Question/Help--Christianity Displayed in Comics/Graphic Novels

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

Thanks everybody. All your responses were helpful. (thumbs u

 

And, yes, Jack Chick is serious.

[Mac Man]

Ah... did you get tapped for a third article? I wanted to do another but am swamped with some other projects.

 

I'd recommend Bernie Wrightson's "Batman: The Cult" as the priest plays a significant role as the antagonist, even if he only wears the garb Christianity and really adopts a more paganistic religion.

 

You might also consider the one-shot Elseworlds "Batman: Holy Terror." It's a "What If" along the lines of Gotham as a theocracy and Bruce Wayne as a priest (and Batman by night).

 

I thought I recall a previous thread here that listed the various religious denominations of superheroes (Spider-Man / Protestant, Superman / Methodist, etc, etc). If it isn't here on the CGC forums though, I'm sure a google search would clear that up. I'm actually more certain now it was elsewhere. Regardless, I thought I recall that it also mentioned issues where this was brought up. Might be worth doing a quick search for as well.

 

And I can't imagine Liefield thinking that was a good idea.

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

I did. But it doesn't have anything to do with Christianity. I've just noticed in my reading a number of graphic novels in which Christianity plays a significant role--some treating Christianity with a fair amount of seriousness, whether embraced or criticized, and others tossing in some barely recognizable form of Christianity demonstrating little or no understanding of Christianity.

 

I'm thinking of maybe trying to write an article about depictions of Christianity in comics or graphic novels, but I don't know. We'll see where it goes.

 

I'm pretty busy, too. When the second call came around, Jiro Taniguchi's Distant Neighborhood was still on the table, so when they asked for ten topics, I listed Taniguchi's work and nothing else. And they gave it to me. It's the only one I thought I could do a good job on in such a short time. Next week I'm on spring break, so instead of catching up on my grading, I'll be writing the article.

 

I remember that thread about denominations, too. I don't remember if I started that one or not.

 

Thanks for the tips, Mac Man.

[jdjunker]

TREASURE CHEST was a long running series about all kinds of religous stuff.

 

Just throwing that in.

 

TOPIX as well.

 

And don't forget "Heroes All"

 

The Babe Ruth issue is of particular fun, pillar of Catholic virtue that he was.

 

Seriously though, starting with the Church and State "phone books" Cerebus dealt heavily with religion. Sometimes satirizing christianity, sometimes much more broad based. Church and State might be a good starting point for you though, as Cerebus becomes Pope and the issues deal with religion in a way you probably won't find elsewhere, including the church as a political power, and on a simpler level, if Cerebus is pope, and the pope is perfection, will all the outlandish things he has threatened actually come to pass. Fun and funny stuff but also intrigiuing on many levels. Dave Sim at his inspired best IMHO.

 

And then there's always 70s underground classics like Tales of the Leather Nun and Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin.

[jdjunker]

Oh, and there was a back up feature in Chester Brown's Yummy Fur where he did an adaptation of bible chapters--first The Gospel of Mark, then later The Gospel of Mathew which apparently he never finished.

 

And of course, there is R Crumb's recent book Genesis.

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

That's quite the list. Thanks everybody. A solid starting point.