Thirty Six by Kristopher White (art: George Zapata, color: Micki Zurcher); Fossil Creek Productions, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9853612-0-4; 132 pages, $18.99.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — With current movies often focusing on Super Heroes, each seemingly more glamorous and powerful that the next, Kristopher White has reached into Jewish tradition and legend to present to us in a graphic novel format the “Lamed Vavniks” who supposedly are the 36 people upon whose good deeds the continued existence of the world depends.
According to the legend, the identities of the Lamed Vavniks are a secret, even to themselves, as they go about leading their exemplary, but normal, lives. Unlike the Super Heroes, the Lamed Vavniks are not necessarily glamorous; in fact, Zapata draws some of them as quite plain looking, and in some cases even ugly.
There’s a lesson in all this, of course. A person’s inner qualities, not his or her outward appearance, are what is important to the Almighty, and ought to be important to us as well.
However, Thirty Six–which is the numerical sum of the Hebrew letters lamed and vav — departs from the pleasant legend of quiet goodness, and bestows upon the Lamed Vavniks super powers and super enemies all conjured from biblical and talmudic exegesis as well as from common Jewish folktales.
The graphic novel begins with a giant creature — a golem — seeking to destroy a descendant of its creator, Rabbi Judah Loew who was known as the Maharal of Prague.
However, coming to the descendant’s aid is one of the Lamed Vavniks, who is armed with the staff of Moses, no less.
You don’t have to be clairvoyant to imagine who will prevail in that contest, but this is only a scene setter for further battles of epic, even Leviathan, proportions.
Personally, I prefer the idea of the Lamed Vavniks being quiet performers of every day mitzvot — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, nursing the sick and comforting the bereaved — but I can see how such a group, in the hyper-world of comic book action would remain forever on the shelves, even if they were published in the first place.
The complex story of the Lamed Vavniks — along with the predicaments they face in this particular novel– are well told and excitingly drawn.
It might be just what is necessary to get your bar mitzvah student (less so bat mitzvah, I imagine) interested in some of the lore to be found in Jewish studies.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com