Rutu Modan

With family, you don't have to tell the whole truth and it's not considered lying.
-Michaela Modan, epigraph

Mica accompanies her grandmother to Warsaw from Israel, purportedly to recover a family apartment that was confiscated during the Holocaust. Once there, however, Mica begins to suspect that her grandmother has a different motive for the trip. The Property features strong women, humor with a touch of sarcasm, and understated motifs that are more powerful for the lack of show more heavy-handedness.

The illustrations in this graphic novel are at times blocky and at times finely detailed, with wonderful expressiveness. The colors are muted with lots of maroon, black, and mustard. The text is translated into block letters for Hebrew, italics for Polish, and mixed case for English. When Mica doesn't understand what people are saying, the text is just squiggles. The artwork complements the story well. show less

A collection of Modan's short works, which have previously been published with other Actus materials (Actus being the Israeli comics collective to which Modan belongs, along with Yirmi Pinkus, Batia Kolton, Itzik Rennert and Mira Friedmann). As usual, her flatly drawn charachers invoke strong emotions with their rich inner lives that they either cannot or will not reveal to others. Their reactions to their respective dramatic events are equally agonizing, whether brought about by a fantasy show more (such in the more surreal pieces) or by the extreme reality which is Israeli modern life. Due to her ability to wrench so much emotion from such a simple style (or perhaps because of it), I would absolutely call Modan one of the gems in the modern sequential art community. show less

A couple of months after her father’s death, Mica accompanies her grandmother, Regina, to Warsaw to recover the property her great-grandparents owned before the Holocaust. This is Regina’s first visit to Warsaw since she emigrated to Israel as a young woman before the war. Once they arrive in Warsaw, Regina doesn’t seem to want to accompany Mica anywhere or to do anything about the lost property. Mica is attracted to a tour guide she meets on the first day of their visit, and Regina show more reconnects with someone from her past. And why is the cantor from her father’s funeral following Mica everywhere after they ran into him on the plane? This lovely graphic novel explores relationships, loss, and memory. Despite the underlying sadness and loss, the novel ends on a hopeful note as both Mica and Regina seem to have found what they sought from their journey. show less

Rutu Modan is one of my favorite comic writers. Tunnels is her 4th graphic novel to be published. She also teaches at Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem. In Tunnels we read about a race to find the Ark of the Covenant in underground tunnels on the Palestinian side of Israel. When a big antiquities collector is forced to donate his entire collection to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Nili Broshi sees her last chance to finish an archeological expedition begun by her father show more decades earlier. She believes that the dig will locate the Jewish Ark of the Covenant, the most important artifact in the Middle East. Motivated by a desire to reinstate her father's legacy as a great archeologist after a rival accepted the tenure her father earned, Nili gathers a ragtag crew to help her: a religious nationalist, her traitor brother and her childhood Palestinian friend. As Nili's father slips further and further into dementia, warring factions close in on and fight over the Ark. The author believes that the biblical Israel lies in one of the most disputed regions in the world, occupied by Israel and contested by Palestine. Often in direct competition, Israelis and Palestinians dig alongside one another, hoping to find the sacred artifact which is believed to be a conduit to God.

Tunnels is a great adventure story. It delves into the world of Israeli archeology, the rivalry in academia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the author stated in her Afterword, Tunnels is the most complex story she has ever written. The story grabbed me from the beginning. I knew that it was fiction but everything seemed so real. Perhaps this is because the characters have both good and bad attributes, just like the rest of us. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story for mystery readers as well. In addition, there are a few subplots that add to the story. For instance, Nili believes that a tablet uncovered by an antiquities dealer, who buys from ISIS, will uncover the place where the Ark is located. Someone has to be able to decipher what the tablet says, though.

The pacing of the comic is perfect. It is a brilliant story with awesome illustrations by the author. I am so glad that Ishai Mishory translated this book into English so that I could enjoy it. Tunnels is a fabulous read. 5 out of 5 stars. show less