Funnybook City

Today is a good day, look what came in the mail for me...

Yep, that's a Spidey-Lego mini comic, A set of Spidey shot glasses (that I'm about to test out). And issue #10 of Jobnik. So, yep, I’m having a good evening.

Jobnik

According to the online Urban Dictionary a “Jobnik” is:

Israeli slang for a non-combatant soldier who serves his nation by doing secretarial work, clerking, counting inventory, or some other "job"-like function. Generally used with a hint of derision, as if the jobnik is lazier than a fighter.
Female form: jobnikit.
Plural form: jobnikim.
You want to be a jobnik? That's gonna be so boring, doing that for three years.

However, for the purposes of this post, Jobnik is the name of a thoroughly engrossing comic that tells the story of a US-born gal named Miriam Libicki, who emigrated to Israel, and then enlisted in the Israeli military.

The slice-of-life story that Miriam tells is honest, and, well, often unflattering to Miriam herself. Part of this is due to Miriam herself, many of her qualities seem to make her unsuited for Israeli De fence Forces (IDF) life: her Hebrew isn’t that good, she is very shy and passive, and she has a tendency to fall in love with anyone with a pulse that pays attention to her. If that weren’t enough, the Al Aqsa uprising, (A.K.A the second Palestinian Intifada), erupts a few weeks after she is stationed as a secretary in a remote Negev base. The story follows Miriam as she attempts to survive threats of terrorism, the rough IDF culture, and not least, her horrible taste in men.

I first learned about this comic when my Father-in-Law showed me an article about it in a Jewish newspaper, and then I met Miriam at a MoCCA convention and purchased some of her comics. Well, at this year’s MoCCA, I met her again, and bought more. The comic is well worth the investment and the story is both compelling and highly readable. Miriam does not sugar-coat what happens in her life, and that is what makes it even more compelling.

If you are Jewish, or if you just like autobiographical comics, then you should seek out Jobnik. There is now a graphic novel collecting the first six issues (she is up to seven issues in the series), as well as a number of “ancillary” comics that Libicki has published, that also make for good reading, and I highly recommend them all.

Two Days of Mocca

So, this past weekend I spent a couple of days at the annual MoCCA comicbook convention MoCCA is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in NYC. If you have never been it is far different from virtually every other comic book show in that the stars of this show are not Spider-Man, Superman, and the other heroes from the big three (four, five?), but are the small, independent comicbook publishers (like Atlas Unleashed). Yep, this show is the Sundance Film Festival to NYCC’s Oscar extravaganza.

Unlike at many shows that spotlight mainstream comics, where I can walk around all day long and never reach for my wallet, I felt that while I was at this show I found quite a number of books that I wanted to acquire — and yes, I put my hand in my pocket to pull out cash quite a few times.

Among the item that I purchased were Craig Yoe’s Secret Identity. A book that talks about some lost treasures drawn by Joe Schuster. I blogged about this a while back, but this was the first chance I had the opportunity to actually get my hands on a copy of the book. Craig very generously autographed the book to me (after I paid him for the privilege of owning it). I’ll talk more about the book after I’ve had the chance to read it, but I think it was a terrific find by Craig, and I’m glad that he wrote about it.

I also picked up a copy of Jobnik, which is the story about Miriam Libicki, an American Jewish girl from a religious home who — one summer against everyone's better judgment — moved to Israel and enlisted in the Israeli Army. Jobnik is her illustrated account of that journey. I had met Miriam a year ago at last year’s MoCCA and picked up a copy of her comic. I’m glad that she has issued the first six issues as a trade paperback, and I also scored a copy of issue #7 as well.

All-in-all, this was a very good show, and I had a great time and managed to conduct some business as well, not only for myself, but for my client as well. Now, after spending the weekend as a rock star, I get to come back home and finish writing my entries for The Official Index to the Marvel Comics Universe.

Talk to you all later.