Tag Archives: conversion

articles and essays, contributors

Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 1 of 3)

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a reader of comics. I grew up on the old Planet Comics black-and-white newsprint anthologies of DC titles before moving onto the more expensive and imported coloured individual issues of Marvel and DC from the US and the weekly issues of Tornado and 2000AD from the UK. Because I’d read anything in that format, I read various religious tracts and comics, as well as graphically-adapted works of classics like Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the serialised comics in the back of the daily newspaper.

I’ve always been intrigued by the power of these storied images, and as a Christian theologian with an interest in popular culture, I’ve spent the last twenty years or so collecting comics and graphic novels that have religious themes and material or touch on spiritual matters. Sometimes these comics are representations of sacred texts like the Hebrew or Christian scriptures; other times they explore themes of sacrifice, redemption, faith, and suffering. They might take an established comic book character and explore their religious dimension or fashion a detailed cosmology inclusive of heaven(s) and hell(s). There is something about the graphical format that lends itself to not just traditional narrative prose but also to poetry, to wordless stories, non-linear storytelling, and being able to tell stories from a variety of cultural and ethnic settings.

In these posts I’m going to highlight ten particular comic titles that I might recommend to people if they asked for examples of religion and spirituality in comics and graphic novels. I’ve deliberately steered away from graphical adaptations of religious texts like the Bible or material intended to educate or encourage the faithful. I may do a series on those eventually as they are also very interesting, but in these posts I want to highlight where we might find religion and spirituality in other contexts. I do not expect everyone (or anyone!) to agree with my choices, but I hope get you thinking about how people are telling religious and spiritual stories in this format. Continue reading Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 1 of 3) →

controversy, from the Internet

A Superhero against…Goyim?

In September, Tzion Publishing put out the call for all interested parties to submit contact information for their forthcoming Spring 2017 comic book series, Shabbat Man. Featuring “Joshua Polmar, an adult convert to Judaism,” the comic will square him off against “Jerome Goyim is the epitome of evil in the world and he is a slave to his wicked animal soul,” according to Tzion’s website.

Curiously, many of the characters in the dramatis personae are either adult converts to Judaism or struggling with their Jewish identity. Combine that quirk with Tzion’s stating that Shabbat Man “is designed to teach the reader about one or more of the 613 commandments and about Judaism, in general.  The adventures delve into the finer points of Judaism making non-Jews more aware of Jewish traditions.” Do we have the makings here of proselytizing Jewish comic book?

Of course, “Shabbat Man fights for justice on behalf of all people,” despite the questionable name of his arch-nemesis. And, there are product placement opportunities open to one and all…

…particularly in the areas of “lady’s high heeled shoes” and “beverages.”

Jerome Goyim

controversy, interviews

Converting to Islam Its Own Sin?

In June of last year, novelist and comic book writer G. Willow Wilson gave an interview to Bleeding Cool News upon the release of her memoir The Butterfly Mosque. In both the book and interview, she chronicles what led her to convert to Islam and the stigma sometimes attached to converting into another religion.

Last week, The Infidel Bloggers Alliance essentially proved her point. Whereas Wilson calls “[c]omics readers […] the most open-minded, try-anything-once, take-people-as-they-are,” Avi Green holds Wilson in disdain, largely for converting at all but particularly to Islam. Green says that Wilson’s assessment of comics readers is “naive” and that Wilson herself “fell to Islam.”

Bleeding Cool‘s Rich Johnston, incidentally, stands by Wilson on principle and calls The Infidel Bloggers Alliance “a rabidly pro-Israel, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim site.”