The Jew of New York

In 1999, Pantheon published Ben Katchor's The Jew of New York, a single-issue comic that stands as a singular, self-contained graphic novel. Katchor both writes and draws this work, which is his most directly historical piece, imagining a 19th-century New York City through the eyes of a Jewish entrepreneur and a cast of eccentric characters. The book is a meditation on assimilation, commerce, and the strange, fleeting dreams of a rapidly changing city, told with Katchor's trademark melancholic wit and dense, crosshatched linework. It remains a quietly essential work of literary comics, showcasing a master cartoonist at the peak of his powers.