Powerful Jewish Stories — In Comic Book Form

The Jewish tradition overflows with stories — and great storytellers. This month, just before Passover, award-winning storyteller Arnon Z. Shorr and illustrator Joshua M. Edelglass published their latest comic book, “The Tomb of the Broken Amulet.” The story follows the Azaria siblings — Reuven, Sol, Benny and Dinah — whose Passover break turns extraordinary when they stumble upon an ancient tomb hidden in the Judean desert. As curiosity draws them deeper, they inadvertently awaken a mummy that seems determined to pursue them. Facing this unexpected danger, the siblings must uncover the tomb’s secrets, face their fears and find the courage to confront the mummy.

“With ‘The Tomb of the Broken Amulet,’ I wanted to put a classical mummy story in a Passover setting,” said Shorr, who enjoys blending Jewish elements with popular folklore. “The story isn’t just a fun genre mash-up. It’s about a post-Oct. 7 family contending with loss, finding courage and learning that like the Passover seder, our stories don’t truly end until we’ve found what’s missing.”

“The story isn’t just a fun genre mash-up. It’s about a post-Oct. 7 family contending with loss, finding courage and learning that like the Passover seder, our stories don’t truly end until we’ve found what’s missing.” – Arnon Shorr

Shorr, an award-winning filmmaker and author, was born in Haifa, Israel and moved to the United States with his family when he was a year and a half old. Speaking to The Jewish Journal, he mentioned that his children — ages 12, 9 and 5 — are usually his first critics. A few years ago, Shorr moved from Los Angeles to a city south of Boston, making it easier to meet up with Edelglass, with whom he had worked on another comic book, “José and the Pirate Captain Toledano.”

The two had met a few years ago when Edelglass hired Shorr to teach a film class at Camp Ramah Massachusetts, where he works as one of the camp’s directors. Shorr, who is also a filmmaker, had released a short film, “‘The Pirate Captain Toledo,”’ about a Jewish pirate in the 16th century, and wanted to turn it into a children’s book. 

“It was my way to show that I can tell a story that crosses beyond our Jewish bubble. At the time, and even more so today, telling a Jewish story was a heavy lift in Hollywood. Expanding it from a short film to a feature or a TV show seemed out of reach, so, I was looking for other ways to share the story.”

Then he saw a beautiful illustration Edelglass had posted on social media and reached out to him. “I told him I might be interested in telling the story I’m working on as a comic book,” he said. After sharing the idea for his book, the two quickly connected and began working together. They managed to secure a book deal and published the graphic novel in 2022.

The book received critical acclaim and that success sparked the idea to create a series of comic books with Jewish themes. Their next collaboration was “The Beast and the Booth,” a story that weaves Jewish themes of faith and family into a supernatural monster narrative.

When it came time to write his latest book, Shorr knew it should take place either in a museum or Egypt as it was a story about a mummy but quickly decided to set it in Israel. “I asked myself, how can I tell a Pesach story that’s both inherently about Passover and fits within the realm of popular folklore? It quickly became clear that the story needed to take place in Israel, post-Oct. 7,” he said. In the book, the family’s home in northern Israel was destroyed in a rocket attack and they have relocated to the south. 

Much like the four sons in the Haggadah, this story centers around four siblings, each with his own distinct personality. The older two are twins, “one is very meticulous about halacha and the other is a loose cannon. With the younger two, one is fairly simple and the other is very quiet.” 

While the story is rooted in Jewish motifs, Shorr emphasizes that the book isn’t meant exclusively for Jewish children — it’s for anyone who enjoys a good mystery and adventure tale. “I always try to frame stories in a way that even people who aren’t Jewish can find something to connect with,” Shorr said. “This story includes elements that may not be familiar to non-Jews, but in popular culture, we often enjoy stories based in traditions that aren’t our own. When the story is good, it works.”

While working on the book, Shorr made a surprising discovery about the origins of mummy mythology. While the genre is widely believed to have emerged in 19th-century Europe, he found evidence that it dates back much further, possibly to biblical times.

“I came across a story in the Midrash about what happened after Joseph died,” he said. “He made everyone promise to bring his bones back to the Holy Land one day. And when the time came to leave Egypt, Moses, according to the Midrash, went to the tomb. There were many sarcophagi, and he didn’t know which one was Joseph’s. So he called out: ‘If you want us to fulfill our promise and take you with us, rise up.’ And that’s when one of them began to rise.”

Shorr recalled how stunned he was reading the story. Not only did the mummy rise from the dead — it followed the exact structure of a classic gothic horror tale. “A mummy with unfinished business, rising up from the tomb … this is the same concept behind the European idea of the mummy’s curse,” he said. “And yet this version is at least 1,000 years older than the literature usually cited as the beginning of the mummy-monster genre. It was such a fascinating and fun discovery.”

Shorr is currently working on his next book, a Rosh Hashanah unicorn story, which, like the other books in his “Festival of Forgotten Tales” series, blends a Jewish holiday with a monster or folklore theme. “Our goal is to publish three or four stories and then combine them into an anthology,” he said.

“The Tomb of the Broken Amulet” is available on Amazon.