Graven images: religion in comic books and graphic novels

2010

Comic books have increasingly become a vehicle for serious social commentary and, specifically, for innovative religious thought. Practitioners of both traditional religions and new religious movements have begun to employ comics as a missionary tool, while humanists and religious progressives use comics’ unique fusion of text and image to criticize traditional theologies and to offer alternatives. Addressing the increasing fervor with which the public has come to view comics as an art form and Americans' fraught but passionate relationship with religion, Graven Images explores the roles of religion in comic books and graphic novels. In essays by scholars and comics creators, Graven Images observes the frequency with which religious material—in devout, educational, satirical, or critical contexts—occurs in both independent and mainstream comics. Contributors identify the unique advantages of the comics medium for religious messages; analyze how comics communicate such messages; place the religious messages contained in comic books in appropriate cultural, social, and historical frameworks; and articulate the significance of the innovative theologies being developed in comics.

Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America, 2017

This chapter examines the interactions between of Bibles and comic books/graphic novels in America. It explains how the images of comic book Bibles reveal American Protestants' changing understandings of the religious work of images. It engages comic art from Basil Wolverton, Al Hartley, and E.J. Pace, among others. This chapter was published in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America (Oxford 2017), a collection edited by Paul Gutjahr.

This article blends insights into the co-presence of images with the recognition that monstration and graphic style have narrative properties (e.g. Groensteen, Miller, Mikkonen, Postema) in an applied reading of two comics adaptations of biblical stories. Erich Auerbach's classic exploration of biblical vs. Homeric prose in his book Mimesis identifies a key distinction that sheds light on how narration operates in Robert Crumb's The Book of Genesisand Chester Brown's Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus. Analysis of these two works is carried out with primary reference to Thierry Groensteen's typology of the four modalities of co-presence in comics (synchronic, diachronic, musical and visual). Through close analyses of typical sequences from each biblical adaptation, a distinction can be observed in the way that comics can either work against or reinforce aspects of biblical narration. In the end, while comics as a medium are by their very nature 'fraught with background' in the way that Auerbach suggests of biblical prose, there are many narrative possibilities available to comics artists that can be created through combinations of monstration and style.

Comics have undeniably entered the mainstream. Comic books and graphic novels meet with regular acclaim. The industry is a force of nature. Adaptations of comics into wildly successful films has created a whole new crop of readers. Many times the nuances and contributions of comics are overlooked, in spite of the fact that comics have been engaging with religious themes, used for religious purposes, and part of the lives of religious people for decades and across many cultures. Their reputation for being lowbrow has often kept their valuable resources and imaginative possibilities from the hands of scholars. To address the scholarly queries around the importance and possibilities of comics in the study of religion, we propose a panel that invites scholars to open a dialogue around the question: How is working with comics an act of discovery: of comics, of the study of religion, and/or of religions? Our structure for the panel is as follows: the presenters will each make a presentation in which they critically engage comics and articulate ways comics have entered their own work, scholarship, and teaching, in answer to our framing question. Since comics cover such a wide swath of subjects and can be engaged from a number of angles, the panel includes scholars who attend to the work of comics in a variety of ways and will explore reading, researching, talking, teaching, and writing as acts of discovery. The remainder of the time will be given to moderated discussion open to the attendees. Both the theme and structure of this proposed panel come out of conversations at regional meetings over the past few years, in which we decided our meetings would be enriched if we experimented with other formats, particularly those that enable us to engage in cross-disciplinary conversation. Several recent sessions have included papers and conversations that have examined comics and some of these have engaged specific examples of comics art/literature with significant depth, but none so far have sought to explore the breadth of the field. Therefore, we are committed to using our time to stimulate creative, substantive, and hopefully satisfying conversation around this burgeoning field. We hope both to educate attendees on the work being done in comics and religion as well as give them useful information that they might apply to their own work. Panelists: Dan Clanton, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Doane College Terry Clark, Associate Professor of Religion, Georgetown College Elizabeth Coody, PhD Candidate, University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology Panel Moderator: Leonard Greenspoon, Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations/Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Creighton University

ZAA Special Issue Literary Approaches to Contemporary Comics, 2010

Translation and the Machine: Technology, Meaning, Praxis, 103-124. Steve Berneking and Scott S. Elliott, eds. (Rome, Italy: Edizioni di Storia e Letturatura), 2008

Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds 7/2 (2011): 123-48

Graphic novels and comics have long provided a venue for visually portraying biblical narratives. While some provide a clever hook for devotees to capture the imagination in order to safely entertain the existing flock or to entice would-be converts into the fold, others are not concerned primarily with any “faithful” visual rendering of biblical narrative. These productions interrogate and/or appropriate biblical narrative in a variety of ways while maintaining a high degree of fidelity to the requirements of the art form and to the expectations of its readers. This article investigates two works focused on the figure of Jesus, both of which share and exploit the iconoclastic nature and marginal status of the genre, and find in the figure of Jesus a narrative and character uniquely befitting of the form. While neither aims to render Jesus directly, each manages to capture something of both the discursive aspects of the gospel literature, and perhaps something of whatever counter-cultural message and disposition the historical Jesus may have had. Moreover, each manipulates the closure that readers provide through recourse to the familiar biblical text. I contend that these productions faithfully, if ironically, refract the subversive potential of both the biblical narrative and the figure of Jesus precisely by their infidelity to what might be loosely described as a more orthodox Christ.

