''The Rabbi's Cat'' (

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

title: ''Le Chat du Rabbin'') is a series of

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s created by

Joann Sfar Joann Sfar (; born 28 August 1971) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director. Life and career Sfar was born in Nice, the son of Lilou, a pop singer, who died when he was three, and André Sfar, a lawyer well know ...

. It was originally published in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Dargaud Société Dargaud (), doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud, publishing its first comics in 1943. ...

as a series of graphic albums. English translations of the first five stories have been released by

Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint. Founded in 1942 as an independent publishing house in New York City by Kurt and Helen Wolff, it specialized in introducing progressive European works to American readers. In 1961, it was ...

. Some volumes were also translated into Spanish, Croatian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, and German.

Albums

Original publications

# ''La Bar-Mitsva'' (2002) , prefaced by Éliette Abécassis. Translated into English, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. # ''Le Malka des lions'' (2002) , prefaced by

Fellag Mohamed Fellag (born 31 March 1950 in Azeffoun, Tizi Ouzou) is an Algerian comedian, writer, humorist, and actor. In 1958, at the height of the Algerian war of independence, his father took him and his younger brother, for their safety, to stay w ...

. Translated into English, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. # ''L'Exode'' (2003) , with a preface by

Georges Moustaki Georges Moustaki (born Giuseppe Mustacchi; 3 May 1934 – 23 May 2013) was an Egyptian- French singer-songwriter of Greek-Jewish origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, Fran ...

. Translated into English, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. # ''Le Paradis terrestre'' (2005) , with a preface by

Jean Giraud Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian comics, Franco-Belgian ''bandes dessinées'' (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predomin ...

. Translated into English, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. # ''Jérusalem d'Afrique'' (2006) , prefaced by

Philippe Val Philippe Val (; born 14 September 1952) is a French journalist, singer, and comedian. He was a co-founder of the second iteration of ''Charlie Hebdo'' in 1992, serving as the satirical political weekly's editor and director. After leaving ''Char ...

. Joann Sfar describes this album in a preface as a story against racism. Translated into English, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. # ''Tu n'auras pas d'autre Dieu que moi'' (2015) . Translated into Dutch, German, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. # ''La tour de Bab-El-Oued'' (2017) . Translated into Dutch, German, Polish and Spanish. # ''Petit panier aux amandes'' (2018) . Translated into Dutch, German, Polish and Spanish. # ''La Reine de Shabbat'' (2019) . Translated into Polish and German. # ''Rentrez chez vous !'' (2020) . Translated into Polish and German. # ''La Bible pour les chats'', (2021) .

Translations

English

*''The Rabbi's Cat'', Pantheon, 2007 (Books 1-3) . *''The Rabbi's Cat 2'', Pantheon, 2008 (Books 4-5) .

Croatian

*''Rabinov mačak'', Bookglobe, Zagreb, Croatia, 2013 (Books 1-5) .

Russian

* ''Кот раввина'', 2021 .

German

*''Die Katze des Rabbiners 1'', avant-verlag, 2014 (Books 1-3) . *''Die Katze des Rabbiners 2'', avant-verlag, 2015 (Books 4-5) . *''Die Katze des Rabbiners 3'', avant-verlag, 2019 (Books 6-8) . *''Die Katze des Rabbiners 4'', avant-verlag, 2022 (Books 9-10) .

Reception

The comic books received positive reviews. The ''

Kirkus reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the first English album "An unexpectedly haunting work from a major talent", and described it as follows:

Although dusted with fantasy, the book is powerfully real, etched with the dark shadows of an ancient society where Jews, French and Arabs mixed, a world soon to be swept away by the winds of war and modernity. Sfar’s artwork is playfully exaggerated, adding to the otherworldly feel here, while his writing is smart and sharp, perfectly counteracting any burgeoning colonial-era nostalgia the pages might evoke.

Diane Snyder in a review of second English album for the ''Armchair Interviews'' said that it "remind you of Aesop’s Fables." Review for the ''Jewish Book Council'' called the second album "A little darker than the first ''Rabbi's Cat'', but equally as enthralling, this second showing will leave readers hoping for an encore."

Adaptations

* ''Le Chat du Rabbin'' has been adapted for the theater by Camille Nahum under the name of ''La Bar-mitsva du Chat du Rabbin'', created at Paris at the theater ''Michel Galabru'' 18 September 2004 then reprised at the ''Théâtre Le Temple'' from the 22d of March 2005 to 28 April 2005. Staging by Élise McLeod andSei Shiomi, actors were Rémy Darcy, Shiran Azoulay and Camille Nahum. * Joann Sfar and several artists have adapted '' The Rabbi's Cat'' into an animated film. It premiered in the cinema in France the first of June 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbi's Cat French graphic novels Comics about anthropomorphic cats Comics set in Algeria Fictional Algerian people French comics adapted into films Jewish-related comics Fiction set in the 1920s Comics about talking animals