Pope Benedict, Manga Hero

Madrid11 ^ | 25 March 2011

[Alex Murphy]

Manga comic books have experienced a growth in popularity in recent years. Jonathan Lin and Manga Hero, a manga comic producer based in San Rafael, California have produced two Biblical themed Manga comics in the U.S. This August Manga Hero will bring a special edition comic to Madrid for World Youth Day.

The Manga comic entitled "Habemus Papam" was written by Gabrielle Gniewek, a student at John Paul the Great University (JP Catholic) in San Diego, California. JP Catholic was founded in 2006 and is dedicated to finding ways to bring Christ into popular culture using new forms of mass media. Students at JP Catholic train in emerging media.

Jonathan Lin shared with WYD why Manga Hero decided to produce a comic for WYD.

Q: What is the point of this comic?

A: The point of Habemus Papam! is to introduce Pope Benedict XVI to those who may not know much about him, except that he is the leader of the Catholic Church.  This short story captures different moments throughout the Holy Father's life - specifically as a cardinal working with the late Pope John Paul II, and culminating in the moments leading up to his election as Bishop of Rome. The story also shows how he grows into his role as pope.

Q: Why a manga comic?

In the last decade manga has experienced explosive growth in popularity throughout the world, with millions of children and adults becoming fans of the medium which originated in Japan.  In fact it is considered one of Japan's most successful exports. Manga covers a wide range of subjects with a full range of genres. We want to use manga as a tool to show the youth and the world that the Church is not afraid of modernity and evolving culture. It is not afraid to use, in this case, new and compelling forms of media to meet young people where they are.

Q: Is this going to reach better young people?

There is an opportunity to reach out to people with an attractive form of media and inspire interest in Pope Benedict XVI, especially his message for young people. Manga is considered a cutting-edge form of entertainment and offers easy reading for all age groups. Pope John Paul II called for the use of new and different forms of media to reach young people where they are in order to build a culture of love and dignity. Manga is one such medium.

Q: This is not the first religious themed manga you've produced. How did you get the idea for Biblical themed manga comics?

A: I was thinking of starting a business and I was talking about it with my parents; we were thinking about different ideas. My father asked how come there are no mangas based on Bible stories or on the lives of the saints.  I was thinking, that is true, how come there aren't any, or at least, very few? That's when the idea for Manga Hero was born. I've also always wanted to do something that positively impacts society.  With media playing such an influential role in our culture, especially on the youth, I felt this was an area that I could make a difference.

Q: Your previous Mangas were about Judith and St. Paul. Why turn these two biblical figures into Manga heroes?

A: St. Paul and Judith perfectly capture the definition of a hero and heroine - people who are noted for their feats of courage and nobility of purpose, especially when risking or sacrificing their lives for something greater than themselves, in this case, their faith.

Q:Creating these Mangas is a truly global endeavour. Tell us about that.

A: We have two extremely talented writers, Gabrielle Gniewek and Matthew Salisbury, from John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego, California, which specializes in using new media to change our world. Our illustrator, Sean Lam, is a professional artist in Singapore who specializes in manga and is passionate about creating stories that promote positive virtues and heroism. "Habemus Papam" will be printed in Pino, Spain by Dedalo Grupo Grafico, and of course the whole project is produced by Manga Hero in San Rafael, California.

Q: How do you hope to get "Habemus Papam" to World Youth Day pilgrims?

A: We are aiming to distribute the manga throughout Madrid to attendees of WYD and the general public at locations such as churches, schools, hotels or hostels, metro stations, the airport, information kiosks, tourist attractions, and other event locations.  We plan to print over 300,000 copies in both Spanish and English. We hope the manga acts as a fun platform for people to learn more about the Holy Father and realize that the Church is relevant, visible, and active in modern culture. We want as many people as possible to read the manga.

[Alex Murphy]

>

There is an opportunity to reach out to people with an attractive form of media and inspire interest in Pope Benedict XVI, especially his message for young people. Manga is considered a cutting-edge form of entertainment and offers easy reading for all age groups. Pope John Paul II called for the use of new and different forms of media to reach young people where they are in order to build a culture of love and dignity. Manga is one such medium....We are aiming to distribute the manga throughout Madrid to attendees of WYD and the general public at locations such as churches, schools, hotels or hostels, metro stations, the airport, information kiosks, tourist attractions, and other event locations. We plan to print over 300,000 copies in both Spanish and English. We hope the manga acts as a fun platform for people to learn more about the Holy Father and realize that the Church is relevant, visible, and active in modern culture. We want as many people as possible to read the manga.

Benedict XVI is not the first Pope to get his own comic book...

[SuziQ]

Our daughter enjoys reading manga. I'll have to tell her about this company, though she might already know. I like the concept, especially the outreach toward the youts.

[Cronos]

hmmm... RM -- didn't you stop coleus from posting a list of threads. How could you are not stopping this? Or is it now ok to drag Freerepublic's name in the mud like this latest section of posts?

thanks to the leftists posing as Christians, Freerepublic is getting the wrong reputation as an anti-Christian website.

Anyone going through google or freepublic this week and seeing the number of posts making fun of Christians marking them as simpletons, rednecks and rubes would come to the (wrong) conclusion that we in Freerepublic are the worst kind of people. The mocking of God reached its extreme on the 11th with the entire litany of posts shown below posted in a flash with the same aim to mock us Christians

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Image of Jesus found!, :

Image of Jesus found!

Image of Jesus appears in Ponderosa

04/11/2011 2:18:27 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 7 replies
ConnectTriStates ^ | 3/17/2011 | Sarah Deien
HANNIBAL, MO. — This is not a story of the image of the Virgin Mother on a grilled cheese sandwich or Jesus on a tortilla. Hope you’re not disappointed, but I think this is far better. This is the story of a spiritual journey that transformed a beam into a masterpiece, and the spiritual journey of the amateur artist himself. It takes a big leap of faith to go from carving ducks to chiseling the image of the crucified Jesus. It also takes inspiration. And time. In fact, the idea first stirred in Delbert Hayes’ imagination a dozen years ago...

Image of Jesus Appears at Church [Following ceiling work at Fairmont’s First Presbyterian]

04/11/2011 2:16:02 PM PDT · by marshmallow · 8 replies
West Virginian Times ^ | 4/8/11 | J. Miles Layton
FAIRMONT — Parishioners, the faithful and even curious skeptics can look to the heavens at what appears to be an image of Jesus on the ceiling of one local church. “That’s inspirational because it makes people stop and think,” said Rev. Bill Sadler, First Presbyterian Church of Fairmont. “No matter what, you have to stop and deal with it being here.” The image was mysteriously formed in the plaster high above on the vaulted ceiling of the church’s sanctuary.

Jesus Christ appears on rocking chair

04/11/2011 1:28:52 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 31 replies
The Metro UK ^ | February 18, 2011 | Ted Thornhill
Of course, the Saviour’s face has been getting around a fair bit recently. We’ve already availed you of his face’s visit to an MRI scan, to some chicken feathers, Google Maps, a drainpipe, a Marmite lid and a student’s frying pan. Well now it’s the turn of a rocking chair in, appropriately, the City of Angels to host the holy visage. The chair belongs to Lou Balducci, who lives in the Mission Viejo area of Los Angeles, and he was understandably taken aback. ‘When I first saw the image, I didn’t know what to think. As I thought about it,...

Face of Jesus appears on log

04/11/2011 12:06:16 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 51 replies
The Metro UK ^ | April 10, 2011 | Ted Thornhill
The log’s owner, Mel Robertson, calls it the ‘holy log’ and says that she keeps it as a ‘lucky charm’. However, she admits that it ‘hasn’t brought any luck yet’, but is hopeful that one day it will. Fingers crossed, Mrs Robertson. The mum of two from Solihull told Metro.co.uk that the face first appeared back in October 2009, but got clearer and clearer as the months went by. She said: ‘We had some firewood by the fireplace – at first it looked like a skull and crossbones – but as the months wore on, it just appeared around the...

Face of Jesus appears on tea towel

04/11/2011 11:50:57 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 15 replies
The Metro UK ^ | April 7, 2011 | Kavi Shah
It’s well known that cleanliness is up there next to Godliness, but Roisin McCourt wasn’t expecting Jesus to pop out of her washing machine load. Dance teacher Ms McCourt was shocked when she saw the unusual brown stain, which shows what seem to be the facial features of a long-haired, bearded man. Ms McCourt, 31, has since been mobbed with requests from believers wishing to make a pilgrimage to see the holy imprint. The Coventry resident said: ‘When I took it out I could not believe it. I could see it was Jesus straightaway. I took it to my husband...

Jesus Statue Set Ablaze in Minn.

04/11/2011 11:30:54 AM PDT · by mandaladon · 36 replies
The Blaze ^ | 11 Apr 2011 | Jonathon M. Seidl
It was a clash of images on Sunday in St. Paul, MN when a local man, Tuan Pham, awoke to see his beloved, custom-made Jesus statue in flames. According to family, someone took wood from a nearby pile and used a spray can to ignite a fire at the base of Pham’s 7-foot ode to Christ. It’s statue that has been controversial from the beginning: It may have burned for awhile; Pham’s daughter took pictures of her father trying to knock down the flames. Fire investigators were going over the garden a few hours later. If they find evidence of...

Surprise as ‘face of Jesus’ appears in Bristol barbecue plot

04/11/2011 10:42:49 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 31 replies
This Is Bristol ^ | April 1, 2011
WHEN his next door neighbour called over the fence and told him Jesus had appeared in his back garden faithful church-goer Ron Sims first thought he was joking. But when the pensioner caught a glimpse of the concrete barbecue his friend had knocked down six years before he couldn’t believe his eyes. Mr Sims, 77, of Magpie Bottom Lane in Hanham, said: “When I saw it I just couldn’t believe the likeness. “It’s such a strong image, it’s almost eerie.” The image is formed by the remains of concrete blocks Mr Sims used to build an outdoor barbecue when he...

What was the point of this on FR? Was it a conservative discussion point? Maybe one, maybe two, but so many meant that the idea of these posts is to mock our Christian religious beliefs and to give people the idea that Christians are simpletons, are redneck rubes --> well, if that's the idea of the posts, then I think most of us will be proud to wear those titles.

This is another leftist attack on the conservative movement by giving Freerepublic a bad name

[Religion Moderator]

This thread has nothing to do with "lists of threads" nor was Coleus instructed not to post "lists of threads."

Back in 2008, Coleus and a Protestant poster were both instructed to stop posting old sex scandal articles. It was a flame war by article.

[Cronos]

It was a flame war by article.

good point and this is also a flame war by article --> and so was what was posted on the 11th

The mocking of God reached its extreme on the 11th with the entire litany of posts shown below posted in a flash with the same aim to mock us Christians

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Image of Jesus found!, :

Image of Jesus found!

Image of Jesus appears in Ponderosa

04/11/2011 2:18:27 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 7 replies
ConnectTriStates ^ | 3/17/2011 | Sarah Deien
HANNIBAL, MO. — This is not a story of the image of the Virgin Mother on a grilled cheese sandwich or Jesus on a tortilla. Hope you’re not disappointed, but I think this is far better. This is the story of a spiritual journey that transformed a beam into a masterpiece, and the spiritual journey of the amateur artist himself. It takes a big leap of faith to go from carving ducks to chiseling the image of the crucified Jesus. It also takes inspiration. And time. In fact, the idea first stirred in Delbert Hayes’ imagination a dozen years ago...

Image of Jesus Appears at Church [Following ceiling work at Fairmont’s First Presbyterian]

04/11/2011 2:16:02 PM PDT · by marshmallow · 8 replies
West Virginian Times ^ | 4/8/11 | J. Miles Layton
FAIRMONT — Parishioners, the faithful and even curious skeptics can look to the heavens at what appears to be an image of Jesus on the ceiling of one local church. “That’s inspirational because it makes people stop and think,” said Rev. Bill Sadler, First Presbyterian Church of Fairmont. “No matter what, you have to stop and deal with it being here.” The image was mysteriously formed in the plaster high above on the vaulted ceiling of the church’s sanctuary.

Jesus Christ appears on rocking chair

04/11/2011 1:28:52 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 31 replies
The Metro UK ^ | February 18, 2011 | Ted Thornhill
Of course, the Saviour’s face has been getting around a fair bit recently. We’ve already availed you of his face’s visit to an MRI scan, to some chicken feathers, Google Maps, a drainpipe, a Marmite lid and a student’s frying pan. Well now it’s the turn of a rocking chair in, appropriately, the City of Angels to host the holy visage. The chair belongs to Lou Balducci, who lives in the Mission Viejo area of Los Angeles, and he was understandably taken aback. ‘When I first saw the image, I didn’t know what to think. As I thought about it,...

