Comics and the Bible (and other Sacred Texts)

[ItsDLEVY]

I'm taking a class about the study of sacred texts, and I have to come up with a paper topic for tomorrow examining any sort of commentary on any sort of sacred text. I'm not finding any traditional commentaries that exciting at the moment, and my professor is encouranging us to branch out into other realms. So I'm thinking maybe I can write about a comic that takes a point of view on some kind of sacred text. The current Daredevil arc might be good, but I don't think there's enough in just the first issue to write an entire paper on.

So, I ask you all. Can anyone think of a comic that's based on/comments on/relates to a sacred text (Biblical, non-western, liturgical, whatever) that might make for an interesting examination? I thought about the Life of Buddha that Osamu Tezuka is doing, but that might be too big in scope (and I don't know anything about the sources for that, so it might be too ambitious for me to dive into).

And I don't think Thor counts, because it needs to be relating to a specific sacred text, not just a general body of mythology.

[BriRedfern]

There is a publisher who deals aklmost exclusively with Religious adaptations in comic form.

I have a great book about the old testiment with Art by all sorts of heavy hitters. Someone big did the intro too, I will try to bring the info into work tomorrow.

[RebootedCorpse]

Chester Brown adapted several New Testament passages. That would be a good place to go.
Alo there are several Verigo books that deal with God/Jesus/Satan in some form or another.

[BriRedfern]

Here is a link for you -

http://www.fanboyplanet.com/comics/mc-biblecomics.php

A whole Fanboyplanet story on bible comics.

The book I sopokle of earlier is titled "Testament" and it is real good.

[BriRedfern]

And some more -

Testament 'Cheers' Up The Bible
Old Testament In New Clothes

May 21, 2003
Metron Press, an imprint of the American Bible Society, has announced the September publication of Testament, a $12.95, 120-page graphic novel written by Jim Krueger (Earth X) and illustrated by a number of top flight artists including Bill Sienkiewicz, Bo and Scott Hampton, Steve Rude, George Pratt, and many others. The stories included in Testament are all taken from the Old Testament, a great repository of drama, action, and history complete with unforgettable characters, eternal themes and paradigmatic situations that still have great cultural and moral relevance. The format of the graphic novel, in which each sequence starts out in a bar where the patrons' troubles are the catalyst for a tale from the Old Testament, stresses the relevance of the Bible to modern life. Rather than apologizing for starting his Biblical tales in a barroom, editor Mario Ruiz sees it as an opportunity to open some eyes to the wide diversity of material included in the Old Testament: "we stay accurate with the source material, but we are constantly having to say that we didn't make this stuff up. It's really in the Bible. It goes to show you that many church folk aren't reading their Bibles enough."



Testament will actually be the second graphic novel published by Metron Press. Last December the company published Samson: Judge of Israel (srp $7.95), a graphic novel written by Jerry E. Novick that takes a straightforward narrative approach to a classic Biblical story. Metron's parent company, the American Bible Society, was founded in 1808 and distributed over 12 million copies of the Old and New Testaments in 2001. The Testament graphic novel should prove to be a winner in the large Christian bookstore market -- and considering the number of high-powered creators just might create some interest in comic shops. Of course there are literally dozens of comic book versions of the Bible, including the classic EC Picture Stories from the Bible, so the folks at Metron Press are hoping that their barroom framing stories and top contemporary creators will mark Testament as a distinctive and relevant work.



I love me some God.

[BenitoCereno]

Yeah, I'd recommend Jim Krueger's Testament or Kyle Baker's King David for biblical ones.

For the ancient Greeks, the Iliad was their sacred text, so you might give a look to Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower (even though the material covered in the comic is not that contained within the Iliad, it's myths from the same tradition and Trojan War cycle).

[Marvel Girl]

I don't know if this is what your looking for but have you ever heard of Jack Chick comics that they give out at church. Each comic is based on passages of the bible. http://www.chick.com/default.asp

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Kyle Baker's King David is a fun book...


and Mike Alred started publishing his adaptation of the Mormon books recently...

[justjeffery]

Mike Allreds Golden Plates are a fantastic adaptation of the Book Of Mormon...

[~Hernandez~]

Im pretty sure that the oldest printmaking plates found were used to tell stories from the bible. Google that.