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Picture Stories from the Bible: The New Testament in Full-Color Comic-Strip Form
Retells stories from the New Testament in cartoon format. Also provides references to cited passages and a map of the Holy Land during Christ's time.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1980
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July 5, 2024
When Picture Stories from the Bible was first published in 1943, the format was called a "comic strip". Nowadays we would be more likely to call it "sequential art" or a "graphic story". The book itself has been through several different covers and presentations, up to 1997, and perhaps beyond. The story, of course, is timeless.
Picture Stories from the Bible: The New Testament in Full-Colour Comic-Strip Form is actually the second volume of two, the first book being of stories from the Old Testament, and this one being published a couple of years later (although copyrighted the same year). This volume contains reviews of the first one, from leaders of various religions. Dr. Israel Goldstein praises it for bringing out the "dramatic values of the Bible at the same time as it retains the quality of reverence". Dr. J. Quinter Miller says, "The picture stories employ imagination, suspense, colour, and continuity to set forth the simple yet profound meaning of God's Word." Rabbi Aphron Opher calls it, "a medium so popular with children and grown-ups...it is dignified and authentic...a powerful instrument with which to overcome biblical illiteracy".
This companion volume of the New Testament will not of course have quite such widespread appeal, but is probably equally well received by a different group of people. It feels very ecumenical.
I should probably indicate at this point that I am not a Christian, nor a member of any formal religion. However, I can recognise this as a worthy and conscientiously accurate attempt to reproduce events from the Bible in an appealing way. I was engrossed by it, and thoroughly enjoyed my reading, which took roughly the same length of time as an average nonfiction book or longish novel. There is a lot of text, much of it verbatim from the King James's Bible.
The book is divided into three sections:
Part 1: "The Story of Jesus: from his birth to the closing days of his ministry."
Part 2: "The Story of Jesus: featuring the events in the closing years of his earthly life. Based on the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
Part 3: "The Story of Peter, Paul and other Disciples in the formation of the early Christian Church. Based mainly on the 'Acts of the Apostles'."
Much of the content in the first two sections I recognised, and I especially liked the detailed maps, showing the locations of all the sites during Biblical times. These came at the end of the appropriate section, along with a numbered key to the pages. I also appreciated the "title" at the top of each page, saying what was to happen. For instance, opening the book at random, I find, "Three disciples are asked to watch with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane". There is also a careful footnote at the bottom of each page, indicating the reference to chapter and verse in the Bible. For this one, it says, "Matthew 26:36-47 Mark 14:32-43, John 18:1-3". A lot of work has gone into scrupulously annotating this.
The whole book is very accessible to read, and where the language in the speech bubbles is a little archaic, the banner at the top, or another character's speech bubble, probably makes it plainer. Some are so colloquial that they made me chuckle, although the work is overall very serious in its endeavour. The words spoken by Jesus Christ have an extra outline in red, to heighten their import. Many of the names were new - or forgotten - to me. The third section was mostly unfamiliar, but the events flowed well, which is quite a feat, to cover so much of the New Testament in this format.
The artwork is proficient and attractive, as many of these older "comic book" classics were. The style is simplified but naturalistic, rather than stylised. There are clean lines, and bold flat areas of colour. Usually an attempt has been made to give the various characters a different cartoon face, and represent authentic backgrounds, interiors and modes of dress. My one gripe is a small one... The faces are rather too European in appearance, and rather too "pink", and the females are all very pretty. But perhaps this says more about public perceptions by readers of comic books in 1943, than anything else. I cannot fault the quality of the production values. The binding is sound, the paper is thick and has not tanned, and the colours remain as true as the day they were printed. Of course, I do not know whether these standards were upheld in later editions.
=
(a sample page)
All in all, I think this is an enjoyable book to read, whether you believe in the New Testament as a piece of literal history, a largely metaphorical representation of a religious truth, or as an important book containing an interesting piece of mythology. It fulfils the expectations of all these - and probably many shades of interpretation in between.
