Joan Sfar's graphic novels "The Rabbi's Cat" and "Klezmer"

The beginning of my current fixation on the 30's.. well, actually it began two years ago when I finally got round to listening to the legendary Harry Smith "Anthology of American Folk Music", which is something every music fan HAS to get round to sooner or later. But the REALLY current fixation started when I got into two books by French comic book artist Joann Sfar, "The Rabbi's Cat" and "Klezmer". Sfar is Jewish.



"The Rabbi's Cat" is based on stories from his fathers Algerian family - it's about a nice old rabbi living in Algeria in the 30's, and about his (sometimes) talking cat. The book is a mix of historical and theological information, magical realism and fantasy. I particularly liked the last story in the English language volume 1 (which contains three French volumes), which is about the Rabbi going to Paris with his daighter and her new husband, on their honeymoon. At first he's grumpy about 'going all the way up to the eskimos', but he slowly gets to like Paris. It's a really sweet story. :)

Here's the cover for the Spanish edition of the Paris story - like I said,the same story is in the English book too, they just chose a different cover.


"Klezmer" is based on stories from his eastern european Jewish mother. I couldn't find an exact date in the book, but I think it's supposed to be set in the thirties too. It's pre world war Eastern Europe. It's a darker series than "The Rabbi's Cat", the Eastern European Jews probably had lives that were a lot rougher than the ones in Algeria. I loved the sweetness of the rabbi series, but this works great too, as a dark flip-side to the other series, the art is rougher too. Sfar is always a fast working cartoonist - apparently he's got around a hundred books in print in France - but in "Klezmer" his art is VERY rough. But it's great, the drawing are like those wonderful first sketches a lot of artists do that they're never able to quite match in the finished art. Except in this book the sketches ARE the finished art. Highly recommended!

(page above is from the French edition, but it's in the English edition too.)

Sfar also does great (none 30's) books about vampires and golems and space pirates and sword-fighting ducks. I've liked everything I've read so far, will get round to reading more.

Lovely music video animated by Sfar: