Activists hold a picture of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Wednesday at his funeral [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has reported on a story that may otherwise have eluded American media: as Al-Jazeeraand The Guardian both reported in late September, Jordanian left-wing writer and activist Nahed Hattar was assassinated while entering a courthouse to face blasphemy charges for a cartoon he posted on Facebook.
In the comic, God is depicted as taking orders from an ISIL agent cozily ensconced with two woman in Paradise. Hattar, part of Jordan’s 4% Christian minority, had intended the cartoon to criticize ISIL’s hypocrisy, but he subsequently deleted the offending piece and offered an apology in the face of Jordanian outrage.
The lesson need not be limited to Muslim children alone — any oppressed or vilified group will face the same backlash, particularly among its most impressionable and least powerful subgroup, children. But, at this moment in American and world politics, that effect falls particularly hard on Muslim children. Therefore, as the author Afrah Mansour relates, there is a duty “an educator to make the younger generation value themselves” alongside others.
“A surprising look at the deep religious motifs of superheroes,” bills the poster for First-Plymouth Church’s upcoming event, Superman, Batman, and Jesus. And while the locale might be curious — Brewsky’s Food & Spirits in Lincoln, NE — its premier presenter, S&S’s own Prof. Dan Clanton, is a key authority on the topic, himself a co-editor of Understanding Religion and Popular Culture from Routledge in 2012.
The event will also feature music by local talent Andrea Von Kampen. (Does she perform any music on the combined theme of religion and superheroics?)
In advance of the Spring 2017 release of Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation, Mizan has been featuring a series of related articles on its Mizan Pop site. The first, dated this past summer, provides an overview of that category’s — “Muslim superheroes” — history.
The study of Muslim superheroes has only quite recently begun in earnest, with scholars like comics historian Fredrik Strömberg and French scholar Shirin Edwin publishing some of the first scholarly articles in this specific field in 2011. There has been a small but steady stream of work on the subject since. Regrettably, while some of this scholarship is of high quality, it has, to date, been scattered over multiple disciplines, and new work has only rarely been in dialogue with what has come before.
In theory, Muslim Superheroes, edited by A. David Lewis and Martin Lund, is intended to further that dialogue and provide stronger connective tissue between the disciplines on the topic. Their promotional Facebook page features links to some of that “steady stream on the subject” and a preview of the book jacket (featuring art by Qaheraartist Deena Mohamed).
Iconic painting of ‘The Last Supper’ by Hans Holbein the Younger, ca. 1520. Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 18, n. 15, March 28, 1963.
Readers of The Archivist’s Nook blog well know the popularity of the Catholic comic book, the Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, published for most of its history, 1946-1972, by George Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio. The digital version of the collection is especially popular and has been highlighted in three previous blog posts, the first reviewing the origin of Catholic University’s digital collections, ‘Hark! The Digital Angel Comes!’; the second examining issue covers featuring Jesus Christ,‘Treasure Chest – Your Own Virtual Jesus’; and the third an exposition of covers related to the celebration of Christmas, ‘A Merry Treasure Chest Christmas to All!’.
The Last Easter cover, silhouette of Christ’s profile while on the Cross,Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 21, n. 16, April 7, 1966.
It will therefore be no surprise The Archivist’s Nook returns to the Treasure Chest’s remarkable treasure trove to commemorate Easter, past, present, and future. From the first volume of the Treasure Chest in 1946, through the next twenty years, there was usually an annual issue with a cover marking an Easter related event. Occasionally, the Treasure Chest skipped a year, while other years had two Easter related covers. Overall, the most popular were scenes of the empty tomb with the resurrected Jesus Christ announcing his presence (6 occasions) or an angel or angels (3 times) proclaiming the good news to Christ’s followers. Also, there were usually no Easter related stories therein to march the covers, though there were sometimes short features such as ‘Easter Eggs You Can Make’ (April 1, 1947) and ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ (April 8, 1954).
The first Easter cover, presumably the scene from the Book of Mathew, Chapter 28, Verses 1-2, with the Angel of the Lord at Christ’s empty tomb proclaiming the Good News to Mary Magdalene, and another Mary,Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, v. 1, n. 4, April 23, 1946.
The Treasure Chest of the post Second Vatican Council era became more secular in outlook and appearance so that few religious scenes, including any depicting Easter related events, appeared in its last five years, 1967-1972. Sadly, this change of direction was perhaps a harbinger of the Treasure Chest’s ending. Gone, but most certainly not forgotten!
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
![Activists hold a picture of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Wednesday at his funeral [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/9/28/1e04bc33997f4c7db5dc5093bb926379_18.jpg)
