Nicole Hollander

Here's a great interview with a female Jewish graphic artist-- Nicole Hollander. It's also a good example of how "Jewishness" can be thought about in a variety of ways-- familial, community-- not just overtly religious ones.

The Gospel According to Superman and Postmodern Theology

This is not about Judaism, per se, but it is about comic books and religion: a recent post on one of my favorite blogs,  Killing the Buddha,  about an old book called The Gospel According to Superman, with further reflections using some theory and postmodern theology. It's an interesting read and it mentions an essay by Umberto Eco that I've really got to get sometime.

"A Contract with God" to be made into movie

According to the official Will Eisner website, "A Contract with God" will be made into a live action feature film, with principal photography scheduled for sometime in 2011. This was announced last summer at Comic-Con.

Revisiting Will Eisner

This is the second time that I've taught "A Contract with God" in this course. I won't "spoil" all of you by describing that class' reactions from 2008.... but I can say that there were a variety of strong reactions. I personally find it to be both a fascinating and challenging text; I'm always surprised by how deeply moved I am by so many of the characters, even the cruel ones.

Some possible questions to get you started if you have writer's block on either Eisner or the other pieces for this week:

Which parts of A Contract with God surprised you the most? Which parts, if any, were troubling? Why? What were your emotional reactions to reading this text?

What are some of the different trends discussed in the secondary articles about the history of Jews, comic books, and graphic novels? (This week's readings were more about graphic novels)

How are Jewishness/Judaism/Jews [all slightly different terms] portrayed in the texts, both primary and secondary, so far?

Welcome to Judaism and Comic Books!

Welcome to the Fall 2010 edition of "Judaism and Comic Books," brand new and still in mint condition in its original packaging.

This blog will be a sort of cyber "home base" for the blog assignment portion of our course (lots of other content will remain on D2L).

Once every student has created his or her own blog, I will be creating a blog roll on one of the sidebars of THIS blog that has a link to each and every blog, so this will be a helpful page to bookmark and return to in order to find your colleagues' blogs, read them, and post comments.

I will post weekly on my blog just as all of you do, although I will attempt to not pre-empt the class discussion with my take on the texts (you're more likely to see me reflect my own thoughts after a class has taken place). I will occassionally toss out some questions to provoke your thinking, or post some fun or thought-provoking links.