director. The cartoonists were asked to pay only a symbolic fee for their stands at which they sold their creations during the the three days of the festival. The display was comprised of 10 stands, and most of the salespeople were the creators themselves.

On the festival's second day, they got fed up with the intense heat and their distance from the visitors below, and realized that, as always, there must be an alternative. Assi Halfon, 16, was the spearhead, and the others followed him. One after the other, they gathered up their stands, took them down the stairs, and set them up at the cinematheque entrance. Next year, says Hizkiyahu, management will try to find a solution to the problem of the air conditioning too.

NIS 1 per page

"Format: A4, illustrated on both sides of the page. Means: Photocopy machine. The mandate: The small group has complete freedom not to accept decisions. Anarchy. All are invited. Let each person draw as he sees fit. Pluralism. Deviance. Tits and ass. No selections. No direction. No God. Everything is distributed, the strong sells." This is how the independent A4 comics group defined itself on the inside cover of the six comic books it published for the festival.

At the group's stand, beside the books, there was also a stack of A4 paper with black-and-white comics depicted on them in a print quality that could not be described as enviable.

"Part of our concept is the fanzine look," explains Yuval Caspi, one of the group's founders and coordinator of festival activities for the alternative exhibition. "We are a group of pluralists that accepts anyone who draws cartoons. We never refuse anyone." Each comics page sells for a shekel, and every 16-page comic book costs NIS 15.

The group has its own web site (www.aaaa4.tk), which, Caspi says, registers about 200 visitors a day. The site has an active forum that cartoonists can use to upload their works, and therefore, join the group.

"We already have about 150 cartoonists," says Caspi. "One or two new ones join each day. We have sold about 3,000 A4 pages so far." Caspi notes that all revenues are used toward printing costs and for hosting events at which the comics are sold. Alongside known artists who are members (Dudu Geva, Zev Engelmeier, Uri Fink), the group includes young artists, mostly aged 15-16.

The group does not censor content. Thus, for example, one can find an A4 comic book with stories about an Israel Defense Forces soldier who is a suicide bomber, dubious connections between Ilan Ramon and Omri Sharon, the adventures of a talking cup, and a tour of Chen Blvd. in Tel Aviv with a dog who prefers his own kind.

"We are not mainstream," says Caspi. "Anyone can write about sex, violence, drugs, politics or even a simple love story."

More than an industry of individuals

The group was founded about five months ago at the initiative of Caspi, Geva, Rani Levanon, Boaz Kadman and a few others. "We wanted comics to be more than an industry of a few individuals, that it should become something more popular, that anyone who wanted to express himself could put out a comic book," Geva says. "[We wanted] to give an opportunity to every child, every old woman, everyone who couldn't afford to publish works on his own."

Geva took upon himself the printing of the first 100 of the group's cartoons on his home photocopier. "I made 50 copies of each page, on both sides of the page, which comes out to about 10,000 copies," he says. "I felt like a print shop owner, a small Communist contributing to mankind."

Another group of artists that exhibited in the alternative comics exhibition was the Dimona group, whose five members have been operating together for a year-and-a-half. The five - Sagi Morad, Michal Baruch, Merav Shaul, Yifat Cohen and Amitai Sandy - studied design at either Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design or Vital, the Tel Aviv Center for Design Studies.

"We preferred to work in a group, because a group has much more power, both in the economic sense and from the perspective of dividing the work load," says a group member. "Putting out a book independently is a lot of work, and this way we split up the tasks: one distributes (whoever has a car that day); one is in charge of printing; another is responsible for public relations. We have no fixed roles, switching with one another all the time. Beyond that, Dimona is also a kind of support group. We meet, show one another what we have done, and share ideas."

In the beginning, they approached regular publishers, who were not enthusiastic about the group of young inexperienced artists who insisted on drawing cartoons. The group refused to be discouraged, however, and decided to do everything on its own.

"We discovered that it is great to publish on our own," says another Dimona member. "It gives us a sense of independence. We have no restrictions on the content we put in the books. Each one of us can do what he wants on his pages."

The group's members agreed to write their cartoons in English so they could distribute the comic books overseas, and they chose the name Dimona because they wanted an Israeli name that non-Israelis could pronounce easily. The have published two books, participated in the International Comics Festival in Angoul, France, and had their works published in two anthologies - one in German and the other in Slovenian. This week the five are going to the Internationales Berliner Comicfestival.

Every so often, they pack copies of their books, "Dimona" ("We picked it up from the printer a day before our trip to France) and "Dimona Israeli," which came out last week ("on the first day of the Cinematheque festival we ran to get it from the bookbinder") into Baruch's car, and distribute them to small bookstores like Prose, Ha'ozen Hashlishit, Tolaat Sfarim, and Salon Mazal in Tel Aviv.

"You won't find our books at Steimatsky's," they say. "We don't distribute to chain stores."

