levity, online

Brian Cronin on “That Time the Greek Gods Fought Jesus”

Since there may be little immediate scholarly value to this, Sacred and Sequential offers the following without comment (so we’ll use CBR‘s Brian Cronin’s comments from last year on The Godyssey):

The comic opens with Avengelyne having a premonition that Zeus and the Greek gods are upset with Christianity since no one worships the Greek gods any more.

Now do note – this is a DREAM. This did not ACTUALLY happen in the comic. I suspect that that was something that occurred to the creators after the fact, as it seems kind of out of place as “just” a dream, but to be fair, they clearly DO state in the comic that it is a dream. However, as a premonition it is on point as Zeus IS pissed and it is up to Avengelyne and Glory to stop this war between the Greek gods and the angels of heaven before things went too nuts.

…ok, one comment: In 2013, this property was optioned for a movie development.

We now return to incisive, scholarly analysis.

academic, contributors, online

Comics Alternative Podcast Features Roundtable Discussion on Religion and Comics

Religion-PanelistsOn Monday, the Comics Alternative podcast hosted a “special roundtable” discussion featuring S&S’s own A. David Lewis, Elizabeth Coody, and Jeff Brackett on the subject of religion and comics. One-half of the show’s “2 Guys with PhDs,” Derek Royal, led the animated conversation, spanning all manner of engaging topics:

The subjects that come up during the discussion range from superheroes and myths, manifestations of the afterlife, adaptations of religious texts, biographies of religious leaders, expressions of heaven and hell, the crossroads of faith and ethnicity, and parodic (even heretical) representations of religious figures, doctrines, and practices.

At times on the panel the discussants clash or come at books from different angles — for example, Jeff and David disagree on the usefulness of Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Derek pushes back on the “religiousness” of such comics as Maus, A Contract with God, and Persepolis — but the talk is always lively and insightful. Among the many texts they reference are Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, Mike Carey’s Lucifer, Justin Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated, Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus, Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come, Mark Millar’s American Jesus, and Craig Thompson’s Blankets. They even discuss comics as religious propaganda, such as what you’ll find in the Spire comics published by Archie during the 1970s and the ever-present Chick tracts.

A panel from Spire Comics’s Christian-themed ARCHIE.

As Royal noted, there was plenty more to be said, so, based on their audience’s response, a follow-up discussion could well be in the works!

Listen to the episode either on the Comics Alternative website, downloaded to your personal device, or via iTunes.

academic, events

Jews & Comics NYC panel: “Might Makes Right?”

Concurrent with this year’s New York Comic-Con, a “Comics and the Jews” panel was hosted at the Center for Jewish History’s auditorium by the American Jewish Historical Society, Forward magazine reports. The discussion featured Karen Green  of Columbia University, Paul Kupperberg formerly of DC Comics, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books‘s Arie Kaplan, Danny Fingeroth formerly of Marvel Comics and author of Dressed as Clark Kent, and former publisher of DC Comics Paul Levitz. The familiar origins of American comics as a urban Jewish product were recounted, as was a compelling intercultural anecdote:

“I got into a discussion some years ago with a group of Arab editorial cartoonists who were probably as liberal a group as you can have in the Arab world,” said Levitz. They were visiting a State Department thingamaboby and one of them asked: ‘Aren’t all these super heroes just about the American belief that might makes right.’ I can see it, but I believe these [cartoonists] believe the American principle that we are born with gifts and talents and it’s what we choose to do with our gifts and talent….” Fingeroth interjected: “…is to use that power wisely and justly.”

Read more about Forward‘s 2013 coverage of Karen Green’s work on cartoonist Al Jaffee and the Columbia library here.

controversy, online

Palestine Square Explores “The Role of Comics in the Palestinian Narrative”

Cartoonist Naji al-Ali’s Handala, “the quintessential mark of Palestine solidarity.”

The Institute for the Palestine Studies’ blog Palestine Square recently featured coverage by writer Khelil Bouarrouj entitled, “The Role of Comics in the Palestinian Narrative.” In it, Bouarrouj considers the impact of works including Joe Sacco’s Palestine,  Leila Abdelrazaq‘s Bawaddi, Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman’s Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me, and Palestinian-American Marguerite Dabaie‘s Hookah Girl, among others.

Read more here.

from the Internet

Understanding the Refugee Crisis through Comics (Panels.net)

(The following article by Monica Friedman first appeared at Panels.net on 9/15/2015. It is presented here with her permission.)

Empathy by Design

Nobody desires refugee status. No one asks to flee their homeland in terror, to inculcate themselves into a foreign nation where they may not speak the language, or understand the customs, or expect a warm welcome from the citizenry.

When humans become refugees, we can’t distill their experience down to some reactionary common denominator. To understand the suffering and pain that would inspire someone to leave behind their worldly possession and flee the only place they’ve ever known, we need to hear their stories.

From “Syria’s Climate Conflict” by Audrey Quinn and Jackie Roche

Comics, as always, are an accessible medium for sharing those stories.
Writer Audrey Quinn and artist Jackie Roche created “Syria’s Climate Conflict” to explain to English readers the origins of the Syrian civil war. Prolonged drought caused the death of livestock and the withering of crops, resulting in starving farmers relocating to cities ill-equipped to serve their needs. Tensions ran high, the government responded violently, and the country exploded, but the most powerless victims—those living in fear and hunger, blameless, seeking only survival—lost the most. This gorgeously watercolored comic stands as a stark and sharp piece, demonstrating the global nature of local trouble. Globally and locally, the Syrian government’s response to the questions asked by the Syrian people were unexpected, and those asking such questions were unprepared for the consequences. Continue reading Understanding the Refugee Crisis through Comics (Panels.net) →

@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion