A Bunch of Jews (and other stuff) is based on the 1938 short story collection of Trina Robbin's father, Muttel (Mutye) Perechudnik, and was originally published in Yiddish. This graphic novel features a collection of stories drawn from Muttel's (later Max Perlson's) life growing up in a shtetl in Belarus and immigrating to Brooklyn in the late 1910s at the age of 16. The memoir has been translated to English and adapted to graphic novel format by his daughter, Trina Robbins, who says of the stories within: "They are slyly humorous portraits of his little village in Belarus, and of life in Brooklyn after he came to America. It's a snapshot of a way of life that would end with the coming of the Nazis and WW2, although none of them knew it yet." The cover is by famed underground comic artist Barbara Mendes. Each of the 13 stories has been visually adapted by a different artist and includes contributions by: Steve Leialoha, Shary Flenniken, Eve Furchgott, Miriam Katin, Miriam Libicki, Sarah Glidden, Anne Timmons, Robert Triptow, Jen Vaughn, Elizabeth Watasin, Caryn Leschen, Joan Steacy, Ken Steacy, and Terry Laban.
A Bunch Of Jews (and Other Stuff)
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Author Description
In 1970, Trina Robbins produced the very first all-woman comic book, It Ain't Me, Babe. In 1972 she was one of the founding mothers of Wimmin's Comix, the longest-lasting women's anthology comic book (1972 - 1992). In the mid-1980s, tired of hearing publishers and editors say that girls don't read comics and that women had never drawn comics, she co-wrote (with catherine yronwood) Women and the Comics, the first of what would become a series of histories of women cartoonists. She has been responsible for rediscovering previously forgotten early women cartoonists like Nell Brinkley, Tarpe Mills, and Lily Renee. In 2013 Trina was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.