Rutu Modan

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Rutu Modan (Hebrew: רותו מודן‎, born 1966) is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Exit Wounds 3 Mixed Emotions 4 Other works 5 Bibliography of works in English 5.1 Graphic novels and stories 5.2 Children's Books 5.3 With Actus Comics 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Biography

Modan was born in Tel Hashomer, Israel, in 1966. She was raised in the doctors' residences in the Sheba Medical Center. Her father was Prof. Baruch Modan who did cancer research and in the 1980s served as director general of the Israeli Health Ministry. Her mother was Prof. Michaela Modan, an epidemiologist who did diabetes research. Her sister is Dana Modan, an actress and writer. At the age of ten, her family moved to Afeka, in north Tel Aviv.^[1]

After graduating with distinction from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, she began to edit the Israeli edition of MAD magazine with Yirmi Pinkus. Together they founded the Actus Tragicus Comics group (sometimes credited as Actus Comics, or Actus) in 1995.^[1] Modan has received the Young Artist of the Year award in 1997 and the Best Illustrated Children's Book award from the Youth Department of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1998. In 2005 she was chosen as an outstanding artist of the prestigious Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.^[2]

[edit] Exit Wounds

Modan's first full length graphic novel tells the story of Koby Franco, a 20-something cab driver working in Tel Aviv. Franco's mundane everyday life is interrupted when a female soldier approaches him, claiming his estranged father was killed by a suicide bomber at a train station. He and the young woman begin searching for clues to see if Franco's father, whom the soldier was romantically involved with, is dead or alive.

The book has received praise from comic book artist Joe Sacco, author of Palestine, who called it "a profound, richly textured, humane, and unsentimental look at societal malaise and human relationships and that uneasy place where they sometimes intersect."^[3]

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007, ranking it at #8.^[4] It also won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel.

[edit] Mixed Emotions

From May to October 2007, several of Modan's graphic stories were featured on the New York Times website in a "visual blog", translated by Ishai Mishory. The six stories are all memoirs involving Modan herself, and her family. Many of them involve her paternal grandmother, who grew up in Warsaw and fled to Israel after the German occupation of Poland, with Rutu’s father and uncle in tow.

• "My First Time in New York City" (May 8) - Modan's trip to New York at the age of 21, accompanied by her father.
• "How I learned to Relax" (June 5) - Modan's first pregnancy.
• "The Most Popular Girl in Warsaw" (July 3) - Modan recounts her grandmother's rules for life and love.
• "A Family Bargain" (July 31) - Modan's family tries to help her buy a new car.
• "Queen of the Scottish Fairies" (September 4) - Modan's son insists on wearing dresses, much to his father's annoyance.
• "Chez Maurice" (October 3) - Modan accompanies her grandmother to a hairdresser.

[edit] Other works

• The Murder of the Terminal Patient - A graphic serial currently being published on a weekly basis in the New York Times Magazine. Started on June 29, 2008, the story deals with the death of a famous singer in a hospital under mysterious cirucmstances and the attempts of two men to figure out what happened.
• The Homecoming - from the collection Happy End (2002), based on a true story. An Israeli pilot, Gadi, goes M.I.A. over Lebanon, leaving everyone at his Kibbutz unsure whether he's alive or dead. One morning Gadi's father thinks he spots his son’s plane over the kibbutz, and calls everyone out to welcome him.
• You Number One Fan - from the collection How to Love (2007). a musician named Shabtai is invited to perform at a cultural center in Sheffield, England, hoping it will be the big break he had been waiting for.

[edit] Bibliography of works in English

[edit] Graphic novels and stories

• Exit Wounds, Drawn and Quarterly, 2007, ISBN 978-1897299060
• Mixed Emotions, 2007-, a visual blog at the New York Times.
• The Murder of the Terminal Patient - a graphic serial in the New York Times Magazine, started on June 29, 2008.

[edit] Children's Books

• Where Is?, Written by Tamar Bergman, Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books 2002, ISBN 978-0618095391
• Dad Runs Away With The Circus, Written by Etgar Keret, Cambridge, MA, Candlewick Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7636-2247-8

[edit] With Actus Comics

• "The Romanian Circus", Jetlag, Tel Aviv, Top Shelf Productions, 1999, ISBN 965-90221-0-7
• "The Panty Killer", The Actus Box: Five Graphic Novellas, Top Shelf Productions, 2001, ISBN 978-9659022137
• "The Homecoming", Happy End, Top Shelf Productions, 2002, ISBN 978-9659022144
• "Bygone", Flipper vol. 2, Top Shelf Productions, ISBN 965-90221-1-5
• "Energy Blockage", Dead Herring Comics, Top Shelf Productions, 2004, ISBN 978-9659022151
• "Your Number One Fan", How To Love, Top Shelf Productions, 2007, ISBN 978-9659022168

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Rutu Modan video interview on BBC Collective
• Rutu Modan's web page, Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation
• Actus Tragicus - Official Site
• Heflinreps, Inc. - Modan's US agent