In The Name Of The Gun

Someone told me about a nightmare about a Nazi Jesus terrorizing everybody. I hope it has not been because of this blog that this dream was dreamt. On the flip-side of that coin of course I do hope that it was. Oh the sweet ambivalence. Whatever its source though, the concept of a Nazi Jesus got me thinking. I googled it and yes sure enough there are quite a lot of people out there with a lot of time and a lack of talent that took this concept and ran with it. But one phenomenon in particular stood out: the comic In The Name Of The Gun. I can't find much info on the comic or its creators but really, a comic in which Jesus Christ goes around shooting Nazis with a machine gun, what more is there to say?

Website: http://www.jesuschriststory.com/

Islamic Comics: Silver Scorpion

When you don't feel pressured to come up with a clever line to generate interest for a post because the description suffices, then you know you have a good subject. I give you Silver Scorpion, the disabled Muslim superhero!

This picture I got from an article about the comic book that is very good. I'd like to quote most of it just to provide some background of how this seemingly unlikely superhero came about: "An early sketch shows a boy who lost his legs in a landmine accident – he later becomes the Silver Scorpion after discovering he can control metal with his mind. The inspiration for an ‘inclusive’ superhero came from US president Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to the Muslim world. With that in mind, US philanthropist Jay T Snyder last month flew 12 disabled Americans to meet a group of their Syrian counterparts for a brainstorming session over a comic book script. ‘They helped create something by their combined talents and that becomes a gift to the world,’ said Mr Snyder, founder of the Open Hands initiative. Hamza Jaka, 18, of Fontana, Wisconsin, who has cerebral palsy, said: ‘The trip was great. I am a disabled Muslim and I love comic books, so this is like the highlight of my life.’ Initially, 50,000 Arabic-language comics will be distributed throughout Syria in November and will also be available worldwide online. It will be the first in a series of publications with international superheroes ‘based on the seeds that were created by these kids’, said Liquid Comics boss Sharad Devarajan."

Islamic Comics: The 99

So I talked about Iznogoud, but that really was just a secular comic book series making use of Islamic symbols for its plot, and only slightly so. The 99 is a different story. It is explicitly Islamic and has Islamic superheroes. Yes that's right, Islamic superheroes! In an article of the New York Times, it is explained that the comic "features Islam-inspired characters, based on the 99 attributes of Allah, who discover magic stones that unleash powers like superhuman strength, ability to read minds, and to teleport. And, in true super-hero style, they use these powers to fight bad guys." (see article). Damn! That's a lot of attributes! A rich source of inspiration for the comic book series to use. The comic book looks very good and clearly a lot of effort has been put into getting it up to match the current comic book standards. It seems to have done so better than some of the Christian comic books too.

Here is the official website of the series: http://www.the99.org/

Islamic Comics: Iznogoud

Iznogoud (pronounced "eeznogoode." Get it?) is a French comic book series that saw the light of day in the 1960s, written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Jean Tabary. I remember liking the comic books very much as a kid. The series is about Iznogoud, the helper, or Grand Vizir, of the Caliph, who actually wants to be Caliph in his place, a desire immortalized in the French phrase "Je veux être calife à la place du calife." Iznogoud is a self-centered and ill tempered character with a lust for power. All his plans to kill the Caliphe so he can take his place always backfire though and he ends up falling into his own traps in the best of comic book / cartoon tradition. The Caliphe himself on the other hand is a very kind and calm almost Buddha like person. The morale here is obvious, but actually so obvious that the comic mocks it too a bit. You sort of build up a sympathy for Iznogoud because he always fails so miserably. He is indeed your classic anti-hero.
        Now the only thing that makes all of this Islamic or even religious at all is that it deals with the Caliphate. The creators of the series are, at least as far as I know, not Muslim at all, so it sort of takes on this theme from the outside. It really could have been about anyone anywhere. This comic book is clearly from before Islam became the new Communism, otherwise the creators might have picked a different theme (Soviet Union anyone?) The Caliphate is difficult though, because the Caliph is simultaneously the head of state and the religious leader, ruling in a theocracy, in accordance with Islamic religious law, the Sharia. So the Caliph is simultaneously the mundane and the religious ruler. He is both priest and president. There seems to have been some religious controversy over it, where "unlike the French version Haroun El-Plassid's title was changed from Sultan to Caliph avoid upsetting the British Muslim community." (wiki).

Hebrew comics

I was away for a few days, so I have some catching up to do. First up is Hebrew comics. Now, to be honest, I'm not actually sure if this would qualify as a religious expression of popular culture, since whatever is written in Hebrew and/or is Israeli in origin is of course not necessarily religious. Since most of the comics are in Hebrew too, I can't read what it says on the cover, making it harder for me to accurately determine whether it deals with religious matters. However, there seems to be a significant amount of religious symbols embedded in the front visuals for it to be relevant to at least mention this universe. And they look cool anyway. :)

 URI ON by Michael Netzer

Sabraman by Uri Fink

I got these off the website http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/h/hebrewc.htm which is actually a whole essay on the history of Hebrew comics accredited to a guy named Eli. It's an interesting piece albeit a bit of a factual rapid fire.

Bible comics

So there are a lot of Christian comics out there. First there is the Picture Bible by Iva Hoth and Andre LeBlanc. It seems to be a classic in its genre but it does look more like an illustrated Bible bordering on the comic book than a real comic book. There are probably more advanced geeks with a whole repertoire of comic book theory that are better suited to judge this than me. Say what you want, but Moses sure is looking mighty pissed on the cover of this one!

Next we have the Action Bible. Amazon tells me that "in February, 2006, [Sergio Cariello, the illustrator of this work] was contacted by David C. Cook to gauge his interest in a new project; completely re-illustrating Cook's classic Picture Bible." There seems to be some continuity there. It looks a lot more modern than the Picture Bible does and a lot more like a proper comic book too actually.

Another one is the Picture Stories from the Bible series, published by All-American Publications in the 1940s. The publishing company seems to have a big reputation in the secular world of comic books, so I'm thinking that it's not necessarily written with a religious agenda. They look fantastic!

One also very recently published (2006-2008) is the Testament series by Douglas Rushkoff & Liam Sharp. Wikipedia tells me that "the story takes place simultaneously in the near future and the biblical past to illustrate the most prominent theme: that history repeats itself." This means that it does stray from the strict biblical narrative, but I'd consider it a Bible comic still. It seems to make minced meat out of all the other comics mentioned above anyway.

Then there also seem to be some manga/anime comics. The MANGA Messiah and the Manga Bible.

I can't resist mentioning also the comic Saint Young Men. From Wiki: "The series is about Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha living together in a Tokyo apartment while taking a vacation on Earth." I decided not to depict the front but an illustration from it because it says more than the front seems to.

Finally then I'd like to mention the recent work of comic book artist Robert Crumb, Genesis, illustrating the entire book of Genesis (including all the family trees!) which is a really huge project.