Kimmi Ligh | Contributing Writer
“I could kill you, Preach!” a gang member Nicky declares on the cover of The Cross and the Switchblade. Nicky is holding a knife to the preacher David Wilkerson’s chest. Wilkerson was a Christian evangelist whose stories were turned into a comic book. On the cover , Wilkerson replies: “ Yes, you could, Nicky! You could cut me up into a thousand pieces, and every piece will still love you.”
Curator Scott Rosen’s exhibit, “The Weird World of Religious Comic Books,” is on display in the Darling Library Conference Room until May 30. The exhibit displays comic books with themes of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam — all collected by Rosen.
In the guest book, many people expressed an interest in reading the comic books, rather than looking be- hind glass. But many of the comic books are old and too fragile or viewers to handle. Exhibit designer Crystal Slaton took some panels from a few comic books and copied them out to display next to the book, which may have helped pique interest.
Rosen began collecting religious comic books in 1992, when he ex- plored a comic book show inside a mall in Orange County. He found this first book, Marvel’s Francis, Brother of the Universe about Saint Francis of Assisi, at the show.
“I wondered that if there’s this comic, maybe there’s others. And so I started on a quest to find additional books” said Rosen.
A comic dealer from Orange county also gave him a stack of religious comic books. Because eBay hadn’t been created yet, the dealer didn’t know what to do with the comics. That’s how Rosen got Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika, one of Rosen’s favorite religious comic books. Hansi is about a young Czechoslovakian girl who loved the Nazis. She then becomes disillusioned by Nazism and converts to Christianity. In the last pages, while she says the Pledge of Allegiance in America, she reflects on her experiences: “I’m afraid to be emotional about a homeland. I did that once as a Nazi, and I was wrong.”
Many of the Christian comic books were very pro American, as demonstrated when Hansi says that America is blessed by God, and so it is alright to love the U.S.A. rather than Nazi Germany.
In a guest book, visitors left comments for Rosen.
“I remember reading Corrie Ten Boom [a series about the true story of a Dutch Christian who hid Jews during WWII] and The Cross and the Switchblade comics high in my favorite part of a tree in our yard when I was a girl in the ‘80s. How great to be able to see them again. They inspired my faith when I did not know one other Christian child,” wrote Heather Mintosh in the guest book.
To some, the idea of religious comic books was a complete surprise.
“[I] didn’t know people made these! Some were humorous, some weird, some just … interesting,” said senior applied health major Cee-Cee Trude.
During the 1960s, comics began to present religion in a negative light. The new comics were made for an adult audience, and included sex and drugs. According to Rosen’ s short essay posted on the wall about religious comic books, “Books like these were embraced by members of the counter culture, who rebelled against ‘the establishment’ and chose the medium of comic books to do so.”
Books like Jeffrey Dahmer vs. Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun are some of the books that made fun of Christianity. In Jeffrey Dahmer vs. Jesus Christ, political fig- ures fight with each other as pawns in the battle between God and Satan. In Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun, Jesus decides that he doesn’t agree with God the Father letting humans suffer on their own. Against the will of the Heavenly Host, he travels through time to beat up or shoot villains from the past.
In addition to the books about people such as Mother Teresa, Jesus and the Pope, there are superheroes associated with a religion. Shaloman, a.k.a.
“The Man of Stone,” and Captain Israel (who looks like Captain America but with the Star of David as his shield) are some of the Jewish comic superheroes with their own books on display. There is also a more recent comic book called The 99, which was written to defend against negative stereotypes of Muslims after the 9/11 attack.
“Scott, this is an incredible collection!” wrote fellow librarian Evelyn Yee. “It should be part of our permanent sp. [special] Collection and covered by the next future successor to Huell Howser!”
The exhibit seemed to help students see comic books in a new way, as explained by freshman math major Beth Gruss.
“I really enjoyed the exhibit,” Gruss said. “Overall, I was surprised by how useful comic books can be. I enjoyed the historical influences present in the comics. The exhibit reminded me to keep an open mind when it comes to topics that I don’t know much about. I had disregarded comic books as childish and without much usefulness.”