Bloody Heathens! - Definitely Not for Sunday School

After recently reading how American distributors are not going to be allowing any showings of the new movie Creation due to its "controversial" topic - that of Charles Darwin and the lead-up to The Origin of Species, it got me into a fairly combative mood. Using reverse psychology: if a Gallup poll shows that 39% of Americans don't believe in evolution then it underscores how the Christian faith is obviously under attack from belief systems not in line with its own. To wit - getting defensive about someone else's POV is a sure sign of insecurity and ham-fisted judgement.

So I might as well feed a bit more tinder into the fire and show how some titles really take the piss out of misinterpreted dogma, particularly that represented by the Big Bad Institutionalized Cross. I'll sidestep Preacher by Garth Ennis, perhaps the grand-daddy of "vs-Christian" (rather than anti-Christian) comics as that deserves its own blog one of these days. Instead I'll touch on:

BLOODY MARY:

By who else? Garth Ennis. Mary Malone is a former special forces soldier who also happens to be a nun. She is literally invulnerable for part of the series, having ingested a creature that makes her immune to.... well, death, as she takes her share of bullets and even tank shells penetrating her torso. Blowing up the Vatican, killing Christian cults, bringing down fascist dictatorships - all in the name of whatever Garth Ennis believes in. The style is irreverant, as to be expected of the writer, but not so much as The Adventures of the Rifle Brigade but actually on par with say, Preacher. Ultra-violence is balanced against *some* degree of empathy for the characters but it doesn't take itself as seriously as Battlefields.

FAITH:

You either love the art by story-teller Ted McKeever or you hate it. But this series concerns itself with a concept of purgatory called Murr where the dead are sent, whether they were saints or devils. Robbed of identity and purpose, they come to realize they have a common enemy - the forces of God himself who is a corrupt landlord out to clear out Murr for unknown reasons. If you have a New Testament/Lifetime Channel concept of angels as harp-playing, blonde cherubs, this may not be for you. If, on the other hand, you are inclined to think of angels as God's mercenaries: eyeless, soulless, and unthinking as per Christopher Walken's Prophecy movies, you might get a kick out of the portrayal of brutally horrific angelic warfare. Takes all kinds. Cameos by an uber-pissed Joan D'Arc and Lucifer in a bad toupee.

BTW - this blog is NOT meant to be a Garth Ennis fan-page, just so you know.

Simon Bisley does The Bible

Okaaaayyy, so you have the book that is the fundamental cornerstone of two major religions, of which thus speaketh the Word of God to the throngs of man and brings understanding of God's kingdom to the masses - and who better to illustrate it than an iron-pumping heavy metal listening tattooed monster like Simon Bisley?

Mr. Bisley is probably better known for crafting beautiful yet arcane (and admittedly pagan) paintings for the adult-oriented Heavy Metal and Judge Dread/Batman crossover special Judgement Over Gotham. On par with Alex Ross and Dave McKean for translating comic images via acrylic rather than by pencil, Bisley is actually the perfect choice for such a project. I mean, who else knows Christian and demonic images better than a death-metal freak?

Paradise Lost

Quite possibly the most ambitious undertaking that the cinema world will yet (or not) see is the adaptation of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Yep, that's right - someone actually has the cojones to actually try to make a film about the fall of Satan from the Kingdom of Heaven and the exile from the Garden of Adam and Eve. Good luck. For current details, check out:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0484138/

Personally, I would LOVE to see the attempt, kind of like the same attitude I had when I knew someone was seriously attempting The Watchmen. Unfilm-able but kinda glad someone was gonna give it a go. I've never heard of the director, Scott Derrickson, and see that his pedigree lay in B-movie horrors and science fiction, which is where Peter Jackson started. But I also note that he has also opted to create the Hyperion Cantos (of which I will eventually cover) and is equally unfilm-able.

In the meantime, the only visuals we have are the works of John Martin, the lithograph printer of the 19th century was commissioned to do the original illustrations. His frankly speaking frightening visions of Old Testament dogma would be an awesome starting point for anyone.

http://www.wojm.org.uk/