Pre-Fulbright Panic Attacks

I leave for Argentina in two weeks and two days.

Two weeks. And two days.

I complain constantly about having to live in Chicago (with my parents) while I wait for my Fulbright and real life to begin. But amid all that hemming and hawing I created life for myself. Services at the synagogue, an internship downtown, and friends have kept me occupied. Now, finally I feel settled in Chicago and I’m leaving. If you’ve talked with me these past few weeks, I’ve probably talked about this a thousand times. To get excited for my journey and leave my life in Chicago, I’ve been thinking about awesome things about Argentina, like my Argentine friends, empanadas and steak, cheap comics, amazing public transportation, and 70 degree weather.

One thing I said I would do before I left is to create a list of must-read comics. I obviously won’t be here to suggest comics, so I’m going to make a few lists of good comics to read:

Memoirs:

1. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

2. Funny Misshapen Body by Jeffrey Brown

3. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

4. Epileptic by David B.

5. American Splendor by Harvey Pekar

6. French Milk by Lucy Knisley

7. Understanding Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden

8. Maus by Art Spiegelman

9. Self-Loathing #2 by R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb

10. Safe Area Gorzade by Joe Sacco

If I Were a Writer: Yiddish Literature and Comics

In my last semester of college, I took a Yiddish Literature and Culture class. We read the classics, watched movies, and listened to Klezmer music. As you all know, I am obsessed with comics, so when I found some with Yiddish themes, I sent them immediately to my teacher. After being inundated with a few emails (each recommending another comic), he wrote me back saying “These will come in handy when I teach my Jewish Graphic Novel course!” To this day I am not sure if he was mocking me or is actually going to teach that class.

So if he WERE going to teach that class, I would want him to include these comics in his Yiddish section:

Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East by Joann Sfar

Lubavich, Ukraine, 1876 by Sammy Harkham (This comic is online, so check it out!)

Market Day by James Strum

I would go back to college to take that class, mark my words.

As a side note, I think The Dybbuk, a play about Jewish mysticism, love, and possession, would be the best graphic novel ever. The darkness of a small shtel, the flashbacks, fast forwards, and history, the ghosts and death! I would just become a writer/artist to translate The Dybbuk to comic form.

Here are some scenes from the movie of The Dybbuk:

The Dance of Death

The whole movie is also online.