The Lion Graphic Bible

English Bibles are always translations and at times translations of previous translations. So there can be no objection when new versions of the original continue to appear. Even so, The Lion Graphic Bible might still ruffle some Christian feathers. For here is an easily assimilated Bible not particularly doctored to protect young readers from its more controversial aspects. Presented with such a visually compelling account, children may well come away knowing more about more of the stories than was once thought good for them. This version is illustrated and written by a team experienced in comic strip techniques. They know therefore how to tell a good, pacey story with the minimum of words and in pictures of all shapes and sizes, with different formats separating parables, dreams, and angelic visitations from actuality. Modern dialogue is used throughout: 'Really darling, don't go on! 'Shut up and keep crawling', or from the resurrected Jesus to his disciples, 'Well don't just stand there. I'd like something to eat!' Faces are also contemporary, though dress is not. As with actors in old-fashioned Biblical films, hair is stylishly coiffeured and teeth white and even (unless you are a villain). Backgrounds show Middle-Eastern scenery, props and architecture, but most pictures consist of faces in close-up delivering speech bubbles. There is a tendency towards stereotype here; Jesus, for example, is usually shown breaking out into a cheerful grin after performing a miracle. By selecting from the Apocrypha as well as from the Old and New Testaments, the text mixes familiar tales of Moses, David and Daniel with the lesser-known exploits of Judith, Ezra and Esther. All their stories come over as real rather than as allegories. Shockers like the slaughter of the Canaanites by the Israelites determined to kill 'everyone and everything in sight' are represented in gory detail. The normal Christian re-arrangement of the Old Testament books in order to make them represent an unbroken prophetic line stretching to the coming of the Messiah is followed. Yet the prophets themselves come over as heroes (or not) in their own right, with their prophetic function often something of an after-thought. Instead it is the examples of bravery and treachery, honesty and scheming, chastity and lust, mercy and cruelty, modesty and vanity that stand out most vividly in these tales. Fairy story motifs exist as well: there are talking animals, food that appears by magic, dreams that prophesy and foundling infants who grow up to be rightful leaders. Modern children may well find many of these stories fascinating; whether they will also warm to them is more questionable. As it is, girls may object to God's description of Adam as Eve's master, while Jewish children may dislike the unforgiving way their ancestors are depicted in this version of the New Testament. But more generally it is the single-minded fanaticism that might grate for readers in our more pluralistic times. Ancient warriorheroes seem rather like today's sinister Taliban fighters, bearing spears instead of sub machine-guns. God himself. pictured with Oliver Reed-type features, is more jealous bully than loving father. The Lion Graphic Bible is never a sacrilegious work. But when complex stories appear in such basic forms they invite fairly basic responses in return. Christ, for example, comes over as a mostly sympathetic figure. But the type of comic strip shorthand used to depict his unyielding sense of conviction may well make little ultimate sense except to the already converted. Old Testament figures are sometimes shorn of their worst excesses but are still often most unattractive. This is not wrong in itself, and the publishers should be congratulated for bringing back into popular circulation stories that have often been left to languish unread because of their general embarrassment factor. Yet Christians looking to this book as an aid to conversion or steadying the faith should be aware that the opposite could happen with readers who may simply not like a lot of what they see and read. Not for the first time, the Bible - made as accessible and colourful as it is here - could serve as a problem for Christianity as well as its main support.