Meeting your heroes: Glenn Fabry artist of Sláine and more.

On Saturday I was at ICE (International Comics Expo) in Brighton. One of the guests was old school legend Glenn Fabry (cover artist for Preacher and Constantine and classic Sláine artist). I realised that one of the classic Sláine comics I had done a little homage to within my own Book of Judges was drawn by him! So later I got a chance to show him. Here hit is...

He liked that I’d done an homage to his wrk and he told me a funny anecdote about that short comic. He said he’d been drawing Sláine day and night so much, at the time, that he’d started dreaming about it too. When he told Pat Mills (his editor) about this he asked him what the dream was. Glenn told him the premise that it starts with a fly sat on an open eye, it pans out and there are several bodies, it pans out more and there’s a pile of them, panning across there are thousands of bodies lying in mountains, then at the end it pans onto Sláine just standing with his axe. And Pat Mill just said “great you should do it”. 

Glenn said that he did so and was really pleased as when it came out he’d also be credited as the writer for it too. But then, at the least minute, Pat’s wife, Angie Mills, said “At the end it should say ‘He didn’t think it too many’” and as a result she got credited as the “writer”, and Glenn was like, “It was my £#€<ing dream!”. 

Here’s a picture of him with my book, he was really pleased…honest.

Anyway. Great bloke and I was very pleased he let me take this picture and told me this tale :) 

You can buy a copy of the comic here :

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/buy

WHAT BOOK DO YOU WANT TO SEE NEXT?

Once I have completed Esther I plan to produce Matthew's Gospel, God willing. After that, I can tackle a new book, potentially a longish one. Two of the top contenders would be Acts or The Book of Revelation. But let's hear which Books you'd like to see?

Considerations: I will have already done Judges, Joshua, Ruth, Mark, Esther and Matthew by then, so which books may go well with them? Many key characters have been pictured already within these books and this could help the creation of the next book.

Some books are too long to fit in one volume so Genesis, for example, will likely have to come out in three volumes, Exodus or 1 Samuel in two volumes and so on. 
Use this link to see how long each book is... https://overviewbible.com/word-counts-books-of-bible/

One day I may do the prophets but this will be after I do the history book (Kings, Chronicles etc) which covered the time period they prophesy into.

You can vote on the poll on Facebook in our group. I'd love to see comments about why that would be a good option. Feel free to add suggestions to the poll.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity/permalink/2876104775748184/

Write here…

February Newsletter

This month, Have your say, watch research videos and get the latest news about another Jesus related comic from DC! 
 

Sneak peek at the Book of Esther

Here's a sneak peek of Vashti's party from the Book of Esther. This is just one of the panels released to Patreon patrons of the comic, who receive 8 pages a month. 
https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic
 

DC cancel "Second Coming" comic

DC's Vertigo imprint was all set to publish "Second Coming" in March this year, which depicted Jesus as returning to earth to be a superhero after "his failure" the first time around. I was among those who created a blog and shared the petition against it. Now with a quarter of a million people having signed the petition, DC has wisely decided to cancel this imminent release. So there you go, sometimes petitions prevail. 

You can read my Blog here: 
https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/offensivejesuscomic 

An article about the cancellation: 
https://www.newsarama.com/43906-dc-s-superhero-jesus-comedy-second-coming-canceled.html

Video: Why didn't Mordecai bow to Haman? Esther 3:1-3



On the Youtube channel, I occasionally release videos of my research. This is a recent one about Mordecai. You can subscribe to the channel here

Have your say: The Apocryphal Greek Book of Esther

Read the blog and don't miss your chance to give your opinion on this topic. 
https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/have-your-say-apocryphal-greek-esther

Events

True Believers

A couple of weeks ago, I had a stand at True Believers Indie comic con, and I met many of you Troobs there! (It's just a coincidence that it sounds like a Christian event). I had a great time, here's my stand and welcome card from the organisers. 
 

