Another Thing to Add to the “Thou Shalt Not” List
Why is it that some things outside of scripture are considered inherently evil? Rock music, playing cards, dancing? The common thought that some believers have is that at one time, these things were used for ill gotten sake, therefore they can not be redeemed. Rock music came from Pagan Africa, it is forever tainted, cards may have come from tarot cards or used for gambling, dancing leads to sex (or is it the other way around?). What about smoking? The verse I most often hear against that is “our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” However, in context, that was about prostitutes, not tobacco. And what about comic books?
There are several issues I have with school of thought which says “_____ is inherently evil”. Issue 1) This mindset seems to find something wrong with anything, especially if it hasn’t been done before. Issue 2) There is a fear of anything that might be enjoyable. Enjoyment, in this way of thinking, equals pleasing the flesh. Issue 3) Confusion about a style being sinful instead of an actual sinful behavior. Issue 4) Often, this is accompanied by a lack of education on a subject matter being criticized.
So what does this have to do with comics?
Manga Bible is a Japanese-style comic book of the New Testament printed in the UK. Siku, the artist, is quoted in an interview as saying “The Jesus character the book portrays is ‘not cuddly. I’ve deliberately made Jesus more imposing than anyone else throughout the story, and darker. He’s creepier.”
Some critics (who haven’t seen the book since it isn’t available in the U.S. yet. See my Issue 4), complained that Siku incorrectly depicted Christ. They are looking for reasons to hate him (see my Issue 1). Siku, who happens to be a Christian, responded to the criticisms of his work.
God is not cuddly, he is fearsome. He is one of absolute integrity and ‘happens’ to love us; this causes us not to understand that he is also ‘dangerous’.
I have presented Jesus as the God of Sinai. When he comes from the desert in blazing darkness he comes to bring judgment on Satan. They tremble! This is why I have Christ dark and ‘creepy’, because the world should tremble, for this is the ‘terrible’ (Hebrews 12:21) God and Satan knows his time is up.
However, I have not made this unbalanced. Christ is also gentle and kind and in fact beautiful too. The problem is that we have imposed our anglosised, androcentric and modernist preconceptions on God. I have challenged this, challenging the old guard while preaching to the lost. The lost will not understand why our work is being criticized. They’ll just be grateful that someone tried to communicate with them. I think they’ll sense our warmth towards them because our method is the ‘outstretched arm’, reaching out to them without thumping them on the head.
For those who support our work, our utmost thanks. For those who think we are in the grip of the enemy- someday, we’ll have common ground. To those who think Manga has satanic origins, may I remind you that Manga was response to the apocalyptic events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The creator of Manga sought a peaceful response that differed from Japan’s previous militaristic mindset. This does not sound demonic to me.
Love and respect to ya’ll.
Siku- Author of The Manga Bible
I love the gracious way he closes his statement. We do have common ground. I think many will be surprised when, in heaven, we are standing next to the Sikus, the Rob Bells, and the Ingrid Schlueters. What heavenly good does it do to tell everyone that a comic book depicting Jesus is wrong? They haven’t even seen it yet.
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I’m usually not a Manga fan when it comes to comics. Based on his incredibly gracious and theologically sound response I will have to make an exception in this case.
Matt B. are you a fan of comics?
This is obviously wrong because I hate Manga and Anime and therefore, the case is closed.
Ahem.
I know this is my second article on a Christian comic, I’m not necessarily a comic book fan. I grew up watching anime (Robotech) and even as a child loved the way that the writers would deal with adult matters, such as alcoholism (there is a whole other side to “adult anime”, called hentai, which I don’t watch or appreciate). I own a lot of Miyazaki’s work because it’s incredible.
Siku’s critics also complain about the depiction of the disciples calling Jesus “dude”. I don’t have a problem with this. It’s artistic license and most of the disciples were blue collar workers. I’ve called some of my bosses “dude”. I’m not sure if Jewish culture permitted such terms of familiarity. Anyway, Jesus disciples were famous not just for their right responses to Jesus, but also their wrong responses.
There are 3 sample pages available online of the Manga Bible. If you look at that, you will see that it’s incredibly drawn. But that’s hardly enough to judge Siku’s theology. For his critics, it’s a classic case of judging a book by it’s cover.
