Orlando, USA - For more than 2,500 years, Jews have been telling their faith's sacred stories, in written words on parchment and the page and through the oral tradition of rabbinical debate.
Now they're trying something new: a graphic novel.
The Jewish Publication Society, a venerable group that is the closest thing to an official press for all the religion's denominations, is turning to a very modern way to reach young Jews. "Megillat Esther" is a graphic novel -- an extended black-and-white comic book -- based on the holiday of Purim and probably rated PG-13 because of a few borderline racy drawings.
"We all understood that it was a way to reach a much younger generation," says Ellen Frankel, chief executive and editor in chief of the Philadelphia-based publisher. "Even though it is a stretch for JPS, it is right on point because it's Bible commentary."
This Jewish foray into the world of graphic novels is just the latest example of believers creating alternative forms of religious messages in print. Christian artists have been drawing on the divine for more than 50 years -- one of the most notable being Jack Chick, who in the 1960s began using pocket-size comic books to illustrate Gospel tracts. Modern graphic novels, including those in a style that emulate Japanese comics called manga, have become underground hits with young Christians during the past decade. Popular titles include "Testament," "Creature Tech" and "Marked," and a new series, called "Serenity."
Artists and experts reject the notion that graphic novels with religious themes are yet another example of pandering to the culture's evaporating attention span, or a dumbing down of discourse about faith.
"Instead of dumbing down, consider it elevating the art form," said Leo Partible, a comic-book author and contributor to several books on the subject, including "The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Pop Culture." "Like when you combine great literature with great art, it's like combining Shakespeare and Da Vinci. You're going to get an art that's beyond anything we've seen in previous history," he said. "Not all graphic novels have sex and violence. It just depends on the content."
And not all Christian graphic novels have to read like a preachy tract or a bumper sticker to enable the faithful to reach out to the broader world. "A lot of Christians that are doing them [graphic novels] don't want to relegate themselves to the Christian ghetto," Partible said.
Nor did the Jewish Publication Society want to limit itself to already committed observant Jews with "Megillat Esther."
The story, about a Jewish woman, Esther, in ancient Persia who becomes a queen and saves her people from genocide, is told both in the original Hebrew and English, although some pages are wordless. Other pages have numbers at the bottom indicating rabbinical commentaries from books such as the Talmud, and there is a detailed, scholarly bibliography at the back.
At the same time, it is a typical graphic novel: Female characters tend to be voluptuous, and the pages are peppered with self-deprecating wisecracks. Near the end of the story, one small character says, "The whole thing seemed a bit overdrawn to me."
The author, JT Waldman, spent seven years working on the book, including 18 months in a Jerusalem yeshiva learning Hebrew and studying the Bible and commentary.
"First came the love of comics and that way of storytelling," said Waldman, 29, who is now studying computer graphics in Canada. "The Bible and Jewish angle didn't come until I graduated from university and was trying to flesh out my Jewish identity. I wanted to merge my new interest in Judaism with my more established language and vernacular of illustrating comics."
Turned down by religious and commercial publishers, he was about to self-publish the book when the offer came from the Jewish Publication Society.
"I looked at it and thought it was amazing, but I thought that JPS would never agree to publish it," Frankel said, even though it includes every word of the Hebrew scroll. She was uncertain how the board of her 118-year-old press would respond.
"Before the meeting, I took a number of Post-Its and flagged the pages that were the most outrageous," she said, but to her surprise, "they all loved it. Their response was: 'It's time.' "
In the introduction, Rabbi Moshe Silverschein, Waldman's teacher at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, calls the book an "expanded biblical narrative" and "not just a simple comic book."
In the world of Christian graphic novels, "Serenity" is attracting attention. The series has been available online, but its move to Wal-Mart stores will widely increase its visibility. It deals with an irritating teenager named Serenity Harper who goes to a new high school.
"Only the Christians at school will have anything to do with her," said the graphic novel's author, Californian Buzz Dixon, who once worked with comic-book legend Stan Lee.
"The Prayer Club believes that, since God loves them, even when they act in an unlovable manner, they should love other people who act unlovable," he said. "They turn Serenity into a project."
Over time, the title character is gradually influenced by her new friends but does not formally become a Christian until the ninth installment, Dixon says.
Dixon, who produces Serenity with a young Korean artist, Min Kwon, said they prefer a low-key approach, producing "stories about Christian faith and values applied to real-life situations. We are a values-reinforcement tool."