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The Writer
Josh Gad and the Berkowitz Brothers team up with legendary artist Ariel Olivetti for a thrilling graphic novel of Jewish folklore and magic.
The Writer plunges readers into the captivating world of Stan Siegel, a renowned comic book writer, whose life spirals into a terrifying adventure beyond the confines of reality. Alongside his mother Liz and daughter Izzy, Stan faces an onslaught of Nazis, demons, and mythical creatures drawn from Jewish folklore. As they navigate a landscape steeped in occult mysteries, their quest for answers reveals hidden identities and ignites a high-stakes race against an emerging terror.
This gripping series not only celebrates the essence of comic book storytelling but also embarks on an exploration of heroism, legacy, and the power of writing.
Collects The Writer issues #1–#4.
The Writer plunges readers into the captivating world of Stan Siegel, a renowned comic book writer, whose life spirals into a terrifying adventure beyond the confines of reality. Alongside his mother Liz and daughter Izzy, Stan faces an onslaught of Nazis, demons, and mythical creatures drawn from Jewish folklore. As they navigate a landscape steeped in occult mysteries, their quest for answers reveals hidden identities and ignites a high-stakes race against an emerging terror.
This gripping series not only celebrates the essence of comic book storytelling but also embarks on an exploration of heroism, legacy, and the power of writing.
Collects The Writer issues #1–#4.
104 pages, Paperback
Published April 22, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
June 30, 2025
As happens with a lot of first volumes, this tries to do waaaay too much in one book, which makes the overall pacing swing wildly all over the place. Parts of the comic feel underexplained - our main character is a jewish superhero (which is a fun idea), based on the mythology of golems, where he gains a power by writing in hebrew on a piece of paper and putting it in his mouth. You have to kind of know that that's how golems are activated, or brought to life, in golem mythology, but the book never really explains that for newcomers. At the same time, other parts feel overexplained, with huge page-long exposition dumps. There is also something lacking in the book's comic grammar - it regularly feels like frames are missing, so to speak. A character will be sitting in a diner booth in the background, and suddenly he is standing next to our main character in the next panel. It's quite jarring, and you constantly feel like you're missing something.
The book is co-written by comic actor Josh Gad, so the main character looks like him, which always makes me think the book is mainly being created to pitch new IP to movie studios, but that's the cynic in me.
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
The book is co-written by comic actor Josh Gad, so the main character looks like him, which always makes me think the book is mainly being created to pitch new IP to movie studios, but that's the cynic in me.
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
September 16, 2025
I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be. A modern fantasy based on Jewish mythology, probably, but like... also one that breaks the fourth wall repeatedly and unclearly. The book literally ends with the Josh Gad stand-in character addressing the reader "I'm really worried that I lost everyone just now." You 100% did. Actually, you lost us wayyy earlier.
Ariel Olivetti's art is pretty decent if you feel like flipping through the pages. Under no circumstances should you read the text.
Ariel Olivetti's art is pretty decent if you feel like flipping through the pages. Under no circumstances should you read the text.
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January 10, 2025DNF at 50%.
I don’t think I’m the person to talk on whether this is good or bad, since it’s based on Jewish folklore. I have read books that are about the same subject matter and yet make the story much more fun and enjoyable. This felt like straight up stories from the Bible.
I will say that the artwork is incredible and was the only reason I got so far.
I don’t think I’m the person to talk on whether this is good or bad, since it’s based on Jewish folklore. I have read books that are about the same subject matter and yet make the story much more fun and enjoyable. This felt like straight up stories from the Bible.
I will say that the artwork is incredible and was the only reason I got so far.
March 12, 2025
Read this over four separate issues and geez, it’s a complete mess. Some of the ratings for each issue on here are extremely confusing, much like this series that goes from one thing to another with complete abandon. Does it make sense? Nope. Do the characters all sound the same? Yup. Are the jokes embarrassing? ‘Fraid so. There’s even a reference to Frozen.
The concept was interesting - learning about Jewish heritage - but the execution just wasn’t there, haphazardly speed running through the ‘plot’, which never makes any semblance of sense. Some of this storytelling style is explained at the end but even then, it feels meta, weak, and pandering. Parts of the art are impressive but other panels just seemed strange and out of place (photo realistic?), while occasionally the speech bubble placement made for a weird reading experience.
Just avoid this one.
