Sunday's New York Times contained a story in the first section by Neela Banerjee about The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation ($12.95), which was published here by Doubleday on January 15th.  Ajinbayo Akinsiku (who uses the pen name 'Siku'), the artist/writer of The Manga Bible grew up in the U.K. and Nigeria in an Anglican family of Nigerian descent and recently graduated from a theology school.  Akinsiku greatly compressed the scriptures into a 224-page manga-like graphic novel that portrays Jesus as 'a samurai stranger who's come to town to shake things up...a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.' 

Akinsiku also emphasized (and heightened) the 'action picture' elements of the Bible (Abraham rides a horse out of an explosion to save Lot) and excised the quieter moments (no 'Sermon on the Mount').  Though some might object to his approach, Akinsiku's adaptation of the Bible has sold over 30,000 copies in the U.K. and Doubleday has printed 15,000 copies of its first U.S. edition.

The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation should not be confused with Tyndale House's Manga Bible, published last October and which includes 96 pages of manga from Japanese manga-ka illustrating some of the best Biblical stories interspersed throughout a traditional 1104-page prose edition of the Bible.