Mat Tonti explores the world of Jewish folklore in his graphic novel, The Book of Secrets. Each story is connected through Ben and Rose's quest to find their missing grandparents, but how did Mat Tonti decide which stories to use? Read through part 3, the final stories of Ben's and Rose's epic quest.
Before the Gate
As I was reading through hundreds of stories to
find the ones to include, I did not expect to select a Franz Kafka story. Known
for being dark, I consider this story to be the darkest story in the
book. And yet, it felt right to include it. There were so many elements
that were reflected in the other tales that I had already selected. There was a
king, there was a journey, and there was that question of choice/fate. I
considered this story to be a cautionary tale of what happens when our choice
is to not make a choice.
The Rambam, a famous rabbi from 10th century
Spain, has a similar story where a person goes to see the king and encounters a
maze. This person enters the maze and faces dangers and twists and turns,
until finally, they reach the king. Out of breath, the person recounts the
tale to the king of how hard the journey through the maze was. The king remarks
“There is no maze,” at which point the person turns around to see that in fact
the king was correct. The maze was just an illusion, only inside of their
head.
Though, not in the original, I added the traveler
duping the guard and running into the maze only to finally be pulled into a
deep pit was not in the original story. In the end, we find the conclusion to
the cautionary tale is clear: nothing attempted means nothing gained. Fear will
stop us if we let it.
The Book Of Secrets
When I came up with a book of stories I knew
that I wanted them to all tie together in a single narrative, but I wasn’t sure
how. One idea was to have them as part of a book being read by others,
thus giving birth to the frame story of Ben and Rose. I, also, knew I wanted to
have the Doughlem wander through each story, sometimes clearly revealed, and
sometimes hidden.
As I researched, I discovered that the midrash speaks of a book, or a scroll that was given to Adam. It is called a chain-story demonstrating how a tradition has been passed down link by link, generation by generation, from its beginning until now. I am a link in the chain of Jewish tradition and “The Book of Secrets” is one way that I have made the tradition my own in order to pass it to the next generation, which is you, the reader.
Origin of the Doughlem
What is the Doughlem? How did it come
about? Well, in Jewish lore, the Doughlem is one of the most famous
mythical creatures. There are many great books that portray the creation of the
Golem, a being made of mud and brought to life as a protector. Inevitably,
this creature grows too powerful and cannot control itself, and must be
destroyed. I was making Challah with a student one day, and as we were kneading
the dough, I started telling her the story of the Golem. As I finished the
story, she pinched the letters EMET into the dough. It was at that moment
that the name Doughlem popped into my head. How cute, I thought. A Golem made
out of bread dough. From there, it became sketches in my sketchbook for many
years. Originally, it was going to be the character of a picture book. It was a
graffiti stencil that I threw up around Jerusalem, as well as a series of
stickers that I made by hand and posted up around the city. Finally, when I
created my first story for “The Book of Secrets”, The Tainted Grain, the first
character I drew was the Doughlem. It had found a home in these stories, so I
could finally share it with the world.