THE SHROUD IN COMIC BOOKS: We have blogged about it before but now Brian Truitt has a feature article in USA TODAY about the new Punk Rock Jesus comic book series:
Sean Murphy is answering the question "What would Jesus do?" in a very sci-fi fashion. His new Vertigo Comics miniseries Punk Rock Jesus imagines a futuristic world of 2019 where the birth of a clone of Jesus Christ is the star of a reality show — called The J2 Project— and, as a teenager complete with Mohawk, rebels against the people and system that created him.
The [first] book covers 14 years in the life of Chris, who is born out of a modern-day equivalent to the immaculate conception: Pieces of DNA are scraped off the Shroud of Turin, fused with an egg and are inserted into a virgin girl found via nationwide audition.
There are to be four books in the series.
The story discusses the author, as well:
Murphy says Punk Rock Jesus is autobiographical in a sense — he began writing it as a Catholic eight years ago when he was 23, but has since walked away from religion and is now an atheist.
He admits that there wasn’t anything in particular that made him depart his Catholic roots, but five years ago he was a "militant atheist" and wondered if Punk Rock Jesus would ever be picked up.
"I thought I would just be doing this book myself and it would be just a pure expression of how irritated and concerned I was about religion’s influence on government, things like that," Murphy says. "In the years since, I’ve kind of calmed down and read a lot and did a lot of thinking about the best way to approach people who are religious.
"Sometimes having the ax to grind obviously isn’t the best place to get anywhere."
The hardest thing for Murphy has been how divisive the book has been for him and certain members of his family, including his mom, a born-again Christian.
"Certain parts of the book she’s OK with, but I’d be lying if I said she was happy with this. It’s made things kind of difficult," Murphy says. "But my wife is also religious and she’s got no problem with this and believes in it and believes I should do it."
Just to make sure you understand the author, interpret this:
. . . the punk musical aesthetic came out of pondering what would happen if the clone of the son of God became an atheist himself.
No doubt Sean Murphy will in due course follow the same weary track that other such sad pathetic cases have charted before him, mske vast sums of money from his crude attempts to shock and become an ultra-right wing conservative if he doesn’t go from a drug overdose beforehand. Or else he could repent and end up as an evolutionary creationist. It’s all so predictable really! One day there will be a real break-through and some angry young man will come up with a truly original idea. Meantime the over-protective Shroud guardians are ensuring that no-one but no-one gets an opportunity to scrape DNA or any other substance from their precious cloth. So it’s a fantasy!
.How can you fall away from something that you never really properly understood, accepted or committed to anyhow? Sean Murphy needs a quiet place where his mind can be truly still and whereby he can reflect on those particular truths that can truly set him free,
One should never go into a battle without knowing the enemy…we must give the adversary his dues because he can, has and will continue to deceived many.Although I hate to admit it,I do respect the ability of my foe to be able to mislead and deceive as masterfully as he does.And as a result I find myself much less gullible and able to defend myself and my faith when in battle,
My uncle who was born Canadian,had moved to the U.S. and joined the U.S. army (Sgt. Charles A.MacGillivray)when the second world war broke out.He knew what it was like to be engaged in fierce battle with the enemy in the truest sense of the word.He was highly decorated for his actions (congressional medal of honor and the purple heart ). But deserved as he was of this honor,I also believe that God has reserved His M.O.H.’s in which He will highly decorate His soldiers as well.
The times we live in are probably the most challenging than at any other time in history and I believe that God has raised up an army of His own, to combat those forces which are so relentless in their efforts to deceive mankind.And I believe also that those who have totally and truly committed themselves to this “spiritual warfare” will one day also receive a crown of victory or medal of honor…one which is in store and will be personally received from God Himself.
Sounds like a really stupid idea for fiction.