You won’t hear discussions about Archie and Jughead. No, the Nextbook reading series entitled Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel at Wittenberg University’s library in Springfield beginning this month will illustrate that comic art is no laughing matter.

Funded by a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association and facilitated by Wittenberg Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Matthew Smith, the discussions, which begin Sept. 9 and continue regularly through Nov. 11, will focus on a series of graphic novels by Jewish author/illustrators including Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman.

"It’s an ambitious project to demonstrate that the comic form can be a serious forum for serious storytelling," said Smith.

The secondary goal of the series is to enlighten book aficionados to the mark Jewish writers are leaving in the graphic novel genre.

"You really can’t say you know a lot about graphic novels and not acknowledge the (Jewish) influence," said Smith, who is well versed in this discipline. "My perspective is a little more of the medium and the art form."

The series begins with Eisner’s A Contract with God. Eisner made his name in the 1940s with The Spirit, a comic about a masked detective. He made waves a second time in 1978 when he produced this first graphic novel.

A Contract With God is set among 1930s Bronx tenements and comprises four stories that depict working-class Jews.

"Eisner had the idea that comics could tell stories other than those about funny animals or superheroes or teen heartthrobs," Smith said. "Contract with God is serious ... our perspective of the Divine and the Divine with us. That’s something you don’t get in a DC comic or a Marvel comic. (Eisner) was trying to distance himself from the notion that this was a funny book. There’s humor in it but it’s not really funny."

On Sept. 23, the focus shifts to Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

Using transfigured characters, the book tells the story of Spiegelman’s parents, (Vladek and Anna) in Europe at the dawn of Nazism. As the title suggests, it’s the story of their survival in concentration camps. Jews are drawn as mice and Nazis are cats.

This masterpiece received a special award in 1992 from the Pulitzer Prize committee.

"Maus is undoubtedly the most honored graphic novel we’ve ever seen," Smith said.

Harvey Pekar’s The Quitter, the third book in the five-part series will be the topic on Oct. 28 and could actually receive a chuckle or two.

Pekar, author of the celebrated autobiograhical comic series American Splendor, spent his life quitting before he could fail. In The Quitter, he counts the ways.

"The Quitter is a little more humorous," Smith said. "It’s not a downer as much. There is some black humor infused with it."

The series will conclude with Ben Katchor’s Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer on Oct. 7 and Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat on Nov. 11.

Katchor’s cameraman catches a disappearing urban netherworld while Sfar’s cat, the pet of an Algerian rabbi and his daughter, munches on a parrot, gains the ability to talk and announces it wants to be Jewish and celebrate a Bar Mitzvah. It takes place at a time when the modern world is shattering long-held customs.

"None of these are really comical," Smith said. "That’s something from a (non-Jewish) point of view, you think of Jewish people in entertainment and you think of ... the Catskills or Seinfeld. The selections here are more sober. The sponsors of this grant wanted more of the sober works so the people could really appreciate the depth you could get emotionally."

The readings begin at 7 p.m. and run until 9:30 p.m. All the books are at the Wittenberg library and are available free while they last.

Nextbook is a non-profit organization created in 2003 to promote Jewish literature, culture and ideas. Nextbook commissions books on Jewish themes, sponsors public lectures, readings and performances and publishes an online magazine.