Comic books are illuminating, a truly unique way to capture a story. When I was a little girl, I read newspaper comics on my dad’s lap while eating our cereal together in the morning. A few years later, I experienced the joy of being invited into my big brother’s world when he realized I was old enough to take interest in the characters and stories that he explored in his imagination through the comic books he loved. When you visit my office, you see near my much cherished cantorial ordination and master’s degree a sweetly framed comic about the Black Canary, a superheroine in American comics (created by Jewish writer Robert Kanigher). Black Canary, whose alter ego is Dinah Drake (Jewish, of course) has a vocal superpower: Her sonic scream can incapacitate her foes. Her voice is her strength, and naturally, I always admired how she was able to harness her skill to help others. Comics have been a vehicle for me to connect with others and to—in a fun but meaningful way—shine light on my own growing areas and strengths.
Last week, I picked up (and devoured in one day) New York Times cartoonist Liana Finck’s new graphic novel Let there Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation, a transcendent work based on the Book of Genesis. In a recent interview, Finck discussed how she always understood these first chapters from our Torah as children’s tales, wonderfully crafted vehicles for our young ones to remember our origin stories and ancestral narratives. Her retelling through comics brings a hilarious-but-poignant new adult perspective to our ancient stories; she finds a way to make God so understandable and our ancestors’ struggles so relatable. She makes the old new again with great humor, insight, and creativity.
All good stories can help us explore the meaning of our lives, the lessons and wisdom of those who wrestled before us, the sorrows and joys shared by all humanity; the best stories help us explore our own creativity and insight gifted to us by God. It’s always comforting to revisit the stories of our youth and to read them from a new point of view. May the stories of the Book of Genesis, indeed, all of the stories of our tradition serve as inspiration for our own creativity, helping us harness our own powers to create a better world.
—Cantor Emma Lutz
To see Finck’s new book, take a look here:
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/let-there-be-light-the-real-story-of-her-creation