Jewish Side of San Diego Comicon 2007

I won't be attending this year's San Diego Comic Convention and there won't be a "Jewish Side of Comics" panel there this year.

The SDCCI (which starts tomorrow and has its preview night tonight) will have plenty of Jewish comics professionals in attendance, as well as some non-Jewish comics professionals who have done "Jewish" work and 6 sessions which I would specifically reccommend to those who will be there.

Among the guests in attendance will be :

* Sergio Aragones (who illustrated the "Fanny Hillman : Jewish Madam" books and adapted the Jonah story for Testament)

* Dick Ayers (illustrator of "Lonely Are the Brave" in Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen #2, in which the titular heroes liberate a concentration camp)

* Kyle Baker (author-illustrator of the King David graphic novel from Vertigo)

* Mike Baron (illustrator of many Nexus stories ; one of the main characters in Nexus is Judah Maccabee aka "The Hammer")

* Brian Michael Bendis

* Nick Bertozzi (illustrator of Houdini : The Handcuff King

* Bob Burden (author of the story "Behold the Golem" in Gumby #2)

* Peter David who infamously used the names of seder plate items for aliens in a Star Trek novel and who wrote the stories for The Incredible Hulk #386-387 ; see
http://www.leaderslair.com/noexcuses/hulk2-386.html and http://www.leaderslair.com/noexcuses/hulk2-387.html)

* Mark Evanier (author of a Crossfire story in which a Holocaust survivor tries to take revenge upon an actor he mistakenly thinks is a Nazi war criminal)

* Danny Fingeroth (author of Disguised as Clark Kent : Jews, Comics, And the Creation of the Superhero)

* Gary Friedrich (author of "Lonely Are the Brave" in Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen #2, in which the titular heroes liberate a concentration camp)

* Neil Gaiman (Jewish author who retold a midrash on Adam's 2nd wife and had a Jewish musician meet Death in the pages of his Sandman series)

* Rick Geary (illustrator of the story "Behold the Golem" in Gumby #2)

* Justin Gray (co-creator of the Monolith)

* Arie Kaplan (author of the "Kings of Comics" series of articles in Reform Judaism magazine)

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

* Scott Kurtz (author-illustrator of PVP, the Eisner-award-winning online comic strip which last year made a joke about the Superman Returns movie being "a Jewish conspiracy to convince Christians that Jesus was gay.")

* Stan Lee (Jewish comics legend who co-created the Fantastic Four, which has a Jewish chartacter called The Thing and who appeared in the story "What if the Original Marvel Bullpen was the Fantastic Four?" in What If? #11)

* Paul Levitz (author of "Tradition" in DC Comics' 9-11 September 11th 2001)

* Miriam Libicki (author-illustrator of the autobiographical jobnik! series)

* Rob Liefield (illustrator of stories in the Youngblood series, which included the Israeli superheroine Masada)

* Joseph Michael Lisner (illustrator of the story "Corporate Ladder" which appeared in the series Cry for Dawn)

* Todd McFarlane (co-plotter of the story "Remains" in Spawn #103)

* Jimmy Palmiotti (co-creator of the Monolith)

* Paul Pope (author-illustrator of the "Berlin Batman" story in Batman Chronicles #11)

* Trina Robbins (co-author of "Zog Nit Keyn Mol : the Partisans Song" and author of "Th Trinagle Fire" which was published in both Corporate Crime Comics #2 and Lilith magazine #2)

* Steve Rude (author of many Nexus stories ; one of the main characters in Nexus is Judah Maccabee aka "The Hammer")

* Gail Simone (who wrote the story "Li'l Krusty in Give a Hoot, Stay in School" in Simpsons #62)

* Cameron Stewart (illustrator of Manhattan Guardian #1, in which the title character battles a golem)

* JM Straczynski (author of the Spider-Man story "You Want Pants with That?" and the Rising Stars story "Selah")

* James Sturm (author-illustrator of The Golem's Mighty Swing)

* Roy Thomas (who had the Thing battle the Golem in Marvel Two-in-One #11 and introduced Jewish superheroes Nuklon {Infinity Inc. / JLA} and Golem {The Invaders})

* Marv Wolfman (author of a Tomb of Dracula story in which a Jewish man named Eshkol makes Dracula recoil with a Star of Daviod necklace, a Teen Titans story which has a heroic Israeli soldier and the graphic history book Homeland : The Illustrated History of the State of Israel)

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Jewish / Israeli work that has been nominated for an Eisner award

* Kramer's Ergot #6 (which is edited by Sammy Harkham and includes his story "Lubavitch, Ukraine 1876") is nominated for Best Anthology

* Pizzeria Kamikaze (by Israelis Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka) is nominated for Best U.S. Edition of International Material

* Joann Sfar (author-illustrator of the Little Vampire books, Vampire Loves, The Rabbi's Cat and Klezmer) is nominated for Best Writer / Artist

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Notable Sessions

* Fri., July 27th, Room 30AB
Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero —
Superheroes were created by Jews. Is that significant, or a complete coincidence and no big deal? In a reading from his provocative new Continuum book, Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero, longtime Spider-Man editor and author of Superman on the Couch Danny Fingeroth explores the backgrounds of the young, largely Jewish men from Eastern European backgrounds who created the most well-known superheroes. Fingeroth will discuss how the creators' Jewish backgrounds may have helped make superheroes the most familiar popular culture icons of all—on TV, in movies, and in electronic media, as well as in comics.

