Some further evidence of religion and comics penetrating ever more deeply into academia…in both a negative and positive light:
Bleeding Cooland the German magazine Tazreported that a graphic novel exhibition by the German university of Duisburg-Essen was the subject of outrage and vandalism by Muslim protestors. The “What Comics Can Do!” exhibit included art from Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds that the protestors found offense for their use of the Arabic word for Allah and for presumably pro-Israel sentiments.
BU Today, a publication of Boston University, highlighted a recent article in its School of Theology Focus magazine, a profile on pastor Andrew Tripp and his appreciation for superheroes and comics in accomplishing his job. They had a foundational influence on him, he admits, ““The superheroes and the comeback characters spoke to something profound about what it meant to be human.”
It has been a positively massive few weeks in the topic of Religion & Comics, particularly in terms of Islam and Western culture, and a bevvy of links and stories bear highlighting, even en mass. In no particular order:
Al Jazeera has published the reaction of University of California – Irvine Professor Mark LeVine on the emergence of superhero Captain Israel by Arlen Schumer. LeVine says, “Turns out – as far as I can tell – this comic is not a prank dreamed up by the Daily Show’s writing team during their summer hiatus, or even more plausibly, by a couple of bored Hebrew School students. ‘Captain Israel’ means business! His task: Defend Israel at all costs from her most dangerous enemies!”
A panel from Captain Israel by Arlen Schumer
The concurrent releases of Frank Miller’s Holy Terror and Craig Thompson’s Habibi during the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks have gotten a great deal of notice in a number of distinct ways. NPR’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” dedicated an hour to Thompson and his latest effort, paying particular attention to the 600+-page graphic novel in terms of love and sexuality. (Moreover, of particular interest may be the Comments section for the broadcast’s web page.) Taking a different slant, Robot 6 over at ComicBookResources.com quoted writer G. Willow Wilson’s take on Habibi, praising Thompson’s effort and its beauty but also that “some of Thompson’s attempts to invert cliché get away from him.” Islamicate.org‘s Hussein Rashid also points to Wilson’s take on Habibi, that the book is more about mysticism and the Qur’an than about Islam: “I found myself wondering about the author’s own spiritual journey. How did Thompson, raised a conservative Christian, come to be interested in the mysticism of the Qur’an? That’s a book I’d read, if he were ever inclined to write it.”