Megillat Esther
JT Waldman
Jewish Publication Society Press, 2005
Don’t be fooled by this book’s standard-issue Jewish Publication Society cover. JT Waldman’s Megillat Esther is a captivating interpretation of the Scroll of Esther, and opts for art to represent the struggle for power and survival in ancient Persia.
In these pages, the skillful black-and-white caricatures of the Persian Jewish heroes and villains sail the reader across countless sequences of panels with their exaggerated hand motions and facial expressions. The innovative costumes and masks in which Waldman dresses the players are only fitting for the story that inspired the holiday of Purim. Among the best-dressed of the cast are the heroine Queen Esther, the former Queen Vashti, the worthy Mordechai, the weak King Ahaseurus and the malicious Haman.
Artfully snaking through the illustrations is the original Hebrew text, in striking, hand-drawn calligraphy. The script accompanies the graphic designs and provides a coherent backdrop and appropriate mood for an ancient tale of power, lust, and dissent. The story deepens through references to rabbinic commentary, though its own questions could be better integrated into the flow of the text.
Compounding the book’s unique romp through Jewish history is the literal revolution that happens halfway through the tale. The text and images get turned upside down and force the reader to continue Hebrew-style, reading from right to left. This crafty innovation not only influences the book materially; inverting the book is a metaphor for embarking upon an adventure across space and time, to the ancient city of Shushan.
Through a unique recounting of the Book of Esther, this graphic novella visually and textually unmasks villainy and heroism through the faces of the characters and the orientation of the page.
