Comic Confessionals

Comic books are not often thought of as the domain of Jewish women, but “Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women” aims to change that perception. Many of the most transgressive and influential comics of the past 75 years were written and drawn by Jewish women, and now a survey of their work is opening this Tuesday at the Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU (301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Curated by Michael Kaminer and Sarah Lightman, the exhibition features Lightman’s drawings of food and her possessions, which track her swelling and collapsing relationships. Works by 17 other autobiographical artists, spanning a 40-year age range, are also showcased in “Graphic Details.” All of them are Jewish, and all of them are women. What’s not to like? Diane Noomin was a pioneer of confessional comics as the creator of DiDi Glitz, her booze-and-pill-swilling alter ego waging a scorched-earth campaign against her own aging. Though the DiDi Glitz comics tend toward exaggeration, Noomin also created the groundbreaking The C-Word about her own abortion (“C” referring to, among other things, “choice”). Noomin is also the cofounder with Aline Kominsky-Crumb of Twisted Sisters Comics, which in the 1970s exclusively published women artists. Kominsky-Crumb is a part of “Graphic Details” as well. Though she is often grouped with her husband, R. Crumb, for their overlapping work in the early days of confessional comics, the Jewish Museum will showcase her diverse and separate body of work that has earned regard in its own right. South Florida is represented by native Sarah Lazarovic, who chronicled a year of her life by painting all of the high-priced fashion she chose not to buy during that time.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Nov. 5. Continues through Feb. 16, 2013