Thursday’s opening reception of POW!!! Jewish Comic Art and Influence, and its panel discussion, were covered in 3 publications this weekend.
NY Jewish Week features Jewish Comic Con Comes To Brooklyn, a 13 minute video by Aaron Herman.
What happens when comics and the Synagogue collide? Jewish Comic Con has come to Brooklyn! The exhibition—which runs through the weekend—opened last night at Congregation Kol Israel in Crown Heights.
The event explored how Jewish indentity has influenced comics, both on the page and behind the scenes, and features artwork from 32 different artists.
Jason Borelli wrote Jewish Comic Con Celebrates 2nd Event Alongside Art Exhibition for Bleeding Cool News.
“This is a very special moment in contemporary Jewish art,” says Joel Silverstein, founding member and curator for the Jewish Art Salon. “There are a lot of cross cons and a lot of interaction between different kinds of creativity. I saw this great kind of parallel development between contemporary Jewish art and comics. Jews have always had this intense connection to comics. The heads of the Golden and Silver Age were almost all Jews. The publishers [and] creators, almost all Jews.
“Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster were Jews, creating Superman. But the shift was with Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and that has really opened up an overt Jewish content to comics. Since then, there’s been an incredible outpouring, and Jewish Comic Con is the follow-up to that.”
The Jerusalem Post published New York, Nu York: The Con at the Cong by Ellen Levitt.
…”I was also pleased to see a piece of art done by my friend Lynne Cassouto, in which she depicted the characters of the Marvel Comic the Fantastic Four, celebrating Hanukkah! (The Human Torch lights the menorah, the Thing serves latkes, and so on.)”…
The exhibition was conceived by Joel Silverstein, who curated the artworks, along with Joshua Stulman and Goldie Gross. Production and curatorial advice was provided by Fred Polaniecki and Yona Verwer. The artworks are on view at the Brooklyn Jewish Art Gallery.
This exhibition of 32 international artists highlights the current explosion of comic books with Jewish themes and fine artists who use comics as inspiration.
Included in the exhibition are legendary artists, including: Jim Aparo, Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, Lynne Cassouto, Jessica Deutsch, Josh Edelglass, Max Gottfried, Goldie Gross, Bo Hampton, Alan Hobscheid, Paul Hoppe, Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Lon Levin, Sarah Lightman, Jacqueline Nicholls, Martin Nodell, Betty Palmer, Archie Rand, Henrik Rehr, Daniela Shapiro, Joel Silverstein, Hillel Smith, Emily Steinberg, Joshua H. Stulman, Matisyahu Tonti, Vitaly Umansky, Eli Valley, Julian Voloj, Al Wiesner, Ephraim Wuensch, Eugene Zhilinsky.
More info on the exhibit + images here.
The event is co-sponsored by Pratt Hadas Gallery, Be’chol Lashon, and AH Comics, publisher of SCI: The Jewish Comics Anthology, Vol. 2, edited by Steve Bergson, Grow and Behold, and Elul Wines.
