Klezmer: Book 1

On the back flap of First Second's english language edition of Joann Sfar's Klezmer it states that he has over one hundred books in print(!), which makes me feel a bit weird that this is the first of his I've picked up and read, and I really liked it too. First of all, his artwork is some of the loosest I've ever seen. It's very undisciplined and rushed looking, very very simple line work that approaches awful at times, but it's not just about the line work, but about the way it combines with some beautiful water color tones. That combination saves even the most minimal, sloppy drawing, making it all work in some mysterious and original fashion. And at times the drawing itself is quite delightful - he seems particularly adept at drawing his characters in such a way that when they smile, you can't help but smile too. What really holds the book together though is the story, which is humorous and charming like the Yiddish folk tales it emulates (or celebrates). At it's most basic, the book tells the story of the birth of a band. We get a little back story from each of the five main characters as they slowly move towards each other across Eastern Europe, and to Odessa. Although the tone is humorous, there's a darkness to the story too, that helps to give it some depth (two character's have been kicked out of their yeshiva for stealing, one character survives an attempted hanging by enraged peasants, another sees all his friends murdered before his eyes - barely escaping the same fate himself). There's even a romantic angle - a lot happens in just 110 pages. Which is one of the slightly frustrating things about finishing reading this book - it's really just the beginning of the story, but looking on First Second's website, I can find no hint that they plan to release the later volumes yet, even though at least two more are already available in french. I'm really looking forward to picking those up soon and seeing what happens next.