Seattle Appearance, November 11th

I will be appearing at Mockingbird Books in Seattle tomorrow (Thursday the 11th) at 6:30pm. I’ll be presenting a slideshow about Hereville (including a reading), answering questions, and signing books. If you’re in Seattle, please come out and see me.

It’s the season for Jewish graphic novels!

Scott McCloud very nicely mentions Hereville on his blog. (I’d urge y’all to read Scott’s comics, but I assume you already have, right? Right?)

One reader emailed me from a Therapy Center simply because she’d heard there was a comic explaining Crohn’s Disease (there is; it was a 24-hour comic by Tom Humberstone who suffers from the condition). Crohn’s disease affects between 400,000 and 600,000 people in North America alone (thanks, Wikipedia). Why the Hell WASN’T there a comic about Crohn’s disease until now??

Whole markets can be created out of thin air when the right subject strikes. […] The beauty of this kind of outreach is that it only adds to the base of comics readers, and rarely do these efforts cannibalize each other. Barry Deutsch’s fantastic orthodox Jewish adventure Hereville isn’t competing for readers with the Bertrand Russell stories in Logicomix, or with XKCD, or with Persepolis. Each one is its own little community of readers, some of whom may have never read a comic before, but ALL of whom are now one comic deeper into this medium we’d all like to see grow.

Interestingly enough, it turns out there are at least two comics about Crohn’s disease, as someone immediately pointed out in Scott’s comments. As Scott and everyone else knows, there are a number of famous Jewish-themed graphic novels. But I was surprised to discover that there are four five new Jewish graphic novels just in Fall 2010!

A reporter from The Jewish Journal emailed me about my appearance at the Miami Book Fair later this month, and one of his questions was what makes Hereville distinct from the dozen or so other Jewish books also being presented at the Miami Book Fair this year.

I was all set to answer “well, as the only graphic novel blah blah blah,” but fortunately I checked what the other books were first. Turns out Hereville is just one of three Jewish-themed graphic novels at the Miami Book Fair! The other two are Vanessa Davis’ Make Me A Woman (haven’t read it yet, but the sample pages I’ve seen are beyond fabulous, and I can’t wait to read it) and Anne Frank: The Authorized Anne Frank House Graphic Biography (haven’t heard much about it yet).

In addition, there’s Sarah Glidden’s How To Understand Israel In Sixty Days Or Less, which is being released today. (I’ve read a chapter of this, and I’m looking forward to reading the whole book.)

A year ago, I would have agreed with Scott that a Jewish-themed graphic novel would appeal to an under-served market. But four five Jewish-themed graphic novels, all coming out not just in the same year but in the same season of the same year — that seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

Or are there always this many coming out, and I’m only noticing it now because one of the books is my own?

In the end, Scott is right. All four five of these graphic novels are very different, and have the potential to bring new readers to the medium. Although I hope there’s some crossover (i.e., I’d love it if their readers would check Hereville out, and vice versa), I very much doubt we’re poaching each other’s readers.

Still, I’m kind of surprised that no one’s organized a panel at some con featuring all four books. Sarah, Vanessa, Ernie, Aaron, Sharon, are you folks coming to Stumptown in April? Let me know, I’ll see if I can organize a panel for us. 😛

UPDATE: When I first posted this, I forgot about The Comic Torah! Sorry about that, Aaron and Sharon. So there are five Jewish-themed graphic novels out this season, not “only” four as I had thought.

Preview: The First 15 Pages Of Hereville

Click here to read a preview of the first fifteen pages of Hereville!

Photos Of Premiereville! Including the first Hereville Cosplayers!

The Hereville premiere at Powell’s — or “Premiereville,” as Sara Ryan dubbed it on twitter — went very well. Almost 40 people came (which the Powell’s employees told me was very good for a first-time author), people seemed to enjoy the slideshow, and happily my head did not explode at any point during the proceedings.

Jennifer Frederick and Dan Pooley were nice enough to take photos, which Jenn has posted on Facebook. Here are some of the pictures!

Here I am, talking to a whole bunch of people. Notice, again, that my head has not exploded. This was a matter of some concern before the event.

Being very lazy, I asked a few of my friends to play parts during the reading portion of the show. (It’s hard to see in this photo, but panels were being projected on screen to go with the reading). Sydney (nearly 7 years old) read Zindel’s lines, Jenn (aka Bean, somewhat over 7 years old) read Gittel’s lines, and Flora, who volunteered from the audience to read Rochel’s lines (9 years old). Not in this photo: Brad Rosman (wise beyond his years) read the part of the pig with panache, and I (barely 18 years old! Really!) read Mirka’s lines. All the guest readers did a great job!

