Art Review: Various: “Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women”

It turns out that Jewish women illustrators don't fixate on religion. Instead, they wax funny and philosophical about their families, friends, lovers, and themselves. At least this is true for the 18 Jewish women featured in “Graphic Details,” a survey of past and present luminaries in the world of autobiographic cartoons and graphic novels. R. Crumb's wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, is represented. So is Sharon Rudahl, who in 1972 cocreated the collective known as Wimmen's Comix. And so is Laurie Sandell, a journalist and graphic artist whose illustrated 2009 book, The Impostor's Daughter: A True Memoir, tells the story of her father's deceptions. The Cartoon Art Museum says “Graphic Details” is the “first museum exhibit to showcase the singular voices of female Jewish artists whose revealing diaristic and confessional work has influenced the world of comics over the last four decades.” The exhibit may be a panorama, but the work of Sandell and Kominsky-Crumb stands out — humorous, biting, revealing, well-drawn, and timeless, with a layer of darkness just below the surface.