ICE International Comic Expo

On March the 9th I'll have a stall at ICE Brighton. I've never exhibited near there before so I'm hoping it will go well with many new comic fans to meet. If you live near there please come along! https://brightoncomicexpo.wordpress.com/

Progress

Here's an update on the progress on the Book of Esther, 40 comic pages are drawn of 65, (the other 15 pages are the introductory pages, covers and notes). 

Prayer 

We were very blessed that The Good Book company and Garners have taken up the series in their catalogues so that is an answer to prayer- Thank you for the prayer support!

Please continue to pray for us to get more distribution deals and potentially the publisher we are talking to, which could take things to the next level. 

Also, we have scheduled in the next few years worth of Kickstarters and book launches as we think it would be good to Kickstart books in March/April and release the same book in September of the same year. This, however, means our finances need to stretch from now until next April without a Kickstarter. So, please pray for our financial provision until then as we are wholly dependant on the Lord in this. 

HAVE YOUR SAY: THE APOCRYPHAL GREEK ESTHER

There is an alternative version of The Book of Esther which is later and includes a few extra sections. Including Mordecai having a prophetic dream (with two dragons fighting) and later interpreting it, Mordecai and Esther's prayers and an extended version of the Throne room scene where the king is initially angry and Esther faints. My uses of Deuterocanonical sources for the comic are to inform the canonical text if possible where no conflict exists, but I won’t add the verses to the book as it is th e canon version which is being presented.

A good example of this would be that it states in the "Greek Esther" that the king’s sceptre is touched to Esther's neck, a detail missing in the standard text but a useful visual clarification.

People often make a point of the fact the name of God is not in the text of Esther, but with the extra prayers, this is no longer the case, which is interesting. Also, In the Eastern Orthodox church they use this alternative version as their primary apparently so it is well regarded.

A list of the major differences (From Wikipedia)

• an opening prologue that describes a dream had by Mordecai

• the contents of the decree against the Jews

• prayers for God's intervention offered by Mordecai and by Esther

• an expansion of the scene in which Esther appears before the king, with a mention of God's intervention

• a copy of the decree in favour of the Jews

• a passage in which Mordecai interprets his dream (from the prologue) in terms of the events that followed

• a colophon appended to the end, which reads: In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought the present letter of Purim, saying that it was genuine and that Lysimachus, son of Ptolemy, of the community of Jerusalem, had translated it.

So the question is, should I include the text at the end of the comic in the notes pages and if so, do I even go so far as to illustrate the bits like the dream and the prayers?

Let me know your thoughts and about this or if you feel strongly that it should not be included, below

If you’d rather comment of Facebook follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

________________________

Here are some articles about it…

• The Jewish encyclopaedia on the topic:
  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5873-esther-apocryphal-book-of
  

• A Blog “You’re reading the wrong Book of Esther”:
  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2013/06/youre-reading-the-wrong-book-of-esther/
  

• Read it here in the NRSV:
  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Greek+Esther+1&version=NRSV

DC's Vertigo to release "offensive" comic about Jesus.

This month, DC’s imprint Vertigo announced they will be releasing a comic featuring Jesus called “Second Coming” in March 2019.

I’m not one to rave and be “offended”, but looking deeper at the premise of the comic it is very disappointing that one of the “Big Two” with all its media influence and followers would publish something so anti-Christian, it seems like an intentional statement. 

The fact is, it’s not just a character who speaks an anti-theist point of view but the whole story is constructed so that the objective truth within the story world is that Jesus was a failure and Christians are a disgrace.

In an interview with Bleeding Cool, author Mark Russell states “The concept is that God was so upset with Jesus’s performance the first time he came to Earth, since he was arrested so soon and crucified shortly after, that he has kept him locked-up since then.” 

And “[Second Coming] is about Jesus coming down and being appalled by what he sees has been done in his name by Christianity in the last 2,000 years."

Unfortunately, we can’t even say this is the first time for DC, as Jesus was drawn into another unbiblical storyline in Azrael comic from 2010. (http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Jesus_of_Nazareth_(New_Earth)) 

Other comics have included Jesus in a similar way before (after all it’s inevitable), but there are two major differences. Firstly, even in these that were somewhat silly (Jesus Hates Zombies, Jesus Vs. Vampires etc) they do not rewrite the Bible and make “the lead character” a failure. Secondly, they are small scale things not backed and promoted by one of the biggest comics producers in the world.

