In Tablet Magazine this week, a look at Mendy and the Golem – “the first kosher comic book,” as its tagline had it. Basically I went off into a research K-hole on the history of Hasidic Jewish comix. It’s fun to explore the ways in which very religious people adapt pop culture for their own purposes; I devoured Daniel Radosh’s Rapture Ready, and once I start watching clean-cut Orthodox boys singing Taio Cruz ripoffs, I am lost in an out-of-body hypnotized Maccabeats spiral.
Hee! I had NO IDEA there were Jewish comics, too!!
I remember well the New Testament comics someone foisted off on my sisters and me when we were kids. It was just Batman without the spandex suit. Jesus practically had POW! next to his hands when he healed lepers. It was… disconcerting.
Ha, Tanita, so funny!! SUPERJESUS.
My mom gave my kids a very vintage copy of the Old Testament in comics — it’s hilarious. And maybe the prequel to the New Testament comics you read! 🙂 (Jewishly clueful Jews don’t use the term Old Testament, so the volume my mom found — at a used bookstore — was clearly from a Christian or secular publisher.)