Sydney prepared for the reading by memorizing all her lines! We were all very impressed. She also contributed a crackerjack impression of a squeaking gate. Flora did a wonderful job reading, and only stumbled over one word, “gentile.” Her mom quipped from the audience “she’s never heard that word before because we’re Jewish.”

More pics — including photos of the cosplayers — after the jump!

Continue Reading…

Portland Opera’s “Hansel and Gretel”

This Monday, me and 19 other Portland cartoonists attended a dress rehearsal of the Portland Opera’s production of “Hansel and Gretel.” We were fed and wined, given a backstage tour, and then allowed to sketch and doodle during a full dress rehearsal. I had a great time.

Anyway, here’s the drawing I made, based on my sketches that night:

I’m hoping I’ll have time to do another drawing, this time of the witch, but I’m not sure if I will.

A few other cartoonists have also posted drawings and sketches: Jenn Manley Lee, Indigo Kelleigh, Jonathan Case, Emi Lenox, and (even though he wasn’t there) Mike Russell. I’m sure more sketches will be appearing; on twitter, watch the #pdxoperacomics hashtag.

Even Brilliant Bar Mitzvah Invitations Think This Is A Brilliant Bar Mitzvah Invitation

Jewish Women in Pop Culture #3: Rhoda Morgenstern

I love Rhoda. Although I wonder how many Hereville readers will know who she is without having to click on the link?

Michael Burstein article in The Boston Pheonix: “One of the most charming graphic novels published this year”

Michael A. Burstein, a science fiction writer whose stories have been nominated for multiple Hugos and a Nebula, writes:

Hereville is not your typical graphic novel, even from the alternative-comics press. Hereville’s population consists almost entirely of an Orthodox Jewish community. You might think that Deutsch himself is religious, but that turns out not to be the case: he’s an atheist who had a typical American Jewish childhood. “Our family wasn’t very observant when I was a kid. I went to Hebrew school, and we observed Passover and the High Holy Days. I also attended a Jewish summer camp, Camp Modin in Maine. But that was about it.”

Despite his lack of religious observance, he professes an affinity for Jewish culture, and he wants to see more visible Jewish characters in pop culture. Fifteen years ago, he read Liz Harris’s book Holy Days, about Hasidic life in Brooklyn, and it stayed with him. “Setting the story in a fictional Orthodox community lets me research traditional Jewish life, which is enormously fulfilling and also gives Mirka even greater barriers to overcome.

Read the whole article on the Boston Pheonix’s website.

A Fourth Starred Review For Hereville: “A witty, enormously clever adventure…”

The publicist at Abrams tells me it’s unusual for one book to receive over two starred reviews from the professional book press; Hereville has now gotten four. Wow! (Whoops, make that five! See the update at the bottom of this post.)

This newest starred review comes from The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Previous starred reviews have come from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal.

Raised in a closed Orthodox Jewish community, Mirka can’t even identify the strange animal she encounters as a pig; not only is it a pig, however, it’s a magical pig that belongs to a witchy woman who sees Mirka’s deepest wishes—to fight monsters and to be a hero—and offers her a quest to get a sword. Mirka must avoid shaming her family, getting into trouble, and, of course, being eaten by a troll, and, to her utter shock, she must actually use the knitting tricks and debate skills her stepmother has been patiently teaching her rather than any imagined sword-wielding prowess she has yet to test.

Deutsch carefully integrates Jewish traditions and customs as well as numerous Yiddish, Hebrew, and religious terms (made clear with definitions at the bottoms of pages) into this spirited graphic novel based on a webcomic. The result is an elegant, subtle examination into the gender roles, deep religious roots, and everyday cultural elements of an Orthodox Jewish society, while also being a witty, enormously clever adventure quest featuring a girl who will happily and firmly inform you that she is, indeed, hero material.

The story is primarily focused on the women in Mirka’s life, and their characters are well developed, from the perfectly balanced Fruma (who can be soothing, practical, or stern) to the mysterious and sardonic woman in the woods who helps Mirka fulfill her imagined destiny. The illustrations push their limits to enhance rather than simply reflect the text, with speech bubbles sometimes crowding the page and occasionally taking on shapes relevant to the words they contain; two colors—a creamy orange that represents day, and a smoky blue background once Mirka sneaks off in the night to face the troll—predominate.

Rare indeed is the book that successfully juggles adventure and religion, and the fact that this one perfectly handles a troll with a taste for both girls and knitting, the indelible ties of family, and traditional religious rituals in a way that informs outsiders makes it rarer still.

Wow! Thanks to the reviewer!

UPDATE: Make that five starred reviews! Thank you, Bank Street College of Education.

Interview, interview, interview!

There are three (!) new interviews with me available online:

* On the Blog of the Association of Jewish Libraries

* On Graphic Novel Reporter

* And on The Portland Examiner (part one of a three-part interview!)

Goodness! Thanks to all three interviewers for talking to me.