Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage hosts comic-book exhibit (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Zap! Pow! Bam! The Super Hero: The Golden Age of Comic Books
What: An exhibit covering origins and history of comic books.
When: Through Jan. 4.
Where: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, 2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood.
Info: For tickets and details, call 216-593-0575 or go to MaltzJewishMuseum.org.

by Michael Sangiacomo / Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday September 15, 2008, 11:59 PM

The single, framed piece of yellowed paper from the early 1940s is unique and priceless in the truest sense of the words. The page has Joe Shuster's story pencil drawings of Superman with an inscription by Jerry Siegel to Batman artist Jerry Robinson. Siegel quips that if he had seen Robinson's art first, he might have hired him to draw Superman. The creators of Superman sharing a moment with the guy who created The Joker.

A comic fan's dream.

That's just one of more than 100 pieces on display at The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, where "Zap! Pow! Bam! The Super Hero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938-1950" exhibit begins Tuesday.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

Fitchburg State College launches Jewish lit series on Sept. 15 (Fitchburg Pride)

Fitchburg State College will explore themes of contemporary Jewish literature this school year by hosting a free five-part reading and discussion series called "Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature - Identity and Imagination."

The series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on a common theme. The library's series will focus on the theme Modern Marvels and includes a series of graphic novels. Throughout the Modern Marvels theme, five Jewish artists experiment with words and pictures to tell stories of childhood, war, and desire; to conjure up lost worlds, both real and imaginary; and to contemplate history, myth, and the individual psyche.

The library is one of more than 250 libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series developed by Nextbook and the American Library Association (ALA). Local support for the series is provided by CenterStage's New England Writers Series, by the Jewish Heritage Endowment and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.

The first program will bring graphic novelist Ben Katchor to campus to talk about his niche genre. The discussion is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. in Ellis White Lecture Hall of the Hammond Campus Center. It is free and open to the public.

The series continues with discussions on "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" on Sept. 23; "A Contract with God" by Will Eisner on Oct. 14; "Maus I/II" by Art Spiegelman on Oct. 28; and "The Quitter" by Harvey Pekar on Nov. 18. The series concludes with "The Rabbi's Cat" by Joann Sfar on Dec. 9.

All books are available for check-out at the college's Amelia V. Gallucci Cirio Library; as well as public libraries in Fitchburg, Leominster, Lunenburg, and Gardner; and libraries at Fitchburg High School and Leominster High School. Barnes & Noble in Leominster also has books available for purchase.

For details, please visit www.fsc.libguides.com/ltai, or contact librarian Sara Marks at (978) 665-3223 or at smarks@fsc.edu.-- SOURCE: Fitchburg Pride

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #167 (Comic Book Resources)

Here's a fun blog post, in which Brian Cronin shows that Will Eisner & Co. presciently predicted the bombing of Pearl Harbor in National Comics No. 18—which was published in November 1941 and, obviously, produced many months before that. The story was written by Gill Fox, with artwork by Lou Fine.

The only thing Eisner got wrong? He had Germany attacking the Hawaiian military base, not Japan!

Worth checking out!

Augusta, GA. Jewish literature series focuses on the graphic novel (Metro Spirit)

BY WILLICIA FARLEY

Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel
Reese Library, ASU
Monday, Sept. 8
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Free
706-729-2166
aug.edu

AUGUSTA, GA - Augusta State University library explores the world of Jewish literature in the series Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel, beginning on Monday, Sept. 8.

The "Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature" series is a program created by Next Book and the American Library Association. Government Document Librarian Yadira Payne is responsible for the program.

The first book to be discussed is “A Contract With God” by Will Eisner. According to Payne, this book was the first to hold the title as a graphic novel.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

Review: 'Best Crime Comics' is killer (Los Angeles Times)

"The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics" Edited by Paul Gravett
(Running Press, softcover, $17.95)

Earlier this year, there was quite a stir of attention (and appropriately so) for author David Hajdu's latest book, "The Ten Cent Plague: the Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America," which delved into the quirky and alarming crusades against comics in this country that reached their shrill peaks in the 1940s and 1950s. In a piece I wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, I admired the research but had some problems with the focus in the final analysis. That said, the book and its tale really stuck with me, and I think it should be on the bookshelf of anyone who loves comics history. And you know what should go right next to it? "The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics" and not just because both have oddly long and stilted titles.

If Hajdu gives us the motivation for the pop-culture offenses, this book, edited by Paul Gravett, gives us the crime-scene photos, so to speak. The book arrived in the mail the other day and the first thing I noticed was the heft; you get your money's worth with 480 pages of two-timing molls, square-jawed cops, doomed losers and booze-soaked ciphers. There's an impressive array of talent surveyed here, too, with classic names such as Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, Joe Simon, Jack Cole, Bernie Krigstein and Johnny Craig. More than that, "Best Crime" brings its lurid mission well into the contemporary decades, with comics work by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Charles Burns and mystery novelist Max Allan Collins (whose "Road to Perdition" comics spawned the film of the same name).

Click HERE to Keep Reading the Review By Geoff Boucher!

New Book From Will Eisner: "Expressive Anatomy"

James Vance has written comics and written about comics during his career. Most recently, he has been an editor on the W.W. Norton series of Will Eisner graphic novel reissues. So it was interesting to see this blog post on the release of the third of Eisner's instructional books, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative:

Will didn’t live long enough to see this one completely finished – there are a few brief bits that were fleshed out by other contributors based on Will’s outline – but it’s still a valuable contribution and quintessential Eisner-as-teacher: chatty, didactic and charming, often all at the same time.

One of my freelance gigs over the past few years has been as copy editor of Norton’s Eisner library, a gig that’s been simultaneously an honor and occasionally just a bit terrifying.

Most of the work that’s been reprinted by Norton was originally published by Kitchen Sink Press (and therefore edited by the near-infallible Dave Schreiner), so the books were already in damned good shape. And I’d gotten a thumbs-up from Will back when I worked on the editing of the original edition of Dropsie Avenue – including a thank-you in the book’s introductory material (and believe me: Will was a gentleman, but he didn’t weasel around with overt gestures if he didn’t mean them) – so I didn’t feel like a complete horse’s ass when it came time to take a red pencil to his stuff. Still, it was Eisner…

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

For more on the preparation of this book, check out my own interview with Pete Poplaski, who brought Eisner's notes and sketches together to complete this posthumous manuscript.

The Complete "Wonder Man" by Will Eisner, Online! (Tony Z)

Thanks to comic book blogger Tony Z, you can read the entire "Wonder Man" comic from May 1939, written and drawn by Will Eisner. He's posted the pages—reproduced from microfiche—on his new "Golden Age Heroes" blog. (EDITOR'S NOTE 9/2/08--YIKES! As you'll see in the comments below, I screwed up. This has corrected information!)

Here is the cover and splash page to whet your appetite:

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

The Spirit Section, Oct. 6, 1946 (The Blingdom of God)

Posted on The Blingdom of God