2005

Book reviewed:Biblical and Near Eastern Essays – Studies in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart, Carmel McCarthy and John F. Healey (eds.), JSOTS Series 375, T & T Clark 2004, A Continuum Imprint (0-8264-6690-7), pp. xix + 376, Hb £75 Reviewed by Benjamin Bury University of BirminghamJesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ's Continuing Incarnation, Gerrit Scott Dawson, T&T Clark, 2004 (0-567-08221-0), pp. xiii + 255, Pb £16.99 Reviewed by Philip McCosker Peterhouse, CambridgeChristianity at Corinth: The Quest for the Pauline Church, Edward Adams and David G. Horrell (eds), Westminster John Knox Press 2004 (0-664-22478-4), pp. xvi + 332, Pb $39.95 Reviewed by Anthony Bash University of DurhamThe Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism, James F. Keenan, SJ, Rowman & Littlefield, 2005 (ISBN 0-7425-3220-8), pp. 118, pb $55.00 Reviewed by Bernadette McNary-Zak Rhodes CollegeThe Hermeneutics of Charity: Interpretation, Selfhood, and Post-modern Faith In Honor of James H. Olthuis, James K.A. Smith and Henry Isaac Venema, editors, Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, 2004, 272 pp. $34.99 Reviewed by Christopher Daniel-Smith Loyola Marymount UniversityPentecostal and Charismatic Studies: A Reader, Edited by William K. Kay and Anne Dyer, SCM Press 2004 (ISBN 0-334-02940-6), pp. xxxiii + 332, Pb £25.00 Reviewed by Robert Cornwall Santa Barbara, CAPoetics of Critique: The Interdisciplinarity of Textuality, Andrew W. Hass, Ashgate 2003 (0-7546-0868-9), pp. xii + 184, Hb £47.50/$94.95 Reviewed by Brannon Hancock University of GlasgowModern Judaism. An Oxford Guide, Edited by Nicholas de Lange and Miri Freud-Kandel, Oxford University Press 2005 (ISBN 0-19-926287-X), pp. ix + 459, Pb £22.95 Reviewed by Silviu Bunta Marquette UniversityAn Introduction to Christianity, Linda Woodhead, Cambridge University Press 2004 (Hb 0-521-45445-X, Pb 0-521-78655-X,), pp. viii + 439, Hb £45, Pb £16.99 Reviewed by Michael A. Chester The North East Oecumenical CourseAncient Rhetoric and Paul's Apology: The Compositional Unity of 2 Corinthians, Frederick J. Long, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 131, Cambridge University Press 2004 (0-521-84233-6), pp. xix + 291, Hb £50/$80 Reviewed by Anthony Bash University of DurhamThe Mystery of Mary, Paul Haffner, Gracewing/Hillenbrand Books 2004 (UK 0-85244-650-0; US 1-59525-008-5), pp. xiv + 285, Pb £14.99 Reviewed by Peter Atkins Auckland, New ZealandTeresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life, Shirley du Boulay, DLT 2004 (0-232-52589-7), pp. xi + 292, Pb £10.95 Reviewed by John Armson HerefordshireA Monastic Renaissance at St. Albans: Thomas Walsingham and his Circle c. 1350–1440, James A. Clark, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, ISBN 0-19-927595-5, pp. xi + 316, Hb £55.00 Reviewed by David Lohr Hickory, North CarolinaThe Cambridge Companion to John Calvin, Donald McKim (ed), Cambridge University Press 2004 (0-521-01672-X), pp. xvii + 352, Pb £17.99/$24.99 Reviewed by Jason A. Fout St. Paul's Episcopal Church, St. Joseph, MichiganIn Search of the Catholic Spirit: Methodists and Roman Catholics in dialogue, David M. Chapman, Epworth Press 2004 (0-7162-0588-2), pp. xviii + 312, Pb £19.99 Reviewed by Rev Dr Adrian Burdon Chester le Street, County DurhamKing, Priest and Prophet: A Trinitarian Theology of Atonement, Robert Sherman, Theology for the Twenty-first Century, T & T Clark 2004, A Continuum Imprint (0-567-02560-8) xi + 291, Pb £22 Reviewed by John Armson HerefordshireThe Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity, Carl Raschke, Baker Academic 2004 (0-8010-2751-9), pp. 215, Pb $18.99 Reviewed by Borden Painter Trinity College (Connecticut)A.J. Tomlinson: Plainfolk Modernist, Religion in America Series, R.G. Robins, New York, Oxford University P 2004 (0-19-516591-8), pp. x + 316, Hb £27.50/$45.00 Reviewed by D.E. ‘Gene’ Mills Jr. Florida State UniversityEmerging