Good evening! Tonight I have a different kind of post for you than my usual. I am going to introduce to you an exciting new comic version of the book of Mark. I received a copy of the Word for Word Bible Comic depicting all sixteen chapters, for the purpose of sharing with my readers my thoughts on this work of art, illustrated by Simon Amadeus Pillario.
I have to say that I immensely enjoyed drinking in the book of Mark in this new way. This comic version takes the exact script of the Bible and surrounds it with powerful imagery. There is a reason the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is such a familiar one. There is so much that a drawing can convey, that impacts us in a way dramatically different than hearing or reading words. This comic version of Mark is no exception.
I found that the Holy Spirit drew new aspects of well known Bible stories to my attention through it. For example, we get a picture of what the demonized man in Mark 5 must have looked like, after continually cutting himself with stones. Until I saw that visual, I had never thought about the physical pain that man was continually suffering up until Jesus set him free. The imagery brought the story alive in a way I had never experienced before, in all the many times I read it over the last several decades.
Here are a few things I loved about the way this project was done:
- The facial expressions of the characters make such a difference! One of the best things we can do when we read the Bible is to imagine the story we are reading. This comic brings imagination to life. You don’t have to create the pictures inside the faculty of your imagination; they are right there for you to enjoy, including many people astonished by Jesus’ miracles, and others weeping for joy because of the supernatural wonders done for them when all hope was gone.
- The comic makes visible to us the invisible world. We get to enjoy glimpses into the spiritual realm through the illustrations. We are given the opportunity to consider what the angels that ministered to Jesus may have been like. Additionally, the illustrator gives glimpses of what Jesus looked like in the spiritual realm to those who were getting set free from demons. It strikes me that the opportunity to ponder these realities helps us to become more aware of how real the spiritual realm around us actually is.
- We also get to gaze through the eyes of some of the characters. We get to see the blurry picture of people looking like trees that the blind man saw, who got healed in stages. We get to remember, with the woman who had been bleeding for years, the stressful and fruitless depletion of all of her financial means on doctors. We get to see Jesus dozing peacefully during the furious squall that had His disciples terrified. So many of these stories come alive in fresh and amazing new ways.
I could go on; there were many other things I liked about this creative work. However, I’ll stop here because you need to discover them for yourself! If you would like to get a copy of the Word for Word Bible Comic of Mark, you can do so at this link:
https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy
I highly recommend it!
P.S. If you are as blessed as I am by this beautiful expression of God’s word, the creators are currently in the process of crowdfunding $20,000 for their forthcoming title The Gospel of Luke. If you’d like to be a part of that, you can do so here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-gospel-of-luke-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv-and-nvi?ref=424wph
Feeding On Jesus 