I hope everyone celebrating Pesach this week is enjoying it! (And for everyone else, I hope you’re enjoying eating your soft, moist, delicious bread! Mmmmn….)
The Angry Geologist has posted a review of Hereville, and — fortunately — doesn’t seem too angry about it.
First, I’ve been unable to nail down the time period and place this is supposed to be set in. We could be talking about an insular community in post-war Europe, or a 1950’s Levitton, or ten years from now. I mean I can nail it down a little bit- they didn’t have electric stoves or lightswitches in the 1400’s. Stuff like that absolutely fascinates me. And as far as we can tell from the kids’ point of view, magic more than exists in the world.
Second, the cast is entirely Orthodox Jewish (with the exception of the possible witch that Mirka and her brother meet, but you’ll have to read it to find out what’s up with that), and the creator Barry Deutsch really brings their family traditions to life. You don’t see too many of that particular faith in comics, and it’s a refreshing change of pace.
There’s more — you’ll have to go over to Angry Geologist’s place to read the whole thing.
Meanwhile, the blog Jewish Comics — which is exactly what it sounds like, a blog about Jewish comics (both Jewish creators and Jewish characters) — has very kindly linked to Hereville and posted a round-up of some other folks’ reviews. I had forgotten all about Mary Ellen Slayter’s Washington Post article from a few years back, and her pithy one-line description of “Hereville”:
What do you get when you cross “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Isaac Bashevis Singer?
As a “Buffy” fan, I was very pleased with that. :-)
So please check out those links — and for anyone interested in the general topic of Jews in comics, you may enjoy browsing through the Jewish Comics archives.
I’d just like to say that I think Hereville is awesome. It’s not only entertaining but also educational to a non-Jewish person – I like a little subtle education with my entertainment, makes me feel clever ;).
I was thinking it would be excellent as a way to teach kids, or anyone, about being Orthodox Jewish whilst still being fun – like in a Religious education class, or for home-schooling for example. I love how there are non-English* words used naturally but non-confusingly.
I hope you have a lot of success with it.
*Yiddish? I was thinking Hebrew initially, but then I looked up “daven/davening” (look – I learnt/remembered something!) and it said it was Yiddish. I am now looking up what EXACTLY Yiddish is. See the learning this comic prompts? That’s why I think it’s awesome.