Book review -- Messiah: Origin

Messiah: Origin, a graphic novel by Matt Dorff and Mark Arey and illustrated by Kai Carpenter, tells the story of Jesus through pictures, with minimal words. The words that are used are all Scripture, taken from all 4 Gospels. In this, the earthly life and ministry of Jesus is depicted in pictures and words in a way I've never seen before, and I like it.

This is not the first graphic novel depicting bible stories, and this is not the first narrative to combine the Gospels into one story. But as far as I know, this is the first time those two techniques have been used to tell this story. And it's a compelling read.

I must confess, I didn't go into this book with high expectations. And when I hear the phrase "graphic novel", my first thought is that it's a nice way of saying "comic book for adults". But I was way off. Being able to read the words of the Bible, accompanied by the illustrations, added a dimension to the experience which brought more life into it.

Messiah: Origin is the second in a series. The first was called The Book of Revelation, and was written and illustrated by the same team. I encourage adults and kids to check out the series.

Note: Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program provided a review copy for me.

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