So here's my first blatant personal plug: my first comic series, Testament, has just been fully collected in four trade paperback volumes by DC/Vertigo. It's as close to an exercise in "open source religion" as I could imagine.
I've talked a lot about it in interviews online. But what I didn't explain before is that I meant the series to model both an approach to religion and money. As many have explained in the comments sections of my economy posts over the past couple of days, money and faith are intertwined. When the US took the US dollar off the gold standard they began printing "In God We Trust" on the bills. Coincidence? (Not that gold has intrinsic value, either. It's scarce, yes, but how truly useful except as a reflection of faith?)
Anyway, the series gave me a way to share a lot of the Torah, history, and myth I had studied to write my book on Judaism, Nothing Sacred, while letting me apply some of that mythology to our current financial and technological challenges. It takes place in a near-future where a rather viral-nano global currency is transacted via rfid tag. Those who refuse to participate in the economy are hunted outlaws. Meanwhile, the characters keep appearing in flashbacks to Torah scenes that amplify the themes. Eventually, they come to understand they're living both stories at once.
Outside the panels, attempting to influence the story, are the 'gods' – whose very existence depends on belief. And the whole saga boils down to who controls the writing of the story.
The question I'm attempting to answer – or at least explore – is whether the Torah's myths invite people to participate in the ongoing creation of the human story, or whether they mean to create the sense that it is in God's control. Or some contract between both?
There's a preview of the whole first issue here.