Many Christian news sites and a petition rightly ask "Can you imagine the media and political uproar if DC Comics was altering and poking fun at the story of Muhammad... or Buddha?

"This blasphemous content should not be tolerated. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. His story should not be ridiculed for the sake of selling comic books."

And while I agree with this, we should not be surprised, as Jesus told us in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” 

I think many non-Christians may not understand why Christians would be frustrated by this comic and perhaps suggest they just ignore it. However, one does not even need to use Muhammad as an example, even a comic about someone’s family that misrepresents the people, their relationships and their past would be slanderous and libellous. The family would not be happy with people believing false stories about them. 

Therefore, for me what is sad about the situation is that there will be readers of their comic who have no significant knowledge of the real Jesus and may be negatively influenced by this story, a story promoted by one of the top company in the industry. 

It is my hope that through our own work on the Gospel of Mark: Word for Word Bible Comic we can give this same audience an option to read the unedited source text within the Bible in a format they will enjoy.

Let’s pray for DC and anyone who hears that story to come to a knowledge of the truth. If you feel you’d like to petition against “Second Coming” you can do so here, (it’s nearly at 100,000 signatures already!

https://www.citizengo.org/en/md/167848-dc-comics-slated-release-blasphemous-series-about-jesus

EDIT:

An update to this is that the petition had around a quarter of a million signitures and as a result DC did decide to cancel their involvement in the project. The author will likely take the comic to another publisher but at least it will not be backed by one of The Big Two.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/19/dc-cancels-comic-where-jesus-learns-from-superhero-after-outcry

Newsletter: January Sale and your opinion

Happy New Year! Not only do we have an update but also a 20% off sale on the book of Judges and Ruth! 

Yep, this is my 2019 year planner! Nothing gets wasted in this house.

Sneak Peek: Esther and Ancient writing

In this short video, I show you the way in which I created the ancient writing which can be seen on the tablets and how I got the writing to fit onto the image from Esther 1:20. 

This is a very short example of the sort of video Patrons get every two weeks! Be the first to see pages from the Book of Esther, videos like this and support the project by joining the other patrons on Patreon today! 
https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic
 

January Sale! 

Maybe you've got some Christmas money left or maybe you received The Gospel of Mark and now you want to expand your collection! Well, you can get 20% of The Book of Ruth and The Book of Judges until the end of the month.

Use this discount code at checkout to get 20% off. JUDGJAN19 or RUTHJAN19

[Note: You can use both discount codes on one purchase, just add one then the other at checkout.] 

Have your say: Should the pages have chapter and verse references?

The graphic novels have never had verse numbers on the pages as I wanted to ensure the comics read as a story with no distractions or any hint you are reading an academic book with references, especially for those new to the text. However, the benefits to including them might be that you could find a verse you are looking for and more easily demonstrate that the text is word-for-word from the Bible to people who find that hard to believe. There is a poll on Facebook for you to give your opinion, so click on the link and tell us which image you favour and if you have strong feelings, either way, please comment why below. We are about to reprint The Gospel of Mark and in theory, we could add the verses but as it would be a lot of effort it will need to be strongly supported. 

True Believers Event: February 2nd 

Nope, it's not a Christian Event! Independent comics con "True Believes" is on in about 2 weeks and I'll be exhibiting there for the first time. Why not come along and say hi! See you there Troobs! 

Progress

Here's an update on the progress on the Book of Esther. 

Prayer

We've been very blessed since our Summer adventures where we exhibited the book at many events, we now have a few new distributors taking the books and feeding them into shops and catalogues, and so things are starting to grow. We are still waiting to hear back from Diamond the catalogue that supplies all comics shops in the USA and the UK, please pray they'd go ahead and list the comics in there!

