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Veteran cartoonist Stan Mack
zeros in on Jewish history.
L
ike a modern Moses, Stan
ing the golden age of the National Lam-
Mack had his revelation for
poon, drawing the feature "Mule's
the book at the summit of the
Diner." He put his graphic arts skills to
holy mountain. "I was stand-
use as an art director for the New York
ing at the top of Mount Sinai," the New
Herald Tribune and the New York Times.
York-based author, cartoonist and graph-
. After years of laying out the papers
ic designer says over a cup of coffee at a
while watching the reporters go out and
Greenwich Village coffee shop, not far
about, he got the yen to cover stories.
from his home. "I tried to imagine my
When the Village Voice redesigned its
family, as I knew them through all my
counter-culture weekly Mack got his
growing up years, standing there in the
chance, and "Real Life Funnies" was
sand way back. It was a weird kind of
born.
thought."
The strip, which ran weekly for 16
This weird thought was the genesis of years, was as idiosyncratic as the city it
Mack's latest book, The Story of the Jews,
covered, becoming a minor urban leg-
A 4,000-Year Adventure. Tracing the
end.
peripatetic history, Mack starts with
When the Voice went through anoth-
Abraham and ends with tomorrow — a
er metamorphosis a couple of years ago,
family discussing whether to take their
it did not include "Real Life Funnies."
Shabbat candles into space with them
No longer saddled with a weekly dead-
("The Rabbi says that since
line, Mack started to travel.
there are no days and nights in
"We rook a trip to the
space, there is no need to light
Middle East, walking in the
Shobbos candles." "We'll bring
steps of Moses, except in
them anyway").
reverse," he recalls. "We went
Along the way, he traces the
from Israel, through Jordan,
origins of Torah and Talmud,
across the Red Sea, the Gulf
shtetl and ghetto, Israel and the
of Aqaba, up the Sinai,
Diaspora. His approach is at
climbed- Mount Sinai in the
once unique and accessible,
middle of the night."
and the work is both authorita-
Between his epiphany on
tive and absorbing. Not quite a Stan Mack
Sinai and his desire for more
"graphic novel" nor a tradition-
knowledge of his history and
al illustrated book, it uses Mack's superb
heritage, The Story Of The Jews started to
skills as a cartoonist to encapsulate
evolve. "I wanted to do a single volume
4,000 years of history into somewhat
overview, popularly written, hip. The
more than 250 pages.
kind of thing I would want to read, or
Mack is another in a long line of
that the readers of my comic would be
unlikely Jewish scholars stretching from
interested in and be able to take on."
Hillel to Hertzl. A self-described street
Then came a couple of years of research,
kid from Providence, R.I., he got a min-
rewriting and refining. The book he
imal Jewish education up to his bar
finally released represents perhaps 10
mitzvah.
percent of the drawing he actually did.
"I had to have enough Hebrew
As he created The Story of the Jews,
school for that to happen, but I'm sure I
Mack grew more comfortable with his
gave the rabbi fits," he smiles. "We just
own heritage.
got through it. It was a shorter portion.
In part the book was a way to explore
"I think one of the reasons I wasn't
his own family's roots by tracking "the
very Jewish as a kid — my very Ortho-
whole tribe." Another part "was to find
dox grandfather lived with us, so I cer-
this pride. What was it about these peo-
tainly had a role model — was nobody
ple? It's incredible that they survived
ever explained anything. It just wasn't
and grew strong, despite all the ups and
part of my life. I was far more impressed
downs. I figured if I was going into it
by the secular world than the Jewish
with a sense of wonder, I'd communi-
world."
cate that." ❑
He went into the secular world in a
— Hank Bordowitz
big way, breaking into cartooning dur-
(—)