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Yiddishkeit

Jewish Vernacular & The New Land

Edited by Harvey Peckar and Paul Buhle with Herschel Hartman, Introduction by Neal Gabler

2011, Abrams ComicArts

A fully-fleged primer to Yiddish culture in its prime and its contemporary revival. In its introduction, Neil Gabler explains that comics a fitting medium for highlighting Yiddish culture. He compares Yiddish to the culture of comics, that there’s “nothing highfalutin or literary” about them and that foundational to both are their embrace of outsider status, and democratization of ideas (pg.9). 

The book includes comics essays from a variety of sources, several from the late Harvey Peckar. In sections on Yiddish Classics, the Yiddish Press, Yiddish Poets, and Yiddish Modernists, Peckar introduces us to a variety of influential figures in the Yiddish cultural sphere. While introducing readers to an author, poet, or press group, he provides intriguing and often comedic perspective on their perception at the time, and how literary critics have responded since. He also gives us a taste of some of the most noteworthy of their contributions to Yiddish literature. These are useful starting points for anyone interested in learning more about particular movements or Yiddish literary works. The second section is centered on Yiddish theater and film, with translated plays and one-page comics about the cultural impact of several significant Yiddish plays, or the contrast between Yiddish and English adaptations. The final section introduces the reader to significant figures and directions of the Yiddish Revival, including Aaron Lansky, the founder of the Yiddish Book Center. 

The work is very informative and engaging. I definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in learning about the richness of Yiddish history, culture, and its contemporary revival. 

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SCI: The Jewish Comics Anthology Vol. 2

Various Contributors

2018, Alternate History Comics Inc.

A collection of Science Fiction retellings/reimaginings of traditional Yiddish folktales, biblical stories, and explorations of what Jewish life might be like in futuristic, extraterrestrial society! I stumbled upon this collection because one of my favorite Native artists, Weshoyot Alvitre illustrated one of the conics inside, written by Michael Norwitz. It's a futuristic query into the relationship between artificial intelligence and the idea of Nefesh, souls, and conciousness. The entries were somewhat hit or miss, but the concept of the project was very intriguing.

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Excuse Me

By Liana Fink

2019, Penguin Random House

Some minimalist comics addressing the big questions about love, life, politics, being a woman, and humanity. Fink has such an incredible voice through every one of her insightful drawings or 'notes to self'. Her 'Schedule in Hell' is particularly resonant for these quarantine times.

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Passing for Human

A Graphic Memoir

By Liana Fink

2018, Penguin Random House

Fink is a master of parable. Here, she weaves in the story of her mother, father, dog, and self into a greater cosmic narrative. In her other works, Fink has described her aprehension towards the consticting traditions of Judaism, and even G-d. But, she believes in the holiness of stories. She weaves the creation story and the story of Job into her narrative of her search of her essence in the stories of her parents, and her childhood. In this fragmented yet flowing narrative, Fink turns both inwards, outwards to explore questions and answers about humanity. My favorite narrative device she uses is her internal doubts that gnaw, interrogating her story and driving her to bring us to it at different angles in new ways throughout the book.

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The Illustrated Pirkei Avot

A Graphic Novel of Jewish Ethics

By Jessica Tamar Deutsch

2017, Print-O-Craft Press

A fully immersive illustrated guide to the sages and their teachings in Pirkei Avot. Deutsch explains that this illustrated guide to Jewish ethics came out of her journey of struggling to find meaning from the origninal text. She hopes the illustrated wisdom will bring others to find meaningful engagement with the text as she did. Its simple but vibrant cartoon depictions are very fun, and would be a great way to introduce younger audiences to this essential book of teachings. The pages are also very paper-like, and I think they may be intended to be colored in! (*update, checked on the publisher's website, it is meant to double as a coloring book!) Engaging with liturgy in new ways, in new mediums, is so beautiful. I highly recommend checking this book out if you are interested in a fun new way to look at this book of the Mishnah!

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Dancing at the Pity Party

A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir

By Tyler Feder

2020, Dial Books

Feder's graphic memoir takes the reader through an intimate portrait of loss and grief. She takes the reader through the traumatic and numbing experience of her mother dying of Ovarian cancer when she was only 19. She reflects on the abrupt diagnosis and the constant anxiety around the wellbeing of her mom in the months prior to her death. In pastel and metaphoric imagery, the reader is her parthner as she navigates the emmense emotional and societal aftermath of losing her mom at a young age. In Chapter Six: Death Circus, we join Feder and her family through her mother's Jewish funeral and sitting shiva, and the numbing aftermath. Throughout her story, Feder finds humor in the absurd and brutal realities of her greif and how the rest of the world functions around it. It is a beautifuly and brutally honest depiction of profound loss, and the ways we can live through it.

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Drawing Power

Edited by Diane Noomin, Introduction by Roxanne Gay

2019, Abrams Comicarts

This anthology was a powerful collection of women’s voices on surviving assault and the paradigm shift of the #MeToo movement. The anthology features an exceptional lineup of comic artists, including many Jewish women. All of the stories are powerful in their own unique ways, but here, I want to highlight some of the Jewish authors and their contributions to the anthology:

Aline Kominsky-Crumb: An artist to be reckoned with, a foundational member of the Wimmins Comix and underground comix movements. Her entry is a struggle with her complex feelings about her sexual coming-of age as a teenager in the 1950s. Her comic reflects a nuanced perspective on sexuality, especially in the context of her career as a cartoonist who does not shy away from embracing her sexuality. 

Tyler Cohen: Cohen’s work is apologetically feminist, queer, and centers around her experience as a mother. Her entry focuses on guiding her daughter to protect herself in a dangerous world.  

Hila Noam: One of my favorite essays of the collection. Noam brings to life the stories from her mother and husband as they traveled through Israel. She leaves the reader considering the many ways we choose to reclaim our power. 

Liana Fink: One of my favorite cartoonists, Fink’s work frequently graces the pages of The New Yorker and is the author of several graphic novels (which I will discuss in a separate post). Her visually minimalist art style always delivers a profound emotional punch. 

Illana Zeffren: A proud lesbian artist, Zeffren’s comics often feature her cats engaging with political and daily issues in Israel. Here, she recounts her experience as a decoder in the IDF, and the ways the unwanted social advances of male authority figures left more than a bad taste in her mouth years after her service. 

Miriam Libiki: While her work as a whole usually centers on the experience of serving in the IDF, this comic departs from her normal setting and framework. The moment she captures here is intimate and tense. She highlights how language barriers can quickly turn from inconvenience to danger. 

Corine Pearlman: Disjointed and terrifying, using abstraction Pearlman places the reader back in her head to experience the moment with her past self. 

Dr. Sarah Lightman:  Notably, Lightman has edited an extensive set of essays entitled Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews that features the work of many of the artists highlighted in this post. Her piece in Drawing Power juxtaposes beauty and trauma. In the work, Lightman recalls in her narrative a painful experience she had in Jerusalem. 

Nina Laden: I best know her because I grew up reading her childrens books Pick-a Who? and When Pigasso met Mootise. Her essay is a reflection on the past, and her power to tell her own story.  

Ariel Schrag: Schrag’s comics are a candid depiction of her life, especially sexuality.  This piece is a reflection on her perilous navigation of networking as a young cartoonist selling her wares at San Diego Comic Con, 1999 and the hidden dark realities of starting out in indie comics as a young woman. 

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Liana fink: using shaddow as the self, the collective beauty of eden, the invisible movers of the world.

Blackout pages are abrupt, disrupted

the world as a play, as an echo of eden

Using biblical narrative to tell her family story, to tell a human story . She believes in the power of narratives.

Everything else(excuse me(passing for human(liana fink)

Rats that gnaw, the metanarrative of liana interupting her story with her own aprehension, embues the story with new perspective of the current liana looking back

Framing her family story with biblical narrative and visual metaphor turns her family stories into fables about human nature, expands the frame.

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Interview with Tyler Cohen on her work as a comics artist

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Interview from Illana Zeffren on her perspective on creating comics as an Israeli, queer woman who loves her cats

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An interview with Corinne Pearlman about her work as a woman in comics, creating Jewish comics for the Jewish Quarterly, and her work at Myriad Editions!

Check out Myriad Editions graphic novel collection here!

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why Jewish comics?

Ever since my Dad brought my brother and I to our local comic book store as kids, I’ve been fascinated by the magic of graphic storytelling. When I was younger, it always felt like comics was a boys club (and in many ways it still is). It always felt like only the big-name company heroes we saw turned into movie stars in the 2000′s were worthy of my readership. As a kid, I always felt this massive weight of pre-existing mutli-generational knowledge was required for entry into this world. Thinking back, I’m sure at least some of those comic store clerks would have been happy to lead a young comics fan into their world, no matter my gender. I still always perceived it as a boys’ world.

As a teen, I dove into world of webcomics. Online, I could sidestep the vulnerability of not knowing. No one could know what I knew or didn’t know about comics online. And these comics? I had access to comics with women! And LGBT characters! It felt like a powerful, connected community of artists and readers, removing any need for the seller as the middle man. Online, following and interacting with the posts and updates right as they happened, connecting with authors, it felt amazing! Not only was I reading stories that felt unseen or untold in the mainstream, the community itself was built by the love and engagement directly from the people who loved those stories to their creators.

Now, as an avid comics fan, I’ve been deeply invested in the history of indie comics that paved the way for the webcomics and indie publishers I know and love today. Reading anthologies like the Women’s Comix feels like a broad snapshot of a turning point, a basal node in the indie comics family tree.

As a comics fan who’s also deeply interested in Jewish history and culture, I was excited to learn the very Jewish origins of the American comics medium. While the birth of comics is deeply indebted to incredible Jewish artists of the 40s (think Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner), there is so much more to contemporary comics to explore. The diversity of topics covered by the comics medium has lead to many specifically Jewish comics and graphic novels. The diversity of authors of comics and graphic novels includes many Jewish authors writing about experiences unrelated to their Jewish heritage or identity.

So, this summer, I’ve been both seeking out and stumbling upon the Jewish narratives in my favorite indie comics. From anthologies to recent graphic novel publications, I’m compiling the results of my search here.

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The Property

By Rutu Modan

2013, Drawn & Quarterly

A gripping tale of diasporic reconciliation of past and present. One of my favorite functional notes of this novel is Modan's use of text style to represent language. CAPS is Hebrew, Mixed Case English, and italics Polish.

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The Gay Agenda

Ash Molesso and Chess Needham

2020, HarperCollins Publishers

this has been one of my favorite quarantine reads. a must-read for anyone interested in a primer on U.S. LGBT history and cultural milestones.

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Welcome! Let me know if there are any Jewish comix or graphic novels you'd like me to review