AUTUMN NEWS

THe wolf goes to norway!

Excited to announce that there will be two screenings of The Wolf of Baghdad in Norway next month. The first will be at the Jewish Cultural Festival in Trondheim on Saturday 2 September and the second at Oslo’s Jewish Museum on the 3 September. After both screenings there will be a conversation with renowned author Lyn Julius, who wrote the book Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilisation in the Arab World Vanished Overnight, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

---

THE JEWISH COMICS EXPERIENCE

The Wolf of Baghdad graphic memoir has been chosen by the American Sephardi Federation as their contribution to the Jewish Comics Experience in New York at the Center for Jewish History, 11-12 November. I’ve been invited to speak on a panel about breaking the Ashkenormativity of the comics industry (!). Honoured for the Wolf to be a part of this exhibition as well.

Here’s part of the text that will accompany images from the book, written by Broome & Allen Fellow Moises Bendahan:

‘Comics as a Repository of Family Memories
Thriving Sephardic communities laid the foundation for the flourishing of Greater Sephardi (sometimes referred to as Mizrahi) identity, and contributions to the global Jewish mosaic. The Wolf of Baghdad by Carol Isaacs is an innovative graphic memoir that skillfully blends the conventions of a traditional memoir and a graphic novel. The wolf is a mythical protector of Baghdadi Jews. Despite that the community suffered upheavals, from the Farhud to denationalization, expulsion, escape, or death. Within its pages, Isaacs embarks on an experimental journey through her family’s history, offering a unique perspective on the experiences of the Jewish community in Iraq during the 20th Century. Through a captivating wordless narrative, Isaacs artfully intertwines the written testimonies of her family members with beautifully drawn portraits of each individual. The result is an immersive and visually stunning exploration, as Isaacs seeks to uncover answers to her deepest questions about her family’s past.‘

---

BELSIZE LIBRARY TALK

Closer to home I will be doing a slideshow presentation with music about The Wolf of Baghdad project at Belsize Community Library on Thursday October 19th at 7:30PM If you’re around, do come along!

---

JEWISH WOMEN IN COMICS – BODIES AND BORDERS

Honoured to have my short comic Deep Home featured in the book Jewish Women in Comics – Bodies and Borders, a collection of essays, interviews and artwork. Accompanying my work is an essay by Ariel Kahn. Here’s a short excerpt from his commentary:

‘On Deep Home, by The Surreal McCoy. Introduced by Ariel Kahn Deep Home subverts key tropes of Britishness and domestic space to recreate an Iraqi homeland in suburbia, one Sunday tea at a time…[Deep Home] depicts, with vividness and sensuality, the ways domestic ritual resonate with buried collective and personal histories and the fruitful possibility of cultural exchange.’

---

BREAKING NEWS!

There will be another screening of The Wolf of Baghdad, this time in Toronto’s Holocaust Museum on Wednesday October 11. To be followed by an interview and audience Q&A moderated by Jewish Comics scholar Dr Matt Reingold. More details to come…