More Old Jewish Comedians: A BLAB! Storybook [Hardcover]

Drew Friedman (Author), Monte Beauchamp (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2008

They're back and they have liver spots!

This comical collection of of Jewish comedian portraiture is a sequel to 2006's wildly successful Old Jewish Comedians, which earned Friedman raves from Jerry Lewis, Howard Stern, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly and many more, and earned Friedman his own roast at New York's legendary Friar's Club. This all-new collection includes the famous (Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Mel Brooks, Soupy Sales, etc.), the not-so-famous (Jerry Stiller, Zeppo & Gummo Marx, Larry Storch, Zero Mostel, etc.) and the largely unknown (Molly Picon, Herbie Faye, Jan Milton, etc.). The Reuben Award-winning Friedman, one of the great caricaturists of his age, presents a thorough visual history of the 20th Century's greatest Borscht-Belt comedians through 28 full-page portraits; every crease, mustache hair, and liver spot looks utterly real. As Booklist put it after the first OJC, "If only we were all funny enough to get Friedman to draw us!"

Featuring an introduction by Larry Gelbart, the legendary creative force behind the M*A*S*H TV series and contributing writer to The Huffington Post.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Some are famous (Woody Allen, Joan Rivers), while some never made it out of the clubs. All of them are depicted with both love and horror--those comb-overs, those liver-spots.” (Roger Sabin - The Observer )

“Old Jewish Comedians (2006) was so successful that a further volume of Friedman's affectionately warts-and-all portraits became inevitable” (Ray Olson - Booklist )

“It's not only technically brilliant portraiture and hysterically funny, but it captures truths about the shallowness of pop trends.” (Michael Simmons - Artillery )

“If there is one current artist who deserves more serious attention from the world, it is Drew Friedman… while Friedman might well want you to laugh at his interpretations, he probably wants you to cry simultaneously.” (John E. Mitchell - The Transcript )

“Beautifully repulsive, with wrinkles, folds, sweat beads and liver spots that seem like revelations from your new high-definition TV pulling in big-pored images broadcast from a nightmare studio.” (Seattle Times )

“This brilliant artist mixes the weather-beaten, liver-spotted visage, for all its wrinkles, rumples, moles, and folds of flesh, with the wattage of actual stardom.” (ComicBook Bin )

About the Author

Drew Friedman's work has appeared in Raw, Weirdo, SPY, The New York Times, MAD, The New Yorker, BLAB!, The New York Observer, Rolling Stone, Field & Stream, appears regularly in Entertainment Weekly and many other magazines. His collection of portraits Drew Friedman’s Sideshow Freaks was published by Blast books in 2011. He resides in Pennsylvania with his wife and collaborator, Kathy Bidus and their two beagles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (March 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560979143
• ISBN-13: 978-1560979142
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just can't get enough Old Jewish Comedians. More!, March 11, 2008

By 

David Burd (East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More Old Jewish Comedians: A BLAB! Storybook (Hardcover)

In the subset of cartooning known as caricature, there have been very few modern masters. The short list includes Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, David Levine and Al Hirschfeld. Another name must now be added to that list: Drew Friedman.

Drew specializes in that elusive art of the likeness, not something that every artist can achieve, and a talent even more rare among cartoonists (as opposed to formal portrait painters). In many ways Drew's exaggerated portraits capture more than a photograph ever could, giving lie to the notion that a photo is the most accurate visual representation of a person. Drew's caricatures go beyond photographs. He somehow sees what the camera doesn't.

Drew's approach is unique among his peers. Where Hirschfeld distills everything down to a few simple pen strokes - a line for a nose, a dot for an eye, a squiggle for a mouth, and a head of hair with hidden NINA's - Drew goes the other way, adding every freckle, dimple and age spot. Forget NINA - Friedman could hide the Declaration of Independence in just the wrinkles around the eye! Drew Friedman is the anti-Hirschfeld, or the Bizarro Hirschfeld, if you will. His paintings draw you in to a world of intimate details while still presenting an astounding likeness of his subject.

In this, his second volume of Old Jewish Comedians, Drew again takes on the challenge of portraying famous people not as we remember them, but as they look today (or as they did just before they left us). Yet beneath that patina of age... that connect-the-dots maze of liver spots... those layers of wrinkled skin... (and in the case of Joan Rivers, beneath her brand new face)... we can still recognize the familiar faces of the funnymen and funnywomen that we know and love. That makes More Old Jewish Comedians a joy to behold. It's more of the same, and I can't get enough!

The introduction by Larry Gelbart adds extra Jewish-ness and humor to the 35 wonderful drawings (Drewings?) in this book. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Sampling of Drew Friedman's Artistry!, February 24, 2010

By 

Michael OConnor "Wordsmith" (Wausau, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More Old Jewish Comedians: A BLAB! Storybook (Hardcover)

Two years after his initial tribute to elderly Jewish comedians, master caricaturist Drew Friedman returns to the scene of the crime to offer up more of his appealing, insightful portraits. MORE OLD JEWISH COMEDIANS takes on 30-odd famous and not-so-famous funnymen and women and the results are even better than the 2006 volume.

Friedman's subjects this time around include Joe E. Lewis, Georgie Jessel, Larry Storch, Bill Dana, Joan Rivers, Molly Picon, Jack Gilford, Gummo and Zeppo Marx, Soupy Sales, Bert Lahr, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Herbie Faye, Sid Melton and lesser-knowns Bert Gordon and B. S. Pulley. All of Freidman's work is spot-on. As with the earlier volume, it is not only accurate but often captures the essence of the individual.

In short, MORE OLD JEWISH COMEDIANS is a treat for comedy fans. Recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Older, funnier Jews, March 14, 2008

By 

GAGOON (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: More Old Jewish Comedians: A BLAB! Storybook (Hardcover)

Lovely work; the author has quite the gift with graphite. I could look at those faces forever- or at least until I am as old as these wonderful wonderful Jews. I'll probably just want to look out the window at that point.
Gave me quite a boost. Put zing in my step.The perfect wedding or bar mitzvah gift.