Bible with visual design for teens also may appeal to ‘big peopleR

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--If your kids aren’t interested in reading the KJV, NIV, RSV or even the Good News translations of the Bible, perhaps you could tempt them to indulge in a cartoon interpretation.

Broadman & Holman Publishers has released a Bible designed in comic strip format to entice teenagers -- ages 14 and up -- to partake in God’s Word. B&H, the trade book division of LifeWay Christian Resources, purchased the rights from a British publishing firm, Lion, to sell the Graphic Bible in North America and Canada.

“This is a Bible for kids who are losing interest in Sunday school or who have never set foot in a church,” said Dee Ann Grand, manager for B&H children’s products. “It’s a Bible that will appeal to kids who are comic book lovers or who like to read graphic novels.”

It might also catch the playful eye of “big people,” she suggested.

Adults who pick up one of the 256-page Bibles for their children shouldn’t be surprised to find they don’t want to fork it over.

“You know those cereal commercials where the parents can’t quit eating their kids’ breakfast? This Bible is kind of like that. Once you pick up it and start reading it, you don’t want to give it back,” Grand said.

The Graphic Bible’s artist is well-known British illustrator Jeff Anderson, who has worked for Marvel UK and drawn the DC comic character Judge Dredd. The writer, also British, is Mike Maddox, who has scripted for DC Comics of the Batman and Superman fame. Both are Christians.

“Once I became a Christian, this just seemed like a dream project,” said Anderson, who worked on the Graphic Bible project more than five years. “Just getting started took six months. I did more than I normally would as an illustrator.

“The special thing was breaking each bit down into parts. I spent a couple of hours a day reading (the Bible), making thumbnails, thinking about angles.”

The Graphic Bible is divided into about 100 biblical episodes, from the Creation to John’s vision of Jesus’ second coming.

Anderson said the Bible is a natural for graphic illustration.

“It has such great stories. I could have made it five times as long.”

“That’s the great thing about comics,” he said, “It’s like the cinema plus the printed word. You can see how people are feeling.”

The Graphic Bible, Grand said, is B&H’s way of enticing teenagers away from their computer games and television sets and into the Word.

“We want to pull kids away from the computer screen by showing them that the Bible has just as much action and drama as those awful movies they love,” Grand said.

After all, the Holy Bible does portray some famous rifts, like the ones between Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, David and Goliath, Christ and Satan.

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace and Daniel was thrown to the lions, and they all lived,” Grand said. “You can’t get better drama than that. And there’s even a happy ending.”

The Graphic Bible can be purchased in LifeWay Christian Stores or can be ordered by calling 1-800-233-1123.