A. David Lewis and mpMann, The Lone and Level Sands. Arlington, VA: Caption Box, 2005.

This book of 152 pages (plus 6 pages. of front matter) is a presentation of the familiar Exodus story, though with "flipped POV," in the graphic novel format and in the manga-comics style. Some preliminary unpacking of terms would seem to be of the first order before commenting in detail on the work itself.

The graphic novel is one of the numerous categories within the broad medium of comics or comic books. The comic book has traditionally been a thirty-two page stapled pamphlet in which a brief story is conveyed through a sequential narrative involving both visual art and print text. The graphic novel joins story narrative with sequential art in the same way, but has a much longer scope (as in this example under review) and is able to narrate a complete story. A second distinguishing feature vis-à-vis comic books is that graphic novels are developed with marked higher-end production values: hardcover books, labor intensive, sophisticated art and design features. [Burke and Lebron-Rivera] Indeed, graphic novels, in the words of Charles McGrath, "are an almost primitive medium and require a huge amount of manual labor: drawing, inking, coloring and lettering, most of it done by hand." [McGrath, 30]

McGrath has observed also that the term "graphic novel" is actually a misnomer. The word "graphic" has far too many misleading connotations. [McGrath, 26] While it may intend to convey the meaning "drawn," the much more common meaning that people take from "graphic" is "explicit," "crude," or "raw" (as, e.g., in "graphic detail"). Thus, experts such as Scott McCloud have preferred the term "sequential art," [McCloud, 5] but, however problematic it may be, the term graphic novel seems to have gained acceptance as defining this comics genre. As McGrath has noted, the mid-1980s witnessed a run of "serious comic books," following Art Spiegelman's groundbreaking Maus, [McGrath, 26] but at that time no one knew quite what to make of these books. Now, twenty years later, there is much more of a critical mass for graphic novels.

Sarah Glazer, writing in the September 18, 2005, New York Times Book Review, states that one form of graphic novel that has led to its rising popularity in general is manga. Even though more than 40% of the USA populace may still be unfamiliar with the genre, "Manga has been the engine driving one of the fastest-growing segments of publishing—graphic novels." [Glazer, 16] "Manga sales surged to $125 million last year, from $55 million in 2002," and, interestingly, about 60% of manga readers are girls and women. [Glazer, 16]

Coterminous with the experimental development of scriptural graphic novels at the American Bible Society during the years 2001-2004, the scholarly staff in the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship worked developmentally on guiding principles for doing that. In January 2005, an internal Nida Institute document was finalized—"Guidelines for Adapting Scripture in the Graphic Novel Format." In its introductory section, this document characterizes manga thusly:

Originating in Japan, "manga" literally means "comics" or "cartoons." In the English-speaking world, the term is used to refer specifically to Japanese comics, or Japanese-style comics and graphic novels, in order to distinguish them from American-style comics material. While both use the same basic artistic "grammar," i.e., "word balloons" to represent dialogue, written sound effects to represent sound, and—most important—panels arranged in a sequence on a page to create a narrative, there are some profound differences between American comics and manga. The biggest difference. . .is that manga are generally read in the reverse order. . . .Manga are usually (but not always) printed in black and white [and] art tends to be more stylized and simple. [Bernstengel, 1-2]

With the above background, we can now look more closely at this graphic novel. It is important to say before anything else that The Lone and Level Sands is not an example of "Bible Comics" nor is it a presentation of scripture text in comics format. It does seek to present the Exodus story, but not as scripture in a visualized medium. Rather, because it seeks to present the same story that Exodus tells, but with the POV "flipped" to the pharaoh as central character, it could best be described perhaps as "scripture-based." In his introduction the author, A. David Lewis, says (p. vi) that "the truth of [the life of Ramses II] may forever remain a mystery closed from the light of scientific anthropology and archaeology . . . but not from speculation and creative thought."