Arie Kaplan will be a respondent at this session and will be signing his book Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed! from 11:30-1:00.

* Fri., July 27, 1:30-2:30, Room 3
Spotlight on Miriam Katin -
Illustrator Miriam Katin's first graphic memoir, We Are On Our Own, chronicled her escape from Nazi-held Budapest with her mother during World War II and debuted to national fanfare from magazines such as Time and People. Cartoonist and editor Shaenon K. Garrity will interview Miriam about her life and work.


* Fri., July 27, 2:30-3:30, Room 4
Legacy of Will Eisner -
Even after his death, Will Eisner's legacy continues with the same intensity that marked his long and remarkable career. A major motion picture adaptation of The Spirit, new Spirit comic books and archival collections from DC Comics, new collections of Eisner's influential graphic novels from W. W. Norton, theatrical adaptations, art exhibitions and a never-before-published textbook are among the many projects in the works. Discussing this wide range of activity are Will's widow Ann Eisner, writer/artist Darwyn Cooke (DC Comics's Will Eisner's The Spirit), and movie producers Michael Uslan and Deborah Del Prete. Moderated by Eisner's long-time publisher and art and literary agent Denis Kitchen.

* Sat., July 28, 10:30-11:30, Room 10
Spirituality In Comics —
Spiritual themes weave a significant pattern in the story arc of our comics’ worlds. Hear from distinguished guests Doug TenNapel (Creature Tech), Holly Golightly (School Bites), Miriam Libicki (Real Gone Girl Studios, jobnik!), Christine Kerrick (Soul Trappers), and Leo Partible (Behind the Screen: Insiders on Faith). Moderated by Scott A. Shuford (Christian Comic Arts Society).

* Sun., July 29, 10:30-11:45, Room 1AB
Jack Kirby Tribute —
Let’s face it: when it comes to comics, it’s Kirby’s World and we just live in it. 2007 has seen a bumper crop of Kirby projects, including the first volume of DC’s deluxe chronological reprinting of all the Fourth World stories, a major documentary about Jack on the Fantastic Four DVD, and Mark Evanier’s upcoming art book Kirby, King of Comics. Join Evanier as he talks to Neil Gaiman, Erik Larsen, Darwyn Cooke, Mike Royer, and members of the Kirby family about the lasting influence of the undisputed King of comics.

* Sun., July 29, 12:00-1:00, Room 30AB
Comics Arts Conference Session #14: Wolf Gal and the Feral Women of Li’l Abner —
Cartoonist and historian Trina Robbins (From Girls to Grrrlz) presents a slideshow talk on the feral girls—Pig Girl, Hawk Girl, and Wolf Gal—of Li’l Abner’s Dogpatch, a bloodthirsty lot with no compunction about turning Dogpatchers into dinner. Wolf Gal, the starring wild girl of Dogpatch, is strong, beautiful, independent, and—don’t laugh—a feminist. When the little girls of Dogpatch imitate Wolf Gal by taking no guff from the boys, the citizens of Dogpatch react. They want their daughters to grow up as "overworked, wore-out, respectable married drudges," not "wild an' happy an'f ree, like th' wolf gal!!" Robbins connects these cartoon wild women with mythical feral children and more contemporary figures like Misha Defonseca, a Jewish orphan during World War II, who hid from the Nazis in the forests of occupied Europe for four years and eventually teamed up with a family of wolves. Recounting her experiences years later, she wrote, "the only time I ever slept deeply was when I was with wolves... Those were the most beautiful days I had ever experienced."

"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.

Jewish David & Irish Eileen

Last year, "Sleestar" over at Lady, that's my skull commented on the silliness of the Charlton editors using "Jewish David" and "Irish Eileen" as a shorthand for telling the casual reader that the story inside involves a Jewish man named David and an Irish woman named Eileen.

If my name was Jewish David or Irish Eileen I'd first slap my parents and then get my name legally changed to something that sounds less like an insult from the neighborhood bullies.

Although those names don't actually appear in the story, David gave Eileen the annoying term of endearment "Irish". Thankfully, she doesn'r return the favor by calling him "Jew".

"Sleestar" also notes how short-lived the Soap Opera Love series was and makes the erroneous (but understandable) observation that

If Charlton had the foresight to better name their characters maybe it wouldn't have been cancelled after 3 issues.

