(I think one reason we arrived at the wrong conclusion is that “acher” can be used as an adjective, making it a more natural fit for the bilingual compound word; “aher,” not so much. But then that’s exactly parallel to “otherville” vs. “hereville” in English.)

In any event, there is no circumstance in which Yiddish-speaking members of a Chassidic community would be referring to “Shabbat.” It would definitely be “Shabbos” or “Shabbes.”

Still, enjoying the story so far, looking forward to reading the rest. (I got here via the banner ad on “Save Hiatus,” should you be wondering.)

I agree that there’s no other comic quite like “Hereville” out there — that’s one reason I wanted to do this idea. If you enjoy Hereville, though, you might want to try my friend Dylan’s comic Family Man (there’s a link to it on the “links” page). It’s not really like Hereville — it’s set in a different period, it’s about grown-ups, not all the characters are Jews — but I think Dylan and I share some approaches to what makes a good comic book.

There’s already some funny ideas out there about orthodox Jews, I didn’t want more misinformation!

I agree! I don’t want to present the Jews of Aherville as horribly backwards people, or as monsters, or as horrible misogynists — there’s too much like that out there. At the same time, I don’t want to present them as cute or quaint or perfect or without problems. I want them to be people; some good, some bad, most inbetween.

As far as misinformation goes, I’m sure I’m going to get some things wrong (I already have!), plus I’ll probably have some views that not all my readers agree with — in fact, that’s unavoidable. But I hope you’ll enjoy reading it, regardless. Thanks for your comments. :-)

Yochva, a couple of online English/Yiddish dictionaries claim that “aher” means “here” or “hither”; so I thought “Aher” meant “Here,” and making “Aherville” into “Hereville” for the title isn’t nearly as clever as what you worked out! Are the dictionaries I consulted just wrong, or does “aher” have different meanings?

I’m not planning to have Mirka move to Israel (too hard for me to draw a real-world location that I don’t have regular access to), although of course she might visit it at some point.

One thing that’s been worrying me – is Fruma’s hair a sheitel (wig), or her real hair?

Fruma is wearing a wig throughout the comic — in fact, more than one wig (which is why her hair does such a radical change in style between Friday and Saturday — I was imagining that she put a different wig on when she woke up on Saturday morning). Fruma’s own hair is quite short, but we haven’t seen it in the comic yet. Is that wrong, do you think? Would she go without a sheitel when she’s at home, with only the kids around, when it’s not Shabbos?

You’re the second person to ask met that this week; it’s clear that I’m not drawing the wigs correctly. I’ll work on that for the new story (which won’t start appearing until 2009). Fruma, however, is deliberately unstylish and plain in how she dresses; I imagine most married women in Aherville have more stylish sheitels than she does.

Finally, about Zayde’s hair: that is his hair, and yes, he keeps it long. In order to make it easier for me to visually distinguish between characters, the fictional Aherville will probably have a lot more variety in male hairstyles than would be realistic. (I’m surprised nobody’s asked me why Zindel’s hair is so long!)

*rereads her comment* Wow, I didn’t expect to get so detailed – I really intended to only say that I loved it. ^___^

Thank you! And I like the long comments — I’m feeling optimistic that, with the help of readers who know a lot more than I do, the next “Hereville” story can have a lot of good details in it that ring true.

I didn’t mean to imply that Fruma doesn’t believe in free will; if anything, I think Fruma’s argument would be that it is because we have free will that we are able to make mistakes.

The term “chassid” does get thrown around to refer to any religious Jew in a black hat with payot…

In “Hereville,” virtually all of the male characters are religious Jews with black hats and payot! The usage of “chassidishe” I got from a book about Crown Heights culture, but the author (who is Jewish, but not Frum) may have misunderstood.

Aherville (the town where “Hereville” takes place) isn’t a shtetl, in that the people are modern and they’re mostly pretty well-off. However, it is very isolated from the larger culture, which I think gives it a bit of that feel. Additionally, the point of view character for this storyline is an 11 year old girl; the grown-ups have much more awareness than Mirka does of Aherville as a town that’s located in a wider world.

Thanks for your comments! Please keep reading (and feel free to keep nit-picking!).

I’ve already read through the archives (and plan on doing so again) and I’m most certainly sticking around to see what happens because not only do I think that it’s cool that this comic is showing a pretty good representation of Judaism, I really like the art, writing, and the story thus far. ^^ I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Here’s something I’ve been mulling over, and I’d like to know whether this was deliberate or not: ‘Aher’ means ‘Other’, and so ‘Aherville’ would roughly translate to ‘Somewhere Else’, while the title of the comic is ‘Hereville’ – I assume because ‘Poville’ or ‘Cahnville’ would just sound odd. Is this a hint to the general trend of the comic? Is Mirkale going to move to Israel – I mean, Hereville, eventually? ^___^

In the ay of clothes – when I was Mirka’s age, that was pretty much what I wore. There was no point in getting super-fancy when I would be running around and sitting on the floor. White stockings, a nice skirt and a white turtle-neck are definitely okay Shabbos-clothes. Fancy-shmancy gear was saved for weddings and bar mitzvahs. Maybe for older girls you’d want to get a bit more creative, but for Mirka’s age, you’ve got it spot on, from my personal experience.

One thing that’s been worrying me – is Fruma’s hair a sheitel (wig), or her real hair? Because she DEFINITELY wouldn’t be uncovering it for Shabbos, and it looks a tad messy for a sheitel; they’re usually sleek and stylish since they cost so much anyway.

Is Zayde’s hair long all around, or only his payos? That’s a bit unusual – is he a remnant of the 60′s, or simply a radical?

*rereads her comment* Wow, I didn’t expect to get so detailed – I really intended to only say that I loved it. ^___^

Also, “chassidishe” doesn’t mean “religiously observant,” rather, it is a type of Judaism known as Chassidut which focuses a lot on practicing Judaism in both a religious and joyful, soulful, spirited way. It’s hard to explain in just a few words, but it’s a certain way of practicing Judaism. The term “chassid” does get thrown around to refer to any religious Jew in a black hat with payot, but that’s not REALLY what it means.

Also, I found it funny that you called friday “sixth day.” :D I would have either called it Friday or Yom Shishi and then translated in one of those little boxes that Yom Shishi means “sixth day of the week, aka friday.”

Anyway, I don’t mean to nitpick! I just wanted to point out some things. :D Have fun doing the rest of this!

And I agree with Kay, Hereville DOES have the feel of a shtetl, but you, of course, have a better image of it than we do.