The introduction (p. v) also presents the author's "take" on what must be done when transferring narrative text from static print into the graphic novel format: "The story is told 'on the ground' focusing on the human reaction of the Egyptians to fear and hate their once-powerless slaves. This is where the Bible leaves the most gaps to be filled. Without taking too many liberties, I tried to seize upon those vacancies in Exodus, particularly on the human reactions of Ramses, Moses, and their respective people." Lewis also acknowledges influences on their collaboration from other sources, such as de Mille's Ten Commandments and the Qur'an. It is not acknowledged, but in the section dealing with the interactions between the youthful Moses and Ramses II, there also seem to be clear touches from the recent Prince of Egypt.

Just as in the movement from book to film or to any visualized medium that calls for dialogue and fully realized scenes, one can rightly assume that narrative texts (especially scriptural texts) are thickly layered with meaning (David Stern's "scriptural polysemy"). [Stern, 17-18] There is a wealth of implicit information layered into even the sparest scriptural narratives, and that must be carefully and faithfully explored for all the dialogical and visual realities that were assumed by its readers/hearers. In linguistics terms, any narrative text is permeated with a huge array of "paratextual" aspects (sounds, gestures, scenery, spatial indicators, time, movement, etc.), which are known as "extra textual signifieds." [Elliott, 3-4]

It is precisely this dimension, which the author calls "human reactions," that must be more fully realized when a story is transferred into a visual medium. The narrative of Gen 22, for example, is brilliantly concise but one of the least revealing narratives in the Hebrew Bible in terms of the profound emotions that must have characterized both Abraham and Isaac as they went to the mountain. Presenting this narrative in graphic novel form (or film) would necessitate bringing out the emotional underpinnings.

The thinking process for this is not unlike that involved in midrash. [Burke and Lebron-Rivera] For example, if the narrative says merely that Moses came and spoke before Pharaoh, we know that "underneath" that terse descriptive report there were words said, reactions made on faces, gestures made, and that there was a particular setting in which the exchange took place. In the process of transferring scripture text to graphic novel form, it should thus be possible, through a more or less midrashic thinking process, to recover and reason out (invent?) the implicit information in responsible ways. For A. David Lewis, the term he found workable for this process of bringing out the implicit detail is "inject." In his introduction (p. v), Lewis says: "Marv and I had to inject the 'humanity' into scenes which are told so starkly and even enigmatically in the Old Testament." This reviewer can see that that is what it may have seemed they were doing, but the term "inject" is too imprecise and suggests that an openness to "eisegetic" importation of information from beyond the sub-layers of the narrative text itself is really useful.

It is really more a matter of drawing out what is implicit already within the text itself (hidden though it may be in print text) and bringing it into explicit form in the visualized medium. This process of "thinking into" the text must, of course, be done with care and restraint and not in ways that will introduce elements that are not implicit to the text or its historical context. There are examples of midrash that demonstrate both approaches. And, of course, the development of guidelines for this process is also very significant, so that there can be constraints and parameters that will help rule out the introduction of unwarranted elements. It is one thing to "think into" a narrative text's implied information in the attempt to transfer that text into a visual medium, but to attempt this while also changing the POV ratchets up the likelihood of overreaching in the inventiveness (see some examples noted below).

The title of this graphic novel is actually a quotation from Percy Bysse Shelley's poem, Ozymandias, which is a reflection on the discovery of the mysterious statue of an otherwise unknown former ruler named Ozymandias, whose monument (like its namesake) was once commanding and majestic, but now lies surrounded on every side by endless miles of sand. The title comes from the poem's concluding line:

And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In addition to the author's introduction, there is also a foreword by Ben Towle, whose role or relation to this production is nowhere identified. The foreword seeks to contextualize this graphic novel version of the Exodus story as an attempt to make clear, within the broader perspective of history, that epic human conflicts such as this one between pharaoh and Moses cannot really be reduced to a "good guys/bad guys" scenario in which one is completely in the right and the other similarly in the wrong. And it is this sensibility that has led the author to want to present this very familiar story in a "flipped POV," so that we see things, as the story unfolds, from the perspective of Ramses II and his family.

