GoGirl vs Spidergirl

As I read about Trina Robbins’ GoGirl character, I couldn’t help but think of another young female superhero-Spidergirl. Although they are very different I’m sure, they do have some things in common. They are both female superheroes, they are the daughters of their originals, and they both have to go through teenage issues. GoGirl was created later and may have been influenced by Spidergirl, but the question is who is more popular? Who would win in ‘GoGirl vs Spidergirl’?
GoGirl is created by a female, while Spidergirl is created by a male writer. GoGirl’s mother was previously a GoGirl. Therefore, GoGirl might be more popular with more feminist readers. Since GoGirl is Jewish, She may appeal to a Jewish audience, but Spidergirl is the daughter of the infamous Spiderman. That being said, their heroic exploits or experiences as a teenager might be the tie-breaker.
I wonder if the main audience of these comics is girls, women, boys, or men. They certainly seem to be targeting girls, but I could be wrong. In any case it is certainly interesting to see the theme of superhero daughters in the comic scene today.
Unfortunately, I have not read either of these comic serieses, so I don’t know which female superhero I would like more. As a long-time Spiderman fan, I would imagine I would go with Spidergirl, but I could be mistaken. So with all of this in mind, who would win the popularity between the two of them? GoGirl or Spidergirl? What do you think?

Jewish Comics Through Time

As I read the third section of Ari Kaplan’s From Krakow to Krypton, I noticed that artists felt more comfortable creating openly-Jewish characters. Will Eisner’s A Contract With God was probably the first graphic novel to have Jewish characters, with several comics such as Xmen coming before it. I believe this is because there was more acceptance of Judaism in America by the 70s and that Jews didn’t feel they had to hide their identity to fit in with society.
In addition to Eisner, Art Spiegelman’s Maus revolves around not just Jewish characters but a distinctly Jewish event-the Holocaust. This comfort in creating Jewish characters continued into the ‘80s. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series portrays several Jewish themes such as a Kabbalistic notion of the Angel of Death being female, a man asking for time to recite the Shema before his death, and a moral man being rewarded by the Angel in the afterlife.
Image comics, created in 1991, offered a female superhero, GoGirl. She was created by Trina Robbins, who was instrumental in the Underground Comix move. Robbins makes a point of having Lindsay Goldman (aka GoGirl) a regular girl who, like Robbins, just happens to be Jewish.
I believe that comic creators during the Bronze Age were not afraid of revealing their own Jewish identity as well as creating Jewish characters. While the characters seem to be made distinctly Jewish in the ‘70s, they are made Jewish almost coincidentily by the ‘90s. This suggests that the acceptance and integration of Judaism in American society has become vastly different than it was in the Golden Age of the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Artwork in 'Megillat Esther'

While reading Megillat Esther, it is easy to see that J.T. Waldman is very creative in his artwork.  Throughout the book, Waldman is careful to follow Biblical and Rabbinic texts that give detail on the characters and their surroundings. One example of this is his attention to detail such as the linens, columns, gold and silver sofas, marble, and precious stones drawn on pages 10 and 11.

While Waldman is careful about what he draws, he is creative about how he draws it. He uses multiple ways of framing such as page 109 where Esther is drawn within a flower, surrounded by the faces of other characters. Hebrew words often surround the characters in a framing effect such as Mordechai on page 74, or divide frames such as pages 88 and 89.

On pages 92 and 93 King Xerxes’ dream is drawn in a cluttered swirl of random pictures. This symbolizes his distress as well as the turning point in the story. As discussed in class today, this might parallel the turning around of the events in the story that is the basis of the Purim festival.

In addition to the creative drawing style, Waldman includes sub-stories within the story. These seem to address conflicts in the Hebrew Bible over the birthright and lineage of the Messiah. I believe Waldman is suggesting that these conflicts between the tribes of Israel were ended when the Judeans were given power by the Persian king. However, I am not quite sure if this is his conclusion or why they were added in.      

Pride in 'Megillat Esther'

One distinct theme of Megillat Esther is pride in one’s heritage. The setting of the story is in Persia where the Judeans are under the rule of King Xerxes. Naturally, the Judeans suppress their heritage in order to avoid conflict with the Persians. The only exception to this is Mordechai who displays pride in his heritage by refusing to bow down to and in a sense worship Haman.

