When my brother, Pere, was little my parents had a hard time getting him to like reading. They tried everything they could think of to engage his interest. One day my dad asked him what he would like to read and he said, “Comic books.” That was the ticket! I have memories of riding our bikes together as a family from our house to the comic book store the next town over. He eventually found a love for real books and is still an avid reader today.
When I was asked to review these new comic books, The Golden Plates, about The Book of Mormon I knew my brother would be better at reviewing them. Thankfully he was willing. Read his review below.
I was given the opportunity to read a couple of chapters from the the Golden Plates comic books, my first initial thoughts were that the art work was great and provides some excellent visuals of the stories that one can find in the Book of Mormon. In fact several of the panels were near to what I would picture in my own mind when reading the stories. The small details were great, scenes such as Lehi giving blessings to his children, you can see and feel Lehi’s love for his children, and while old and frail he was trying to leave each of them with direction in their lives. Very great artwork. Now with that being said there were a few aspects of the comic that I struggled with. Several of the scenes that dealt with more spiritual aspects of the stories felt overly dramatic and seemed to draw away from the story. For example when Nephi is carried away by the spirit and sees the vision of the Tree of Life things are progressing nicely panel to panel when all of a sudden bam!
There is an overly dramatic angel who looks all powerful/scary looking which was out of place in the story. While I understand it’s difficult to draw more spiritual aspects of the stories and the artist is trying to bring the stories into a more modern light, I felt scenes like this seemed out of place with the rest of the story and panels. This would be my only real criticism of the comic, the rest of the book I felt was good and enjoyable and I could see myself reading them on a lazy afternoon.
They were fun comic books but it’s tough to not compare them directly to the actual Book of Mormon and feel like they are poor substitutes for the original, but that’s the tough comparison one draws with using the source material that the artist did.
Thanks, Pere!
Here’s a video explaining The Golden Plates Comic Books.
The Golden Plates: Premium Edition
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED
AS A GRAPHIC NOVEL
The Golden Plates is an illustrated adaptation of the fifth best selling book of all time, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, which has sold over 120 million copies. This graphic novel/comic book adaptation was first created in 2005 by award winning artist Michael Allred. The Premium Edition has replaced the full text originally included in the first edition with simplified and edited text, making the story easier for younger readers to follow and also showcasing more of the stunning artwork. It has also been converted to digital form for enjoyment on phones, tablets, and desktop devices through Amazon, iTunes, and Kobo. New printed editions have also been released through Amazon.
The first 6 issues cover the first 145 pages (27%) of the Book of Mormon, from 1st Nephi through the Words of Mormon. This adaptation is a fun and enthralling to way to help older children and teens understand and enjoy the Book of Mormon in a format more advanced than simplified children’s stories or scripture readers meant for young children.
Enter to win all six of The Golden Plates comic books below!
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