Comixology has announced a new limited series with an ironic name, and we’re here for it. Nice Jewish Boys comes from a powerhouse creative team: writer Neil Kleid, artist John Broglia, and colorist Elle Wright. The modern-day, Jewish crime drama takes place in suburban New Jersey.
Inspired by real events, Nice Jewish Boys follows Modern Orthodox Jew Jake Levin, who’s struggling to pay his bills. But when he moonlights for his best friend, a former kosher caterer and current criminal wanted by the FBI because of a former friend who became an informant after translation didn’t work out. Jake has no idea the FBI is after his friend, which complicates things even further.
Alongside Sabbath meals and synagogue visits, Nice Jewish Boys is a crime story culminating in an explosive bar mitzvah. Check out the cover and some interior pages from issue #1 below.
“Nice Jewish Boys is about a modern Orthodox / religious Jewish community and communities like it—somewhat insular, judgmental and pious, maybe a tad hypocritical to the point of criminal,” Kleid said in a statement. “And like all good stories, it’s about the author. It’s about my fears and anxieties and what it might be like to succumb to frustration with a beloved system that can also be restrictive and expensive…and, in many cases, unjust and unfair to certain people who love what it offers in terms of faith, community and an elusive connection to something far greater than ourselves if only it would put aside the entitlement, judgment, and unwillingness to change.
“As you read Nice Jewish Boys, there will be moments where truth may peek through the fiction,” he continued. “It’s my hope that those are the bits—amid the crime, anguish, guilt, and betrayals—which speak loudest and longest. And in the end, I hope you love this work of fiction as much as I do.”
Nice Jewish Boys #1 will be available digitally via Comixology on November 7.
