Tag Archives: afterlife

from the Internet

Joshua Hale Fialkov: Comic Books’ Secret Religious Man?

Joshua Hale Filakov

Both USA Today and The Huffington Post are reporting on the latest comic book series from writer Joshua Hale Fialkov. The Devilers, his new title from Dynamite Entertainment, features and interreligious team of experts in thwarting Satan’s forces…which happen to be pouring out of the sub-basement of the Vatican.

Fialkov is also the writer behind another new series this month, The Life After, from Oni Press — what USA Today calls “a coming-of-age journey through the purgatory of suicides and other after-death planes of existence.”

The Devilers and The Life After join Fialkov’s growing biblography alongside his DC Comics hit I, Vampire which also touches upon the supernatural and spiritual. With each of these titles, Fialkov is, intentionally or otherwise, expanding vistas of religion-tinged narratives across the mainstream comics marketplace.

articles and essays

Batman and the Tibetan Comic Book of the Dead

Over at Dreamcatcher.com, George Atherton provided the Internet a service by saving a cataloging the Tibetan Book of the Dead from Thomas Coville’s defunct personal site. The illustrated work itself attempts to paint a (digital) picture of the psycho-spiritual levels of the Tibetan afterlife, the Bardo Thodol.

A page from Thomas Coville's Bardo Thodol
The final level of the Tibetan Bardo Thodol, as envisioned by Thomas Coville.

Coincidentally, this work was highlighted in a brief posting by Rev. Danny Fisher back in 2008 entitled “Holy Bardo, Batman” — that same year, the very same superhero enacted a death sequence as part of Grant Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. storyline where he entered a comatose trance enabled from his secret Tibetan training. (Chronicled by Prof. Jeffrey J. Kripal in his book Mutants and Mystics.)

articles and essays, controversy

Beast’s (Silly?) Atheism

Bleeding CoolIn response to an earlier article entitled “Is the Beast a Very Silly Atheist?” by Bleeding Cool founder Rich Johnston, writer JD Church scrutinizes the initial claims:

Beast makes his position on the matter clear. Except it’s complete nonsense. Not for anyone reading the book, but for anyone living in the Marvel Universe.

This is a man who has served on the Avengers with Thor, God Of Thunder […] And even if his godlike status can be dismessed [sic] as a powerful alien race, he’s also served with Valkyrie […w]ho can transport people back and forth from the land of the dead. Even if Beast doesn’t believe it exists[, h]e’s had his soul cleansed by Illyana’s sword. Even if he’s not meant to have a soul.

The Beast from All-New X-Men
The Beast (aka Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy), a “very silly atheist?”

Continue reading Beast’s (Silly?) Atheism →

cultural

R.I.P. Hellboy?

A very amusing Gutters webcomic on the (temporary) death of Hellboy:

Gutters #176 by Ryan Sohmer, David Namisato, Richard Clark, and Rus Wooton

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has said, “this isn’t the end of Hellboy, both the character and the comic, even though he’s now dead.” Still, funny, funny stuff from The Gutters.