Judaism will die sooner of boredom than blasphemy, says artist Sharon Rosenzweig, who did her part to keep 21st-century Judaism lively by drawing The Comic Torah: Reimagining the Very Good Book (Ben Yehuda Press, Dec.) Rosenzweig and her husband and coauthor, Aaron Freeman, a standup comic and Torah maven (expert), have created a highly unconventional midrash (retelling and elaborating) of the first five books of the Jewish Bible. It includes lots of blood, a Joshua who resembles Barack Obama, and a green-skinned, female YHWH. It’s a comic interpretation so edgy that it fell off the edge for some Jewish publishers. Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and creator of Fun Home (her best-known cartoon series) calls it “awesome” in a blurb.

It took the collaborators three years, Torah portion by portion, just as Jews read that text each week over a year’s time. Each Saturday and into Sunday, they read, studied, and argued over a portion. On Monday, Freeman produced a script; by Tuesday Rosenzweig had a pencil draft she could scan into her computer to ink on Wednesday, color on Thursday, and mail to readers in time for Shabbat in Israel. They began with Leviticus, caution, and reverence, but that changed.

“People like reverential,” said Rosenzweig. “We don’t,” added Freeman. The two describe themselves as “new Jews”--postmodern practitioners sans dogma--“people struggling with Judaism, wanting to take it back from the extremists,” Rosenzweig explained. They are also observant Jews and approach the sacred text with respect. “We say respect is giving the best we have, the best thinking, drawing, metaphor making,” Freeman said.

Their best is pretty good. Rosenzweig taught painting and printmaking at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago for 10 years. She began drawing cartoons in 2006; her first one was included in Art Spiegelman’s 2006 Harper’s article on the Muhammad cartoon controversy. Freeman is an alum of Chicago’s renowned Second City improvisational comedy troupe.

What publisher Ben Yehuda calls “irreverent reverence” has hit the spot for some in the ideal audience. “Kids pick it up, because it’s a comic book,” said Rosenzweig, adding that one told her, “ ‘It’s just like the Bible, only it’s hilarious.’”