“Every… comic book version of the Bible that I’ve seen contains passages of completely made-up narrative and dialogue, in an attempt to streamline and ‘modernize’ the old scriptures, and still, these various comic book Bibles all claim to adhere to the belief that the Bible is ‘the word of God’,” says cartoonist Robert Crumb in the introduction to his recent adaptation of The Book of Genesis. Although Crumb, perhaps ironically, believes the Bible to be the words of men, he set about, to the best of his ability, to faithfully reproduce every word of the original text in comics form. Although one would be hard pressed to find two artists with more diverse styles than R. Crumb and Eric Shanower, the experience of reading Crumb’s meticulously researched Genesis reminds me of nothing so much as that of reading Shanower’s meticulously researched Age of Bronze. But how do other comic book adaptations of the Bible compare? I have read two.
Limited Collectors’ Edition Presents The Most Spectacular Stories Ever Told From The Bible:
According to the indicia, this is “Limited Collector’s Edition, Vol. 4, No. C-36,” but we know what it really is: a DC Treasury Edition! Joe Kubert was the editor and graphic designer (not to mention cover artist), Sheldon Mayer the writer, and Nestor Redondo. It cost a whole dollar, and I remember really selling my grandmother on the idea of buying a Bible comic book, when in fact, I wanted it just because it was a comic book. “Look, Grandma, it says ‘First of a series’ on the back. I can start a collection and read all about the Bible!” I needn’t have bothered; she would have bought it for me, anyway. I’ll probably burn in hell for that someday.
The Picture Bible – Iva Hoth – Andre Le Blanc – 1978:
I didn’t buy this in 1978; I bought a hardcover on a whim just a few years ago when it came back into print, but it was R. Cumb’s Genesis which put me in the mood to read it. It’s the kind of sanitized version Crumb writes about in his introduction, but what initially attracted me was the artist, Andre Le Blanc. A friend of mine studied art under Le Blanc and just raves about him.
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There's a manga by Hikaru Nakamura called Saint Young Men, where Christ and Buddha live as roommates in present-day Japan, but I haven't read any of it.
I finished reading the book of Genesis last night and followed it up with Mark Russell's summary from God is Disappointed in You. I was going to "justify" continuing to document my reading in this thread by the fact that GiDiY is illustrated with cartoons by Shannon Wheeler, but I realized I don't have to bend quite so far over backwards by simply supplementing my reading with The Picture Bible by Iva Hoth and Andre Le Blanc. Although it, too, is little more than "the tiny morsel of the Bible that was spoon-fed to [us] in Sunday school," it does generally skip over those interminable genealogies. Case in point: "The Bible traces the generations from Noah's son, Shem, to a tribal chieftain named Tehah who lives outside Ur." (Tehah is the father of Abraham.) That's really all I need to know.
Today I bought a reprint of Dell's Voyage to the Deep #1 (Sep-Nov 1962) which included a spot piece on "The Great Flood" inside the front cover. (Source not cited.)
"The waters of the flood in Noah's day were composed of two kinds... the "lower waters" being those of the Earth and its immediate atmosphere and the "upper waters" being those that issued beyond the firmament. The latter are said to have rushed down from two holes that originated in consequence of two stars having been temporarily removed from the constellation Pleiades."*
The spot piece inside the back cover, "Fire and Water", is complementary.
"Noah's ark was not merely a big boat... just put together in order to best serve its inhabitants. that isn't what kept it from being destroyed in the Great Flood that long ago was said to have covered the Earth after a rain of forty days and forty nights.
"According to several ancient scribes, the ark was a magical contrivance, the proportions of which, and of each part of which... were reflections of the secret measurements that govern the harmony of the universe,**
"According to legend, it is said that the instructions for building the ark were taken by Noah from the book of the angel Raziel.
"Though never translated***, copies of this ancient text are available. If it gave adequate instruction for the building of an ark that protected man from death by water, perhaps in it lie some secrets for our own time, too... a time that seems to favor nuclear death... death by fire!"
*Isaac Asimov postulates a somewhat different theory.
