Professor James F. McGrath (aka ReligionProf) sits down with Sacred and Sequential‘s own A. David Lewis to discuss Kismet, Man of Fate from publisher A Wave Blue World. This March 2019 episode of the ReligionProf Podcast also features linkbacks to S&S‘s discussion of the Second Coming debacle and Matthew Brake’s news of the new Religion and Comics series from Claremont Press. It all comes full circle!
Tag Archives: A. David Lewis
CFP – Religion and Comics Series
Call for Papers:
Religion and Comics, A New Book Series from Claremont Press, Claremont School of Theology
The new Claremont Press Religion and Comics series is pleased to welcome submissions for book proposals. This interreligious and ecumenical series is looking for volumes covering multiple topics related to the intersection of religion and comics, including, but
not limited to the following:
- Representations of Christian Fundamentalism in Comics
- Eschatology and Comics
- Magic and Comics
- Religion in the Comics of Grant Morrison
- Religion in the Comics of Alan Moore
- Religion in the Comics of Neil Gaiman
- Religion in the Comics of G. Willow Wilson
- Religion in Image Comics
- Religion in Locke & Key
- Religion and Hellboy
- Depictions of the Afterlife in Comics and Graphic Novels
- Jinn and Other Spiritual Beings in Comic Books
1-2 page book proposals should be sent to series editors Matthew Brake and A. David Lewis as the following e-mail address: popandtheology@gmail.com
Religion News Service Examines KISMET, MAN OF FATE
Following its coverage at Fanboy Planet, the new trade paperback Kismet, Man of Fate – Volume 1: Boston Strong has received some impressively thorough coverage from Aysha Khan at the Religion News Service.
Lewis rattled off a list of common tropes about Muslim characters he hoped to avoid with his character: the “noble savage” who is uncorrupted by modern civilization; the mystical Muslim superhero; the docile Muslim woman; the perishable “cannon fodder”; and, more broadly, Muslim characters being carelessly boiled down to a nebulous racial and religious mass.
For Lewis, writing a Muslim superhero was also an opportunity to address the connection between superhuman ability and cosmology. Do the powers to, say, fly or manipulate fire come from God?
It will be exciting to see if this leads to greater discussion about religion in comics, the superhero genre specifically. Can there be a secular narrative on a character who credits his abilities to some aspect of divinity?
(And, normally, we would warn “don’t read the Comments,” but there may be something informative to them at RNS, potentially.)
Muslim superhero returns after 70 years – just in time to take down a few Nazis
Discussing the First Muslim Superhero’s Return to Comics
Comics scholar and Sacred & Sequential founder A. David Lewis opens up about both the process and the motivation behind his new comic book Kismet, Man of Fate – Volume 1: Boston Strong. The series, which is a modern-day update of the 1940s Muslim superhero, had been delivered in online installments for much of the past year, but it now comes to comic shops in print for the first time this week.
Derek McCaw of Fanboy Planet conducted the new interview with Lewis, who had this to say about Golden Age superheroes like Kismet or the Green Turtle:
[F]or the more liberal-leaning comics creators of the Golden Age, I think there was a fascination with other cultures, even if it was only at the surface level. […] I doubt there was any real thought given to the real-life practitioners or inheritors of this lore, just as I think there was little deference given to Muslims or Asians with Kismet and Green Turtle, respectively. There may be something complimentary in comics creators seeing the potential for this non-Western material to fuel their stories, but it was largely Orientalist and filled with Anglo-centrist presumptuousness.
Lewis teams with artist Noel Tuazon, Rob Croonenborghs, Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios, and Kel Nuttal in bringing Kismet back to publication. Publisher A Wave Blue World (AWBW) also secured Heathen‘s Natasha Alterici for the cover art and The Tempest‘s Laila Alawa for the Foreword, with book and logo design by Nicola Black.
Comics and Islam, Live at MICE 2017 – 004 Sacred & Sequential Audio
Muslim identity and practices are featured more comics than ever, from mainstream titles like Ms. Marvelto independent graphic memoirs. This panel at the 2017 Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) takes stock of this important growing field — including the brand-new book Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation — and presents the perspectives of both academics and creators. Featuring discussion with Hussein Rashid (Religion Professor, Barnard College; Contributor, Muslim Superheroes), A. David Lewis (Instructor, MCPHS University; Co-Editor, Muslim Superheroes; writer, Kismet, Man of Fate), Sara Alfageeh (Illustrator, Co-Director, BOY/BYE series MIPSTERZ project), and Hillary Chute (English Professor, Northeastern Unitersity).