Actually, the "Jewish David & Irish Eileen" storyline was told in 9 parts and had appeared back in 1973 in the series Just Married.

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A little over a month ago, Eli Valley offered his commentary on this storyline at Jewcy, which also reproduced select pages from the stories.

In the storyline’s solitary visit to a Jewish house of worship, we glean fascinating insights into Orthodox Jewish customs – the burning incense, the rabbi wearing a circular necklace, the resemblance of the rabbi to Jesus, the prayer book inscribed with a Jewish Star drawn to resemble a Pentagram. It is as if the comic book is asking, are not all religions the same? Especially if they all look like Christianity? Finally, the comic book reveals that in Orthodox Jewish weddings, it is customary for the rabbi to make out with the bride, particularly if she is a Gentile.

Stuck in the Middle book launch - Friday night

What better way to attract Jewish comix lovers to a book launch than to hold the launch on erev shabbes (i.e. Friday night)? It'll be at The Rocketship, a fabulous comics shop in Brooklyn at 8 P.M. (208 Smith St.).

In all seriousness, though, not all Jewish comics fans -or- Jewish comics writers -or- Jewish comics illustrators are observant Orthodox Jews.

3 comics writer-illustrators who will be at the Stuck in the Middle comics anthology book launch Friday night (May 18th) are Lauren Weinstein, Tania Schrag and Ariel Schrag (who also edited the collection). I have already discussed Lauren's "Horse Camp" story in a previous blog post. However, I didn't mention that I've been told that both Tania and Ariel are "half-Jewish". This is suggested in Tania's story "Snitch" (p. 17-35), in which Tania is called "The Nose" and is made fun of because of the size of her nose. Not that Jews have a monopoly on big schnauzers. When I showed Prof. Andrea Most the story, she pointed out to me that Tania draws her nose the same as the other characters --- something I hadn't noticed myself. Also in the collection is the story "B.F.F." by Vanessa Davis (p. 1-8), in which she mentions being in a "Jewish private school".

Rashi - the graphic novel

The following press release is from From Mahrwood Press
www.mahrwoodpress.com

Rashi Is HERE!

Mahrwood Press is pleased to announce the official release of
"Rashi - A light after the Dark ages"

written by: Berel Wein and Aryeh Mahr
Art by: Sofia Federov-Polonsky Mike Netzer with Sventlana Pekarovsky

This is it, the book everyone has been asking about.

The 11th century in France marked the beginning of the "Reign of Terror" - the
Crusades. Rashi, one of the greatest and most beloved Torah sages of all time,
guided the Jewish people through many of the trials of that time. A true Jewish
hero, he defended the right of the Jews to learn Torah and live a life of
spiritual freedom.

Rashi's 900-year old commentaries open the door to the true meaning of the words
and even the letters of the Torah and Talmud. To this very day, Rashi is the
most studied commentary in the world. Every student, from the beginner to the
most knowledgeable sage, is enriched by his study of Torah with Rashi.

Rashi - a light after the dark ages explores hyis life from his youth in Worms
to his old age in crusader ravaged Alsace-Lorraine.

Rashi - A Light After The Dark Ages

A Family Secret & The Search - Holocaust graphic novels from the Netherlands

Info below sent by Theodoor Westerhof

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two comic books published by the Anne Frank House (the foundation, so in Dutch it is called the Anne Frank Stichting). Currently there are two museum expositions in Amsterdam related to these books. The first book is already available in English and German. The second will be. The English titles are "A Family Secret" and "The Search", the original Dutch titles are "De Ontdekking" (The Discovery) and "De Zoektocht"(The Search/The Quest). The first book was made in cooperation with the Resistance Museum Friesland, The second with the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Both were drawn by Eric Heuvel.

http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=1&setlanguage=2

The available book (from 2003):

http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=679&LID=1

The Frisian Resistance Museum, click on General:

http://www.verzetsmuseum.nl/GB/Engelse%20site.htm

It does have in its Dutch section a page on the first book, which was a free gift to all kids in the second year of secondary education in 2005, to promote the education about WW II. The second book is on the same age level. The cooperation here is with the Hollandsche Schouwburg.

http://www.hollandscheschouwburg.nl/

Where the education part of the first was about the War, with quite some attention to the Holocaust/Shoah, the second is much more about the Shoah. (Sometimes I think that the attention for the Shoah part of the Holocaust is a bit overdone, the Jewish victims outnumbered in the Netherlands the other "ethnic" victims just by a factor 400 or so.)

