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?
A multitude of issues pertaining to religion and comics have filled the media and the Sacred and Sequential site in 2016: Islamophobia, superhero gods, idolatry and blasphemy, proselytizing, memorializing. Below are the five most-read articles from our pages; in toto, they all seem to orbit concerns of the medium’s essential alignment with either Christianity, Judaism, or the far, far more esoteric. Is there battle for the “soul” of comics amassing?
5. Four-Color Christ Jesus
10/31: Ron Edwards of Comics Madness penned this birthday reflection on Jesus, comics, Jack T. Chick, and The Cross and the Switchblade (along with eye-opening comments from his readers).
4. Jack T. Chick dies at 92
10/25: Jack T. Chick likewise headlines this post by Martin Lund, who explores the difficulty of Chick’s impact and legacy.
3. Jews and Comics: The Decade in Review
2/2: The Jewish Comics Blog‘s Steven Bergson addresses the flaws in religion & comics reportage, particularly by a January Haartez article.
2. Questioning Frank Miller and Superman’s “Jewish Essence”
10/13: Lund approaches the “Judaism and comics” issue from a new perspective, this time triggered by Frank Miller’s comments to CBR.com.
1. Sacred Texts: Lovecraft, Alan Moore, and Religion in Providence
2/9: Bobby Derie of Facts in the Case of Providence gives S&S readers a tour of Alan Moore’s latest (and last?) comics series along with its deep linkages to the study of religion.
One of Sacred & Sequential’s founding members Asher J. Klassen has written an impressive and notable response to the controversy over Rafael Albuquerque’s Batgirl cover currently occurring the superhero industry and fandom.
Asher comments, regarding the controversial cover’s relationship to the 1998 Alan Moore and Brian Bolland one-shot comic The Killing Joke:
The Killing Joke is a brilliant story. It is also absolutely, fundamentally, a problematic story. For those of you who haven’t read it, a brief synopsis: this is the tale of Oracle’s origin, in which Barbara Gordon is attacked at home by the Joker, who shoots her through the spine and strips her, leaving her naked and paralyzed on the floor while he takes pictures…pictures he later uses to psychologically torment her father, Jim. It’s a classic example within the comics canon of a woman being victimized simply to provide a point of pathos for a male hero. Barbara suffers greatly, and is left paralyzed for life, but her ordeal is inconsequential to the story; the focus is on Jim as he bears witness to his daughter’s trauma. People are upset because this story bothers them. It should. It needs to bother us; we need to to be bothered by it; it is brilliant because it bothers us.
Stories that don’t bother us are not worth writing.
In addition to featuring this post by an S&S member, we are also inclined to ask what relationship, if any, this issue may have to religious imagery and iconography. Do some religious similarly feature/exploit women in threatening situations? Should “trigger warnings” be part of religious discourse, particularly with faiths’ visuals? Or is censorship overextending itself in some way that religious liberties might oppose? To what degree are even religious audiences willing to be “bothered” — willing to tolerate some level of being disturbed — for the sake of a story and its meaning?
Read entirety of Asher’s post here.
Part of Rao’s modus operandi is to catch religion and comics stories in the news as they happen and save them to a repository for later re-reading, analysis, and then write up. Of course, while that allows for cautious commentary and limited knee-jerk reaction, it also can cause a back-up of reportable items, sometimes having them fall completely off the radar.
In this case, however, there’s been another intriguing effect to this scheme: The backlog of reportable items is hinting at a trend.
That is, despite coverage over the last several months of, say, the Muslim Superhero Tournament on The Huffington Post or a politician claiming Batman is only for Judeo-Christians, still a massive amount of news concerning Islam and comics has amassed for Rao “backstage.” More than any other religion, Islam seems to have the most constant, news-worthy engagement with the medium, over any other faith or community circa 2013. For instance:
Response to the Burka Avenger is still unfolding, but, unquestionably, it will be met with a steady stream of new news stories on comics engagement with Islam globally, culturally, artistically, and politically. They are everywhere.
Rao wants to know: Does modern Islam have a special relationship with the comics medium?
American theologian Robert M. Price has written, among others, The Case against the Case for Christ, The Reason-Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?, and Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind. But what that last title might only hint at is the religion and philosophy professor’s abiding interest in popular culture, namely comics.
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.
Certainly, Price has his detractors (e.g. Reverend John Rankin, William Lane Craig, Bart Ehrman), little has been said about his reflections on comics — far little than, say, his writing on H.P. Lovecraft.
Rao Wants to Know: Is Price a true comics scholar or a scholar who dabbles with comics?
