Bible Gateway recently had the privilege of sitting down with bestselling British/Nigerian Bible illustrator and teacher Siku for a wide-ranging discussion about his new work, Bible Origins: The Underground Story — a graphic Bible that tells the story of the letter carriers who risked torture, imprisonment, and death to carry the Gospel across the Roman empire — plus his thoughts on art, Biblical history, and his favorite Bible verse.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
- What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you get involved with illustrating Bible Origins: The Underground Story?
It was when I first saw Dr. Who in our Chelsea basement flat in London. I was just three years old. It remains my first memory. The Daleks scared the life out of me and I thought to myself, “I want to do that when I grow up.”
I met Dr. Brian Brown through my agent, Ed Chatellier. Brian’s project [Bible Origins] was stuck in development limbo and he needed a creative to partner up with him. Jeff (the other artist), was otherwise taken with his pastoral duties.
Imagine this: Brian had to deconstruct the Gospels into their traditional oral components. Then build a narrative that tells us how the people of God probably preserved that oral tradition up until Mark decides to begin to collect those sayings into what we now know as the Gospel of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John. He then translates from the Greek Gospels into English with an eye on the extracted oral tradition components. Something I like to think is more like transmission than translation.
- How has your faith and personal Bible study influenced your work as a creative, especially for a project like Bible Origins?
It’s my training as a theologian that helps makes the connection between my faith and my art. Understanding how to purposefully harness art through a theological, Christological, and redemptive perspective is what makes the whole thing work as a whole. Understanding how it relates to popular culture — a very present pop culture — and then tapping into that stream. It takes observing, listening, praying, studying, dialoging, and practicing — over and over again.
The training helps you learn to see, hear and speak into culture. That means you are present in culture rather than a “passive-submissive” within it. Now, transpose that backwards in time — let’s say, first century Jerusalem or Rome (where much of our story is set) — and you’ll find those same skills useful. Asking the right questions; understanding how to communicate to the readers; keeping an eye out for consistency of the cultural signposts.
There is a certain emergency you want to capture when you are developing a story based on the collecting of the Gospel oral traditions. A certain urgency that began to dawn upon the Church leadership as the rank of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry were being degraded through martyrdom.
“We feel like we have in some way replicated the acts of the first believers in preserving the oral sayings of our Lord with a certain vivid freshness.”
A local culture not versed in book writing (reading is another matter) started to very quickly become acquainted with the craft. Mark would begin that innovative project. We tried to capture that energy in how we visually paced the story. For the ancients, it was dangerous and counterintuitive. Truth was considered preserved in the hearts and on the lips of the faithful; but now, those words were to be written and preserved on scrolls of vellum.
There is a sense that we are taking part in that dangerous and innovative enterprise. We feel like we have in some way replicated the acts of the first believers in preserving the oral sayings of our Lord with a certain vivid freshness. An immediacy that the readers will sense as they skip from the Gospel passages, to the dramatized comic book form, tracking our Lord and his disciples as those oral passages are formed; then to the “manga” strips in Rome as those traditions are committed to rolls of cow hide. Rome will burn and thousands of Christians will burn at the stake as they are blamed for the carnage; and in all that… the letters must continue to be copied and posted.
In our own very, very, small way, we are first century believers: we have found a way to transmit the Gospels just like our sisters and brothers did, two thousand years ago. Like then, there is quite a lot of noise in the background — a lot of noise from “culture-war and war-culture.” But the letter copying needs to be done; we must work while it is day, for the night cometh…
- Did illustrating Bible Origins change or deepen your understanding of the New Testament and the early church? If so, how?
I am a Bible teacher with a lot of research and study in first century Judean customs, history, typology, and geography. I brought a lot experience to this project through my degree training and previous work on The Manga Bible and The Manga Jesus.
When you distill the oral tradition from the compositional work of the Gospel writers, you do begin to see the Gospels in a more vivid perspective. It brings the Gospel into sharp focus. It’s more immediate — indelibly etched into the deeper recesses of one’s soul. You start to ask questions like,
- Why did the writers repeat certain passages?
- Why are there apparent contradictions?
- Why did John explicitly leave out certain traditions, which the other three thought relevant to include?
Ironically, the veracity of the oral tradition would have been in its wide reach, from Alexandria to Syria — hearing the same memorized sayings recited over and over again. Some individuals would been vessels with the entire tradition memorized, verbatim! In some strange way, you may call this the democratization of the revelation of our Lord.
If our books were to be suddenly taken away from us, how much would we be able to recover from memory, verbatim? I believe that we would be able to repeat that feat; working on a project like this makes you think about God’s fidelity to us in preserving revelation for all generations.
- What role do you believe the visual arts play in communicating Biblical truths, particularly for those who may not engage with written scripture as easily?
Immediacy. Art brings immediacy. Art provides the empathic connection. It crosses the empathic, intuitive and cognitive divide. When you see art… you sort of know without knowing how you know.
It is an error to assume art is for the scripturally and technologically uninitiated. It’s an error that has cost the Church the cultural high ground. The technological Church sees ‘art’ as a tool, a transactional means to an end.
