Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

Ancient Literature In Comics And The Best Selling Book Of All Time As A Kickstarter!?

Simon Amadeus Pillario writes,

A celestial being appears to a barren woman in the guise of a man and he tells her she will have a child: a son, who would become a warrior so fierce he could single-handedly lay down armies, possess earth-shattering strength and deadly speed. But a mystical condition, like an ancient Geis, is also given; he may never drink alcohol, touch any dead flesh or cut his hair lest he lose his power.

You may realise these events are part of an ancient story written three thousand years ago. The story of Samson reveals a character with a life in conflict that ends in betrayal and tragedy.

When I read the Bible for the first time as an adult I was amazed that the exciting stories were not kid's stuff, but complex adult stories. For example, while the story of Samson and Delilah is well known, equally gripping are the stories of Ehud, Jephthah, Barak and Deborah, which are also from the book of Judges. However, unless you sit down and read the Bible itself you won't have heard of these stories. These ancient stories are fascinating to read and not influenced by today's literary expectations or Hollywood endings. That's why I became passionate about creating The Word for Word Bible Comic. My graphic novel brings these stories to life without cutting anything out. Like Frank Miller's 300 (which are drawn from the writings of Herodotus), there are a lot of violent battles and adult themes within the story, which is why I've aimed it at an adult audience.

Furthermore, it's not re-imagined for a mass market but is a faithful presentation of the ancient narrative. Moreover, it brings out the interesting story and historical and cultural themes. Because of the nature of the text, I didn't want to edit out any of the original words so I came up with the idea of utilising the gutter spaces to hold words that are unneeded for comic (like "he said"), which allows the same pace and excitement of a normal comic.

The second thing I am passionate about is history. I do a lot of historical Role Play Games and battle re-enactments and therefore historical accuracy is important to me. That's why I have made the Word for Word Bible Comic as accurate to the period and the region as possible. All the landscapes are drawn from the real places in what we now call Israel, Jordan, Syria and Palestine. Weapons, armour, chariots, even plants and animals are researched so that they are correct for the setting.

I have received several endorsement from Biblical Scholars including this one, which I am particularly pleased with:

"One might argue that the Word for Word Bible Comic is actually a more authentic presentation of the Bible than our bare printed texts, which invite us to fill a visual vacuum by supplying pictures in our own imagination of people and events. I highly recommend it"  – Rev. Dr Christopher. R. Smith : Doctorate in Historical Theology and the Bible. Author of "Understanding the Books of the Bible" Study Guides from IVP.

Last year, I used Kickstarter to take this work full time and now the first book, Judges, is ready for print this October. I am currently running a follow up Kickstarter to create the second book, Joshua. I've made the first book available as a limited edition pre-release solely to backers to fund the creation of the second book but neither will be released on general sale until summer 2016.

Back The Word for Word Bible Comic before the 27th of September.

Bleeding Cool readers can get their copy of Judges upgraded to a signed copy for free by messaging the creator with this code: BCSIGNED or they can add a copy of Judges to their rewards for just £10 instead of £20 with the code BCUPG10  (Limited to pledges already over £20+postage). For this weekend only you can even use both together!

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