From the back cover of Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels, edited by A. David Lewis and Christine Hoff Kraemer (Continuum International Publishing, 2010):

Although they were once considered a medium suitable only for children’s literature, comic books have increasingly become a vehicle for serious social commentary and, specifically, for innovative religious thought. Practitioners of both traditional religions and new religious movements have begun to employ comics as a missionary tool, while humanists and religious progressives use comics’ unique fusion of text and increasing fervor with which the public has come to view comics as an art form and Americans’ fraught but passionate relationship with religion. Graven Images provides an opportunity for discussion of cutting-edge artistic and social issues by exploring the roles of religion in comic books and graphic novels.

In essays by scholars and comics creators, Graven Images observes the frequency with which religious material — in devout, educational, satirical, or critical contexts — occurs in both independent and mainstream comics. Contributors identify the unique advantages of the comics medium for religious messages; analyze how comics communicate such messages; place the religious messages contained in comic books in appropriate cultural, social, and historical frameworks; and articulate the significance of the innovative theologies being developed in comics.

TheoFantastique Podcast 2.4 features an interview with A. David Lewis, a national lecturer in comics studies, an award-winning graphic novelist, and a PhD candidate in Religion and Literature at Boston University. In this interview we discuss comics and the academy, and specifics related to Graven Images, including Superman and Christ-figures, evangelicalism and the comic medium, and Western esotericism in comics and popular culture. TheoFantastique Podcast 2.4 can be listened to here, and at iTunes. Graven Images can be ordered through the TheoFantastique Store.