“Jewish gangster” isn’t a term you hear much about these days, but when the Dodgers played in New York and licorice cost a penny a bag, Brooklyn corners were lousy with semitic young toughs looking for adventure and excitement – none more so than in Brownsville. The graphic novel Brownsville: the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc. by Neil Kleid and Jack Allen shows the intertwined lives of Allie Tannenbaum, Abe Reles and scores of hoods organized by Louis Lepke Buchalter into the deadliest hit operation in Mafia history, “Murder, Inc.”, as they escape mean streets and lonely tenements, making themselves into the most dangerous men in America, only to eventually send their best friends and closest allies up the river. This work is now available in a new edition just released by About Comics.
Previous editions published by NBM drew praise from the book field (Booklist called it “smart, absorbing” while Publishers Weekly said it was a “beautifully moody evocation of a bygone Brooklyn inhabited by Jewish gangsters”) as well as respected creators. Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Carla Speed McNeil says that the book covers organized crime history “with grace, style and power. This book carries history. Read it.” Harvey Pekar, writer of American Splendor, said “This taut and suspenseful drama takes people to an era that no longer exists. I’m not saying Jews are untainted by crime these days – but at least they’re not out knockin’ heads like they used to be!”
Brownsville: the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc., is written by Neil Kleid, the Orthodox Jewish graphic novelist acclaimed for his works Ninety Candles, The Big Kahn, and Nice Jewish Boys. Artist Jake Allen has been drawing comics for 30 years, and has brought his Joe Kubert School-trained abilities to his own barbarian comic Rengor (Outland Entertainment).
- 6.5″x9″ black-and-white paperback
- 208 pages
- ISBN 978-1-949996-97-5