April 7, 1999
Zowie!
It's the Bible in comic-book form
___By Terri Lackey
___LifeWay Christian Resources
___NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--If your kids aren't interested in reading the KJV, NIV, RSV or even the Good News translations of the Bible, perhaps you could tempt them to indulge in a cartoon interpretation.
___Broadman & Holman Publishers has released a Bible designed in comic strip format to entice teenagers--ages 14 and up--to partake in God's word.
___The trade book division of LifeWay Christian Resourcespurchased the rights from a British publishing firm, Lion, to sell the Graphic Bible in North America and Canada.
___"This is a Bible for kids who are losing interest in Sunday school or who have never set foot in a church," said Dee Ann Grand, manager for Broadman & Holman children's products. "It's a Bible that will appeal to kids who are comic book lovers or who like to read graphic novels."
___It also might catch the playful eye of "big people," she suggested.
___Adults who pick up one of the 256-page Bibles for their children shouldn't be surprised to find they don't want to fork it over.
___The Graphic Bible's artist is well-known British illustrator Jeff Anderson, who has worked for Marvel UK and drawn the DC comic character Judge Dredd. The writer, also British, is Mike Maddox, who has scripted for DC Comics of the Batman and Superman fame. Both are Christians.
___"Once I became a Christian, this just seemed like a dream project," said Anderson, who worked on the Graphic Bible project more than five years. "Just getting started took six months. I did more than I normally would as an illustrator.
___"The special thing was breaking each bit down into parts. I spent a couple of hours a day reading (the Bible), making thumbnails, thinking about angles."
___The Graphic Bible is divided into about 100 biblical episo-des, from the creation to John's vision of Jesus' second coming.
___The Graphic Bible, Grand said, is Broadman & Holman's way of enticing teenagers away from their computer games and television sets and into the Bible.
___"We want to pull kids away from the computer screen by showing them that the Bible has just as much action and drama as those awful movies they love," she said.
___After all, the Bible does portray some famous rifts, like the ones between Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, David and Goliath, Christ and Satan.
___"Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace and Daniel was thrown to the lions, and they all lived," Grand said. "You can't get better drama than that. And there's even a happy ending."Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!