Pen-Elayne on the Web

To Life, To Life, L'Chaim!

A few years ago I toyed with an idea that still rattles around the back of my brain, writing a series of comic book stories from the point of view of women mentioned in the Bible (like the story of Purim [i.e., the Book of Esther] from the POV of Vashti's ghost, or a shorter version of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent about Dina). I was active at the time on the Usenet rec.arts.comics newsgroups, and an artist I "met" there by the name of Mike Netzer (formerly Nasser) said he'd be interested in illustrating such stories.

Well, life getting in the way as it does, I never got around to writing those stories (maybe my next job and living space will afford me the peace of mind and lack of stress to take them up again) and Mike and I lost touch. A few days ago, Charlie Boatner mentioned on the Friends of Lulu mailing list that the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan will be having a couple events next month entitled The People of the Comic Book: Superheroes and Jewish Culture, and their Ma'yan division wanted to contribute by presenting a women and comics panel. If it comes to pass I hope to be a part of it, but what really caught my eye was that the events are co-sponsored by a website called Jewish SuperHero.com, which apparently exists to promote a series of comic "books" on CD, and there was something about the art that caught my eye... they were drawn by Mike! Then I went onto the Jews in Comics Yahoo group and, sure enough, not only is there another plug for the JCC events but it seems that Mike has resurfaced to start a Yahoo group of his own. It's called The New Comic Book of Life, and the description reads as follows:

The notion that humanity is nearing an end to its long held social, political and economic hierarchies, is no longer a fear-instilled speculation in this troubled and stormy age. It is now becoming increasingly clear to so many that the cries of war have deafened our calls for peace - and that the suffering has taken its toll on the souls of this once noble civilization.

How do we begin the long journey back to the remembrance that we've all come from One Source? How do we begin our journey back to Peace through Unity?

Within the myriad of communications and education systems, divided and scattered upon the face of world cultures, one small beleaguered industry remains faithful to the message of hope and Salvation. An industry and an art form that have fermented the greatest creative minds and the strongest and brightest hope for saving a dying world.

Comic book writers, artists, editors and publishers will soon emerge as the Real Superheroes on the world's socio-political stage.

To this end, we the comic book creators - and you, the precious citizens of the world - must join hands together on this forum, in order to teach and thus remember what it takes to nourish the rose of hope from beneath the mudslides of futility which humanity has so bitterly sunken into.

This is Michael Netzer's THE NEW COMIC BOOK OF LIFE, striding toward a glorious reunion of our civilization's peoples and faiths under The One Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Commencing with the unification of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam along with all other spiritual and moral belief systems, culminating in the sojourn of mankind into the outer reaches of space - the planting of the seed of humanity into the New Garden, awaiting us on the not so distant TITAN, the curiously Earthlike satellite of the ringed planet Saturn.

Let's get the show on the road with a good creative spirit, one and all.

So, you know, I couldn't help but join up. Particularly when I saw the picture Mike put up of himself, very Alan Moore-ish! A lot of the New Agey-sounding stuff reads similar to Neal Adams' Science project (scroll to the bottom of the page), and I think that's deliberate as one of Mike's first posts to the list is an open apology to Adams regarding their past differences. Mike responded to my first post (where I asked permission to mention the group herein) by saying, "Yes, write about it everywhere you want. The first 5 posts on this forum give some background to the thrust of the discussions. Everything is open for the grabbing. You might want to have a look in the files section. A few comic book stories, a couple of manuscripts. Unpublished stuff." So while I'm not packing my bags for Titan just yet, I might force myself to finally pen that Vashti script now...