The foreword also gives a capsule summary of what it characterizes as "the Sunday School version of Exodus," familiar throughout the Western world: "the noble Moses, with the help of the one true God, who unleashes a series of amazing plagues, leads his people, the Israelites, to freedom from the oppressive yoke of the cruel Egyptians." But, clearly, the presentation of the Exodus events in the Hebrew Bible is not attempting to be objective history. Instead, its singular intent is to demonstrate YHWH's liberating power and incredible disposition to grace. Even if we grant that it can be a very helpful exercise to "flip" that POV and attempt to see and feel these events from the "other side," as the authors have sought to do, and that this graphic novel on the whole does a good job of that in the manga style, the foreword goes on to take an inappropriate and unhelpful verbal swipe at the book of Exodus (and the Hebrew Bible as well):

Like much of the Old Testament, Exodus is a tale rife with brutal violence, searing conflict and an often-wrathful Deity whose modus operandi is more "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" than "turn the other cheek."

Jacob Myers makes this clear at the outset of his book, Grace and Torah:

[T]he basic pattern of grace and torah in that order is original and is maintained in the prophets and certain New Testament documents. That pattern appears to have been established in the exodus events and the Sinaitic covenant. . . .Israel believed that Yahweh's grace abounded for her in both events, and ever after celebrated them. [Myers, 1]

In a graphic novel, it must be remembered, the "text" is comprised of both words and visuals. Both these dimensions are capable of carrying the meaning in a visual medium. The visualizations in The Lone and Level Sands are clear and spare, simple and stylized in the manga style, and well executed. Because they are so stylized and minimalist, there is often little distinction between various characters; e.g., Moses and Aaron often look like twins (though as brothers perhaps that is permissible), and various Egyptians cannot easily be distinguished from each other (see, e.g., pp. 19, 101). Facially, Moses and Aaron look alike (see, e.g., pp. 100-101, 129); what distinguishes them, the reader eventually notices, is that one wears a robe and the other dresses "Ghandi-style."

The words that carry the narrative and dialogue are very well laid out, all in caps and easily readable, and set in the traditional boxes, balloons, and free space. Direct speech is usually in balloons, as is traditional for the genre, and the narrative bits tend to be in boxes, as is also traditional. But direct speech can be found in each of these three forms, and in some places it is difficult to be certain who is speaking. While the words are always legible, a good final proofreading (beyond spell-check) would have helped greatly (see corrections, below).

The following features or aspects of The Lone and Level Sands call for comment:

The author has opted to use the term of uncertain derivation, Apiru (known, e.g., from Ugaritic texts and the Amarna tablets), as a direct equivalent of 'ibri, "Hebrew." There is, of course, an enormous literature on this issue but hardly anything like consensus. The majority of scholars would be much more cautious about using these terms interchangeably, but the author's choice for the minority position may have to do with seeing things from the Egyptian point of view. On p. 27 (panel 4), the arrival of Moses and Aaron is announced to Pharaoh in the words: "My Lord, the Apiru have come." Two pages later (p. 29, panel 3), they are "Israelites," and on p.31, they are "a pair of ragged Apiru" (upper box) and in the queen's words (bottom box): "This pair of Apiru announced themselves as the sons of Amram and Jochebed." On p.116, Moses is called "Apiru" in direct address. It may have been helpful to have had an appendix for unpacking terms such as Apiru, since such a word may well be obscure to many readers.

Under pressure of the plague of gnats, the Egyptian high priest utters a glowing acknowledgement of YHWH's power (p.62, panel 4): "This is but a finger of the one, true God," and he adds: "Amon-Ra has abandoned us, Ramses." It sounds almost as though he has become a believer in YHWH, and he is immediately rebuked by Ramses (p. 63, panel 1) for speaking heresy. This is an excellent example of "transmediazation," the process of "inventing" dialogue and visuals, from Ex 8:19 (see also p. 118). Another example may be found on p. 105. Here, even though the overall plagues narrative of Exodus is compressed in this version, Pharaoh's confession of sin and acknowledgement of YHWH's power is expressed through his vizier, Ta: "We have sinned. We ask for Yaweh's [sic] forgiveness." This follows the destructive hail and is drawn from Ex 9:27f.