Site of the first book (Dutch, with animation and stuff to print out) :

http://www.annefrank.nl/ontdekking/

Site of second book (Dutch, with animation and stuff to print out):

http://www.annefrank.nl/zoektocht/

The other Resistance museum (The one in which they have an exposition like they had in the Frisian some time ago, but inspired by both books, it's saving grace is that it is very close to De Hollandsche Schouwburg.)

http://www.verzetsmuseum.org/exposities/
tijdexpo/tijdexpobas.html

Anyway the story: Dutch boy Jeroen looks for stuff to sell in his grandmother's attic, he finds stuff and Grandmother tells about (German) Jewish friend Esther Hecht, the invasion, Nazi-obeying police officer (father), resistance brother, SS-volunteer brother, the German violence against peaceful protest against the persecution of Jews, aunt in the Indies, more about the persecution of Jews, the hunger. The liberation, (NOT a nice period either). On memorial day (4th of May), Jeroen goes to the Memorial thing, where a Jewish lady living for over half a century in the States, (of all places! That must have been an Anne Frank idea, if you ask me, why not a nice country like Israel or Canada?) turns out to be Esther Hecht, now Mrs. Leibowitz, the old friends are reunited and grandma's dad turns out to have saved Esther.

(This story you can already order in English, cheaper than the regular hardcover edition).


It's quite unclear how much time passes in between the book. Has Esther been to the States or is it just the 6th of May or so? It turns out that Esther has a son and a grandson living in the Netherlands (except for the bar mitzvah pic always in baseball cap), that the name of the grandson has a Dutch spelling, that the Bar Mitzvah of Daniel (with ".." on the e) is the reason Esther is in the Netherlands. (Text balloon in said picture is in Hebrew, interest in a scan?). It's a bit weird, why should a nice US-Jewish boy move to the Netherlands, a country with a very clean history when it comes to religiously motivated violence against Jews, or the same violence native in origin (MIND the qualifiers), a country where Easter has never been a reason to worry. Two reasons come to mind, nice Dutch Jewish girl and job, the former seems more likely (NAME of SON!).

We get a bit of her history in Germany, rise of Hitler, lots of the A-S word description and so, move to the Netherlands, she knows a Jewish athlete, Bob Canter, a fighter, boxer, which was more or less the typical Jewish sport. Nazis came, and all, quite limited but rather instructive. After the nice hiding history, we get the story of Auschwitz and the death marches. That is by way of Daniel using internet to contact the family of Bob Canter. Esther visits Bob and after Esther telling her friends and grandson. Grandma finds an old photo book that belongs to Esther and Esther and Daniel watch the past that was taken from them in an attempt to take their future.

There are quite some things which do irritate me a little:

1. 55% of the surviving Jewish Dutchies did NOT emigrate. Emigration to US and Israel, who stayed or at least stayed in the country? A bit attention for the folks who refused to move in a way which would make at least Europe a bit more Judenrein, is deserved, at least a sketch of the absolute non-discrimination policy (I would guess that it helped getting anti-Jewish feelings back to the normal level, the government not being (extra) nice to Jews, but it still was heartless and callous, though it may have been the wisest thing to do in the long run).

2. The [cursed] route from Westerbork to Auschwitz starts wrong, those trains went NORTH from Westerbork, not south. Believe me, I have been travelling on that track twice a week for years.

3. Westerbork was not really a bad place to be either(provided you could STAY, which nobody could (be sure of)), Erika that was a bad place for Jews, a bunch of really monstrous Jew haters, getting a reward if they KILLED a Jew FLEEING. Westerbork had enough good sides to leave the prisoners hope. So what's so bad about transporting Jews TO Westerbork? And FROM Westerbork? That question should have been given more attention.

http://www.westerbork.nl/

4. Auschwitz bombardment- indignation. "The gas chambers should have been bombarded." I am convinced that that would not have been a rational decision.

There was a WORLD WAR going on, dropping bombs on a prisoner camp would very likely just have helped the Nazis killing Jews and other "unwanted people". There was no strategic purpose served, justifying the expected collateral damage and it would have given the Germans an excuse. Realistically, if it had been possible to bomb the gas chambers, the elite units capable of doing so, should not have been wasted on such an unimportant, difficult and hard to reach target.

5. The "Joodsche Raad" is getting a bit too much of a positive press, should be more balanced. There was a joke, but one with more than a core of truth about Jews being more afraid of the Jewish Council than of the Green Police. Mind you, that was the Amsterdam one.

Some others really tried to resist and could have a somewhat better survival rate (a loss of two-thirds of the congregation is still an excellent survival rate!)

http://www.synagoge-enschede.nl/

[THIS is the very exposition Krolik (Rebeca R.) comes from.

http://hannivoort.org/synagoge-enschede.nl/asp/GeenKinderspelENGELS140106.asp

Reading in the links about the toys, especially Bear helps to discover what Krolik means. You see that the exposition in Mechelen ended January 2004, so that must be about the time Rebecca R. is situated, the toys in this exposition are (at least mostly) not the ones from Jersusalem, but "Dutch" ones.

http://www.scep.nl/verzet/digiexpo/geenkinderspel.html

(some of the toys in this expo). (No English text available)]

Sorry, but this is quite important about another "Jewish" comic. That one was presented in De Hollandsche Schouwburg, though it's fully Belgian, except for the pre-publication]

My own judgement:

Based on the original Dutch set:

Good, if you want an introduction to WW II in general and the Shoah in specific from a Dutch p.o.v. these books will be probably the best that will be available in the English language. With the continued popularity of Anne Frank, they might be welcome gifts to somebody with a deep interest in a combination of the topics.