**Sounds like Arthur C. Clarke.
***Actually, English translations are available several places online, including Amazon and eBay and a free download.
The Baron > Jeff of Earth-JApril 24, 2025 at 2:45pm
"According to several ancient scribes, the ark was a magical contrivance, the proportions of which, and of each part of which... were reflections of the secret measurements that govern the harmony of the universe,**
When I finally finished reading the Book of Exodus (after a three-year gap in the middle), I found myself in the mood to continue, but not quite ready to delve back into The Bible itself and/or Asimov's guide to it. Previously I had been supplementing my Bible reading with The Picture Bible, but now I decided to continue through the rest of the Old Testament reading The Picture Bible on its own. I remembered from before that TPB eschewed the interminable geneologies and laws to concentrate on the narrative elements. In addition, the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Lamentations are all left out. I knew from before that TPB presents "the tiny morsel of the Bible that was spoon-fed to [us] in Sunday school," but I have become quite adept at identifying passages that don't quite pass the "smell test." On those occasions, I did consult the actual Bible to discover what was being left out. What I took away from the Old Testament was this:
Build a just society where the rich and powerful don't get to treat the rest of us like $#!t.
Be humble. You're never so holy cool that you can't improve a little.
Help each other out once in a while. We're here on Earth to make life better for each other.
...or, as Jack Kirby once put it, "Live your life for other people, not against them."
At least those are (what I take to be) the Old Testament's intended messages. Unfortunately those messages are largely lost due to... well, a lot of factors, really. Oh, if only there were some kind of new testament to better clarify God's message!
I finished reading The Picture Bible last night. I have read the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and Revelation before, but never the other books of the New Testament. (Some would argue that I still haven't.) I have known that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John tell basically the same story (the birth, invfancy, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus) from four different points of view, but this is the first time I've gleaned the purpose. Matthew is written for Jews to prove that Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies; Mark is written for Gentiles to present Jesus as the Son of god; Luke is written for Greeks to show Jesus as a universal savior; and John is written for instruction in the early Christian church. The Picture Bible has eliminated the duplication and placed the entire story in chronological order. As with the Old Testment section, the New Testament section is cross-referenced to the (sometimes multiple) sources.
Beyond that, most of the rest of the New Testament is dedicated to telling the story of a new religion and is composed largely of letters written by Paul and others to various churches and individuals. Regarding the final Revelation of John, I think I have a better handle on it now than I ever did before. As I see it, John was a guy who had witnessed the destruction of everything he loved and thought the end of the world was at hand. The Book of Revelation is not so much a prediction of events thousands of years in the future as it is the prayer of a man who saw his way of life coming to an end. Regardless of how old you are, if you are alive today, you've seen comic panels of a guy holding a sign which reads: "The End is Nigh." That's John. But he wrote in "code" that is cryptic, confusing and open to interpretation. (If you've ever read Helter Skelter you'll know immediately what I mean.) Like the writings of Nostradamus, it is vague enough to apply to almiost any situation. But I must admit that when I read about the followers of the Antichrist wearing "his sign on their foreheads," I can't help but picture this...
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There's a manga by Hikaru Nakamura called Saint Young Men, where Christ and Buddha live as roommates in present-day Japan, but I haven't read any of it.
THE PICTURE BIBLE:
GENESIS:
I finished reading the book of Genesis last night and followed it up with Mark Russell's summary from God is Disappointed in You. I was going to "justify" continuing to document my reading in this thread by the fact that GiDiY is illustrated with cartoons by Shannon Wheeler, but I realized I don't have to bend quite so far over backwards by simply supplementing my reading with The Picture Bible by Iva Hoth and Andre Le Blanc. Although it, too, is little more than "the tiny morsel of the Bible that was spoon-fed to [us] in Sunday school," it does generally skip over those interminable genealogies. Case in point: "The Bible traces the generations from Noah's son, Shem, to a tribal chieftain named Tehah who lives outside Ur." (Tehah is the father of Abraham.) That's really all I need to know.
