Over the course of the past year, various pieces — pertinent both to comics in terms of religion specifically or simply the serious consideration of comics — have come to light that either fell through the cracks at the time or deserve some wider coverage. They include:
Back in mid-2006, Today.com reporter M. Alex Johnson took a look, albeit a superficial one, at the religiosity of Spider-Man, The Thing, X-Men villain Rev. Stryker, the Atheist and others with “At the Comics Shop, Religion Goes Graphic.”
Graphic Medicine, founded by Ian Williams in 2007, was relaunched with MK Czerwiec in 2012, and they caught the “Graphic Fiction” panel (moderated by Shelly Wall) at the Toronto Comics & Medicine conference that year. Presenters included Steven Bergson with “From Ivanhoe to Rex Mundi: Jews and Medicine in Comic Books, Comic Strips, and Graphic Novels,” Jeffrey Monk with “A Ghost of an Idea: A Reflection on My Comic Adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carole’ for the Medical Humanities,” and Lorenzo Servitje with “Empathy in the gutter: Participatory delusion in graphic adaptation of Shutter Island.”
Read the Spirit, an “online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity” as well as an extension of Dr. Wayne Baker’s Our Values program, answered the question to “Why Comics and Comic Books Are Important Today!” — and the solution seems to be “independent comics artist and author” Kurt Kolka.
Most recently, Gene Yang of Comics in Education provided a valuable, digest-sized overview of the “History of Comics in Education,” spanning from 1933 to the turn of the 21st century — an adjacent topic to Religion & Comics but relevant and useful for a sense as to how serious academic discussion has arisen not only in but also for the classroom.
And then there’s just this odd/funny/insulting/compelling comic from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt comics from back in 2008. No better place to put it than here:
In the wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing and capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston University Associate Professor Kecia Ali was invited as a guest blogger for NPR affiliate WBUR’s Cognoscenti where she recounted not only running a 5-kilometer fundraiser with a “Heroes and Villains” theme but also having to convince a fellow runner that her costume as Dust of the X-Men was actually heroic.
Dust, of course, brings the veil front and center. She may be a rare positive representation of a Muslim woman in comic books, but her character is affected by Orientalism and sexism. Does she break down stereotypes, or does she reinforce them?
So overall, can we appreciate a character like Dust? I think we can; however, there is a lot of room for improvement. […H]er character is incomplete and her character suffers from stereotypes that are due to misunderstandings about Islamic beliefs and practices.
What with the recent headlines generated by DC Comics’ introduction of Simon Baz as a new Green Lantern, are Marvel Comics readers likely to be reintroduced to Dust anytime soon?
Over at his personal website, people can read the full, free collection of Price’s thoughts on religion and comics with the complete archive of his “Hero Worship” columns. The host of The Human Bible and The Bible Geek podcasts also tackles topics like Kingdom Come, Marvel Man, and “The Death of Superman” storyline, all from his religious skeptic perspective.
In honor of looking back upon a New Year, Rao wants to call out a writing by Richard De Angelis in June 2011 entitled, “Old Shul Justice.” In it, he looks again at the role(s) of Judaism in the rise and continuation of the U.S. comics medium, particularly through the lens of tikkun olam, “healing the world.”
Additionally, it includes a hugely useful bibliography of texts on Jews and comics (current as of 2011), both done in the comics form and as scholarly prose. De Angelis kindly includes a sample of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s Comic Book Comics to help initiate the uncertain (as well as to Van Lente and Dunlavey’s wonderful Bad Twin Comics work!).
On his blog, Rabbi Yair Robinson attempts to compile an initial list of comics and comics works related to Judaism. While admittedly “incomplete” and “imperfectly” done, it merits mention for its construction by an active clergyman looking at portrayals of his own faith in the medium. In addition to comics titles, he cites prose works like Arie Kaplan’s From Krakow to Krypton as essential reading (though one can read Kaplan’s own version of this overview, as well).
Other sites, such as Jewish Comics, have made similar attempts, but few seem to give mentions to works like Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe run or American Flagg. It’s incomplete, imperfect, and worth your consideration.
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