Face of Jesus appears on log

04/11/2011 12:06:16 PM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 51 replies
The Metro UK ^ | April 10, 2011 | Ted Thornhill
The log’s owner, Mel Robertson, calls it the ‘holy log’ and says that she keeps it as a ‘lucky charm’. However, she admits that it ‘hasn’t brought any luck yet’, but is hopeful that one day it will. Fingers crossed, Mrs Robertson. The mum of two from Solihull told Metro.co.uk that the face first appeared back in October 2009, but got clearer and clearer as the months went by. She said: ‘We had some firewood by the fireplace – at first it looked like a skull and crossbones – but as the months wore on, it just appeared around the...

Face of Jesus appears on tea towel

04/11/2011 11:50:57 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 15 replies
The Metro UK ^ | April 7, 2011 | Kavi Shah
It’s well known that cleanliness is up there next to Godliness, but Roisin McCourt wasn’t expecting Jesus to pop out of her washing machine load. Dance teacher Ms McCourt was shocked when she saw the unusual brown stain, which shows what seem to be the facial features of a long-haired, bearded man. Ms McCourt, 31, has since been mobbed with requests from believers wishing to make a pilgrimage to see the holy imprint. The Coventry resident said: ‘When I took it out I could not believe it. I could see it was Jesus straightaway. I took it to my husband...

Jesus Statue Set Ablaze in Minn.

04/11/2011 11:30:54 AM PDT · by mandaladon · 36 replies
The Blaze ^ | 11 Apr 2011 | Jonathon M. Seidl
It was a clash of images on Sunday in St. Paul, MN when a local man, Tuan Pham, awoke to see his beloved, custom-made Jesus statue in flames. According to family, someone took wood from a nearby pile and used a spray can to ignite a fire at the base of Pham’s 7-foot ode to Christ. It’s statue that has been controversial from the beginning: It may have burned for awhile; Pham’s daughter took pictures of her father trying to knock down the flames. Fire investigators were going over the garden a few hours later. If they find evidence of...

Surprise as ‘face of Jesus’ appears in Bristol barbecue plot

04/11/2011 10:42:49 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 31 replies
This Is Bristol ^ | April 1, 2011
WHEN his next door neighbour called over the fence and told him Jesus had appeared in his back garden faithful church-goer Ron Sims first thought he was joking. But when the pensioner caught a glimpse of the concrete barbecue his friend had knocked down six years before he couldn’t believe his eyes. Mr Sims, 77, of Magpie Bottom Lane in Hanham, said: “When I saw it I just couldn’t believe the likeness. “It’s such a strong image, it’s almost eerie.” The image is formed by the remains of concrete blocks Mr Sims used to build an outdoor barbecue when he...

What was the point of this on FR? Was it a conservative discussion point? Maybe one, maybe two, but so many meant that the idea of these posts is to mock our Christian religious beliefs and to give people the idea that Christians are simpletons, are redneck rubes --> well, if that's the idea of the posts, then I think most of us will be proud to wear those titles.

This is another leftist attack on the conservative movement by giving Freerepublic a bad name

[Religion Moderator]

Not the same thing - the articles are current events.

[Cronos]

I’m talking about the articles that coleus posted in 2009 that were banned — they were current events but pulled as it was a “flame war”. Similarly, anyone who posts so many articles in succession is starting a flame war.

[Religion Moderator]

I don’t see anything to support your claim in Coleus’ log. The items pulled in 2009 were for copyright issues (e.g. full text on excerpt only, Getty image) or at poster’s request.

[Coleus]

I still don’t know with whom I was having a flame war. As it goes, I had some free time and I was posting one or two protestant pastor abuse articles a day for a few weeks, others on the fr were posting anti-catholic articles for 8 years. I guess there may have been an old one or two I got off of a blog, but the majority were current.

I think I received one FR mail from a mod that the “flame war” has to stop, I had no idea that I was in such a “flame war” with someone as I really don’t comment much on religious threads or any other threads.. I still don’t know, to this day, with whom exactly I was having a flame war.

[PandaRosaMishima]

That second one is a Columbian comic, HomoPater, which came out just after John Paul’s death, showing him as a would-be superhero. In truth he looks more like a refugee from a bad Christmas special; it’s no surprise the idea never went anywhere.
The other two versions are priceless.