In Time

The February 7 edition of Time is running a great piece on Paul Hornschemeier, Marjane Satrapi, Rieko Saibara (Japanese only, sorry), and Joann Sfar. It's a fairly well rounded roll call of some great artists at the forefront of the medium right now; and as Alan David Doane points out, Horschemeier's book will be the artist's first big release from Fantagraphics, who is now publishing his Forlorn Funnies.

Since I was only previously familiar with the first two of the subjects here, I've got to give this article credit for giving me a few more books to look forward to in the coming year. All of them represent incredibly unique cultural perspectives that I think the comics tag team of showing with visual art in conjunction with telling through prose is meant to showcase. Take Sfan's Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi's Cat), which is getting translated to English later this year.

His greatest success is the graphic- novel series Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi's Cat), which explores the life of an old rabbi and his daughter in an Algerian town that is home to both Jews and Muslims--all through the eyes of his irreverent, scrawny cat. "What I wanted to do is use humor and irony to explore the daily lives of religious folk," says Sfar, "which is a change from the rather militant antireligion sentiment in France today." An English translation is due in the U.S. in August.

Sfar's father's side is Algerian Jewish, while his mother's lineage comes from Jews in Ukraine. Sfar is a native of Nice. His stories of Sephardic and Ashkenazic differences, and Jewish-Muslim relations, have resonated with readers in France. Says Sfar: "Not long ago I gave a talk to some 17-year-old students, where most were Arab. Afterward, two girls came up to me and said, 'We adored it because we could see how Jewish families are just as screwed up as Arab families.' That made me smile."

Satrapi's Persepolis books were both incredible.



In April, she will release a provocative nonfiction comic book, Embroideries, that explores the sex lives of Iranian women.