https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/19/bagley-cartoon-strong/
Category Archives: from the Internet
Religion News Service Examines KISMET, MAN OF FATE
Following its coverage at Fanboy Planet, the new trade paperback Kismet, Man of Fate – Volume 1: Boston Strong has received some impressively thorough coverage from Aysha Khan at the Religion News Service.
Lewis rattled off a list of common tropes about Muslim characters he hoped to avoid with his character: the “noble savage” who is uncorrupted by modern civilization; the mystical Muslim superhero; the docile Muslim woman; the perishable “cannon fodder”; and, more broadly, Muslim characters being carelessly boiled down to a nebulous racial and religious mass.
For Lewis, writing a Muslim superhero was also an opportunity to address the connection between superhuman ability and cosmology. Do the powers to, say, fly or manipulate fire come from God?
It will be exciting to see if this leads to greater discussion about religion in comics, the superhero genre specifically. Can there be a secular narrative on a character who credits his abilities to some aspect of divinity?
(And, normally, we would warn “don’t read the Comments,” but there may be something informative to them at RNS, potentially.)
First Muslim superhero returns after 70 years, just in time to take down a few Nazis
UPDATE: Two Universities Vie for Largest Collection of Indian Comics in U.S.
Last October, Sacred and Sequential reported that the the largest collection of Indian comics in the U.S. resides at the University of Illinois under the care of curator Mara Thacker. In December, however, we received the following e-mail from Professor Siddharth Chandra, excerpted below:
Subject: Largest collection of Indian comics in a US library
Message Body:
Dear Mr. David,A small correction to your article titled “THE U.S.’S LARGEST INDIAN COMICS COLLECTION IN IS IN ILLINOIS.” ‘Illinois’ should read ‘Michigan.’ For more information, please see https://magic.msu.edu/search~S39?/dIndian+comic+books%2C+strips%2C+etc./dindian+comic+books+strips+etc/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&FF=dindian+comic+books+strips+etc&1%2C1763%2C .
This link leads to a partial listing of Indian comics in Michigan State University’s comic arts collection. There are hundreds of additional volumes in the process of being cataloged.
Kind regards,
Siddharth Chandra
After following the link and reading its contents, I caught the gist of his message and responded:
Actually, you’re saying that the premise of the article is incorrect — that the largest one ISN’T in Illinois, as stated by the article, but at MSU?
And his reply was polite and clear (as were his bona fides):
Yes, I believe so.
Siddharth Chandra
Director, Asian Studies Center
Professor of Economics, James Madison College and
Professor (by courtesy), Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Michigan State University
Continue reading UPDATE: Two Universities Vie for Largest Collection of Indian Comics in U.S.
How Does Kingstone Answer “Why Comics?”
Bringing back an old feature from the days of the By Rao! website, the following is offered for discussion and scrutiny:
Christian-based comics publisher and multimedia company Kingstone gives their answer, in video form, to “Why Comics?”
Rao want to know: What does this explanation/ad say to audiences? Moreover, why were these visuals selected to constitute their ad? Who is the intended audience?
Happy Anniversary to Religion in American History
The Religion in American History blog is celebrating a milestone this month, with 10 years in continuous publication. As a tip of the hat to them, Sacred and Sequential wanted to highlight their 2013 discussion of religion and comics by Matthew Cressler and to wish them another excellent decade!