Small Bible in Shiot Crock 14

A re-formated version of Shannon's minicomic Small Bible is featured in the latest Shiot Crock. Small Bible can be purchased here.

Here is a look at what some of the other Shiot Crock contributors had to say about Shannon's comic.

"Good stuff all around. Pages 4 and 5 are top-notch. Well drawn, well lettered, well composed, and interesting to look at. Excellent." -eric

"Great stuff. Your art is the best I’ve seen from you. This seems to be a project you care a lot about. As a Christian, I’m glad to see you taking the Bible and it’s message seriously and do it some justice. I enjoy your lack of cynicism." -Barry Rodges

"I read it all. Promised Mom I’d go to church this week ---- Done! Thought you did a great job capturing the time period in your art. Lots of detail. Did you draw these for anything in particular? Weren’t you afraid the Crock would explode into flames with this inside?" -Karen Lucas

"I like the use of tones, etc. That flying faceless character is very evocative." -David Robertson

"I've looked it over, brilliant drawings and compositions, but I'm suspending reading the thing until I can get a bible and cross reference these stories." - M. Campos

"The art is the best S.S. I've ever seen. Those cute little family comics never prepared me for this." -Klopner

Comic Book Haters Indie Spotlight Video Podcast

Comic Book Haters Indie Spotlight: Shannon Smith from The Comic Book Haters on Vimeo.

Small Bible Reviewed by Sequart.

By Rob Clough at Sequart:

This is a clever mini that's about points of view and description. Taking key portions of the Old Testament, Smith quotes extensively from Stephen's Defense in the Book of Acts, then quotes the original scripture, then provides an illustration--all in just 9 pages. It's a clever comic that's both a straightforward depiction of an event, and a commentary as an interpretation of an interpretation of an event that may or may not have happened--but has enormous importance. Joann Sfar's Rabbi character in THE RABBI'S CAT described Judaism as different from Western (Hegelian) thought, which is thesis, antithesis, synthesis. The history of Jewish thought, he explained, is thesis, antithesis, antithesis, antithesis, and so on. This mini is another step in the argument, providing a visual interpretation of the events that is action-oriented on nearly every page. An angel dramatically swoops in to prevent Abraham from sacrificing Isaac; Moses gets a magic glowing staff from god that cures snake bites; various epic battles are fought. Smith gets across the quite visceral experience of reading the Old Testament, a tact that is quite different from the purposes of either Stephen or the original Torah. It's quite a clever little project.

Small Bible is on sale here.

Small Bible reviewed by Optical Sloth

By Whitey at Optical Sloth:

Who needs to read all 920 clunky pages of the Old Testament when you could just go and read 9 pages of highly condensed mini comic? As someone who had the bright idea to read the Bible over the last summer I really wasn't sure what to expect here, but Shannon does manage to nail the high points. A brief synopsis of the relevant passage, a quote and an image later and you get the idea of things. Best of all there's no axe to grind here, no moral viewpoint he's pushing, just good old Bible stories. Bits in here include Joseph (you know, the guy with the technicolor dreamcoat), Moses trying to convince people of his veracity, and God being a general dick to his followers who doubted even a little bit, which seemed to happen a lot back then. Oh, and there's also the bit about the ass, but I don't want to spoil it. It's a fun comic for everybody, nothing to offend the overly religious types and it's pretty informative for the rest of us pagans.

Small Bible on sale here.