J.T. Waldman

I’m still up in the air as to whether or not I enjoyed Megillat Esther. I deeply enjoy and appreciate the art provided in the novel, but the story itself didn’t do much for me. It’s possible that I had a harder time with this novel because it took more than just a glance to get through the book. Normally the comics we read, don’t require as much time to get through because they’re so short, but Megillat Esther, although the same in length, gave me a harder time. Throughout this novel, especially the second half, I was a bit confused as to where my eye should draw across the page. In the second half I understood that the book had to physically be flipped upside down, but then I was uncertain as to whether to read each frame from bottom to top or right to left. Because of this uncertainty it made most of the novel not so enjoyable to me, so I basically focused on the graphics. Doing a little more research about the Book of Esther on my own would have been beneficial to me.

In Waldman’s Foreword, in our BOS book, he explains that he had to do a lot of research and planning before even sketching for Megillat Esther. This gives me some influential insight when dealing with novels. Although I am not writing a novel, doing a lot of background research can help in any instance. In my case, just reading the Book of Esther was not enough research in preparation for reading Megillat Esther.

“To obtain an authentic voice for my retelling of the tale, I needed to learn Hebrew and begin extensive research. Three years passed before even one sketch for the project appeared”(BOS, x).