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Got Comics? “Golem” Found, Always Seeking More!

Here at Sacred and Sequential, we always welcome individuals interested in the study of religion and comics to write original pieces or review works for us, so long as they’re scholarly in nature or approach. But we also invite people simply to tip us off about new works or trends they’re seeing, even if there’s no analysis yet formed.

THE GOLEM OF SOUTH FLORIDATo that end, we want to thank stalwart colleague Steve Bergson for signaling us about a new series, The Golem of South Florida (available now from Comixology). From independent Pittsburgh comics publisher Punch Press comes a story of the legendary Jewish golem, planted now in modern-day Florida, having to “protect the local Jewish community from all new adversities: inclement weather, voting recalls and the high cost of prescription drugs.”

If you have or know of a new comics series that might benefit from the scholarly analysis of religion and comics scholars — or if you think religion and comics scholars would, conversely, benefit from analyzing such a work — don’t hesitate to contact our Sacred and Sequential team via the Contact link in our masthead.

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Alt-Right Traces in Comics Publisher’s Past, Now Marketing Trump?

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Pope Francis is an extremely popular figure. His Holiness was once known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina before he ascended to the papacy, just as his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI was previously Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger of Germany. And, at the time of his own ascension, it made no small news that, as young Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI was a member of the Hitler Youth (though, reportedly, an unenthusiastic and even subversive one).

So, when it was announced last year that the publisher formerly known as Bluewater Productions would do the graphic novel The Life of Pope Francis, eyebrows might not have been raised. After all, comic book biographies of real-life celebrities and political figures had been Bluewater’s modus operandi, having also done an earlier biography of Jesus Christ.

Bluewater Productions, however, is no longer Bluewater Productions. Their site currently lists their new name as Tidalwave Comics in its URL and its logos. But traces of their site content as well as their listings on sites such as Comixology and Tumblr still has them listed under their 2015 rebranding: Stormfront Comics.

As noted by Bleeding Cool, that new name has some ugly connotations:
Continue reading Alt-Right Traces in Comics Publisher’s Past, Now Marketing Trump? →

contributors, cultural, raowantstoknow

Top 5 Religion & Comics Posts of 2016

From JLA (2015)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.

articles and essays, from the Internet

The Daredevil of 2016, the Faithful of 2017?

Earlier this year, S&S’s own Scott Gardner reflected on “The Spiritual Consciousness of Marvel’s Daredevil” for The Huffington Post, analyzing both seasons of the hit Netflix superhero series in terms of its ties to faith. With the church-infused Luke Cage having become a binge-worthy sensation as well as Iron Fist, The Punisher, and Defenders all debuting out in 2017, ’tis the seaon, so to speak, to revisit the break-out characters’ heroic suffering and “struggling conflict of faith.”

DAREDEVIL #7 art by Paulo Rivera

articles and essays, from the Internet

Didactic or Dynamic? Superheroes from the Middle East

(The following article by Fredrik Strömberg was originally posted on the Mizan Project website. It is copied here with permission.)

Superheroes from the Middle East: Adaptation of the Genre?

A selection of comic books published by AK Comics and Teshkeel.
A selection of comic books published by AK Comics and Teshkeel, including The 99 (photo credit: Fredrik Strömberg).

This is the third essay published here on Mizan Pop in our Muslim Superheroes series. The first and second installments in the series can be read here and here.

America has been exporting superhero comics for more than seven decades; nevertheless, there have been few commercially successful comics created in that genre in the rest of the world. Given that there have been several violent conflicts between the United States and Arab or Muslim-majority nations over the last few decades, it is intriguing that attempts at establishing a line of original superhero comics were made in the Middle East in the first decade of the twenty-first century by two different publishing houses: AK Comics in Egypt and Teshkeel Media Group in Kuwait.

Continue reading Didactic or Dynamic? Superheroes from the Middle East →

@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion