from the Internet

Knights Templar + Prince of Persia = Heist Comic

templarFirst, Jordan Mechner gave us Prince of Persia, the highly successful video game (and less successful movie, at least domestically). Then, in 2013, Mechner resumed completing his 2010 graphic novel with LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland. The result was First Second Books’ Templar — what  Boing Boing writer (and fellow graphic novelist of In Real Life) Cory Doctorow described as

…a conspiracy thriller about the treasure of the Knights Templar, an order of Crusaders who were persecuted by the King of France in the early 1300s…

Karin L. Kross at Tor.com evaluated Templar as “a heist in the best tradition of Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job.” Read Mechner’s own account of the completed hardcover here.

controversy, from the Internet

Where’s the “Muslim Wrath” a Year into Ms. Marvel?

Approximately one year ago, Debbie Schlussel — a “conservative political commentator, radio talk show host, columnist, and attorney” with “unique expertise on radical Islam/Islamic terrorism” according to her bio — posted her views on the debut of Ms. Marvel under the title, “Marvel Comics Adds Muslim Chick Superhero (to Appease Marvel’s Muslim Chick Editor).”

Schlussel relays:

No word on how many gay Arafats she’ll pretend to sleep with either. How many Fort Hoods she’ll shoot up or bras she’ll rig with explosives to blow up planes.

According to our records, so far, a year later, the score remains:

Gay Arafats: 0
Ft Hoods: 0
Rigged bras: 0

One commenter warned Marvel, “get ready to incur the Muslim wrath” due to their publishing Ms. Marvel.

Add to the scoreboard:

Muslim wrath over Ms. Marvel: 0

(Thanks to Martin Lund for noting this piece!)

academic, contributors

The Superhero Afterlife Is Here!

American Comic Books, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero AfterlifeThis week sees the debut of S&S Founding Member A. David Lewis’s American Comic Books, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife. Based on both his doctoral work from Boston University and his American Academy of Religion (AAR) presentations, Lewis, co-editor of both Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books & Graphic Novels and Digital Death: Mortality and Beyond in the Online Age, delivers his first solo monograph in Comics Studies. Read more here.

from the Internet

Spider-Man the Crypto-Jew

Over at Slate, Arie Kaplan considers whether Spider-Man is Jewish, based on input from actor Andrew Garfield, novelist Michael Chabon, and producer Avi Arad. Or, at the very least, is he a “crypto-Jew,” especially considering his brand of humor? Read more here.

(Thanks to Steve Bergson, editor of The Jewish Comix Anthology and proprietor of the Jewish Comics blog for spotting this one. I think he’d appreciate the relevance of the clip below.)

from the Internet, interviews

Expletives and Sacrilege with Nick Marino and “Holy F*ck”

Over at Comic Bastards, Dustin Cabeal sat down with the writer of Holy F*ck Nick Marino  about his and artist Daniel Arruda Massa’s “sacrilegious satire sprinkled with action and adventure.” As the Marino explains:

From my perspective, this is really Sister Maria’s story. She’s the one who finds Jesus. She’s the one who brings him to Satan. She’s the one who’s actively going after the mythological gods and trying to stop their oppressive agenda.

However, if that’s too heady for you… LOOK!!!!! Jesus and Satan with big guns! Zeus and Isis with nuclear missiles! Nudity and profanity!!!

If that’s your cup of tea, click here for more.

@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion