A while back I wrote a piece for Candour, a Presbyterian eZine, on some of the different ways religion and comic books interact. A few months later I needed to lecture in that area for my Bible in Popular Culture course, and so had all the notes prepared. I love it when a plan comes together.
The article looked at:
- How biblical material gets directly transfered to graphical media. (e.g. a graphic adaptation of a gospel)
- How spiritual and religious material might occur in ‘secular’ comic books.
- How comic book material might be used for tracts and polemics, and to support a faith-community.
- And finally, how the comic book format might be used as a theological or spiritual source (e.g. wrestling with theodicy).
The next step would be to take each of these sections and turn them into academic articles in their own right. I always wanted a job where I’d get paid to read comic books 🙂
Picked up some good materials at Armageddon at the weekend to help with this.
