The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation

The Manga Bible may contain Bible stories, but it sure isn't manga. Or if even if it was, the rushed, sketchy quality of the artwork, generic characters and lazy graphic storytelling make it a mediocre effort in any comic art tradition, Western or Asian. This edition of The Manga Bible reeks of a misguided attempt to cash in on a trend that it neither understands nor appreciates. As a result, it fails to inspire or even entertain readers, which is really a sin.

Big sales for manga means that there's more manga than ever. However, with great popularity comes an unfortunate trend: Publishers who think that all they have to do draw big eyes on characters, slap on the word "manga" on the cover, and teen readers will buy it. The Manga Bible by Siku may have Bible stories, but it reeks of a shameless attempt to cash in on a trend and a storytelling / art style that it doesn't understand.

Just as wearing a cross doesn't make you Christian, drawing characters with big eyes doesn't make it manga. Even if we concede that "manga" just means "comics" and Japanese manga has a wide spectrum of styles, The Manga Bible is a mediocre, poorly-crafted work that fails as a graphic storytelling in any artistic tradition, Western or Asian.

The artwork by British-Nigerian artist Siku (whose prior credits include Judge Dredd) has a distinct style, but it looks like rough sketches that he dashed out in a day or two. The characters, from Adam and Eve to Moses and the Pharaoh are virtually indistinguishable. Siku missed the opportunity to show the age, personality, emotions, or even various body types when he drew each character. As a result, we see page after page of generic people, reacting with the same bland facial expressions (or none at all when he draws them in tiny boxes or as silhouettes). It's hard to relate to people who are drawn like pipe cleaner stick figures, stiffly posed like cheap action figures against barren backgrounds, much less understand the stories' drama and action.

The Manga Bible cheats readers because it doesn't deliver on its promise to tell the Greatest Story Ever Told with manga-style artwork and it doesn't convey the human drama or spiritual lessons that make The Bible a timeless read. In the end, The Manga Bible fails to inspire or even entertain readers, which is really a sin.