We are also considering how to scale up the project and one option is for an established publisher to take on the project, the one we are talking to could potentially really help the work with their time and investment, but as much of what a publisher can do for a book we have already achieved, is it the right thing to do? Please pray that the right outcome for the Kingdom becomes clear and things fall into place there or are clearly ended. 

December Newsletter: Christmas and that

Inking Queen Vashti

This image was created as a character design for Queen Vashti in the Book of Esther. 
 

Christmas Gifts

“Jesus is the reason for the season” but so many of our family and friends don’t know anything about him or the things that he said, why he is at the centre of history and why we celebrate each year. 

We hope you’ll agree that Christmas is a great time to introduce someone to the story of Jesus with the Word for Word Bible Comic. 

Kickstarter Success - Thank you! 

Thank you to everyone who backed the Kickstarter or shared it with a friend, it was a bit worrying in the middle as it hung around the 7.5K make but we got there in the end!
 

Many of you will have already received your immediate rewards, including the digital rewards I sent out on a KS update.

Interview from New Wine

In the Summer I was at a Christian event in the UK called New Wine, I went on the radio station there, this is the interview I recorded at the time with pictures added. 

In this interview we talk about how the project came about, hopes for the future and things to pray for.

Progress

Here's an update on the progress on the Book of Esther. This graph shows you how far through the current book I am and will get updated once a month. 

Please add a review of The Gospel of Mark! 

It would be really helpful if you could leave your reviews and thoughts on Amazon. At the moment I have 5 stars (yay) but only two reviews (oh).

The more reviews and engagement the book gets in launch week will boost the books ranking on Amazon and make it more “discoverable” in searches.
★★★★★

USA -https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mark-Bible-English-Translation/dp/0995603545
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gospel-Mark-Bible-English-Translation/dp/0995603545

Prayer 

Since our Summer tour of all the big events and industry shows, we have several opportunities for big distributors and chains of shops to take on the project. Please pray that these will take on the books and get them out to a wider audience! Please pray for wisdom for us when dealing with them to know when to negotiate and accommodate and when to walk away. 

November Newsletter

The Book of Esther Kickstarter ends soon! 

This campaign has had an amazing start thanks to so many of you! Now I'm really counting on the rest of you to save the day! There's 22% left to go right now and just a week to get there, but I've got faith that we'll make it! 

We've had a really long "Dead Zone" this time (the middle period when the early birds are done and the last minute people haven't started yet so you get few new pledges) and so we have started to sweat as the cut-off approaches. If you planned to get involved or "see how it goes" please do back it now.

Your pledge really does make all the difference!  (No payments will go out of your bank until a little after November 11th) 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-book-of-esther-word-for-word-bible-comic-book?ref=cahy98

This widget below (if it works) should show you the percentage funded up to date using magic... 

(If it doesn't work that's because magic is unreliable). 

Short Promo Video to Share

I've created this short 30-second video to promote the Esther Kickstarter. Please find it and share it far and wide. Also please give it a like and a comment to help its visibility 

Find it on Facebook here to share 
Find it on Twitter here to share

Please share this video 

October Events

We exhibited at a few great events last month. Christian resources exhibition was great for networking and meeting new folk including many of you. I even held two 15 mins talks there.

Then that same week we had Nottingham Comic-con which was great Comics event that really did focus on comics, highly recommended! 

Finally, we had our stand at London MCM Comic Con, a massive event with a footfall of 100,000 people. Highlights included meeting "the" Frank Miller. I queued for about 2 hours, but I got my "300" book signed and got to present him with a copy of Judges, a picture of Xerxes and tell him about the Kickstarter and Book of Esther I was working on! He knew the book and wished me luck with it which was a great moment! In what I gave him was a letter to contact me so I could send him a copy of Esther later. it's unlikely but I pray he does. He was very nice. 

Image of Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello and more comic legends on a panel about Batman. 

I also met Brian Azzarello, creator of 100 Bullets, Batman and others and had a chat to him. 

Siân and I also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary there by working from 9am til 7pm selling books, riding the Thames cable car and eating take away noodles :) 
 

Take me to the Kickstarter!