Customer Reviews

jobnik!

5 star:		(4)
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Miriam's work is not to be missed. She is one talent that deserves so much attention. Keep an eye out for her, she is just beginning to gain her stride. I can assure you that greater things are ahead. Her work is beautiful to look at and her story keeps you involved. She even has a glossary of words to help the story read better. This book is a great read and hopefully you will become a Libicki fan as I have.

Miriam Libicki is one of the most gifted graphic novelists and illustrators and her candid and illuminating tale merges the personal and the political in exciting and surprising ways. Whether one is interested in the graphic novel/comics genre or the Jewish memoir itself, Libicki's work is simply not to be missed.

I first saw Miriam at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco where she was on a panel discussion for artists. Gives a great talk; if you get the chance to see her you really should make the effort to go.

This is not one of those polished Sandman graphic novels, but a pencil sketch/drawing along the lines of Crumb. And by mentioning Crumb, I mean that her characters are thick-bodied individuals like the way he draws them. (In fact, Crumb gives his endorsement on the back of the book complimenting and making light of this fact.) It's the drawings that really pulled me in. There is something eerie about the way Miriam captures the facial expressions of herself in the book. The flippant looks, the sideways glances, the cowering, the anger, all so well done.

The story will throw some people at first, for it feels a bit choppy. But for those that have served, that is how the time feels: chopped up into segments that don't seem to make sense.

Some of the pages are heavily sketched with the Chiaroscuro shading where faces are deep and detailed, while others are made up of about 5 or 6 lines and rough. While this may sound chaotic, it really depended of what the story was talking about. Some of the more mournful and sobering parts got detailed while some of the mundane day-to-day soldier life was given less gravity. But in no way less enthusiasm, just different.

I highly recommend this book for educators teaching courses on women's studies, women in the military, Jewish literature. Of course, I also recommend as a fantastic read that you will not be able to put down.

My only exposure to "Jobnik" and the author/artist was four sample B&W pages distributed at last year's Comic-Con in San Diego, given to me by an Army National Guard member who was stationed in San Diego after a brief tour in Iraq (Army Artillery). Those four pages were enough to make me want to read much more of her fascinating story.

Five Stars, based on those 4 pages alone. Too bad it's not more widely available in bookstores.