Here and there a bit too one-sided pro-Jewish, though not very much so, to the reader who is either neutral or pro-Jewish already, but taking into consideration that the intended public for the original version might well include people who grow up with rather negative connotations concerning Jews, that is understandable.

If you want to have all the (educational) comics on the topic, buy it. If you want an introduction to the topic, but aren't much of a reader you should get them too, but if you got to the end of this message, you cannot fall in this category.

It is an education comic, definitely not EDUTAINMENT, OK there are happy endings, two friends reunite, a Jewish boy and his grandmother get a book with family pictures back, a man whose remembrance was black turns out grey, looking at the pictures even light grey. But that doesn't change the fact that many of the characters are murdered. Whether it is a fitting present I don't know, but in many contexts it is not.

On the other hand, it definitely would deserve a place in a library, the Dutch ones are much borrowed from libraries, and as an "easy" introduction to a difficult topic, backed by the Anne Frank House, with Esther Hecht more or less a surviving Anne Frank, it would certainly have value, if only as introduction level background to Anne Frank.

reviews of Testament #10 (Vertigo)

Comics Should Be Good review by Brian Cronin

There were almost enough really cool scenes towards the end of the comic to make me recommend the book, but ultimately, the other 3/4 of the comic has to count for SOMEthing, doesn’t it? Slightly Not Recommended.

Chickity China review by JP

Again, the real genius is in the details. One character asks why people would be anxious to give up their freedoms for this new currency, and another answers that the initial release of it will give some bonuses like “two second advantages for online auctions.” People hand over their privacy for silly things all the time, like affinity cards at grocery stores for a small discount on purchases.

Page Thus Turned review by KcKelley

This one is really deep ... The storytelling is phenominal in how he parallels the events in the bible to those that happen in a future that is very possible. Douglas Rushkoff (the writer) cites this as the new bible.... I don't see that, but he certainly does reveal some of the dirty secrets that the churchs don't like to acknowledge. Most importantly, it's a damn good story.

Douglas Rushkoff's Testament - reviews and opinions

I don't know if it will be possible to read every issue of the Vertigo series Testament, but with many of the issues reviewed to date, that may yet happen.

Below, I'm providing hyperlinks to various reviews, as well as quotations from them.

general reviews

"Epic Trip" in Heeb magazine (February 2007?) - mini-review and interview with Douglas Rushkoff by Jeff Newelt

The series ranks among the triumvirate of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Grant Morrison’s Invisibles and Alan Moore’s Promethea, and alongside Jack Kirby’s ’70s psychedelic cosmologies/comics, The New Gods and the Eternals.

10th Zen Monkey by RU Serious

The “Testament” series is a startling attempt to bring Biblical mythology back to life.

Ishush blog (as in "I shush people" ; it's a blog by a librarian)

What Testament should have been was a story that started as a story -- instead of a manifesto that got a spackling with plot.

Akedah (volume 1 trade paperback)

Silver Bullet Comics "Line of Fire" review by Robert Murray

This is one comic book that, though polarizing in subject matter, utilizes all the bells and whistles of traditional hero comic books to tell a tale unlike anything we have seen before. Sure, there are instances when the momentum of the story feels forced or gimmicky, but this is a title that is guaranteed to make you think and ponder long after you’ve finished reading it.

Testament #1
Suspension of Disbelief blog - review by Loren Collins

The theory is that Abraham's story itself is the anachronism, a later-scripted message from a time when Moloch-worship was prevalent, written to condemn child sacrifice by retconning God's opposition to it far back into Israel's history. It's not a theory I'm particularly fond of, but I suspect it's one that Rushkoff may subscribe to, and it's one that seems to be on display here.

Bags and Boards review by Tom McLean

the comic itself is impossible to put down once you start reading it as Rushkoff retells the biblical story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac alongside a futuristic tale of a young man preparing to enter a mandatory military draft. Many will surely find this approach pretentious or on-the-nose, but it’s done well and chock full of the sort of cool, forward-looking ideas that made classics of such cool 1980s comics as “American Flagg!” and just about anything written by Alan Moore. Sharp’s art is terrific and sexy, and should draw in readers on that level alone.

Testament #2
IGN review by Hilary Goldstein

I commend Rushkoff for managing to take a very modern story and relate it to the Old Testament, but I wonder how long this can last. In some respects, I think the series might prove stronger if the parallels were merely implied rather than demonstrated repeatedly throughout the issue. The problem, though, is that Abraham has become a more believable and relatable character than the modern-day star of the series.