The concept was interesting - learning about Jewish heritage - but the execution just wasn’t there, haphazardly speed running through the ‘plot’, which never makes any semblance of sense. Some of this storytelling style is explained at the end but even then, it feels meta, weak, and pandering. Parts of the art are impressive but other panels just seemed strange and out of place (photo realistic?), while occasionally the speech bubble placement made for a weird reading experience.
Just avoid this one.
May 10, 2025
Loved the art and loved the use of Jewish folklore, but the plot was all over the place and needed to be longer to give more time to the backstory.
September 1, 2025
A bonkers meta mash-up of Dante's Inferno, Jewish fantasy and Kirby Era Marvel.
Loved it.
Loved it.
May 17, 2025
There are parts of this that are pretty cool. The art is frequently stellar and there's the core of several good stories mashed together, but panels skip around and don't show what's going on for portions of the story, leaving me filling in blanks mentally in a way that better comics don't.
This needed to be about twice as long page wise just filling in the blanks and letting things breathe and even then I'm not sure it would work.
This needed to be about twice as long page wise just filling in the blanks and letting things breathe and even then I'm not sure it would work.
May 14, 2025
i liked the concept and the art work
i just found i did not like the writing
many part i found could have used another chapter or even an extra page to build up the story better
i just found i did not like the writing
many part i found could have used another chapter or even an extra page to build up the story better
April 24, 2025
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.5 of 5
A graphic novel, titled The Writer, about a comic writer who becomes his own character in a battle against a slough of demons and creatures straight out of Jewish folklore?! Heck yeah I'm wanting to read this!
Stan Siegel, a renowned comic book writer (ha! I guess we already know this is a fantasy) learns the significance of a family ring which once belonged to King Solomon. Wearing it gives him powers which he'll need to fight off the various demons - well known demons in the Jewish community. Stan will get a great deal of help from his surprisingly adventurous, sword-wielding mother. Stan's daughter Izzy will be along for the adventure.
Among the demons that family will face are the most dreaded of all creatures, straight out of hell ... Nazis.
The artwork here by Ariel Olivetti is outstanding. In fact, if it weren't for the beautiful appearance of this book, this would be a clear DNF.
The story here is all over the place. In barely 100 pages we get Solomon's history. We get Nazis, we get the background on Stan and the current situation with his wife (ex-wife? I'm not sure) and the problems their daughter, a Black Jew, is having in school. We get zombies and golems and a whole host of hell spawn.
It should be exciting be what we don't get well enough is the story behind it all. Yeah, it's there, but it's lost in the mishmash of action upon action upon action. The only breather we get is to toss in something meant to be amusing. And while the most vile creatures of hell can't do anything to Stan and his mother, a couple of humans are able to take them by gun point and crack them over the head. Yeah.
My biggest disappointment here, really, is that there's just no sense of this being about "the writer." Stan Siegel could just as easily have been an accountant for all the good being a writer does for him. Of course The Accountant probably doesn't sell as well as The Writer.
Looking for a good book? You will have to be seriously into Jewish folklore (not just casually interested) to appreciate this wild, often incoherent story. The art in this graphic novel, The Writer, will keep you going, though.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
A graphic novel, titled The Writer, about a comic writer who becomes his own character in a battle against a slough of demons and creatures straight out of Jewish folklore?! Heck yeah I'm wanting to read this!
Stan Siegel, a renowned comic book writer (ha! I guess we already know this is a fantasy) learns the significance of a family ring which once belonged to King Solomon. Wearing it gives him powers which he'll need to fight off the various demons - well known demons in the Jewish community. Stan will get a great deal of help from his surprisingly adventurous, sword-wielding mother. Stan's daughter Izzy will be along for the adventure.
Among the demons that family will face are the most dreaded of all creatures, straight out of hell ... Nazis.
The artwork here by Ariel Olivetti is outstanding. In fact, if it weren't for the beautiful appearance of this book, this would be a clear DNF.
The story here is all over the place. In barely 100 pages we get Solomon's history. We get Nazis, we get the background on Stan and the current situation with his wife (ex-wife? I'm not sure) and the problems their daughter, a Black Jew, is having in school. We get zombies and golems and a whole host of hell spawn.
It should be exciting be what we don't get well enough is the story behind it all. Yeah, it's there, but it's lost in the mishmash of action upon action upon action. The only breather we get is to toss in something meant to be amusing. And while the most vile creatures of hell can't do anything to Stan and his mother, a couple of humans are able to take them by gun point and crack them over the head. Yeah.