Contrary to this, Esther, as queen, is in a position of power. Although she has power, Mordechai commands Esther to not speak of her lineage on page 45. He is afraid that if the king finds out, Esther will be replaced by another woman. Esther takes a chance by revealing her identity in order to save her people from Haman’s attacks. Fortunately, her request is honored by the King, who reverses the command, bringing power to the Judeans.

The Judeans at the beginning of the story somewhat resemble the Jewish immigrants of the early 20^th century who suppressed their heritage by assimilating in the new culture. At the end of the story, the Judeans somewhat resemble the Israelis who gained their own country in the 1940s and fight to protect it to this day. The amount of power that is given to the Judeans at the end of Megillat Esther seems to be a bit exaggerated, and Waldman suggests this also with the students who are hearing the story on pages 142 and 143. It would appear that the book of Esther was to some point edited to boost Jewish pride and nationalism.   

'Megillat Esther'

Thus far, I have enjoyed reading Megillat Esther. I find the idea of illustrating a Biblical story fascinating and somewhat creative. It is especially interesting that J.T. Waldman illustrates the Biblical text by chapter and verse. Oddly enough, I was not previously familiar with the book of Esther, and find the story to be new and exciting. It certainly has a good plot with interesting characters.

In addition to Waldman closely following the storyline of the Biblical text, I think it is important that it contains the Hebrew text. Waldman uses the text in interesting ways to frame scenes or add effect to the artwork as opposed to the typical page setup. As Hebrew is read from right to left, I am under the impression that the first half of the book is in ‘mirror image’ to accommodate the English text, and that the second half is in the original format. One thing that I wonder is whether the book was originally planned to have both languages. It almost seems like the English is added in white or open spaces.

I am looking forward to the rest of the story as written in both the Bible and in Waldman’s graphic novel. Esther seems like an interesting character and is put in quite a predicament as she has to save her people, but would risk her own position as queen in doing so. It will be interesting to see how the story plays out.

Review of 'Waltz with Bashir'

I quite enjoyed the movie Waltz with Bashir. It is based upon the 1982 Lebanon War, which I am not too familiar with. Despite this, the movie was not too hard to follow. I enjoyed the main character’s story of regaining his memories as well as the depictions of war in the film. I think there was a good mix of both. There are several things that I like about the movie. I wonder if there is a graphic novel form of it, and if it is in Hebrew and English.

One particularly interesting aspect of the movie is the psychological issues the main character faces. As a Psychology major, it was interesting for me to see how the character was affected by war. There is a bit of repressed memory as well as dissociation that occur as a result of the traumatizing massacre. I find it interesting that as the story progresses, and the character speaks with former comrades, his memory resurfaces bit by bit. It makes me want to do a little research on the topic of war trauma and psychology.

Another thing that I like is that the film is retained in Hebrew. I don’t find it annoying to have to read subtitles and this makes the film more realistic. Obviously Israelis would not be speaking English. In addition to this, I enjoyed the artwork of the film. It is amazing how realistic the movements of the characters are. This shows the artist’s attention to detail, also boosting credibility in a narrative such as this.

A Second Look at 'Jobnik!'

My opinion of Miriam Libicki’s Jobnik! changed considerably after the discussion in class on Wednesday. More specifically, the background information that was given at the beginning of class helped me to understand more of the references in Jobnik!. I feel that my lack of understanding of these references significantly affected my initial opinion of the book.

First, I did not know that Jobnik! was a collection of issues and not a one-shot graphic novel. This made me realize that there is more to the story than what I had read in this collection. For example the trip to Canada made more sense when considering it is only a small fraction of the entire story. It would be interesting to read more and see how the story continues.

Second, I did not realize much of the Israeli culture. I did not know that the military is so important to Israel and that people are required to serve for 2 years. This explains why so many young people were in the IDF and the seniority effect. I also didn’t know all of the reference to the Israel-Palestine conflicts that occurred around 2000. Not knowing this made the story a little more difficult to read. Additionally, the ‘Sabra’ ideal explains why the men are so gruff and unemotional at times.

Third, the stars scene did not really make sense to me at first. I thought it was just supposed to be artistic or something. After hearing that there was a similar picture drawn by a Jewish illustrator in the early 20^th century, this scene makes more sense. I found Miriam Libiki’s knowledge and respect for other artists quite interesting.  

My opinion changed after learning the background information for Jobnik!. I am still not a big fan of the book, but I understand it better and would be interested in seeing how it continues in further issues.