One of the best books published this year
Graphic novels can offer something distinctive: they combine words, images, design, and pacing, so readers actively interpret both what the text says and what the pictures imply. This can make complex stories, historical events, and religious narratives more immediate and memorable. They may also encourage readers who find long blocks of prose intimidating to engage with superb literature.
Graphic novels offer benefits that ordinary prose books and visual media such as films do not provide in quite the same way. They combine two forms of storytelling. Readers must interpret both words and pictures. A facial expression, a shadow, the size of a panel, or the arrangement of figures can communicate ideas and emotions that the written text does not explicitly state. The reader therefore actively helps construct the story’s meaning.
A graphic novel can help readers follow complicated plots, many characters, unfamiliar historical settings, abstract ideas, and ancient narratives.
This does not necessarily mean that graphic novels are simpler or less serious than conventional books. A sophisticated graphic novel can contain considerable literary, historical, philosophical, and artistic depth.
It encourages close reading. A reader can stop at a single image and ask, “Why is this character placed in the background?” Why is the scene dark or bright? What emotion does the character’s face reveal? What happened between one panel and the next? Does the illustration add something to the words? Human beings often remember images particularly well. When an important event is paired with a striking visual, readers may remember both the event and meaning more easily.
For biblical literature, this can be especially valuable. Instead of thinking of Genesis merely as a sequence of names and episodes, readers can visualize Creation, Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel as parts of a continuous human drama.
Jordan B. Gorfinkel’s 2026 203-page book, “The Koren Magerman Tanakh Graphic Novel ‘Bereshit, Volume 1: The Beginning,” focuses on the first eleven chapters of the biblical book of Genesis. Like a good novel or painting, the book is a work of art that reveals and clarifies many matters.
Among other things, we see reactions of people mentioned in the Bible that the text does not describe. Many, but not all, of the translations of the Hebrew into English are better than those found in other books – those we disagree with still make us think, and by thinking, we improve. The Hebrew has the rabbinical added cantillation marks. Some clarifying statements are added. Sometimes the Hebrew has just a few words, but the drawings are more numerous, such as page 89, where the Hebrew is only five words, while there are13 dramatic drawings. On the same page, the Torah does not indicate what Cain said, while the drawing dramatizes this. Occasional abstract drawings also prompt us to think.
Jordan B. Gorfinkel is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, musician, and graphic-storytelling specialist. He is particularly notable for combining his long experience in the American comics industry with his interest in Jewish education and biblical storytelling.
Gorfinkel spent nearly a decade at DC Comics, where he managed the Batman franchise. During his comics career, he worked on major Batman projects and helped create or develop well-known concepts such as Birds of Prey and Batman: No Man’s Land.
But Gorfinkel’s interests extend beyond superheroes. He also created a long-running Jewish-themed cartoon feature and has conducted workshops in which participants create comics based on the weekly Torah portion and other Jewish subjects. His work reflects his belief that comics’ visual storytelling techniques can serve not only entertainment but also education, Jewish learning, and exploration of traditional texts.
Among his major Jewish graphic works are the “Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel” and “The Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel: Esther.”
His broader 203-page Koren graphic-novel project, “The Koren Magerman Tanakh Graphic Novel,” brings biblical narratives to life through professional sequential art while remaining connected to the biblical text and Jewish scholarship.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis present an enormous challenge for a graphic novel because they span several kinds of stories, including the creation of the universe. Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Cain and Abel. The generations before the Flood. Noah and the Flood. The covenant represented by the rainbow. The descendants of Noah. The Tower of Babel.
Gorfinkel’s approach to biblical graphic storytelling is not simply to put captions underneath pictures. The purpose is to use the distinctive tools of comics—sequential panels, visual composition, facial expression, setting, movement, lettering, and page design—to tell the story as a dramatic sequence.
Dividing the work among several artists can also give different portions of Genesis their own visual character. This is particularly appropriate for Genesis 1–11 because the material itself changes dramatically: the cosmic scale of Creation contrasts with the intimate family tragedy of Cain and Abel, and the Flood is a vast catastrophe. Babel is a story about collective human ambition.
The illustrations can therefore help readers see the differences in tone and scale between these narratives. The letterer’s contribution is also important: lettering shapes how dialogue, narration, emphasis, and sound are presented, and it guides the reader’s eye across the page.
This approach follows the general method of the Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel series, which combines the biblical text with sequential art, using visual storytelling to bring the narrative to life and illuminate additional layers of meaning.
The pictures should not be regarded as mere decoration. In a successful graphic novel, the artwork itself tells part of the story. Readers learn by noticing what is shown, what is omitted, how characters react, and how one image leads to the next.
Readers gain two kinds of knowledge and insight from The Koren Magerman Tanakh Graphic Novel. They learn the biblical stories more vividly. They see that the Bible addresses human behavior.
Genesis 1–11 repeatedly raises questions that remain important today: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do people have toward one another? Why do people misuse freedom? What are the consequences of jealousy and anger? Can human beings begin again after failure? What happens when ambition becomes destructive? They also learn about the consequences of human actions.
The narratives do not merely describe what happens; they invite readers to consider why. Adam and Eve make choices. Cain makes choices. The generation of the Flood behaves destructively through their choices. The builders of Babel pursue a collective project with profound implications. Readers learn to read images as well as words.
One of this book’s special educational values is that it can train readers to ask questions about visual storytelling. They can compare the biblical words with the artistic interpretation and ask: What did the artist choose to show, and how does that choice affect my understanding of the passage? They discover new meanings in familiar stories. They see Genesis as a connected story about humanity.
Taken together, Genesis 1–11 tells a remarkable progression: Creation → human freedom → disobedience → violence → widespread corruption → destruction → renewal → renewed human ambition.
The Koren Magerman Tanakh Graphic Novel makes this progression particularly clear. Readers see that the stories are not simply isolated tales. Together they form a sustained exploration of what human beings are capable of—both good and bad.
