Gene Yang is a graphic novelist who has won two Eisner awards (one for the widely-available American Born Chinese) and was nominated for the National Book Award, a first for a graphic novelist. He is also a Catholic and a teacher at a Catholic high school. On his website, he writes, “I’ve always struggled with how to incorporate my faith into my comics in an authentic way. One Lent, I decided to do a comic adaptation of the Rosary Prayer rather than giving up chocolate or soda.”
And so we have this:
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Published by the Pauline sisters (and available at Amazon), this comic unites prayer with the images, telling each mystery in two pages totaling eleven panels. The first page has a horizontal panel, representing the “Our Father,” beginning the story of that mystery. The remaining ten panels are the “Hail Mary” prayers, with a rose at the end for each “Glory Be.” For example, here’s the Fourth Glorious Mystery, the Assumption:
I’ve never seen any other comic try something like this–not just telling a story, but trying to let the story’s form work as an aid to prayer. Yes, it is good for kids, but it also has some interesting insights on the mysteries that are worthwhile for any Rosary pray-er. Yes, I realize there may be some controversy surrounding the Dormition’s being sleeping or death, but there’s nothing theologically inaccurate about any of his storytelling.
Highest possible recommendation.
(Oh, by the way–I wasn’t really happy with the way the treasure story was going, so I nixed it. If you think I’ve made the wrong choice, write in on the comments, and I’ll get back to it.)