Ingrid surprised me by allowing Siku to respond to his critics. You can read all of his comments here:
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=461#comments
Just a correction, in the comic, Jesus brothers refer to Jesus as “bro”, not “dude”. I apologize for this misquote.
Siku’s responses are very good… in fact it seems to show how out of balance Ingrid and her “rabid” followers are. The contrast is like Light and Darkness… (LOL!)
It seems while he may have taken some poetic licence it is at least biblically based and is actually a closer look at the story of Jesus than Ingrid….it shows how shallow they really are compared to someone who loves God and others.
Funny how God uses the foolishness of this world (comics) to confound the wise (worldly wise that is).
be blessed,
iggy
Anyone else find it hilarious that Siku cites like 4 or 5 verses about hte darkness of God and then the next commenter says “there is no darkness in him [God]” without actualling citing a verse? Then Siku follows that up with an analysis of the ways that “dark” is used and what he means by dark. He is then immediately met again with the exact same objections that he just friggin answered.
How in the world do these people hold themselves up as defenders of scripture?
In all seriousness…the art is fantastic. No low-grade art that sometimes is found in Christian items. Looks top-of-the-line to me.
An interesting thing to consider is that Manga supposedly is Japanese version of our “comic book” and not a devious subset. Everyone in Japan reads Manga pretty much (according to a Japanese exchange student we had) so in a sense, the Manga Bible isn’t any different that some of those cutesy children’s Bibles that are cartoons that I’ve seen in stores. They aren’t the Manga style, but they are comic book takes on the Bible.
Again, I wonder if the style issue is the problem, or at least part of it. Style of art, style of music, style of writing — we can’t get past our reaction to style and see the work for what it is.
Of course, I’m still not a lover of Manga. Though I am impressed with how Siku handled himself in the comments section at SOL, and what he had to say.
One of the critics said anime has roots in the occult and demonic in nature. This is a false statement.
The anime style was developed after Osamu Tezuka saw American cartoons like Bambi, Betty Boop, and Mickey Mouse. Hence the big eyes of typical Japanese cartoons.
Matt,
But Disney has gay day and he had cartoons with witches and he was cryogenically frozen (his head) and he was… so this all means that cartoons are of the occult and demonic because Bambi was possessed and talk like a human, Betty Boop dresses like a whore, and Mickey Mouse is just an enormous rodent and all rodents are the result of the fall… so all the big eyes are better to see you with…
I hope that make sense as I hope I do not ever misrepresent Ingrid’s view… I hope to be as accurate as she is on most topics she writes about.
I prefer Warner Brother style cartoons…
be blessed,
iggy
Tim,
“Anyone else find it hilarious that Siku cites like 4 or 5 verses about hte darkness of God and then the next commenter says “there is no darkness in him [God]†without actualling citing a verse? Then Siku follows that up with an analysis of the ways that “dark†is used and what he means by dark. He is then immediately met again with the exact same objections that he just friggin answered. ”
That was the “shallowness” I was referring to! LOL! If it did not fit their already preapproved ideas on the topic, they are agin’ it… and have no real biblical backing to help their view… though they may rationalize it as much as they can.
Blessings,
iggy
There’s a reason that comic book writers have a negative view of Christianity. And it has a lot more to do with Christians than it does with Christ.
Have any of you read ‘Fire from Heaven’ from Dust Press? These guys were at Mars Hill (MI) a couple of months back, and I thought both their presentation of the story of Elijah, and the graphic novel approach to presentation were both interesting and respectful of the source material (the Bible, of course).
I wrote a post about that a while ago. I think you were on vacation.
Ah – so you are correct on both counts… My apologies, as I’ve still not read everything posted during my absenses this summer…
I’m an avid comic book reader, I mean the guys at my comic book store even recognize my voice on the phone at this point.
I’m not as much a manga fan stylistically, but I will have to violate my “no manga” rule in this case because my “Read anything Slice blasts” rule trumps that. It’s how I found other great comics by Christians like “Marked” or Dean Rankin’s stuff, so I don’t want to miss another great piece of work just because I personally don’t like the style.
Comic Books are the hands down perfect medium, with movies there are budgeting constraints and with books you’re left to insert to much of yourself in the story and miss out on what the author was getting at, so anytime a Christian tries to share their faith in comic book form, and they aren’t terrible at it, I’m for it!
