Punk Rock Jesus

When Punk Rock Jesus (PRJ) hit the comic stands, I admit that I ignored it. I heard about from the media outlets about it, and because of who was doing it, artist Sean Murphy, who I became a fan of in  Joe the Barbarian , was doing his own 6-part series, as well as being the writer for PRJ. It got my attention, for sure, but when it comes to buying single comics, I do (mostly) stick to the big two, DC and Marvel. So I skipped out on it, even with all the critical acclaim it was getting. In fact, I rarely buy secondary comics like Image, Dark Horse, or Vertigo unless it's in trade form, has some overwhelming critical acclaim, or I can get it at my comic shop for a really great price. So for some weird way or another, a part of me just took a chance and bought PRJ for the heck of it. Well I can tell you right now I regret not picking up this series in comic form, but I fully do not regret buying it in collected form. This is truly one of the best mini-series I've read in a while and I see what all the fuss is all about.PUNK ROCK JESUS tells the story of a not-too-distant future in 2019, where reality television has ruled the airwaves, which the next big show on the list comes Christmas time is J2: a reality show starring a cloned Jesus Christ, all by having a virgin teenager girl named Gwen, give birth on the air, for the second coming of Christ. The news creates massive chaos across America and the world itself, with religious zealots NAC (New American Christians) that defend the old ways of Christianity and see this act as heresy, atheist who see it all as a joke, politicians who are afraid for what it could have on the world's influence, a scientific community unsure what to make of the whole thing, and people that simply see money from this entire series of events. On December 25th, 2019, Chris (AKA Jesus Christ) is born into the world, to which the following story goes over Chris growing up in front of live television 24/7, on a enclosed island shut off from society, to finally one day rebelling and becoming a punk rock star to the world.So the basic premise sounds really cheesy, predictable, and could have easily gone south real fast, but Murphy uses it and perfectly sets up an ambitious tale that is equal parts intelligent, rich, diverse, and satirical fantasy in a real world setting. For starters, Murphy makes the book out to entail to what would be a realistic reaction to Jesus being reborn into modern times with personal and practical point-of-view, as well as religious, legal, scientific, and social perspective. Second, the title notion of Chris being "Punk Rock Jesus" doesn't even happen until halfway through the book. And third, Murphy makes the book to be a dense read with expositions, depth, and complications among the cast from the very get-go that makes us feel for the characters, especially since they take up the first half of the book without Chris being the star. And the notion of time as the Chris grows up, the implications of everything takes it toll on our cast.Characters like Chris's 18-year old mother, Gwen, who starts out sweet and temperamental when she gives birth, starts seeing the horror of living like a prisoner on an island away from her friends and family, on television 24/7, and spending years dealing with corporate control start corrupting her mind and body. Gwen and Chris's bodyguard, Thomas McKael, an ex-IRA member and overall badass head of security who has a dark past starts out being a cold protector, but slowly and surely starts gaining emotions for Gwen and Chris, as well as his own faith. Tim, a technical engineer for the island and on-air father figure with Gwen who wants whats best for her and Chris. Dr. Sarah Epstein, the woman who created Chris and is Chris's teacher/moral compass to the world. And owner and proprietor of J2, Rick Slate, the very evil businessman that all of the main cast hate and despise in control of it all. The cast is so rich and multilayered from the moment Chris is born, to getting a play date as a baby, going to public school(?!), and leading up to Chris's epiphany to rebel against society and become a punk rock god. All of which, takes place within the span of 15 years of Chris's life. This is the heart and soul of Murphy's story that is equal parts touching, humorous, interesting, and just well done. To which all of the characters react and grow accordingly with all of the events in order of time. No one breaks out un-accordingly of character. Everything has a reason and progression that makes sense for the motives of the characters.And many of these characteristics are just the first half of the book! The first half alone influence Chris as he is growing up away from society, to which he just a shy boy with good intentions to the later half that he dons the punk motif as a symbol to rebel against society itself. And when that happens, many new followers of Chris come along on his growing attention to spreading news across the country and even the world, with many characters from act 1 coming full circle from helping Chris in the very end. It makes a strong metaphor for the interactions Chris and the cast have on one another that again, goes with the passage of time that makes a strong emotional ending all the way through.The biggest thing I think Murphy does right is not seem over preachy. The book examines religion, society, entertainment, science, and global perspective without seeming one-sided. Murphy himself is an Atheist, but he never lets his personal perspective get involved with the story. He lets the characters actions and beliefs over the course of time do the talking, especially for Chris's ideals shocked and broken by the second half make perfect sense in context. Further more, Murphy doesn't preach to the choir about really any specific subject matter, instead giving readers' skepticism, challenge, and question all subjects matter in this book, even Atheism and punk rock itself. This makes it so there is no self-importance, holier than thou, self martyring to be had here. It makes the book actually feel fair and open minded in all of the content presented, which is truly impressive. It's just a book with no real clear side to take but just being a good person at the end of the day, faith or not.As for art, the real reason I picked up the book, it is simply phenomenal. If you are familiar with Murphy's art, then this will not disappoint. If you haven't seen his art, go open a tab and look it up on Google. The book is done in black and white, yet Murphy's art is top notch. It's a mixture of gritty, sketchy, and utter detailed at the same time. His finishes show that a black and white book do not need color at all to show exceptional art and tell a gripping story, or show blood splattering everywhere, or the huge splash pages of masses of people out in the streets. Sean Murphy's art is definitely something people should look out for, especially this year for Scott Snyder fans, since he's doing the art for Snyder's book The Wake.As for bonuses, a few added pages of the original covers with color, some promotional art, a unused cover, and three biographies on Chris, Gwen, and Thomas. And a epilogue at the very end on Sean Murphy's simple explanation of becoming an Atheist.I personally had very little weaknesses, but if I had to name one it would have to be with the ending being a little too sudden and out of place plot twist (don't want to spoil anything, but here's an example of what I'm talking about: imagine a bunch of people in an elevator shaft, falling 30 stories down and only one person dies, while everyone else mysteriously is uninjured. You'll see what I mean). But for other possible negatives, one is the content itself. This is for mature and level-head readers. There is plenty of F-bombs here and there, middle fingers, graphic gore, and adult situations concerning the discussion of politics, science, and religion, especially the mere creation of Jesus Chris, Chris, himself is enough where some readers will not get over. I'm sure there will be other Amazon reviews where people will hate this book simply because of the Jesus Christ theme, but with all do respect, this is not meant to be offensive in any way of what Murphy is trying to say and you are warned before hand. Please don't be one of those reviewers that hate the book because of the Jesus Christ motif only. Know what you're getting into before buying. As mentioned before, the book is in black and white with semi-low quality paper. Again, I think the black and white does the comic justice (and it's Murphy's original intent to have it that way!) and I do not mind the paper quality. I think it goes with the punk rock vibe of not being squeaky clean having high gloss paper, I don't know but I don't mind it. And for those who might hate it because of the lack of color, maybe one day Vertigo will re-release PRJ with color? We'll see.So PUNK ROCK JESUS truly lives up to the hype. Everything about this book feels like it might live on to be a classic one day. I know that is a bold statement, but truly, there isn't anything quite like Punk Rock Jesus on the comic stands now or in quite some time. This really might go down as a possible top 100 best graphic novels of all-time level of awe and importance. So do yourself a favor: pull out your lighter and stick it up real high in the air, rock out, live life, and give this book a worthy place on your book shelf.

As far as standalone graphic novels go, this one ranks quite well, though it doesn't come near the status of Classic some reviews give it. Overall a great work from Sean Murphy, both in terms of story and art. Regarding the latter, Murphy really shows a stunning handle of B&W with a great variety of resources, fleshing out characters, locations and action sequences perfectly. My main gripe with the art is that, other than Chris and Rebekah, every single character seems frozen in time: over sixteen years pass in the course of the story, and all of the adult characters in its beginning look exactly as they did by the end. I feel this might be intentional, but I can't quite figure out its purpose. A related problem is with the (low) paper quality of this edition, which I am not sure if it's just to keep costs down or a estylistic choice (newspaper print is somehow more "punk" than glossy paper, I guess).Regarding the story, it is basically divided in two parts, one covering the life of Chris in the J2 show building since before his inception in a lab till his release from it as a teenager, the second part covering what happens after. Spread out throughout both we have flashbacks of his bodyguard Thomas's life, which starts out as a by-the-numbers Punisher-like tough guy, and comes to be the most complex and relatable character of the novel, going through his own religious experiences.The first part of the story seemed unnecesarily long to me, while the second packs a lot more action in less pages. The persistent message regarding the impact of religion on Western culture and the modern US in particular becomes more and more prevalent and more heavy handed as it goes, to the point of being tiresome. This is mostly justified by the fact that Chris, despite his extraordinary life and attributes, is still just a teenager, and heavy handedly is how teenagers and specially punk rock tends to deliver their messages.The fact that, given all its flaws I would still rate it fours stars, is due in equal parts to the art, the original story concept, and the surprises the script manages to pull along the way, in terms of character developments and plots twists that keeps it from being too linear and moralistic. Could have been a masterpiece, but could have also been crap. Instead, it is simply a very entertaining read.

