From illustration to comics: reimagining the Passion in the 20th century

Abstract

The visual narration of the New Testament underwent a revolution in the last third of the 19th century with the illustrated editions by Gustave Doré, Alexandre Bida and James Tissot. In the twentieth century, comic strips continued the process of narrativizing and amplifying the Passion. During the Second World War, a new genre was codified: the religious comic strip. More than any other episode in the New Testament (with the exception of the Resurrection), the Crucifixion features not only synoptic variants, but also the aesthetic points of view - catechetical or otherwise - of comic artists. This study focuses on a few examples of this varied production (Pilamm, Hampson, Blasco, Crespin, Madsen, Maddox, Yasuhiko).