Tag Archives: Jonathan Hickman

Religious Revivals and the Great Awakening of Religion & Comics

[Part Two of “What Makes a Scholar’s Pull-List?”]

Panel from _Manifest Destiny_, art by Matthew Roberts
Panel from _Manifest Destiny_ by Chris Dingess with art by Matthew Roberts

American historians sometimes call the waves of religious fervor in the 18th and 19th century our country’s “Great Awakening.” It is a powerful image–convinced that God’s spirit was calling Christians to renew their commitments–Americans flocked to open-air revivals to hear fiery sermons by orators like George Whitefield. Among the innovations of this era was what would become evangelicalism, that variety of Christianity that emphasized the individual, emotional “born again” experience of admitting one’s sinful nature and accepting Jesus’ offer of redemption.

Why this historical introduction? I have tried to consider various explanations for how my assortment of monthly comics came to be.  Are my subscriptions simply the products of obscure personal quirks? Am I distracted by certain styles of art or attracted to certain writers? No matter how I tried to explain why I had certain comics on my list to be set aside monthly when they arrive, I found that the list defied me.

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Deicide Abounds in “God Is Dead”

Rich Johnson at Bleeding Cool provided coverage of the two-part mini-series God Is Dead: Book of Acts, a companion to Avatar Press’s main God Is Dead series created by Jonathan Hickman. In short, many, many divinities slaughter each other, with humankind in the middle (and a great deal of sex had on the way as well). And now, it’s attracted creators like Alan Moore (and his personal serpent god Glycon), Kieron Gillen, and Si Spurrier to weave mini-myths for it! Read more here.

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