Forward.com

Comic Explores ShoahThough the Shoah seems out of place amid the bright colors, tights and capes of comic books, graphic novels have a long history of depicting the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman started writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” in 1972, and the mutant known as Wolverine was given a history in the Nazi extermination camp Sobibor. Last week, in Philadelphia, Marvel Comics announced that Greg Pak, best known for writing such characters as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, would be penning a new miniseries in September called “Magneto: Testament.”…Read more

Marvel Reveals Golden-Age Comic Book Hero’s IdentityFrom The Fantastic Four’s Benjamin Jacob Grimm (aka The Thing) to the 1980s Magen Dovid-sporting mutant Kitty Pryde, Jewish superheroes have been all over the comic book medium. But have any of them kept their religion a secret identity as long as Mister E? Also known as Victor Jay, Mister E first made his appearance in the February 1940 issue of Daring Mystery Comics #2.…Read more

The Teapacks Push the EnvelopeThis past May, the Teapacks were eliminated in the semifinals of the Eurovision song competition along with bands representing 17 other countries. Their elimination capped a months-long saga in which pop music collided with geopolitics, garnering international headlines for the six-member, ska-inflected, band originally hailing from the now-embattled Israeli town of Sderot.…Read more

Music Site Celebrates LaunchIs Erez Safar, 28, the hardest-working man in the Jewish music industry? He’s produced music as DJ Handler, released such acts as Y-Love and Juez on his label, Modular Moods, and ran the Sephardic Music Festival. And now he’s also the webmaster of Shemspeed, which he bills as the largest Jewish music site on the Internet. “What drives me is my insatiable desire to create something new,” Safar told the Forward. “I want to present a style that is Jewish and also stylin’.” To that end, the launch of Shemspeed contains a slew of features, from Jewish music videos to four streaming online radio stations. It is also very much a Web 2.0 project, with a constantly updated calendar that shows musical events around the world. Predictably, the calendars for the East Coast and Israel are filled, but Safar hopes to pack dates for Europe, Australia and even “Down South.”…Read more

What Does Gay, Jewish R&B Sound Like?What does an openly gay, Jewish R&B singer sound like? Thanks to Ari Gold, a formerly Orthodox kid out of the Bronx, the question isn’t speculative. On his newest album, “Transport Systems,” out this week, he answers that an openly gay, Jewish R&B singer sounds much like any good R&B phenom: a sexy, honey-tinged voice and lyrics about falling in love.…Read more