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Books Related to The Manga Bible Siku - ISBN: 0385524315
manga bible - Rated
i am a born again christian and bought this book for my little brother (he is 18)to encourage him to read the bible and give him hope.
i havent seen it, but my intention has been met. Although he may not have read a conventional bible he HAS looked at this one and read it. He likes the imagery. Thats all i know.I also sent him "the message" by eugene Peterson which he has read quite alot of.
The Most Innovative and Creative Picture Bible - Rated
I think this is a very bold attempt fusing Manga and Western Comic Art the result a non safe Comic Bible. I think most of the Cartoon/ Picture Bibles play safe and one thing as CS LEWIS said about Jesus:when Lucy asks, "Is he safe?"
"Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."
This I think captures The Manga Bible impact. Great Concept of combining the FULL TEXT. 'IS THIS THE BIGGEST BIBLE!
The most stylish Bible overview out there - Rated
I looked forward to this book after being generally impressed with the New Testament edition that was released earlier this year. Overall it doesn't disapoint and I would recommend it, but there are some problems with it.
First off, the publishers misleading title: 'The Manga Bible'. Although the influence of Japanese drawing styles is detectable the book was written and drawn by two brits. Artist Siku describes his style in an interview in the New Testament edition as 'modern-British' and this is a far more accurate label (we're talking Gorillaz rather then Dennis the Menace btw). Manga is not just an art style and it employs several recognisable story telling methods, few of which appear in this book ( see Scott McClouds Understanding Comics for a comparrison of eastern and western comic book story telling methods. Manga fans expecting something authentic will be disappointed ). Where the book succeeds it does so on it's own terms and it's a shame the publishers felt the need to market it under such a misleading title.
The art itself is excellent. Siku has a bold and energetic style. His characters look great and he really nails some of the most epic moments. I've said in another review that I have used these pictures to do bible teaching with a group of teenage boys who LOVED the art style.
However, the story telling techniques are a little patchey. The Bible is full of different literary styles and I can appreciate that to cover all the essentials, to do them justice and keep to a managable page count is a tall order. Which brings me to my next point, they left out some of my favourite bits!
The introduction to the book makes it clear that the creative team were seeking to make an readable overview of the main themes in every book of the bible, and to provide an introduction to it that would direct people to the original text. The book does this very well with lots of side panels giving references to help you look up the full story of what you are reading ( and there's a nice little 'key scene commentary' and a glossary at the back too). It's inevitable that to fulfill this mandate they would leave a lot out. It's also inevitable that people like me will moan that good bits get missed out and glossed over.
My main moan is that the Manga Bible's version of events tends to lack the grey areas that make the character driven elements of the Bible so compelling.
Here's one example: Abraham's son Ishmael is dismissed as a bully and the whole episode in which his mother is bullied by Abraham's wife is left out. Whilst you do get the bible references so a casual reader can easily access the whole story, it niggles me to see such a complicated family reduced to goodies and baddies.
Another problem I had was with some of the language. There are brilliant bits of humour and charactization next to dull narattion like "and it came to pass" and stupid dialog like "You know this to be right". I thought bible characters stopping speaking like Yoda round about the time Hollywood stopped making those grave biblical epics? Has Eugene Peterson taught us nothing? ;-)
My last moan is that some of the characters don't look right; Abraham is an old man when we meet him in Genesis, here he looks about 30. Some of the significant baddies look a bit to dehumanised too (King David faught people, not monsters).
But that's enough nit picking, here's my conclusion:
This books deserves 4 stars for the art work alone. Whilst the story telling is patchey, a lot of it does justice to the source material and it does offer a good overview and introudction to the bible. As a book for readers I strongly recommend it.
As a resource for bible teachers it's a mixed bag. Overall I'd recommend the Lion Graphic Bible over this one as it covers the main events in more depth and strives for greater historical accuracy in things like clothing, customs and living environments.
That said, many young people and children will relate better to the style of drawings in the Manga Bible then the more realistic style of the Graphic Bible. So buy them both!
