Award-winning Jewish graphic novelist Neil Kleid is taking his Jewish gangster graphic novel “Brownsville” to the iPhone. “The process is definitely exciting,” Kleid said in a recent interview. “Each and every day another smart phone comes to market — be it iPhone, Pre, Droid or BlackBerry — and the comic book industry is matching them stride for stride. The only thing, as a cartoonist or graphic novelist, you really need to do is change your point of view, understand that this is the limitless new horizon and get on board.”

“Brownsville” from publisher NBM, is the story of Murder Incorporated, the Jewish hit operation of the 1920s and ’30s.

“It’s a true story, following the intertwined lives of Allie “Tick Tock” Tannenbaum and Abe “Kid Twist” Reles as they immerse themselves in the gang-infested streets of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, work their way to the top and then rat everyone out,” Kleid said. “If you’re a sucker for a good mob movie, and you’d like to expand your Mafia horizons beyond Michael Corleone, ‘Goodfellas,’ Lucky Luciano and ‘The Sopranos,’ this is the book for you.”

Jake Allen is the artist for “Brownsville.”

The graphic novel can be downloaded via the iPhone app Panelfly, found online at www.panelfly.com.

Kleid’s second book for NBM is “The Big Kahn,” set in modern-day New Jersey, as, at the funeral of esteemed Rabbi David Kahn, his family discovers he was never Jewish, but an Irish con man.

Mattew Price

Read more at NEWSOK, JAZMAONLINE and RANTCOMICS.

Amazon – A beautifully moody evocation of a bygone Brooklyn inhabited by Jewish gangsters, Brownsville follows the career of some of the biggest names in the hoodlum business. The authors trace the way in which a young boy might be seduced by the wrong side through relating the story of Allie Tannenbaum, who first meets the wiseguys on the grounds of his own father’s place in the Catskills. Later, the action moves to the Lower East Side, where Allie is an older man, well ensconced in the shadow world of the men who make up Murder Inc.: Louis Lepke Buchalter, Abe Reles, the Shapiro brothers, Dutch Schultz—all wind through this tale of 1930s corruption. Tires are slashed, guns are hidden in toilet tanks, rapes and murders and retaliatory hits are carried out. One difficulty is that there are few sympathetic characters, other than Allie’s somewhat bewildered father, who doesn’t love his son’s choice of career. At times, the story’s convolutions can be tough to follow; along with the various shifting loyalties, Allen’s lush black ink, while atmospheric, can make different characters look confusingly similar. Nonetheless, the work is a fine addition to the archive of Brooklyn’s once outlaw world. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.