Evangelism, John Finney, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2004 (0-232-52496-3), pp. 178, Pb £10.95 Reviewed by Ken Alan Jung Los Angeles, CaliforniaTractarians and the ‘Condition of England’: The Social and Political Thought of the Oxford Movement, S.A. Skinner, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2004 (0-19-927323-5), pp. x + 330, Hb £55 Reviewed by Denis Paz University of North TexasA Different World Is Possible, Luiz Carlos Susin, Jon Sobrino, and Felix Wilfred, eds., London: SCM Press, 2004 (0-334-03081-1), pp. 140, Pb £10.50 Reviewed by Ken Alan Jung Los Angeles, CaliforniaThe Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant, Edwin Bryant and Maria Ekstrand (eds), Columbia UP 2004 (0 231 12256 X), pp. 448, Pb. $49.50 Reviewed by Gerald Vinten International Professional Managers AssociationRethinking Religion: A Concise Introduction, Will Deming, Oxford University Press, 2005, (ISBN 0-19-516981-6), pp. xi + 157, Pb £12.99 Reviewed by Jane Compson University of Central FloridaChurch, State and Civil Society, David Fergusson, Cambridge University Press, 2004 (Hb 0-521-82239-4, Pb 0-521-52959-X), pp. vii + 213, Hb £40/$70, Pb £16.99/ $24.99 Reviewed by David Grumett ExeterThe Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality, Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, Blackwell 2005 (Hb 1-4051-1958-6, Pb 1-4051-12959-4), pp. xii + 204, Hb £50, Pb £15.99 Reviewed by John Armson HerefordshireThe Transformative Imagination: Rethinking Intercultural Theology, George Newlands, Ashgate 2004 (0-7546-3827-8), pp. ix + 195, Hb £45 Reviewed by David Grumett ExeterMissions, Nationalism, and the End of Empire, Brian Stanley (ed), Studies in the History of Christian Missions, Eerdmans 2004 (0-8028-2116-2), pp. 313, Hb £32.99/$45 Reviewed by Gerald Vinten Paris Graduate Management SchoolFood for the Soul, Elizabeth Maxwell and Susan Shapiro (eds.), Seabury Books 2004 (ISBN 1-59627-001-2), pp. xxv + 242, Pb $18.00 Reviewed by Gaye W. Ortiz Augusta State UniversityGay Unions In the Light of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, Gray Temple, Church Publishing 2004 (ISBN 0-89869-457-4), pp. 174, Pb $20.00 Reviewed by Randall Woodard Silver Spring, MDA Brief History of Death, Douglas J. Davies, Blackwell 2005 (Pb 1-4051-0183-0, Hb 1-4051-0182-2), pp. xi + 184, Pb £12.99, Hb £40 Reviewed by Adam Hood The Queen's Foundation, BirminghamA Fitting End: Making the Most of a Funeral, Hugh James, Canterbury Press Norwich 2004 (ISBN 1-85311-602-5), pp. xi + 179, Pb £12.99 Reviewed by MaryEllen O’Brien Loyola University ChicagoMy Life and My Death: A Priest Confronts His Cancer, Jeffrey T. Simmons, New York: Church Publishing 2004 (ISBN 0-89869-445-0), pp. 17 + 140, pb $14.00 Reviewed by MaryEllen O’Brien Loyola University ChicagoIn Praise of Wisdom: Literary and Theological Reflections on Faith and Reason, Kim Paffenroth, Continuum 2004 (0-8264-1603-9), pp. xvi + 160, Hb £22 Reviewed by Peter Atkins Auckland. New ZealandWalter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics, S. Brent Plate, Routledge 2005 (0-415-96992-1), pp. xv + 171, Pb £14.99 Reviewed by Gaye Ortiz Augusta State UniversityScience and Theology since Copernicus: The Search for Understanding, Peter Barrett, T & T Clark 2004, A Continuum Imprint (0-567-08970-3), pp. 208, Pb £12.99 Reviewed by Alessandro Giostra Accademia Georgica, Treia, ItalyWilliam James and a Science of Religions: Reexperiencing The Varieties of Religious Experience, Wayne Proudfoot (ed.), Columbia University Press 2004 (0-231-13204-2), pp. vii + 138, Hb £22.50/$34.50 The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, William James, Centenary Edition, Routledge 2004 (0-415-27809-0), pp. lxiii + 415, Hb £16.99/$18.95 Reviewed by Owen Anderson Arizona State UniversityDiscovering Girard, Michael Kirwan, Darton, Longman, and Todd 2004 (0-232-52526-9), pp. 137, Pb £10.95 Reviewed by Craig Hovey University of Cambridge