First, the art in this is amazing. Fantastic inks and the use of black and white in this is powerfully compelling. I could go on and on about the Sean's visual talent, but instead I'll say this: his composition and inks are the reason I bought this book and I wasn't disappointed.Sean Murphy is an atheist. He was raised by Christian parents and followed his own path. Many atheists that I have come across are either constantly attacking or very defensive. I was very hesitant to get this book because I'm not terribly interested in reading something that is merely a vehicle to destroy and spew bile.I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is a VERY BALANCED book with characters that run the spectrum of belief systems. I found that I agree with the Murphy in his depiction of crazy fanatical zealots that seem to be the antagonists of this book. One of the main characters, a former IRA soldier, is a very religious man and an extremely engaging character. There are scientists who show little slivers of faith in spite of their stated atheism and others that are casually religious that express doubt. There are also extremes on both sides of the issue of God with all of their anger and impulsiveness.I went into this book expecting some art and panels full of life and hoping that Murphy wasn't just using it as a platform to bash God. What I found was a very honest and well written book with lots of characters each coming to different conclusions about faith, much like you'd find in any group of people.

I loved this comic. It's great: the artwork is at once beautiful and gritty, the concept is brutal, challenging and original, and Murphy doesn't shy away from representing the grim extent of our society's dark sides. It's a brave and successful piece of work. I'd recommend it without hesitation to anyone.However, I've rated it only four stars because there are places I feel let it down. On a very practical level, there were places where the continuity of the panels threw me. Most of Murphy's panels are very clear about when leaps forward in time take place, but there were a few very clunky segways where dialogue seemed to end abruptly and leap forward a few minutes (days?) at a time, and these places disrupted the flow of narrative.I also found the culmination of the plot a little awkward, and this was for me what let it down. Not the end results, which weren't unexpected, but the execution. Chris's character is built up throughout the chapters but in the end it felt as if he didn't emerge as the man we'd been led to expect. In the end he seemed more headstrong reactionary teenager than a charismatic revolutionary whose decisions were informed by his experiences. Perhaps this was a more accurate portrayal of the product of his awful upbringing, but it lacked the 'larger than life' quality that brings about a really satisfying resolution. In the end he felt more like a sad, screwed up kid who hadn't been able to win against the system. Like I said, perhaps this is what Murphy had been aiming for all along, but it felt to me like just as it was all really going to get started the whole thing was over. Sometimes plots are described as mountains - there's an incline up to a high point and then a drop down the other side - PRJ felt like there was a plummet on the other side. A lot of action with not quite enough resolution.However, don't let this out you off. Really. The story is brilliant, fast paced and inventive, and it's shortcomings don't detract from its power as a whole. It'll be a joy to see what else Murphy creates in the future.

This book is definetly worth a try, the storyline is great, very enjoyable, the characters are likable and funny when needed, the art is fantastic, it’s good to look at. I recommend this book to anyone who loves comics or just interested in getting to know the genre.

Really well received gift! My husband loved the comic and the art work in particular. The reviews online were helpful it guiding me to good comics to buy and the prices on Amazon were the best I found.

A bit of a slow start but some really interesting ideas but some of the main characters took time to flesh out. By the second half of the book I was hooked and it all came together. This book is really something quite special, the art work is also amazing. Go read this book

the art work is beautiful and the world he has created is stunning. i just thought the story was a bit linear and i didn't really connect with any of the characters.