Review of Visualizing Jewish Narrative: Essays on Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels edited by Derek Parker Royal

Derek Parker Royal’s edited collection Visualizing Jewish Narrative demonstrates that enduring questions can be found at the intersection of Jewish identity and the world of comics—the industry, the cultural phenomenon, and the field of academic inquiry. Parker Royal articulates the goals of the collection, which 1) “offers a useful introduction to Jewish comics and the criticism surrounding them;” 2) demonstrates “the rich potential of this ever-growing field;” and 3) argues that “the history and the significance of Jewish narrative is more than mere words on a page” (10). The collection’s goals are ambitious, offering a focus that “is broad and inclusive, reflecting the diversity found in the medium” (8)—and, I would argue, the ethnoracial landscape of what it means to be Jewish(-American)