Comics and sacred texts: Reimagining religion and graphic narratives
Jackson (MS): University Press of Mississippi (2018), xxi, 299 pp.
Contains illustr.
ISBN 978-1-4968-1947-5 (pbk); 978-1-4968-1925-3 (ebook)
Reviewed in: Conference Symposium on Sacred Texts and Comics (Haverford, PA), 2016
"In both visual and linguistic forms, graphic narratives reveal representational strategies to encounter the sacred in all its ambivalence. Through close readings and critical inquiry, these essays contemplate the intersections between religion and comics in ways that critically expand our ability to think about religious landscapes, rhetorical practices, pictorial representation, and the everyday experiences of the uncanny. Organized into four sections--Seeing the Sacred in Comics; Reimagining Sacred Texts through Comics; Transfigured Comic Selves, Monsters, and the Body; and The Everyday Sacred in Comics--the essays explore comics and graphic novels ranging from Craig Thompson's Habibi and Marvel's X-Men and Captain America to graphic adaptions of religious texts such as 1 Samuel and the Gospel of Mark." (Publisher description)
Introduction: Comics and Sacred Texts / Assaf Gamzou and Ken Koltun-Fromm, xi
I. SEEING THE SACRED IN COMICS, 1
1 Writing the Sacred in Craig Thompsons Habibi / Madeline Backus and Ken Koltun-Fromm, 5
2 Gods Comics: The Hebrew Alphabet as Graphic Narrative / Susan Handelman, 25
3 The Ineffability of Form: Speaking and Seeing the Sacred in Tina's Mouth and The Rabbis Cat / Leah Hochman, 43
4 The Seven Traits of Fictoscripture and the Wormhole Sacred / A. David Lewis, 56
II. REIMAGINING SACRED TEXTS THROUGH COMICS, 73
5 Many Comic Book Ramayanas: Idealizing and Opposing Rama as the Righteous God-King / Karline Mclain, 77
6 The Ending of Mark as a Page-Turn Reveal / Elizabeth Rae Coody, 98
7 Slaying a Biblical Archetype: 1 Samuel, Gauld s Goliath, and the New Midrash / Ranen Omer-Sherman, 113
8 Transrendering Biblical Bodies: Reading Sex in The Action Bible and Genesis Illustrated / Scott s. Elliott, 132
III. TRANSFIGURED COMIC SELVES, MONSTERS, AND THE BODY, 149
9 The Dark Phoenix as "Promising Monster": An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Marvels X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga / Samantha Langsdale, 153
10 "Honor the Power Within": Daoist Wizards, Popular Culture, and Contemporary Japans Spiritual Crisis / Jeffrey l. Richey, 172
11 Joe Kuberts Yossel: April 19,1943: Faith and Art History's Precedents / Samantha Baskind, 193
IV. THE EVERYDAY SACRED IN COMICS, 211
12 Urban Revelation in Paul Madonnas Postsecular Comics / Ofra Amihay, 215
I. SEEING THE SACRED IN COMICS, 1
1 Writing the Sacred in Craig Thompsons Habibi / Madeline Backus and Ken Koltun-Fromm, 5
2 Gods Comics: The Hebrew Alphabet as Graphic Narrative / Susan Handelman, 25
3 The Ineffability of Form: Speaking and Seeing the Sacred in Tina's Mouth and The Rabbis Cat / Leah Hochman, 43
4 The Seven Traits of Fictoscripture and the Wormhole Sacred / A. David Lewis, 56
II. REIMAGINING SACRED TEXTS THROUGH COMICS, 73
5 Many Comic Book Ramayanas: Idealizing and Opposing Rama as the Righteous God-King / Karline Mclain, 77
6 The Ending of Mark as a Page-Turn Reveal / Elizabeth Rae Coody, 98
7 Slaying a Biblical Archetype: 1 Samuel, Gauld s Goliath, and the New Midrash / Ranen Omer-Sherman, 113
8 Transrendering Biblical Bodies: Reading Sex in The Action Bible and Genesis Illustrated / Scott s. Elliott, 132
III. TRANSFIGURED COMIC SELVES, MONSTERS, AND THE BODY, 149
9 The Dark Phoenix as "Promising Monster": An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Marvels X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga / Samantha Langsdale, 153
10 "Honor the Power Within": Daoist Wizards, Popular Culture, and Contemporary Japans Spiritual Crisis / Jeffrey l. Richey, 172
11 Joe Kuberts Yossel: April 19,1943: Faith and Art History's Precedents / Samantha Baskind, 193
IV. THE EVERYDAY SACRED IN COMICS, 211
12 Urban Revelation in Paul Madonnas Postsecular Comics / Ofra Amihay, 215
