Hanukkah catch you off-guard during Thanksgiving? Have a gentile interested in Hebraic culture for Christmas? Then look no further than Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land, edited by Paul Buhle along with the late and revered Harvey Pekar.
James Bucky Carter at En/Sane World says, “Mench up and stop being a putz,” urging people to get it, especially as it also features work by Danny Fingeroth, Neil Kleid, Spain Rodriguez, Peter Kuper, Nick Thorkelson, and David Lasky.
Tabletmakes an even better argument for reading it, suggesting that Yiddish has a necessary abrasiveness which perhaps has saved it from getting entirely lost in assimilation. Their site also features excerpts from the book, so why not give it a read, nu?
In September, Salon.com contributor Vishavjit Singh, on the anniversary of his article “My Life in a Turban” and, of course, the 9/11/01 New York Trade Center attacks, wrote about his experience as “Captain American in a Turban.” Singh, a software analyst by day and an editorial cartoonist by night, took to the streets of New York City adorned in Captain America’s superhero, superpatriot garb to test perceptions — and reactions — of America.
It was the most unlikeliest of days for me. Hundreds of strangers came up to me. And we were able to lay to rest any anxieties or inhibitions in those moments — about other people, about the unknown, about ourselves, about violating other people’s personal spaces or not understanding their beliefs. We could simply meet. Say hi. Snap a memory of that moment. Continue reading Turban, not Wingtips→
Part of Rao’s modus operandi is to catch religion and comics stories in the news as they happen and save them to a repository for later re-reading, analysis, and then write up. Of course, while that allows for cautious commentary and limited knee-jerk reaction, it also can cause a back-up of reportable items, sometimes having them fall completely off the radar.
In this case, however, there’s been another intriguing effect to this scheme: The backlog of reportable items is hinting at a trend.
The International Museum of Women featured the work of artist Katie Miranda as part of their “Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voices” exhibition. The first part of her story “Tear Gas in the Morning” features semi-autobiographical protagonist “Barbara Silverman, a Jewish-American artist volunteering as an activist and human rights worker in the West Bank […transforming] from a naîve and idealistic volunteer trying to save the world, to a seasoned activist hardened by a year and a half of nonviolent resistance and human rights work in one of the world’s most complex conflict zones.”
PRI’s The World spoke with Israeli cartoonist Uri Fink about the imprisonment of Mohammed Saba’aneh, a cartoonist for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Palestian Authority’s official newspaper. According to Cartoon Movement, he was released on July 1st, five months after his arrest and nearly three months after the PRI coverage.
Response to the Burka Avenger is still unfolding, but, unquestionably, it will be met with a steady stream of new news stories on comics engagement with Islam globally, culturally, artistically, and politically. They are everywhere.
Rao wants to know: Does modern Islam have a special relationship with the comics medium?
The Incredible Hulk #319 where the Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner marries in a Catholic wedding ceremony. (Image provided by Robot 6.)
In July, Matt Staggs of Random House’s genre site Suvudu conducted a brief examination of comics’ relationship with religion, prompted by a report by the British Telegraph that the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano “devoted a full page looking at the Catholic identity of popular comic book superheroes while questioning the religious affiliation of some of the most popular like Superman and Batman.”
Senior journalist Gaetano Vallini writes,
Bruce Banner, the incredible green man [the Hulk], in fact married his beloved Betty Ross in a church and a Catholic priest presided at the ceremony. […] There are other indications dispersed among the hundreds of comic strips dedicated to him that are said to unequivocally reveal his faith.
Oddly enough (or tellingly), the full-page examination of superheroes is neither available at nor catalogued by L’Osservatore Romano‘s website — at least, not yet. All the site offers when searched for “Superman” or “comics” is a 2011 excerpt in praise of Tin Tin in advance of Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson motion-capture movie The Adventures of Tin Tin based on the comics of Herge. Josephine McKenna of The Telegraph notes that the 2013 Vatican piece was published in the wake of Man of Steel‘s impressive global box office draw.
Recently, the Sequart Comics Research Organization offered an editorial by library historian Stuart Warren on the inherent Christ-ness of Superman, no doubt times to coincide with the release of the new Warner Brothers big screen depiction of the Last Son of Krypton Man of Steel. It’s well-trodden ground, Supes as Jesus (and news outlets like FOX News and WND seemed to pick up on this popular observation, too, this cinematic go-around — AmericaBlog was among those who did not appreciate the repeated comparison)
But certainly Sequart didn’t give Warren the sum that Warner Brothers paid theologian Craig Detwiler of Pepperdine University for his notes on Superman as fodder for Christian sermons. Detwiler claims that his material, entitled, “Jesus: The Original Superhero,” gives “churches a chance to engage with pop culture instead of just condemning it,” according to io9 and CNN. Of course, none of the reports suggest free tickets are included with Detwiler’s sermon notes, so whatever inspiration or identification these congregations find through Zack Snyder’s Superman will also prove lucrative to Warner Brothers at the box office and in merchandising.
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
