One of my favorite books in the Bible is the Gospel of Mark. I have taught through it several times, including on a short term mission trip to Liberia. I love how it vividly portrays Jesus’ ministry, capturing all that He did through a short and action packed narrative.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ …
From the start the account jumps right in, starting with the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus’ own baptism.
Jesus being baptized from the graphic novel by Simon Pillario (used with permission)
The Gospel, as noted theologian N.T. Wright explains is “the royal announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures, has been enthroned as the true Lord of the world.” This is good news, not good advice and it needs to be shared because “something has happened as a result of which the world is a different place.”
The format of this gospel, with its focus on what Jesus is doing, readily lends itself to being illustrated in a graphic novel. And this format offers an opportunity to announce the good news, not only to Christians, but to people who may never have picked up a Bible, but would readily read a graphic novel.
And that is what Sthe Word for Word Bible Comic (link), is hoping to offer as he launches his KickStarter campaign.
The campaign page can be found here!
Through the graphic novel format Pillario hopes to present the stories of the Bible, using the actual words of Scripture, in ways that are “historically accurate, unabridged, and untamed”. There are no annotations, notes, or additions to the text of Scripture. When you pick up one of these novels you are reading the Bible. What you do get, with the text, are beautiful and carefully researched images that attempt to capture the power of the story in a historically accurate way. For more on the work that goes into each novel check out Simon’s blog.
He has already successfully launched two campaigns on KickStarter (Judges and Joshua), so you can be confident that Simon will deliver what he promises. The best part about joining this campaign is that many options for backing it include receiving copies of the books Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Two of these novels are available now, so, while you are waiting for the Gospel of Mark, you can enjoy some rewards right away.
I will leave you with this video. It captures some of Pillario’s thoughts on how he plans to illustrate all four of the gospels in such a way that there is a unity in how they present narratives that occur in more than one account.
Dead Heroes Don't Save 
I shared this post on FB because of the paragraph referencing the Gospel and N.T. Wright. The last time I sent people to your blog you wrote me to tell you it gave you a bump in traffic. Let me know if that happens again, if you don’t mind. You can email me or just answer my comment. I’m just curious if my FB posts always generate a noticeable response.
Paul,
Appreciate the share on Facebook. The overall numbers for the 10th and 11th were in normal range but it may have been your sharing as several did come from Facebook.
How goes everything in your portion of the blog-o-sphere?
Cool, let me know if you need any animation staff for a series. Great idea!
You should contact the artist/founder Simon Pillario through the Kickstarter page if you want to offer your help