Though the American comic book format has only been around for 75 years, every decade since 1933 has seen examples of stories taking place in Israel or using Israeli characters. There have been over a dozen examples since 2000 (and the decade’s not over yet!). This presentation showcases the variety and types of such representation. These include superhero stories, humor cartoons, first-person travelogues, “comics journalism,” biographies, wordless collages, graphic histories and graphic fiction. Though comics are still often seen as irrelevant and catering to a niche market, this presentation should demonstrate that there are notable exceptions, which make it worthwhile to be aware of what is being published and what those publications are trying to say.

An online handout which includes the visual elements of this presentation may be found at israelincomics.blogspot.com.

Steve Bergson is research administrator for the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and he blogs about Jewish comics at jewishcomics.blogspot.com. He gave this presentation at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 23, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

32 min 44 sec

Dr. Ellen Frankel is the Editor in Chief and CEO of the Jewish Publication Society. This podcast records the keynote address she gave at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 22, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

44 min 38 sec