PASSOVER HAGGADAH GRAPHIC NOVEL - Serio Comics 16
PASSOVER HAGGADAH GRAPHIC NOVEL written by Jordan Gorfinkel and drawn by Erez Zadok, published by Koren
It’s Haggadah writing season for me as the author of five previous comedy books for the Jewish holiday of Passover about Trump, Seinfeld, Biden-Harris, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Kanye West.
The 6th one is in the works.
And randomly on my last day as I sent out a goodbye email to my day job WME about what I was doing next, i.e. the SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? graphic novel, the daughter of the author of the PASSOVER HAGGADAH GRAPHIC NOVEL happened to be working as an assistant and sent me an email offering to introduce us.
Her father, Jordan B. Gorfinkel, is an American comic book creator, newspaper cartoonist, and an animation and multi-media entertainment producer. He was an editor at DC Comics for nearly a decade where he managed the Batman franchise. His most notable additions to the Batman universe include Birds of Prey which was adapted into a 2020 film, and Batman: No Man's Land, which served as inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s 2012 movie The Dark Knight Rises.
Jordan and I did indeed connect via his daughter and are set to speak later this month.
But in the meantime I re-read his and Erez Zadok’s PASSOVER HAGGADAH GRAPHIC NOVEL.
Which is available at Goodreads, indie retailers at Bookshop.org, from the publisher Koren, at Skylight here in LA, and via Amazon.
One of the first things I noticed is that Gorfinkel cites Jewish-Americans as innovators in the sequential storytelling style of comics.
As Rabbi Joe Klein writes in a lecture at Oakland University:
Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the original X-Men all have two things in common: They’re all superheroes and they were all created by Jews. The preeminent creators in comic book history are all Jewish men — Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster (Superman), Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Batman), Wil Eisner (the Spirit) Joe Kubert (Sgt. Rock), Jack Kirby and Joe Simon (Captain America) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Spider-Man, the Hulk, Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men and many more).
Michael E. Uslan who was written about in Serio Comics 11 for bringing Batman to the movies even touched on how Superman was a refashioning of the Moses rescues the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt story, which is the basis of the holiday of Passover and the Haggadah.
“So I said to him ‘Can I ask you two questions?’ He said, ‘Ask me anything you’d like.’ I said, ‘Are you familiar with the story of Moses? Can you summarize very briefly the story of Moses?’ He looked at me like I was crazy and replied, ‘Well, I don’t know what game you’re playing here, but I’ll play it with you. The children of Israel were being persecuted, their first born sons were being slain. A Hebrew couple put their infant son in a wicker basket and sent him down the River Nile where he was discovered by an Egyptian family and raised as their own son. When he grew up and learned of his heritage, he became a hero to his people because …’ And I said ‘Stop. That’s great. You said before that you read Superman comics?’ ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I always read them as a kid.’ I asked, ‘Do you know the origin of Superman?’ and he replied, ‘The planet Krypton was about to blow up and a scientist and his wife placed their infant son in a little rocket ship and sent him to Earth where he was discovered by the Kents who raised him as their own son. And then when he grew up …’ He stopped, stared at me for an eternity, and said, ‘Mr Uslan, your course is accredited.’ I became the first college professor of comic books!”
You can see in Gorfinkel and Zadok’s Haggadah some of the fantastical and supernatural imagery you might see in similar Superhero comics:
But it’s also hard not to see recent events in the region in these images as well:
The Haggadah itself provides both the moral basis for defending the nation of Israel:
And perhaps indirectly provides some visceral understanding of the cost to others:
In a way, Jewish-American Superheroes convey the Good versus Evil dynamics of the history of its writers’ heritage, i.e. Israel versus the Egyptians or Jews versus Others.
Rabbi Klein writes about how Jews often disguise themselves as People of No Action like Clark Kent to evade persecution when they’re also People of Action like Superman.
The same people who were the victims of the Holocaust and not allowed in regular industries in America were also the heroes who finally refounded after millenias a Jewish nation-state and started new industries in the US like comics and film.
And yet as times evolved so have Superheroes.
Superman was the first in 1934 and routinely saved the world completely and for only the better.
But by 1975 there were characters like Magneto, a Holocaust survivor embittered by humanity’s silence in the face of Nazi barbarity, who was a complex villain and at the same time a tragic figure who wanted only to save his people.
As I debate writing in the introduction of my sixth Haggadah whether portions of profits will be donated to the state of Israel this time.
I also believe perhaps it’s time for it and all of us to continue to evolve and compromise a bit more, too.
Also, my graphic novel illustrator, Gabriel, is offering art lessons for kids and adults!
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