Silver Bullet Comics "Line of Fire" review by Keith Dallas

Testament is the epitome of what Vertigo prides itself as being: thoughtful, sophisticated, controversial, avant-garde. Comic book enthusiasts are always on the look-out for titles that legitimize and dignify the medium, titles that reveal the grandest of possibilities for sequential narrative, titles that are worthy of being taught in the college classroom alongside canonical literature, titles like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Art Spiegelman's Maus.

Testament is such a title.

Testament #3
IGN review by Hilary Goldstein

I've been trying to stay "in the moment" with this series, but this issue killed some of my enthusiasm. The parallel storytelling was a great convention in the first two issues, but seems less exact for issue 3. There are a few supernatural elements to this ish that come out of nowhere.

Testament #4
Speculative Friction blog - review by Bill Baker

This issue starts with violence and a miracle, and ends with the promise of a very big bang. Along the way, it strikes the perfect balance between building suspense and furthering the story, all the while giving the reader something astonishingly fun and easy to read. ... I honestly can't rave enough about this series, and what these folks are doing with the comic medium. My highest recommendations.

Comixtreme.com review by Blake Petit

You know, I find that I want to like this title a lot more than I actually do. There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but Rushkoff seems to have arbitrarily tethered his story to Biblical allusions that, thus far, really haven’t added very much to the story. ... Overall, this book just feels like it’s trying too hard to be relevant, and the story is getting lost in the mix.

Silver Bullet Comics "Line of Fire" review by Keith Dallas

Testament is one of the most ambitious comic books being published today. ... My one concern about Testament (and this might come across as a weird complaint considering everything I have just written) is the infusion of the supernatural into a technology-focused dystopian tale. Supernatural displays suit the Biblical tale, but not the dystopian one. The manner in which Jake is saved by Astarte in this issue is so supernaturally fantastic that it doesn’t fit within the modern story involving robots, implanted homing chips, and the like.

Comic Book Resources forum - online discussion of the issue
comment by "dude_abides" :

it is in the preposterous premise that angry and forgotten, old testament deities are possessing pseudo-punk teenagers in a technological and totalitarian dystopia. it's yahweh meets philip k. dick. it's like some crazy hallucination. in fact, i'm not sure what it is, and that is precisely why i like it. it keeps me on my toes: a rare thing, and for my money that's worth $2.99.

Testament #5
Obssesed with Comics review

mostly your enjoyment of this series will be directly proportional to your willingness to read a story that's full of bizarre moments, unexplained complexity, and odd mysteries. Testament is a book in which very strange things happen in very strange world to very strange people. Not a lot is explained. Much is implied, often by analogy, but little is actually spelled out for readers. For example, readers receive no explanation of the evil Mr. Fallow, with no explanation for the bizarre libertine lifestyle that surrounds him. It's not even clear if Mr. Fallow is a literal presence or one of the Gods, since his world is so abstracted from the real world of the story. The series seems to carry the promise that Mr. Fallow's motivations and background will come out in time, but without that, the reader is left to interpret cryptic pieces such as the weird cover of issue #5 or the bizarre things shown in the background in his mansion without a lot of help from writer Douglas Rushkoff.

Testament #6
Comics Should Be Good review by Brian Cronin

What I was most impresse by in the comic was the part where Rushkoff showed how the story of the Bible was a plot by three gods to gain power over the other gods, because when there was a multitude of gods, no ONE god could become too strong. However, in this story, three gods banded together to create “God” and they did so through the Bible. Through the issue, we see them write and then do revisions on the Creation story. Very clever stuff. “Hmmm…no, I think we’ll make Eve come from Adam’s rib,” stuff like that. ... All together, I thought this was an engaging story. I would recommend it without reservations, as you do not even need to have read the first five issues to pick up on the story.

Testament #7
IGN review by Jesse Schedeen

It is slightly annoying that most of the characters from the first arc were taken away just as I figured out who they were. Unlike other Vertigo titles such as Y: The Last Man, DMZ, or American Virgin, Testament hasn't provided readers with a true main character to latch onto. I think if the creators slow down a little and let readers catch their bearings, this could become a series truly worth following.

Testament #8
Comics Should Be Good review by Brian Cronin

When we go to the modern parallel story, it is interesting how the “Joseph” character is positioned in an ANTagonist position, rather than as a PROtagonist. I thought that that was particularly clever on Rushkoff’s part, in a way to really keep the whole “parallel story” idea fresh, which can be quite difficult at times. There is a clever idea presented in the modern story, which is the question, “If everyone was praising you for the perfect crime, and you wouldn’t be punished for it, would you take the ‘blame’ even if you knew it was not you?” Very clever scenario.

