jewish comics -- particularly for h.s.

[yakov (koby) <kchodosh...>]

comics aren't what they once were... the stuff listed below isn't from dc or 
marvel, it's not about guys in tights, and it's not read by nine-year-old 
semiliterates. these books -- BOOKS, not cheaply produced pamphlets -- can be 
found in any bookstore or library worth its salt (except you often have to 
special-order) are highly literate, complex stories that will blow your mind 
open if you allow them to.

______________________________________
JULIUS KNIPL, REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER by ben katchor.
http://www.katchor.com/
(info on katchor's other books and public appearances, with some pictures)

this is a very new one. i bought the 2000 collection (called "JULIUS KNIPL, 
REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER: STORIES", $13 softcover) this week at klezkamp. this 
is actually a weekly newspaper comic strip, but one completely unlike any 
you've ever heard of or seen. katchor brings us into a complete world, paying 
little attention to any sort of protagonist-antagonist 
conflict-climax-resolution standards that you learned in grade school. 
katchor's "stories" are more like half-heard ramblings you overheard on the 
subway than, say, folklore like "the flintstones meet the jetsons."

but yet he somehow finds some kind of big ole universal truths that i can't 
figure out at the moment because i just started reading it. oyeah it's also 
pretty funny, like with "the drowned men's association". very very different. 
(hard to explain. especially for someone who's frantically trying to find 
something, anything to do besides write his economics paper.) this is the 
hardest book on my list to understand; often a page must be read through four 
or five times before it can be understood. maybe another one listed here would 
be better to start with.

but someone who sticks with it will be rewarded many times over. check it out!

you can sorta see his style in the comics section of http://www.word.com but it 
doesn't translate very well to a computer screen. just for a sample, though, 
it's not bad.

also, btw, he was at klezkamp last year. word has it he's not much of a 
speaker, so don't kill yourself trying to get to one of his talks. also henry 
sapoznik told me he worked with katchor on a radio show based on julius 
knipl... henry, can you post about that? thanks. also he told me the k is 
pronounced -- it's "k-nipl" not "nipple" as i thought originally (but didn't 
find funny because i never said it out loud).

____________________
A CONTRACT WITH GOD, AND OTHER TENEMENT STORIES by will eisner

a rerelease of this classic 1977 book by will eisner. acwg was the first book 
to print an original comic story never printed elsewhere. will eisner is, by 
the way, jewish. he is the grand master of the comics medium. anything by him 
is gold, so check it out. i don't feel like writing a full review now so just 
go get it someplace, you won't regret it.

____________________________________________
LITTLE LIT: FOLKLORE AND FAIRY TALE FUNNIES, edited by art spiegelman and 
francoise mouly. $20 hardback/64 pp (plus fold-out stuff in the front and back)

art spiegelman and his wife francoise mouly put together this amazing 
full-color, oversize compilation of new fairy tale stories for little kids. 
it's not shelved in the kids books section in most stores, rather they usually 
stick it in "the graphic novel section," i.e. with "marvel masters" 
collections, awful power fantasies, and dungeons & dragons sourcebooks, but 
don't be fooled: this is an honest-to-god suitable-for-kids book. most stories 
are whitebread european stories (with the notable exception of a japanese folk 
tale (by david mazzuchelli) -- illustrated with blue ink in a traditional 
japanese style!), but...

the first one, by spiegelman, is a hassidic folk tale, here called "prince 
rooster" about a prince who thinks he's a rooster. very funny and very 
well-done. the art and humor will be familiar to students of MAUS. not much 
more i can say... get the book, it's really great.

i met spiegelman at a signing for little lit and wrote about it for my web 
site. sometimes the free domain name www.kobyland.com doesn't work so try 
http://www.geocities.com/pdestructo and click "art spiegelman."

_____________________________
DRAWN AND QUARTERLY, VOLUME 3 edited by chris oliveros, $25 softcover/175 pp
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com
(this publication's page is listed, strangely enough, under "artists." but 
there are samples to be found, so check it out)

d&q volume 3 is an art book with amazing production values great for any coffee 
table in the country. but it's more than that, a lot more. one of the short 
features is "The Peasant and the Snake" by mark lang (montreal). it is a 
five-page adaptation of the hassidic version of "the goose who gave golden 
eggs." very powerful art and design. the lettering is interesting, mimicking 
old hebrew calligraphy, and there are no dialogue balloons. this gives the 
story a very traditional feel.

also in this book:
chris ware -- cover and endpapers, a tribute to frank king's "gasoline alley"
pentti otsamo -- short story "the shepherd"
dupuy/berberian -- 52-page novella "monsieur jean" (light-hearted romantic 
comedy)
franco matticchio -- "the pillow" (a pillow runs away from its owner, very 
cute, in maus-like b&w art style) and "a senseless story" (exactly what it 
sounds like -- it makes no sense)
jason little -- three pages "safety instructions" (story of two teenagers 
flying "virgin airlines" during a plane crash, in a style mimicking the safety 
cards on planes. not vulgar; very funny)
r. sikoryak -- ten pages "dostoyevsky comics" (interesting spoof crossing 
"crime and punishment" with "detective comics", Batman's original comic book in 
the 30's. raskol is batman, the pawnbroker is the joker, sonny is robin, 
inspector porfiry is commissioner gordon)
hincker blutch -- six pages b&w "fist to fist" (early history of heavyweight 
boxing, funny and informative)
seth -- "fourteen sketches" (a bunch of cartoony pictures mostly depicting the 
moments in a calm small-town life, i guess is the best way to describe these 
pictures)
harry mayerovitch -- two pages "the other one" (various cartoons of people and 
their often-contradictory shadows, "new yorker" art style)
michael rabagliati -- short story "paul, apprentice typographer" (great cartoon 
about kid trying to learn accordian, then accompanying father to his type shop 
and learning about the stuff, cute, funny, informative.)
frank king -- 30 "gasoline alley" strips (gasoline alley is a classic strip 
that has barely been reprinted at all. very meandering, relaxed strip often 
about the beauty of nature as observed by "walt" and his adopted son "skeezix")

and that's that.

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+