Oh and one of the most important books in my faith at a time was “Midnight Nation” by J. Micheal Strazynski. While not an explicitly or intentionally Christian-themed book, it’s messages and meanings just kind of got me motivated at the right time. It’s a book the author put together after leaving a cult and realizing what life is like to be truly and utterly alone.
Hey Kevin:
Who did the “Marked” comic?
Steve Ross did Marked
http://www.amazon.com/Marked-Steve-Ross/dp/1596270020/?tag=fishtheabys-20
Hi guys,
Thanks for your supportive comments… kinda leaves a lump somewhere in the throat.
We worked hard on The Manga Bible project, in particular the gospels. We read the four book from cover to cover several times while cross referencing scholarly work. Literally speaking, there were many sleepless nights from both myself and my script writer.
After all our work was done, we then submitted it to a New Testament scholar (Dr Conrad Gempf- author of Jesus Asked- Zondervan) who made corrections. The editorial staff also tested the work and I had to defend the theology.
You can understand that when all that work is appreciated we literally bust with joy. When it is criticized we are not offended because we are confident of the integrity behind the work. It isn’t hard defending The Manga Bible. The ground work is solid and tested.
Regarding the critics, we shouldn’t be too hard on them. They are in good company. Augustine (the greatest post-apostolic Christian theologian) would have criticized TMB. Check out his book Confessions. Calvin would have said my work was work for simple minded lay people, not fit introduction to the word of God. He certainly would have come close to describing it as idolatry. He states this in his book Institutes. Then there are the revered book of homilies which declares all graphic representation as lies. In fact Calvin would have called us peddlers of lies and falsehoods. Then there is Bloy, Gregory, Martin Luther, Karl Barth amongst many distinguished commentators. They all would have criticized TMB.
It is no wonder that there are sections in the Church that find visual representation problematic; in particular, my visceral style is simply beyond the pale for these people. I understand this. For example, one cover of TMB has Jesus standing with his disciples looking moody with a shadow cast over his eyes. I can understand why some Christian find this offensive. Considering that Augustine, who is largely responsible for how modern humans think is also responsible for our naive view of art, it is no surprise that people who have never read Augustine or Calvin talk just like them, in some cases, eerily similar phrases are used.
We are creatures of our cultures, and many of what we regard as ‘the right way to read scripture’ or the ‘right interpretation’ is basically an anglosised modernist construct (the Eastern Church view art differently).
For example; the distinction between ‘eisogesis’ and exegesis can be misleading. All exegesis is both objective and subjective. In some cases, some exegesis can be entirely subjective and slanted. It’s like saying the interpretations of a scientific experiment are entirely objective. The modern mind likes to think so but in reality, scientists, historians, theologians, Christians attempt objectivity from subjective and preconceived positions.
I do not mean that there will not be meeting of minds and the all ‘facts’ are disputable (for example, the expression ‘Jesus is Lord’ is undisputable), but I am saying that if we are more aware of how our culture affects our worldview we might be better able to judge ourselves.
love and respect
BTW, thanks again Matt B for your support.
Thanks Siku- I hope to purchase the book once it’s available in the U.S.
I can’t wait to pick it up either, is it coming to book stores or comic book stores once it hits the US?
It’s available in January 08.
http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Bible-Siku/dp/0385524315/?tag=fishtheabys-20
Siku,
You’re a brave brave man. Taking on the giants of the faith that way. Its refreshing that you’re both educated and straightforward. I think your critics’ heads would explode before they’d admit to disagreeing with Calvin, or Luther.
Thanks Tim Reed. While much is owed to the likes of Augustine and Calvin (much of what I understand about christian thinking comes from these guys) I disagree with their view on art and nature. They were creatures of their time too.
It’s available on my birthday.
I may get it.
I’m even more impressed by Siku’s responses and such after reading the above.
(It’s just that the eyes in Manga creep me out. That’s my main problem. They’re so…big.)
I can’t begin to imagine the work involved in this project, and I admit to slight art envy. However, the main thing that impresses me are the gentle responses to critics and the defense of the gospel. Truly.
again, thanks Julie. it’s cool it’s coming out on your birthday. i tell you what to expect later on; the OT version. that’s going to be out in the UK next week… and I think the art is better, you know, epic battles and the like. As for the theology, just as challenging.