Comixtreme.com review posted by Blake M. Petit

I know the Biblical allusions are really the whole point of this series, but honestly, I think they’re holding the story back more than anything. Since the first arc the allusions have been more and more strained, and with one exception we haven’t seen any reason to believe that the ancient gods that are watching both stories from the gutters really have any impact on the plot, and thus far that one brief exception hasn’t really been enough to justify their existence. Testament is a very difficult title for me – it has an interesting premise and I want to like it, but the more I read the more I feel like the ideas are simply too big for the story Rushkoff is trying to fit them in.

Testament #9
Newsarama.com review posted by JJ Fresh

My only qualm with this issue is our hero Jake getting involved in all kinds of debauchery, such as smoking dope and getting busy in brothels. I'm not saying heroes have to be squeaky clean, but if this character is considered a part of a messainic line his actions are pretty deplorable. On the flip side though, Biblical characters also had thier shortcomings, yet thier return to good made them champions of virtue. See how deep this book goes with the premise? Still, while Jake is in this dark time it's kinda hard to root for him.

Testament #10
No online review found.

Testament #11
pop syndicate review by Cornelius Fortune

God and Satan make a wager concerning one of God’s faithful servants, a man who has everything—what if you took these things (essentially his life) away from him, would he still worship you? God then allows Satan to put his servant to the ultimate test including the death of his children, the defamation of his body, and even the jeering of his wife, who pretty much tells him he has nothing to live for.

This is told in both a Biblical timeline as well as a retelling in our present time. This is like the clock on Fox’s 24, the device can kind of holds the thing together, but you either dig high concept shows (and comics) or you don’t. Casual readers can get easily confused with this book, because like Promethea it doesn’t just read from left to right and requires active participation to get the most from your reading experience.

Testament #12
Chickity China review by JP

the Babylonian god Marduk is summoned by the other gods. Originally he assumed a place as head god of the Babylonians, so it will be interesting to see where this leads. This continues to be a good but dense story, and it’s well worth the effort to read.

Testament #13
Broken Frontier - Guiding Lines review by William Gatevackes

last issue the modern day cast went “off-script”, breaking from the allegory and causing the deities to take a more active role in the proceedings. This added a bit of excitement to the series and renewed my interest in the book. If you have turned away from the comic, this issue might be one to get you started reading it again.

Testament #14
All About Books & Comics Blog review by Phil Mateer

I couldn’t keep the story straight, didn’t really feel like rereading previous issues to figure it out, and was eventually reduced to just skimming through each new issue to see if it had any nude scenes. Comics serials like these, to be successful, need a delicate blend of long-term mystery and short-term reader satisfaction (see Preacher), and this, I’m afraid, seems to have lost its way and is just sputtering to a bad end.

The Kingdom review by Big Bibbowski

Issue #14 has perhaps the least Biblical content of any so far, which would be a weakness if it weren’t for the fact that Rushkoff’s writing relies more on the human experience than riding on the tails of Bible history. As it is, this issue turns out to be one of the best. The Dr. Green character is compellingly portrayed as a flawed, complicated man whose quest for redemption would feel right at home in the Old Testament. Rushkoff’s confidence as a storyteller is evidently growing and his craft is in rare form from the first to the last heartbreaking pages.

pop syndicate review by Jared Blumberg

Once again series writer Douglas Rushkoff deftly handles the intertwined tales, ratcheting up the tension without leaving anyone behind. While all this plot builds to its climax, he still manages to keep us up-to-speed on the smaller details, such as the peculiarities of the artificial intelligence, Green’s underlying motivations, the schemes of Atum-Ra and Moloch, and Astarte’s pregnancy courtesy of Krishna.

Testament #15
Newsarama.com review posted by JJ Fresh

Some scene shifts in this issue don't quite flow, and anybody who remembers thier creative writing classes knows the importance of "flow". This disjointedness isn't that evident enough to totally remove a reader, but moments do cause the reader hesitation, and with that the escapism stops as well.

The Kingdom review by Big Bibbowski

One page of Liam Sharp’s art packs more kinetic energy than 24 frames of most films whether it’s a quiet office scene between a student and her professor (who looks an awful lot like Rushkoff) or after that a giant world-eating god raping a goddess in the cosmic deep. ... If you’re interested in a book that tries to be about everything, and like the source code, succeeds, take a trip on the Testament wagon.

Testament #16
Comic Book Resources - The Buy Pile review by Hannibal Tabu

The "As above so below" rule gets all muddled as the actions of mortals are powerful enough to fell divinities, as the Bible Gods (that's how solicitation copy referred to 'em, let's go with that) are undone by their alliance with the Babylonian god of cities Marduk, himself all rage and expectations. ... Challenging allegory, densely informative storytelling and not for the easily distracted or dissuaded, but quite a reward if you can grasp it.

Testament #17
No online review found.

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The essay version of the "Another Abraham: The Exegesis of Douglas Rushkoff’s Testament" presentation that A. David Lewis recently gave at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association in Boston may be found online at http://captionbox.net/testament_paper.doc (Word format)