Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Comic Books and theology discussions

So a girl (from my no longer in existence "coming out" support group) and I hung out last night. She is really into comic books. We met at a huge comic book store. I have never been to a comic book store before. It was packed with more comic books than I knew existed. I was a bit surprised by it thinking that it would just be a little hole in the wall store.

Not only was it huge, there was a college class meeting in there doing a Q&A with a comic book artist. Sorry, I don't know who. Whoever he was he had some strong opinions!

My tour of comic books was pretty extensive because she's into so many comic books artists that I can't even list them for you. We spend a chunk of time talking about Manga (the Japanese word for comics) but I felt overwhelmed by starting with them because there are so many. Right now, I only remember the two I thought about buying and one other.

First the tragic-comic Fun Home by Alison Bechdel which I hear is a fantastic story about a girl growing up in a funeral home and it includes her coming out story. It's well drawn. I think Alison Bechdel also draws for the comic Dykes to Watch out for.

The second comic book I was curious about was "I love Led Zeppelin" by Ellen Page. Lesbians like this one I guess because she's bi and her story lines are as well. It may be a bit too sexy for me, but looked intriguing.

Lastly the famous "Maus I: A Survivor's Tale" caught my attention. It's a Pulitzer prize winning book (let along comic book). The book intro. says: "By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents."

Theology & Religion

Afterwords we went out for Indian food and talked about religion. She used to be an atheist, but now is looking for something else because that "wasn't working for her". She read an article yesterday that explained that Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism aren't the same thing. She was surprised by that because she thought they were. I tried to explain Evangelicals a bit. Not sure I did a great job. The terms that christians throw around and the difference between all the tons of christian denominations are so confusing and I feel embarrased trying to explain them sometimes. I asked her if she has explored the communal aspect of any of these faiths she's reading about. She hasn't. I said that it is as, or almost more, important because pretty much all religions are not just soley intellectual constructs they are also about a relationship with God and their particular community. She mostly has been reading books of all kinds of faiths. I asked her what she was looking for. She said just something that makes sense!

In a world where people are looking for something that makes sense I wonder what to do with christianity. I'm a christian, but I don't always think it makes sense myself.

4 comments:

Liadan said...

Fun Home is one of my favorite books. Not just comics, books. It's just damn brilliant and wonderful in all ways.

Michael said...

Oh Whatever T! You're too sexy for this comic!

A M Persand said...

both Fun Home and Maus are amazing and if you considered them, you should get both, there's a story line and the visual side that just blows your mind.

JJ said...

Hey there, I'm going back in time and catching up on everything I missed. It's going to take some time... there's literally 174 unread posts listed in my google reader! But this caught my eye... I've recently started reading 'graphic novels' -- ie: comic books for grown ups -- and I'm totally enjoying this new medium. Heh, that's part of what I've been doing during my "break". The favourite one I've picked up is "Y: The Last Man". Although, warning: there is swearing (which really didn't bother me) and nudity (which totally shocked me). But it's a good story. I think I'll have to check out Fun Home though, that looks interesting.