Today I bought a reprint of Dell's Voyage to the Deep #1 (Sep-Nov 1962) which included a spot piece on "The Great Flood" inside the front cover. (Source not cited.)
"The waters of the flood in Noah's day were composed of two kinds... the "lower waters" being those of the Earth and its immediate atmosphere and the "upper waters" being those that issued beyond the firmament. The latter are said to have rushed down from two holes that originated in consequence of two stars having been temporarily removed from the constellation Pleiades."*
The spot piece inside the back cover, "Fire and Water", is complementary.
"Noah's ark was not merely a big boat... just put together in order to best serve its inhabitants. that isn't what kept it from being destroyed in the Great Flood that long ago was said to have covered the Earth after a rain of forty days and forty nights.
"According to several ancient scribes, the ark was a magical contrivance, the proportions of which, and of each part of which... were reflections of the secret measurements that govern the harmony of the universe,**
"According to legend, it is said that the instructions for building the ark were taken by Noah from the book of the angel Raziel.
"Though never translated***, copies of this ancient text are available. If it gave adequate instruction for the building of an ark that protected man from death by water, perhaps in it lie some secrets for our own time, too... a time that seems to favor nuclear death... death by fire!"
*Isaac Asimov postulates a somewhat different theory.
**Sounds like Arthur C. Clarke.
***Actually, English translations are available several places online, including Amazon and eBay and a free download.
"According to several ancient scribes, the ark was a magical contrivance, the proportions of which, and of each part of which... were reflections of the secret measurements that govern the harmony of the universe,**
Time Lord technology
When I finally finished reading the Book of Exodus (after a three-year gap in the middle), I found myself in the mood to continue, but not quite ready to delve back into The Bible itself and/or Asimov's guide to it. Previously I had been supplementing my Bible reading with The Picture Bible, but now I decided to continue through the rest of the Old Testament reading The Picture Bible on its own. I remembered from before that TPB eschewed the interminable geneologies and laws to concentrate on the narrative elements. In addition, the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Lamentations are all left out. I knew from before that TPB presents "the tiny morsel of the Bible that was spoon-fed to [us] in Sunday school," but I have become quite adept at identifying passages that don't quite pass the "smell test." On those occasions, I did consult the actual Bible to discover what was being left out. What I took away from the Old Testament was this:
...or, as Jack Kirby once put it, "Live your life for other people, not against them."
At least those are (what I take to be) the Old Testament's intended messages. Unfortunately those messages are largely lost due to... well, a lot of factors, really. Oh, if only there were some kind of new testament to better clarify God's message!
I finished reading The Picture Bible last night. I have read the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and Revelation before, but never the other books of the New Testament. (Some would argue that I still haven't.) I have known that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John tell basically the same story (the birth, invfancy, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus) from four different points of view, but this is the first time I've gleaned the purpose. Matthew is written for Jews to prove that Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies; Mark is written for Gentiles to present Jesus as the Son of god; Luke is written for Greeks to show Jesus as a universal savior; and John is written for instruction in the early Christian church. The Picture Bible has eliminated the duplication and placed the entire story in chronological order. As with the Old Testment section, the New Testament section is cross-referenced to the (sometimes multiple) sources.
Beyond that, most of the rest of the New Testament is dedicated to telling the story of a new religion and is composed largely of letters written by Paul and others to various churches and individuals. Regarding the final Revelation of John, I think I have a better handle on it now than I ever did before. As I see it, John was a guy who had witnessed the destruction of everything he loved and thought the end of the world was at hand. The Book of Revelation is not so much a prediction of events thousands of years in the future as it is the prayer of a man who saw his way of life coming to an end. Regardless of how old you are, if you are alive today, you've seen comic panels of a guy holding a sign which reads: "The End is Nigh." That's John. But he wrote in "code" that is cryptic, confusing and open to interpretation. (If you've ever read Helter Skelter you'll know immediately what I mean.) Like the writings of Nostradamus, it is vague enough to apply to almiost any situation. But I must admit that when I read about the followers of the Antichrist wearing "his sign on their foreheads," I can't help but picture this...
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