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In the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, dozens of Jewish papers across the globe ran Dayenu, a single-panel gag comedian collection created by one Henry Leonard. That was only a poorly-protected nom de plume for the workforce of Rabbi Harry Rabin, who wrote the cartoons, and promoting and artwork director Leonard Pritikin, who drew them. These cartoons had been in style sufficient to have a collection of ebook collections printed by New York’s Crown Publishers, however these volumes have been out of print for about half a century. Now, by association with Leonard Pritikin’s heirs. About Comics is making Dayenu out there as soon as once more. Dayenu launched within the Fifties within the Jewish Voice, a publication based mostly in Los Angeles, which is the place Rabin had varied positions together with being Executive Director of the Los Angeles Hillel council During the Nineteen Sixties, Crown printed 4 collections of the gags: Open Your Mouth and Say “Oy” (1960), Never on Shabbas! (1962), With a Little Bit of Mazel-Tov! (1965), and Bagel Power (1969). About Comics has not solely reprinted all 4 of those as stand-alone volumes priced at $10 apiece, but additionally collected all 4 into one quantity, Dayenu Dayenu, for $20.
Dayenu (pronounced dah-YAY-noo) is a Hebrew phrase that means “that would have been enough”, and is used religiously in response to the itemizing of issues that G-d has carried out for the Jews. Acclaimed author Harry Golden, in his foreword for Never on Shabbas!, notes that the time period “lends itself very well to this aspect of our people – the ability to poke fun at ourselves.” The cartoons cope with then-modern (and in some ways, nonetheless fashionable) Jewish life in a laughing, loving method, masking the whole lot from vacation meals to synagogue attendance to coping with antisemitism. A operating subset of the collection are scenes marked “When the Messiah Comes….”, exhibiting what an ideal world could be prefer to poke enjoyable on the imperfections of the world as it’s.
“For years I’ve published a line of reprints of religious cartoons of the 1950s and ’60s,” explains Nat Gertler, head honcho of About Comics (actually, sole honcho; About is a mono-honcho publishing imprint.) “I’ve put out about 20 books of Catholic cartoons, including Cracks in the Cloisters, which is monk and nun cartoons by an actual monk, and Heavenly Days by Carol Meiling, nun cartoons by a woman that my research suggests was a nun. And then there’s Lots of Fun in Church, a book of Episcopal cartoons written by Reverend Henry Charlton Beck. But I’m a Jew, and I’d been looking for a good set of relevant cartoons. To have ‘Dayenu’, this lighthearted series written by a rabbi, really satisfies a need.”
Open Your Mouth and Say “Oy” (ISBN 978-1-949996-44-9, 76 pages), Never on Shabbas! (978-1-949996-47-0, 84 pages), With a Little Bit of Mazel-Tov! (ISBN 978-1-949996-46-3, 82 pages), and Bagel Power (ISBN 978-1-949996-48-7, 68 pages) are 5.25″x8″ paperbacks with black-and-white interiors priced at $10 US apiece. Dayenu Dayenu (ISBN 978-1949996494) is a 296 web page 8.5″x5.5″ black-and-white paperback priced at $20 US. Comic ebook retailers and bookstores excited by carrying them ought to contact questions@aboutcomics.com
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