Anchored in Christ

The Third Day is a comic book put out by the Good Book Company that graphically walks readers through Luke’s account of the death and resurrection of Christ in Luke 22-24.

Alex Webb-Peploe and Andre Parker are the creative designers that animated the last three chapters of Luke’s gospel (see video below for a sample of the animation).

Read a little about their heart behind this project:

We’ve created the artwork in this book, but the words have been taken directly from the gospel of Luke — Chapters 22-24 — in the Bible. This is a historical account, so we haven’t added or changed anything, and we’ve taken great care to bring these remarkable events to life as faithfully as we possibly can.

I’m a Bible guy and not a comic book guy. So this review will be from the Bible guy. Here are a few thoughts::

First, the artwork is well-done, eye-catching, and something I expect comic readers to enjoy. My one small issue is that a person unfamiliar with the passion story might have a hard time differentiating Jesus from the disciples or other characters. This might be due to the authors’ intent to stick close to the truth. From my perspective, Jesus, Peter, and Judas could be triplets–which can make this comic a little confusing to readers. That may be an exaggeration, but my next observation might help clarify things.

Second, the overall portrayal of Luke 22-24 is good, but could be great by adding more narration that Luke gives us. In my above quote of the authors, they say, “we haven’t added or changed anything,” but they never mention that they do take a few things out. For example, in Part 2 when Jesus and the disciples are in the Garden of Gethsemane, the whole scene of Jesus’ arrest and Peter cutting off the ear of a man goes on with only the dialogue included in Luke–no narration. For me, this wasn’t much of an issue–I know what is going on. But for someone new to Christianity, I could see it being hard to follow, especially with Jesus, Judas, and Peter looking so similarly.

Third, I appreciated the authors including Luke 1:1-4, about how Luke researched using eyewitnesses and wrote a detailed account of Christ in his gospel. What I thought could strengthen the book is to make a bridge that would take readers from Luke’s intro to the passion day story. Jumping right into chapter 22 might leave younger Christians confused as to what is going on and its significance. Just a thought!

Overall, I would recommend The Third Day: The Gospel of Luke Chapters 22-24 to make the passion story accessible to comic book fans. Nit-pickiness aside, anything you can do to make the story of Christ’s death and resurrection more accessible to people is worth recommending.

This book was provided by Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for a fair review.

Title: The Third Day: The Gospel of Luke Chapters 22-24
Author: Alex Webb-Peploe and Andre Parker
Rating: 3.5/5
Publisher: The Good Book Company
Pages: 48
Publish Date: 2014