Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith

Prolific contributor and editor of many successful graphic nonfiction adaptations, including A People's History of American Empire with Howard Zinn, Buhle turns his focus to chronicling Christianity's challenges to the established social order. The first of three sections, illustrated by Jones (Race To Incarcerate), is the most successful, neatly juxtaposing the words of Scripture with deliberately anachronistic images of modern social and economic injustice. Unfortunately, the title's following sequences fail to build on this momentum. The second part, by artist Gary Dumm (Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History), which briefly covers nonconformist Christian sects over a span of about 500 years, is hurt by its drab, limited color palette, which makes it difficult for the reader to distinguish among the nine separate vignettes. The final section, by illustrator Nick Thorkelson (The Legal Rights of Union Stewards), is framed as a worship group discussion touching on various points of modern progressive Christianity. Many of these accounts are interesting, but the secondhand nature of the presentation undercuts their impact considerably and gives the section an unpleasant, pedantic feel.