Christianity and Comics?? Religion

[ychirea1]

Hello everyone,

I am researching religion and comics for an academic book on the subject. Any and all leads will be gratefully acknowledged in the final text! 

I am looking at religions, broadly and comparatively (not only Christianity, but Buddism, Hinduism, native American/indigenous, Islam, Judaism) in the comics from the golden age onward. I am looking for resources that will help me to identify and list these comics, perhaps so that I can create and work from an index.

Any suggestions, recommendations, insights and questions are welcomed. This is enjoyable work, and this museum is a unique resource! Thank you for sharing

Y. Chireau
Professor
Swarthmore College

[Soothsayr]

Just off the top of my head, I can think of those comic/publishers:

Catholic - Catholic Comics, George A. Pflaum Publishers, and a few others I'm sure others can chime in about this one

Hinduism - Amar Chitra Katha series of comics, along with the other Indian comic publishers such as Chaturang Katha and Adarsh Chitra Katha

Christianity - Spire Publications, Chick Publications, and one more that escapes my mind right now

Not aware of any for Buddhism but I could be wrong.

You can easily pull up indexes of series/stories using the Grand comic database at  www.comics.org

[bminor]

Back in the 1980s Marvel did a couple special issues.
One on John Paul II
the other on St. Francis.
Both pretty good!
B.

[ychirea1]

Thank you! I am looking for American publishers, so this is exactly what I need. The Marvel editions will fit directly in with my research. I have a comic on Buddhist super hero called THE GREEN LAMA, but I haven't had a chance to read it. Your help is so very appreciated on this fascinating subject.

[erwin-k]

Kismet - Man of Fate appeared in all four issues of Bomber Comics. DCM has them all. Kismet appears to be the first Islamic Mystery Man published in a U.S. comic.

Kismet wears a Fez hat and dresses like the stereotypical movie Harem guard. He says things like, "By the Beard of the Prophet." Why he operated in Nazi occupied Europe is not clear.

I believe Kismet appeared not too long after the successful Broadway play and film of the same name. (The musical version of the play & film came sometime later.)

BTW, check out the Green Lama not only in his own comic, but in Prize Comics, as well. That version is much more like original prose character in Double Detective.

[ychirea1]

will do!! this is exactly what I wanted

thanks for your expertise friends

Prof. Chireau

[darkmark (RIP)]

Marvel did a one-shot of THE EASTER STORY some years back.  They also had a shortlived religious imprint which pubbed THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS and a brief run of ILLUMINATOR, a Christian superhero.  MENDY AND THE GOLEM was a Jewish religious (?) comic, and there have been tons of adaptations of Biblical stories.  One of my faves was SUNDAY PIX with its serial of Tullus, iirc.  DC did that big BIBLE tabloid.  Eastern Color did TALES FROM THE GREAT BOOK and Atlas had a brief series of well-done Bible adaptations.  Also there are the Archie Christian comics from Spire, which got me interested in Archie all over again.  The stuff's out there.

[ychirea1]

this is indeed a great topic! thanks for the references!

Prof.

[Soothsayr]

You should also check the Jewish themes in Will Eisner's books - The Building, Contract with God, Figan the Jew, and so forth. All excellent reading.

[erwin-k]

In any number of media some of the better, if not best, Christmas related stories were overseen or just plain created by Jewish folks.

Jack Benny is but one example on radio. Of course many of the old time movie studio heads were Jewish while providing content for a mostly Christian audience.

Julie Schwartz edited any number comic book Christmas stories. "The Silent Night of the Batman" comes to mind.

[jrvandore]

Max Gaines' Picture Stories from the Bible.

Teshkeel's The 99

Spire comics from Fleming H. Revell Company

Left Behind from Tyndale

[churnworks]

Both Marvel and DC have done "Tales from the Bible" over the years. Some are still in copyright, but I may have scanned copies that can be provided as part of "fair use" for scholarship purposes. Please feel free to write to me at churnworks at att.not if you would like to follow up.

Here, you might want to look at the Treasure Chest comics from the Catechetical Guld (several have been uploaded recently) as well as Catholic Comics, from Catholic Publications. Several examples are loaded here, and you can find them in the "Small Publishers" section of DCM.

If you search for "Challenger, you'll find one copy of this Interfaith Publications comic. (In fact you can preview the comic using the link http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=16472.) There is a retelling of the Golem story in an early work by Joe Kubert, who went on to become well-known in the industry.

Possibly off-topic, but there are three issues (the complete run) of the comic "Jewish War Heroes" from the Canadian Jewish Congress, ca 1944.

Best, Loren MacGregor

[SuperScrounge]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but Dell Comics ran an adaptation of Ben Hur in Popular Comics #38-44.

[narfstar]

Zondervon graphic novels
http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/

Powermark
http://www.comics.org/series/name/powermark/sort/alpha/

Serenity
http://www.comics.org/series/25170/

Archangels
http://www.comics.org/series/name/archangels%3A/sort/alpha/

There was an issue of Thor where Odin died and all the other mythological gods were contacted to give part of their belief to revive him.

[bminor]

The BIBLE 1 DC Limited Collector's Edition C36,  1975 TREASURY, Giant sized comic book with great art by Joe Kubert. All the stories as I recall are from Genesis.
Here is a link to a Ebay listing of it:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/1975-DC-treasury-edition-comic-THE-BIBLE-Limited-Collectors-Edition-/351191336293?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item51c4a28565

A few years ago Robert Crumb illustrated the entire "Book of Genesis" from the Bible. I have seen a few pages and it is pretty good.
If you go to YouTube you can listen to a half-hour interview with Crumb when the book came out a couple of years ago!  A good listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flBMtQzVgGM