“working on a project like this makes you think about God’s fidelity to us in preserving revelation for all generations.”
This is a view I see at odds with the Church’s mission statement. It is not so much what role Art plays but rather, what is Art?
Let me put this in a more grounded sense: Art speaks of Christ. It’s designed to do so: just like how the entire animal kingdom earnestly cries out for the unveiling of Jesus Christ, so does Art.
Take a look at our holy scriptures: every heading, every paragraph, every line of text is artistically placed, aesthetically arranged. The efficacy of its Truth is what creates its ornamental beauty. Each aesthetic stroke speaking directly to the revealed and coming glory of Jesus Christ. All that is missed with a functional approach to spirituality.
Art should be flourishing in the body of Christ as a means of incommunicable worship, incommunicable speech… incommunicable ways of being human.
- What do you hope readers will take away from seeing the stories of the Gospel’s spread and the growth of the early Christian Church visually interpreted in Bible Origins?
Three things. First, honor those who were faithful in the preserving of our Gospel.
Second, Worship our God and King for making his Gospel available to us.
And third, attend to the Gospels with a fresh mind. Put aside the old assumptions and read afresh.
- How do you see the power of visual storytelling impacting someone’s personal faith journey through a book like Bible Origins?
Sequential story telling (graphic novels, comic books, manga) breaks down time. It does so visually, thematically, and literally. That causes the reader to read the scripture differently.
When we deconstruct time, we ask questions we would not have asked; we see solutions we might not have seen; we hear voices we might have missed.
The comic book artist can freeze or accelerate time. Time can be fractured, staggered, or squashed into a singularity. All of that is designed to guide the reader into the Story landscape… and then we let go. The reader becomes its own master of time and they will choose their own “selah” moments.
- Do you have a favorite scene or illustration from the book? What makes it stand out to you?
Page 84: Paul and the Letter Carriers!
It’s its vivid simplicity, its latent energy, its danger! It stands as a metaphor to the perils believers face all around the world today.
- What advice would you give to aspiring artists who want to tackle Biblical projects like Bible Origins?
Study. Study. Study. Pray. Fast. Pray again. Get close to the Father, then you’ll know what he wants from you.
The study is first the Scripture; then your craft; then your world. Understand these three intimately. Know the Father, know his heart so that you have compassion. That compassion will fuel you and give you drive. The concert of these three things will put you in the right place for the right opportunity. Keep pushing; there will be knock backs, but keep pushing. Do not give up.
“The opportunities come; God makes them available at the right time, but you need to be available.”
Bible Origins: The Underground Story took over seven years to realize. We had given up on the project before it came back to life, out-of-the-blue!
The opportunities come; God makes them available at the right time, but you need to be available. Do the things you need to do. Be active with your hands, but restful in your heart.
- Can you explain how the different illustration styles within Bible Origins illuminate the different timelines at play?
Jeff, the other artist, who I’ve known for over twenty years, is a master of the old school technique. A master of the old naturalistic European style. He understands the human body and form in a way I can’t. His style is naturalistic; mine is highly stylized. It’s perfectly suited to this project in a providential way.
The naturalistic style works with the historical thread (the Gospel narrative). That’s the Jeff bit. The hard historical narrative is told in Jeff’s earthy naturalist style.
The fictional thread of the book (our Story Bearers), which focuses on the story of the dissemination of the Gospel by means of letter writing, is told in a more stylized manga style. Bright, vivid, and fitting for young readership, yet allowing breathing room for the earthy hard history that is Jeff’s art.
The counterpointing between the two styles really worked. The reader intuitively knows when the switch takes place.
- Finally, do you have a favorite Bible verse — something that you hold onto for inspiration, either in your art or your daily life?
The twelve disciples had returned from their field mission. They had cast out devils, healed the sick, and preached the kingdom. They were excited, congratulating themselves as they gathered around the dinner table. It had been days — probably weeks — since they were gathered like this. They were separated into pairs for the special field mission. Tired and worn by the journey, but invigorated by the amazing feats they performed, they exchanged stories.
Jesus was excited. Full of joy, recalling a vision Dad had given him a while ago in the desert, he exclaimed at the top of his voice, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven!”
Luke 10:18. That’s my favorite verse.
Experience the New Testament narratives and letters, interwoven with action-packed graphic novel tales of its origin in the early church.
Dive into the captivating world of the underground church in Rome and Jerusalem with this unique and engaging hybrid graphic novel, specially designed for readers ages 8 and up. Bible Origins: The Underground Story contains portions of the New Testament interspersed with full-color graphic novel stories. The engaging art brings to life incredible tales of couriers braving danger to deliver the gospel stories and letters about Jesus to secret house church gatherings for the very first time.
An artist, author, theologian, and musician, Siku is the international bestselling graphic novelist of The Manga Bible and one of Britain's leading comic book/concept artists, having worked for 2000AD, producing titles such as Judge Dredd, Slaine, and his co-creation, Pan-African Judges. His credits span from Marvel UK comics to Elixir Studios video games, to writing and presenting for BBC Radio. Siku currently co-runs Go Studio, a U.S.-based Christian media consultation company that produces original and commissioned content.
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