Metron Press, an imprint of the American Bible Society, has announced the September publication of Testament, a $12.95, 120-page graphic novel written by Jim Krueger (Earth X) and illustrated by a number of top flight artists including Bill Sienkiewicz, Bo and Scott Hampton, Steve Rude, George Pratt, and many others.  The stories included in Testament are all taken from the Old Testament, a great repository of drama, action, and history complete with unforgettable characters, eternal themes and paradigmatic situations that still have great cultural and moral relevance.  The format of the graphic novel, in which each sequence starts out in a bar where the patrons' troubles are the catalyst for a tale from the Old Testament, stresses the relevance of the Bible to modern life.  Rather than apologizing for starting his Biblical tales in a barroom, editor Mario Ruiz sees it as an opportunity to open some eyes to the wide diversity of material included in the Old Testament: 'we stay accurate with the source material, but we are constantly having to say that we didn't make this stuff up.  It's really in the Bible.  It goes to show you that many church folk aren't reading their Bibles enough.'

Testament will actually be the second graphic novel published by Metron Press.  Last December the company published Samson: Judge of Israel (srp $7.95), a graphic novel written by Jerry E. Novick that takes a straightforward narrative approach to a classic Biblical story.  Metron's parent company, the American Bible Society, was founded in 1808 and distributed over 12 million copies of the Old and New Testaments in 2001.  The Testament graphic novel should prove to be a winner in the large Christian bookstore market -- and considering the number of high-powered creators just might create some interest in comic shops.  Of course there are literally dozens of comic book versions of the Bible, including the classic EC Picture Stories from the Bible, so the folks at Metron Press are hoping that their barroom framing stories and top contemporary creators will mark Testament as a distinctive and relevant work.