My biggest disappointment here, really, is that there's just no sense of this being about "the writer." Stan Siegel could just as easily have been an accountant for all the good being a writer does for him. Of course The Accountant probably doesn't sell as well as The Writer.
Looking for a good book? You will have to be seriously into Jewish folklore (not just casually interested) to appreciate this wild, often incoherent story. The art in this graphic novel, The Writer, will keep you going, though.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
July 4, 2025
By all accounts, this comic was written with Jewish-nerd me in mind. I enjoyed the Yiddish, the mysticism, and the art is (usually) nice to look at, but I just cannot forgive the story's extremely messy writing, which fails to deliver in almost every conceivable way.
The Berkowitz brothers and Josh Gad attempt to cover so much in just four issues that they literally lose the plot. The story never once pauses to catch its breath, ground itself, or give the readers a chance to connect with any of the characters. I am well-read in Jewish folklore, but I still had trouble following, with mystical figures and timelines introduced and then immediately dropped. Even simple conversations were tough to follow, as if dialogue was heavily redacted to make room for everything else. And then, when swastika tattoos, Holocaust references and Nazis appeared, I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
There is a profound depth to Jewish storytelling and folklore. It's multilayered, it's anxiety and joy, resilience and grief, scripture and satire, memory and future, neuroticism and awe. But the writers grabbed madly at all of it, at once, without holding onto anything. None of the folklore elements stick, none of the villains are memorable or dangerous, and for a people constantly on the knife's edge of annihilation, the stakes are cartoonish and ill-defined. The Holocaust/Nazi references were low-hanging fruit in light of antisemtism happening right freaking now, and has been at an all-time high for years.
And it's true of the cast as well. Protagonist Stan (aka Josh Gad with a different name) is utterly forgettable with cringy meta-dialogue. I never cared about him, nor was I convinced or invested in him as "the writer." His mother, Liz, is a carbon copy of Bridgette from Kieron Gillen's Once & Future series. (Come to think of it, much of The Writer feels lifted from Once & Future.) While I appreciated an Ethiopian Jewish storyline, Stan's wife is so tertiary to the plot it honestly felt like tokenization, and all other non-Ashkenazi history was essentially ignored. The Black Jewish experience isn't really valued or seen in the book, only serving for a really dumb reveal later.
Laughably, Stan/the writers conclude by My dear authors, *that's not how Jewish storytelling works.* The form should match the content: we're people of metaphor, lack of resolution, multilayered depth, and unnecessarily complicated gematria, not "now I'm going to justify why my story is weak, just go with it" people. Any non-Jewish reader will suddenly feel left out, too.
Nothing and no one is transformed at the end of the book. I doubt any non-Jew will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation for Jewish folklore or the Jewish people, and that is probably the most disappointing part of it. Especially right freaking now.
I'm not sure why The Writer concluded at only four issues. With serious editing and character work, this could have been a real love letter to and celebration of the Jewish people and folklore, a powerful commentary about Jewish resilience and storytelling, and symbolism of recurring anti-Jewish hatred - all things we seriously and desperately need right now. (God forbid there's even some explanation of what that hatred is and how it proliferates instead of just using Nazis as your villains.) The comic book format is even more fitting since first-generation Jewish immigrants like Jack Kirby created the medium and the superhero genre. This is the longest review I've written in a long time, and I'm kvetching so much because it could have been amazing. I would have loved a combination of Once & Future, The Unwritten, and The Sandman, with homages to such Jewish storytellers as Isaac Bashevis Singer and Maurice Sendak, that was crafted more like a daf of Talmud and less like this nine layer bean dip mess.
Finally I would like to lodge one more official complaint that Bubbe is not pronounced "boo-beh" as defined in the Yiddish glossary. That is honestly criminal.
The Berkowitz brothers and Josh Gad attempt to cover so much in just four issues that they literally lose the plot. The story never once pauses to catch its breath, ground itself, or give the readers a chance to connect with any of the characters. I am well-read in Jewish folklore, but I still had trouble following, with mystical figures and timelines introduced and then immediately dropped. Even simple conversations were tough to follow, as if dialogue was heavily redacted to make room for everything else. And then, when swastika tattoos, Holocaust references and Nazis appeared, I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
There is a profound depth to Jewish storytelling and folklore. It's multilayered, it's anxiety and joy, resilience and grief, scripture and satire, memory and future, neuroticism and awe. But the writers grabbed madly at all of it, at once, without holding onto anything. None of the folklore elements stick, none of the villains are memorable or dangerous, and for a people constantly on the knife's edge of annihilation, the stakes are cartoonish and ill-defined. The Holocaust/Nazi references were low-hanging fruit in light of antisemtism happening right freaking now, and has been at an all-time high for years.
