The Bible As Manga?

The Bible has been translated into most of the living (and many of the dead) languages in the world. But even today, Christians are looking for new ways to get across the truths of scripture to people. Consider this case of an artist attempting to bring the Bible to readers of Japanese comics, called Manga.

Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is “a samurai stranger who’s come to town, in silhouette,” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels.

“We present things in a very brazen way,” said Mr. Akinsiku, who hopes to become an Anglican priest and who is the author of “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation.” “Christ is a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.”

Sounds cool, eh? But you have to be careful when "reinterpretting" God's Word. Consider some more of the article.

His book has been criticized by some manga bloggers as too wordy. Mr. Akinsiku said the exposition gave readers a quick understanding of the Bible. His next project is a manga life of Christ. He has 300 pages to lay it out, which means there will be a lot more action, a lot less talking, something like Clint Eastwood in the Galilee.

We always have to be careful when bringing Christ into our art, that we do not try to mold Jesus into the figure we WANT him to be. We need to show him as the figure he IS.