Summary
Jerusalem Journey is a comic book by Luis Serrano, detailing the story of Jesus in the temple found in Luke 2:41-52. In it, Serrano — along with artist Sergio Cariello — presents Mary and Joseph’s reactions to Jesus’ disappearance as well as some artistic ideas as to what prompted Jesus to stay in the temple.
Assessment
Jerusalem Journey is a high-quality telling of Jesus’ trip to the temple when He was twelve years old. With a classic Western comic style, beautiful full-page spreads, and well-researched basis for the key elements of the fiction in this retelling, this comic presents a little-explored story in a new way.
In terms of cleanliness, the comic is very clean; there is some blood with a Passover sacrifice, but that is it. The story’s theological message is incredibly overt and diligent to pursue what Scripture says while taking some fictional liberties with how the events played out. What is directly from Scripture is handled with great respect.
Light-o-Meter
Overall — 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Story: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Artwork: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Quality: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Age Appropriateness — Appropriate for kids, teens, and adults.
Talk
I was very excited when I realized this comic was by the same guy who did The Story of Samson the Nazirite, which I reviewed back in February! The Samson comic really blew me away with how in-depth the research was and how diligently they told his story, so seeing another comic come out in the same vein definitely had my attention.
And I was not disappointed!
Jerusalem Journey definitely takes more artistic license with the Biblical account than the Samson story, but it did so in a way that was — in my opinion — both very respectful to the original account and the message of the Gospel. There are a lot of hypotheticals and imaginative ideas on what happened around the events, but nothing egregious that takes away from the original goal of the story.
Overall I thought it was really, really good. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading it without reading the Scripture first (which is actually included in the back of the comic, which I love, love, love!), but it’s a great resource for anyone who learns best visually or wants a solid comic with a good message to it. The artwork is a pretty standard Western comic style, but draw expertly by Sergio Cariello (of The Action Bible) in a way that brings the characters and setting to life. I also love the way Jesus is written as a boy; I think the comic really captured His humanity with this often forgotten story in a way that was still really respectful to His true nature.
Where to Enjoy
Jerusalem Journey will be available on the Rooted Chronicles website linked below and Amazon!
Rooted Chronicles: Chronicle Selections
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