Joann Sfar

Collected in the latest issue of Minchō Magazine, this is an article on the work of the French-Jewish comic-book author and filmdirector, Joann Sfar. The complete issue is dedicated to monsters and their depiction in the world of arts, especially in the field of illustration. The article presents an overview on the humane universe that Joan Sfar has created for his own monsters to dwell. The magazine can be found here: http://minchomag.com/issue-13/

This paper aims to study the main characteristics of certain kind of comics whose narratives are taken from the poetics of the diary genre. We can point out at least two constructive models with a strong personality: on the one hand, the sketchbooks as the ones made by Robert Crumb and followed by Chris Ware; on the other hand, the “carnets” by Trondheim and Sfar, both of them belonging to the French collective called L´Association. Sketchbooks and carnets display a singular of way of shaping everyday life. They both disrupt the narrative and logic flow by incorporating a mixture of different kinds of materials in a sort of cumulative poetics

Este trabajo pretende estudiar las principales características de cieto tipo de cómic cuya narrativa toma elementos de la poética del diario. Podemos señalar al menos dos modelos constructivos con una fuerte personalidad: por un lado, los "sketchbooks" como los realizados por Rober Crumb e imitados por Chris Ware; por otro lado, los "carnets" de Trondheim y Sfar, ambos integrantes del colectivo francés L´Association.  Los sketchbooks y los carnets despliegan una forma singular de ahormar la vida cotidiana. Ambos desmantelan la lógica narrativa incorporando una mezcla de materiales en una suerte de poética acumulativa.

Le personnage de Merlin, en tant que tel ou sous l’un des nombreux avatars du magicien médiéval, est une figure centrale en Fantasy contemporaine. Dans la plupart de ces représentations, Merlin apparaît comme la figure héroïque dépeinte par Robert de Boron dans l’Estoire de Merlin. Cependant, il y a quelques exceptions à cette représentation, et la bande dessinée francophone en donne de parfaits exemples. A travers la représentation parodique du magicien, des séries comme Merlin de Joann Sfar et José Luis Munuera (Dargaud, 1999-2003), Kaamelott d’Alexandre Astier et Steven Dupré (Casterman, 2006- ), Thorgal de Grzegorz Rosinski et Jean Van Hamme (Le Lombard, 1980-2006) et Lanfeust de Troy de Christophe Arleston et Didier Tarquin (Soleil, 1994-2000) montrent que la bande dessinée francophone s’ancre dans la postmodernité littéraire et amorce une redéfinition du genre Fantasy et de ses motifs.

The figure of Merlin, either per se or under different avatars of the archetypal wizard, is a central figure in contemporary Fantasy. In most of these representations, Merlin or his counterparts are presented as the hero figure from the proto-legend. However, there are some exceptions to this representation, and the Francophone graphic novel is a case in point. A parodistic rewriting of the wizard’s figure, in series such as Merlin by Joann Sfar and José Luis Munuera (Dargaud, 1999-2003), Kaamelott by Alexandre Astier and Steven Dupré (Casterman, 2006-), Thorgal by Grzegorz Rosinski and Jean Van Hamme (Le Lombard, 1980-2006), and Lanfeust de Troy by Christophe Arleston and Didier Tarquin (Soleil, 1994-2000) shows that the Francophone graphic novel anchors itself in postmodernism while generating a redefinition of the Fantasy genre and its motifs.

This article, part of a Forum on Animals in Late Antiquity hosted on Ancient Jew Review, considers human/animal overlaps in the Mishnah in reproductive and other contexts through the lenses of contemporary art, disability studies scholars/artists, feminist science studies, and animal studies. It illuminates species-queer ways of thinking about bodily variation, reproduction, and nonconformity, that go beyond the oft-cited "image of God" (tselem elohim) concept. Relatedly, it calls on new materialist and feminist science studies for an approach to rabbinic texts that acknowledges the complex dynamics of power/knowledge involved in rabbis (elite, Jewish men) writing about women and animals, while themselves being subject to Roman imperial rule.

http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2018/5/8/when-species-meet-in-the-mishnah