And it's true of the cast as well. Protagonist Stan (aka Josh Gad with a different name) is utterly forgettable with cringy meta-dialogue. I never cared about him, nor was I convinced or invested in him as "the writer." His mother, Liz, is a carbon copy of Bridgette from Kieron Gillen's Once & Future series. (Come to think of it, much of The Writer feels lifted from Once & Future.) While I appreciated an Ethiopian Jewish storyline, Stan's wife is so tertiary to the plot it honestly felt like tokenization, and all other non-Ashkenazi history was essentially ignored. The Black Jewish experience isn't really valued or seen in the book, only serving for a really dumb reveal later.
Laughably, Stan/the writers conclude by My dear authors, *that's not how Jewish storytelling works.* The form should match the content: we're people of metaphor, lack of resolution, multilayered depth, and unnecessarily complicated gematria, not "now I'm going to justify why my story is weak, just go with it" people. Any non-Jewish reader will suddenly feel left out, too.
Nothing and no one is transformed at the end of the book. I doubt any non-Jew will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation for Jewish folklore or the Jewish people, and that is probably the most disappointing part of it. Especially right freaking now.
I'm not sure why The Writer concluded at only four issues. With serious editing and character work, this could have been a real love letter to and celebration of the Jewish people and folklore, a powerful commentary about Jewish resilience and storytelling, and symbolism of recurring anti-Jewish hatred - all things we seriously and desperately need right now. (God forbid there's even some explanation of what that hatred is and how it proliferates instead of just using Nazis as your villains.) The comic book format is even more fitting since first-generation Jewish immigrants like Jack Kirby created the medium and the superhero genre. This is the longest review I've written in a long time, and I'm kvetching so much because it could have been amazing. I would have loved a combination of Once & Future, The Unwritten, and The Sandman, with homages to such Jewish storytellers as Isaac Bashevis Singer and Maurice Sendak, that was crafted more like a daf of Talmud and less like this nine layer bean dip mess.
Finally I would like to lodge one more official complaint that Bubbe is not pronounced "boo-beh" as defined in the Yiddish glossary. That is honestly criminal.
December 3, 2025
Okay, so here's the weird thing about this one - it's a mess. A big mess. But it turns out that it's SUPPOSED to be a mess? Like, in the last few pages, the main character breaks the fourth wall, and talks to you about how poorly written it was, the plot didn't make sense, some of the character choices were poor - so it's like the whole thing was written to be kind of intentionally like that? Honestly, I was going to rate this one two stars because that was how good it seemed, but I guess I can bump it up to three for their commitment to that bit. It's got some chutzpah, I'll say that.
But let's be clear: it really IS a mess. It's bad enough that I honestly checked to see if my copy was misprinted, or had pages bound out of order. Sudden jumps from page to page and scene to scene don't make any sense, there's a lot of background that seemed it was cut by a blindfolded editor - again, a mess.
What you've got here is something that would have been really good if it was twice as long. Not because I wanted more of what it is (really not), but because with twice the page count, presumably they could have expanded all the half-told scenes and filled in the weird jumps.
I was really looking forward to this. I dig the plot, I dig the Jewish folklore, the art is fantastic. But...yeah, still a mess.
But let's be clear: it really IS a mess. It's bad enough that I honestly checked to see if my copy was misprinted, or had pages bound out of order. Sudden jumps from page to page and scene to scene don't make any sense, there's a lot of background that seemed it was cut by a blindfolded editor - again, a mess.
What you've got here is something that would have been really good if it was twice as long. Not because I wanted more of what it is (really not), but because with twice the page count, presumably they could have expanded all the half-told scenes and filled in the weird jumps.
I was really looking forward to this. I dig the plot, I dig the Jewish folklore, the art is fantastic. But...yeah, still a mess.
June 23, 2025
Oy.
The art in this book is fabulous (let's get that out of the way). The concept here is cool, and I LOVED the idea of making a story about obscure Jewish mythology, which is why I bought the book in the first place.
But you know there's a problem when the book is commenting on its own weaknesses (the nonsensical plot elements, the speed at which the plot is moving) as it goes. I didn't get a sense of who any of the characters are, really, or how old Stan's daughter was supposed to be (she looked quite young but talked like someone much older and more knowledgeable. The plot moved SO fast that there wasn't time for the characters--or the reader--to take in and react to anything that happened.
All that said: it was cool to see multicultural Jews depicted, and the idea behind this series was good. But it really would have benefited from being 12-18 issues long, rather than the four it got.
The art in this book is fabulous (let's get that out of the way). The concept here is cool, and I LOVED the idea of making a story about obscure Jewish mythology, which is why I bought the book in the first place.
But you know there's a problem when the book is commenting on its own weaknesses (the nonsensical plot elements, the speed at which the plot is moving) as it goes. I didn't get a sense of who any of the characters are, really, or how old Stan's daughter was supposed to be (she looked quite young but talked like someone much older and more knowledgeable. The plot moved SO fast that there wasn't time for the characters--or the reader--to take in and react to anything that happened.
All that said: it was cool to see multicultural Jews depicted, and the idea behind this series was good. But it really would have benefited from being 12-18 issues long, rather than the four it got.
July 28, 2025
It was a really cool concept and I loved the subject matter and art, but it just felt really really rushed, which also made it difficult to follow. Probably would have been much better if it slowed down and had some room to breath, rather than jumping frenetically form one abbreviated scene to the next. Props for acknowledging the existence of the Beta Israel, though of course, like everything else in the book, it went by very quickly.
Read
September 17, 2025Ever watch an action film and feel like it's moving to fast for you? I had a similar reaction to this book. Quick switches and small print sometimes made it difficult to follow. I did love the narrator/author's wiseguy editorial comments, but, wow, I think they tried to horn in every Jewish mythological creature possible.
April 21, 2026
There's some great ideas in this. A hero based on Jewish mythology is a good one. The problem may be that they went to Dark Horse with this. Cramming this many ideas into 4 issues is criminal. It just ruins everything. The pacing is out of whack. I constantly felt like there were panels missing. If this was expanded and fully fleshed out, it could have been really interesting.
June 24, 2025
This was a total surprise. Picked it up in my local bookstore with only one copy left. I adored it. I wish it were longer, I wanted to know more about this world and these characters. Reminded me of Morrison in not a bad way.
September 19, 2025
I really really tried to get through this, but it was just so messy.
I love comics & I love good Jewish representation, and while this had all the ingredients, it was a mishmash of choppy writing, too many info-dumps, and herky-jerky action.
Wanted to love it. :(
I love comics & I love good Jewish representation, and while this had all the ingredients, it was a mishmash of choppy writing, too many info-dumps, and herky-jerky action.
Wanted to love it. :(
September 24, 2025
The story was confusing and the panel of him eating the paper? Didn’t make sense I was expecting dnd not.. straight up nazis but ig that’s what I get for picking out books based on cool cover and art maybe these two were on the same shelf?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2025
I really, really, loved this in the beginning! and i loved Nana! I loved this. But about the 3rd part it stopped making sense. I still am not sure what happened. So. Huh. I want more, but i want it done in a more comprehensive fashion.
February 16, 2025
Almost did not finish. I like Jewish mythology, but the writing was bad.
ARC from Edelweiss.
ARC from Edelweiss.
March 18, 2025
Pre-ordered the paperback. Really enjoyed this series.
May 17, 2025
I didn’t want it to end. Could it have used a few more pages, sure, but the concept and execution were great!
Read
May 29, 2025i liked the idea of exploring jewish folklore, but i definitely did not like the execution. too meta for its own sake, and i was not very high on the art style.
June 29, 2025
I might have enjoyed this more if I was Jewish. Instead it was a lot. It felt like a whole class of Jewish mythology wedged into a flimsy storyline.
July 1, 2025
The Writer is very weird, but I loved it. Liz was by far my favorite character.
September 25, 2025
Great Jewish representation. A super fun fast-paced read. Had all of the weird and fun I would have hoped for with a Mignola cover.
September 25, 2025
I recently read Josh Gad’s memoir, so I had to check this out. It did not disappoint! A wild read over Rosh Hashanah.
October 3, 2025
DNF. Didn’t love art or the story. Felt crazy reading it as though I missed pages but I did not.
October 3, 2025
Saw that Josh Gad was one of the writers on this. I really enjoyed his memoir, so I wanted to check this out, and it didn't disappoint! A lot of fun and the art was gorgeous for the most part.
October 18, 2025
Loved the inclusion of Jewish folklore. Really fun read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews