The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (Hardcover)

~ Samantha Baskind (Editor), (Editor)
Key Phrases: alternative comics, imperfect masters, adult comics, New York, The Rabbi's Cat, Will Eisner (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The People of the Book—the epithet is no longer sufficient. More appropriate: The People of the Book and the Image. Samantha Baskind and Ranen Omer-Sherman, leading a cadre of exegetes, explain what makes the combination Jewish."
Ilan Stavans, author of Mr. Spic Goes to Washington

"The graphic novel is a vital and emerging genre, and this is the only

book that focuses on its relation to Jewish culture, literature, and history. A highly readable and informative collection that will be of great interest to readers across a wide range of disciplines."
Deborah R. Geis, editor of Considering MAUS: Approaches to Art Spiegelman's "Survivor's Tale" of the Holocaust

"Will Eisner coined the term “Graphic Novel” in 1976 for A Contract with

God, his account of the Jewish Diaspora experience. It has since become

the label for complex illustrated texts--some fiction, some non-fiction; most a striking mix of both. The growth of the 'Graphic Novel' also tracks with the rise of a post-modern, global Jewish culture in the later 20th century. The Jewish Graphic Novel is thus both a history of the genre as well as a history of its particular place in the growing, self-conscious world of contemporary Jewish self-representation. A brilliant and original book."
Sander L. Gilman, author of Multiculturalism and the Jews

Product Description

In the 1970s and 1980s Jewish cartoonists such as Will Eisner were some of the first artists to use the graphic novel as a way to explore their ethnicity. Although similar to their pop culture counterpart, the comic book, graphic novels presented weightier subject matter in more expensive packaging, which appealed to an adult audience and gained them credibility as a genre.

The Jewish Graphic Novel is a lively, interdisciplinary collection of essays that addresses critically acclaimed works in this subgenre of Jewish literary and artistic culture. Featuring insightful discussions of notable figures in the industry—such as Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Joann Sfar—the essays focus on the how graphic novels are increasingly being used in Holocaust memoir and fiction, and to portray Jewish identity in America and abroad

Featuring more than 85 illustrations, this collection is a compelling representation of a major postmodern ethnic and artistic achievement.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (October 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813543673
• ISBN-13: 978-0813543673
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #536,349 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars important resource, September 14, 2009

By	Edward (Florida) - See all my reviews

"Few attempts have been made to publish an anthology of academic essays on Jewish graphic novels. The Jewish Graphic Novel is a wonderful attempt to fill this void. The collection brings together four essays on specific books, five essays comparing pairs of graphic narratives, two overviews, two cartoonist interviews, an in-depth look at a Jewish comic book character, and an illustrated essay about Jewish biographical comix. Highly recommended."--Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

5.0 out of 5 stars Images in the service of words., March 29, 2009

By	Dr. Baruch Blich (Tel-Aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The essays edited by Baskind and Omer-Sherman, is a unigue collection which has to do on the one hand with the essence of the graphic novel- a genre accumulating fame and popularity, as well as on the other hand with stories, jokes, and underground behaviour by the Jewish community in the USA. The collection contains 4 parts: The Jewish American Experience, The Holocaust across Borders, the Graphic novel outside the USA and the Novelists in their own words and pictures. Personally I found part two - the Holocaust across the Borders, the most interesting and enlightening. Rendering the Holocaust by and with comics, not only that it opens a new approach to the tragedy of the Jews in the second world war, it endows comics a new and unexpected role as a narrative means of communication. Shedding light on Spigelman, Eisenstein, Katin, Kubert with Hurst Rosenthal's 'Mickey in Gurs' - a series of comics done in Gurs concentration camp in the South of France in 1942 - is a unique contribution in the analysis of comics and a major step in the understanding of the Holocaust. Pity that two interesting works done by Eric Heuvel - 'the search and a family secret', did not find their way into this collection.
Putting emphasis on the above collection of essays does not derogate the other three parts of the book. On the contrary - those interesred in comics will no doubt find in the essays themselves and in the rich bibliography of each one of them, an inspiring source as to the nature of comics and its narrative aspects.
Ben Baruch Blich, ph.d.
History and Theory dept.
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Jerusalem

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a picture can tell - excellent read!!, January 28, 2009

By	Bella Orion (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This scholarly essays collection is not about Will Eisner. It is more!!
Prof. Samantha Baskind and Prof. Ranen Omer-Sherman, editors and contributors, continue Eisner's mission to expose the Jewish experience, without the mask and the tights, and to challenge, among other challenges - both personal and collective, the many negative stereotypes that Jews had to endure. The medium of choice of the works discussed in this collection, the graphic novels, and the subject matter about the Jewish experience, along with the interviews (R. Omer-Sherman interviewing Miriam Libicki, and S. Baskin interviewing Miriam Katin), validate the Jewish Graphic Novel as an important subgenre within the Graphic Novel genre.
As I am wrapping up my Master thesis on the subject of Jewish GN, dealing with stereotyping and Jewish identity (at Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles), I find this book invaluable, as it is - to the best of my knowledge - the first scholarly collection to expose the wide reach of this medium, bringing authors like the French Joann Sfar, and the Israeli Miriam Libicki and Rutu Modan, among others, into the realm of scholarly discussion. Of course, when I started my research, I thought that I was the only one who discovered Miriam Libicki ([...]), and the only one to get so excited about Sfar's Rabbi's Cat, and Klezmer. I am glad that I was wrong - as it is an amazing phenomenon to see how wide-spread and "hot" this topic really is!.
Great book, great cover (art by Miriam Libicki). If not for the content - certainly you should get it for her artwork!!