Category Archives: academic

academic, online

Sacré & Séquentiel: The New, French-Language “Sacred and Sequential”

Since its launch, Sacred & Sequential has been exclusively an English-language site for the scholarly consideration of religion and comics. Now, with the new year here, S&S is expanding into French-language coverage as well, thanks to the skills of our own Etienne Domingue.
Founding Member A. David Lewis spoke with Etienne about the launch of Sacré & Séquentiel:
A. David Lewis: What makes Sacré & Séquentiel necessary? I mean, why not just shoot the old posts through Google Translate?

Etienne DomingueEtienne Domingue: Whereas automated translation has made great strides in recent years, human languages remain somewhat beyond the grasp of machine intelligence. Errors in automated translation abound: computers are notoriously bad at translating idioms, and they don’t typically have much of an ear for tone or subtext. I suspect this has contributed to comics writers’ exceedingly poor handling of foreign languages — I am frequently shocked by how some anglophone writers assume that word-for-word translation is “good enough,” as though all of syntax and grammar operates in roughly the same way. It does not. Even culturally-sensitive writers make this mistake: G. Willow Wilson’s Air is magnificent, but its French is awful.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before human translators — along with all humans, really — are obsolete, but for now this is not the case. I pray that when it is the case, our robot overlords will be merciful.

I believe Sacré & séquentiel is important because francophone interest in American comics exists despite a dearth of francophone literature on the subject.

Continue reading Sacré & Séquentiel: The New, French-Language “Sacred and Sequential” →

academic

Transcript: Comix Scholars List Discusses Indian Comics and Manga

imageBased out of the University of Florida’s Comics Studies track within the the Department of English, the Comix-Scholars Discussion List (COMIX-SCHOLARS-L) hosts lively and diverse free, digital conversation between subscribed members invested in comics as a field of study. And sometimes that discussion turns to religion and comics, as it did on Wednesday, November 18th when S&S’s own Beth Davies-Stofka asked the List:

I’m tying up some loose ends on a writing project that relates to scholarship focused on religion in comics.

I have about 250 words that I can devote to the topic of the study of religion in Indian comics. I have Karline McLain’s book, India’s Immortal Comic Books, which I am regarding as a kind of “first” in the field of religious studies.

But I’d like to know if there is work being done on the subject in languages other than English.

Anyone know?

Continue reading Transcript: Comix Scholars List Discusses Indian Comics and Manga →

academic, events

Join Sacred & Sequential’s Mini-Meet-Up at #AARSBL15 in Atlanta!

AtlantaSkyline_SN-smallWith the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) meeting in Atlanta this coming week, Sacred & Sequential is taking the opportunity to hold a small meet-and-greet on Sunday, November 22nd at approximately 9am for all interested parties. This open meet-up is meant both to give current members the opportunity to socialize live and in person and to serve as a casual space for any potential members to come introduce themselves or ask questions.

Aloft Atlanta Downtown

The Sacred & Sequential Mini-Meet-Up will run for no more than an hour in the main lobby of the Aloft Atlanta Downtown, 300 Spring St NW. Food will be available for purchase, and coffee is complimentary. Come say hello!

 

academic, from the Internet

The Marriage of Theology and Graphic Novels

Earlier in the year, the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Rev. Derek R. Davenport proposed a rather intriguing hypothesis: that graphic novels were ideal for theology. He admits that it’s not the most intuitive or necessarily comfortable fit — but it’s a text-and-medium marriage that was meant to be.

As people of faith, we don’t know what to do with art. We surround ourselves with it, invest huge sums of time and money creating it, and then we ignore it.

[…] So let’s do a thought experiment.

Imagine that there was an art form specifically created to address the issue of our relationship with God. Imagine that it was created apart from official church ties, allowing it to maintain freedom from iconoclastic tendencies. Imagine that it could integrate multiple genres like drawing, painting, poetry and literature. Imagine that it had the breadth to explore even questions that some might consider inappropriate or offensive.

This is the graphic novel.

The Reverend is quick to point out that it’s not a direct correlation: not all graphic novels are engaged in theology nor are all graphic novels that could be engaged in theology of high quality. But, nevertheless, the relationship is there (and he nicely tips his hat to S&S at the same time).

Read more of Reverend Davenport’s work on religious symbols and symbology here.

academic, contributors, online

Comics Alternative Podcast Features Roundtable Discussion on Religion and Comics

Religion-PanelistsOn Monday, the Comics Alternative podcast hosted a “special roundtable” discussion featuring S&S’s own A. David Lewis, Elizabeth Coody, and Jeff Brackett on the subject of religion and comics. One-half of the show’s “2 Guys with PhDs,” Derek Royal, led the animated conversation, spanning all manner of engaging topics:

The subjects that come up during the discussion range from superheroes and myths, manifestations of the afterlife, adaptations of religious texts, biographies of religious leaders, expressions of heaven and hell, the crossroads of faith and ethnicity, and parodic (even heretical) representations of religious figures, doctrines, and practices.

At times on the panel the discussants clash or come at books from different angles — for example, Jeff and David disagree on the usefulness of Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Derek pushes back on the “religiousness” of such comics as Maus, A Contract with God, and Persepolis — but the talk is always lively and insightful. Among the many texts they reference are Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, Mike Carey’s Lucifer, Justin Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated, Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus, Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come, Mark Millar’s American Jesus, and Craig Thompson’s Blankets. They even discuss comics as religious propaganda, such as what you’ll find in the Spire comics published by Archie during the 1970s and the ever-present Chick tracts.

A panel from Spire Comics’s Christian-themed ARCHIE.

As Royal noted, there was plenty more to be said, so, based on their audience’s response, a follow-up discussion could well be in the works!

Listen to the episode either on the Comics Alternative website, downloaded to your personal device, or via iTunes.