"Practically all the 27 book of the New Testament were written during the period of about sixty years, between 50 and 110 A.D. which, because of this inspired portrayal of the life and teachings of Jesus, is known as one of the richest literary and religious periods in history."
Picture Stories from the Bible: The New Testament in Full-Colour Comic-Strip Form is actually the second volume of two, the first book being of stories from the Old Testament, and this one being published a couple of years later (although copyrighted the same year). This volume contains reviews of the first one, from leaders of various religions. Dr. Israel Goldstein praises it for bringing out the "dramatic values of the Bible at the same time as it retains the quality of reverence". Dr. J. Quinter Miller says, "The picture stories employ imagination, suspense, colour, and continuity to set forth the simple yet profound meaning of God's Word." Rabbi Aphron Opher calls it, "a medium so popular with children and grown-ups...it is dignified and authentic...a powerful instrument with which to overcome biblical illiteracy".
This companion volume of the New Testament will not of course have quite such widespread appeal, but is probably equally well received by a different group of people. It feels very ecumenical.
I should probably indicate at this point that I am not a Christian, nor a member of any formal religion. However, I can recognise this as a worthy and conscientiously accurate attempt to reproduce events from the Bible in an appealing way. I was engrossed by it, and thoroughly enjoyed my reading, which took roughly the same length of time as an average nonfiction book or longish novel. There is a lot of text, much of it verbatim from the King James's Bible.
The book is divided into three sections:
Part 1: "The Story of Jesus: from his birth to the closing days of his ministry."
Part 2: "The Story of Jesus: featuring the events in the closing years of his earthly life. Based on the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
Part 3: "The Story of Peter, Paul and other Disciples in the formation of the early Christian Church. Based mainly on the 'Acts of the Apostles'."
Much of the content in the first two sections I recognised, and I especially liked the detailed maps, showing the locations of all the sites during Biblical times. These came at the end of the appropriate section, along with a numbered key to the pages. I also appreciated the "title" at the top of each page, saying what was to happen. For instance, opening the book at random, I find, "Three disciples are asked to watch with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane". There is also a careful footnote at the bottom of each page, indicating the reference to chapter and verse in the Bible. For this one, it says, "Matthew 26:36-47 Mark 14:32-43, John 18:1-3". A lot of work has gone into scrupulously annotating this.
The whole book is very accessible to read, and where the language in the speech bubbles is a little archaic, the banner at the top, or another character's speech bubble, probably makes it plainer. Some are so colloquial that they made me chuckle, although the work is overall very serious in its endeavour. The words spoken by Jesus Christ have an extra outline in red, to heighten their import. Many of the names were new - or forgotten - to me. The third section was mostly unfamiliar, but the events flowed well, which is quite a feat, to cover so much of the New Testament in this format.
The artwork is proficient and attractive, as many of these older "comic book" classics were. The style is simplified but naturalistic, rather than stylised. There are clean lines, and bold flat areas of colour. Usually an attempt has been made to give the various characters a different cartoon face, and represent authentic backgrounds, interiors and modes of dress. My one gripe is a small one... The faces are rather too European in appearance, and rather too "pink", and the females are all very pretty. But perhaps this says more about public perceptions by readers of comic books in 1943, than anything else. I cannot fault the quality of the production values. The binding is sound, the paper is thick and has not tanned, and the colours remain as true as the day they were printed. Of course, I do not know whether these standards were upheld in later editions.
=(a sample page)
All in all, I think this is an enjoyable book to read, whether you believe in the New Testament as a piece of literal history, a largely metaphorical representation of a religious truth, or as an important book containing an interesting piece of mythology. It fulfils the expectations of all these - and probably many shades of interpretation in between.
"Practically all the 27 book of the New Testament were written during the period of about sixty years, between 50 and 110 A.D. which, because of this inspired portrayal of the life and teachings of Jesus, is known as one of the richest literary and religious periods in history."
Displaying 1 of 1 review