The brilliant French graphic novelist Joann Sfar has released a second Jewish-oriented book, “Klezmer: Book 1: Tales of the Wild East”. (You may remember his “The Rabbi’s Cat,” about the feline companion to a North African Rabbi of a hundred years ago, a tribute to the Sephardic side of Sfar’s family.)
It’s the sort of imaginative, post-vernacular hash of early 20th century eastern europe that owes as much to graphic novel serials like “bone” as to actual Jewish history or humor. But, unlike, say, the trite, hobbit-like hash inflicted upon users by Jonathan Foer in “Everything is Illuminated,” Sfar has both storytelling and Jewish chops with which to work. And, given the medium, everything is illuminated.
You can read more about it on the KlezmerShack: www.klezmershack.com