An objectionable "invention" (pp. 96, 106-107) seeks to supply the "real reason" for Pharaoh's hardness of heart. It turns out to have been the dying wish of his queen: "You must remain hard, Ozymandias. . . .the slaves must still remain." Quite apart from her unlikely use of the name of Shelley's forlorn ruler, this invented speech has about it the rotten smell of the old Adam/Eve syndrome—"the woman made me do it."

In a quite bold anachronism (p. 67, panel 2), the authors have portrayed Aaron as the first person to have uttered the famous aphorism, "Those [who] do not remember history are doomed to repeat it." Of course, he may well have said those words at some point, but that is nowhere documented, and, lacking text support, George Santayana will doubtless continue to be credited with originating this aphorism.

Another example of the creation of dialogue may be found on p. 76. As Pharaoh is weighing whether or not to let the Israelites depart to worship YHWH in the desert, he is offered a rationale for not releasing them: "[T]hey are like children. . . .They cannot be left to their own devices. The Israelites would fall to great harm on their own. . .and harm others by the way."

Ramses refers to his gravely ill queen with the epithet "Bint-Anath" as he is told by a female slave that the queen appears to be waking (p. 92, panel 4). The syntax here is vague, and it may be that he is instead addressing the female slave by this name. In either case, it seems to be a very subtle recognition by the authors of the well-known absorption of Canaanite deities and semitic vocabulary in Egypt at the time of the New Kingdom.

The nine panels of diminishing size on p. 102 effectively present a purely visual scene ("invented" from the implied information embedded in the narrative text) of violent Egyptian repression following the pharonic refusal just before the final plague. Whether or not such a scene is warranted or supported by the Exodus text, this is a good example of the ability of the genre to present information drawn from the narrative in purely visual form. A much clearer example of how this works could be found in the familiar Akedah narrative in Gen 22; as Abraham and Isaac ascend the mountain, no words are needed in a visual medium to make clear that Isaac is carrying the wood.

On p. 106 (panel 1), pharaoh is depicted as lost in thought as a result of the devastating plagues. Head in hand, these words appear above his head: "the paths written . . . Israel laid waste, yet his seed is not, destiny to struggle." These words are not structured in sentence form, to suggest a series of thoughts in his mind. It also seems to be an attempt to "smuggle" in (via pharaoh's thought processes) some vague unpacking of the name "Israel." However, the phrase "Israel laid waste" is rather ambiguous.

As Moses and Aaron and the Israelites come before pharaoh with their lighted torches, while all the Egyptians are plagued with darkness (p. 113), Aaron states that they have been "summoned by Yaweh, [sic] the name, who rages at your desecration of these men." And Moses chimes in: "An act which could not escape her all seeing gaze even under the crushing blankets of night that visit the Egyptian people." What is the referent for "her" in this line? Is this a mistake? Is it meant to be a reference to Miriam, who in this version makes her initial appearance in the next panel? Is it meant to be a joke? Miriam says in the next panel: "Hmmp. His, eh, Moses," to which Moses responds: "[sigh] it matters not, Miriam" If it is meant to be a joke (or a jocular reference to YHWH?), that is not at all clear.

The only actual occurrence of the Hebrew word 'or, "light," in the entire book of Exodus is at Ex 10:23, where the Egyptians were everywhere shrouded by the plague of dense darkness, while the Israelites had light in their areas. As the audience before pharaoh continues (p. 114, panel 1), the words of an off-stage Aaron appear in a balloon: "We are the light of the world. A flame that cannot be snuffed." This may be an attempt to import the visionary perception given by Isaiah to the (much later) exiles, that Israel would be for YHWH "a light to the nations" (Isa 42:6, 49.6), as a kind of early self-perception of the Israelites in Egypt. But the language used by the author is clearly New Testament language: to phos tou kosmou, "the light of the world" (Mt 5:14, Jn 8:12, Jn 1:5). At Sinai, the divine promise/calling is given for Israel to be "a holy people and kingdom of priests," but nothing is said regarding "light." Even if we suppose that there was such a corporate self-perception already at the time of Moses, it is not documented. And even though there is very little difference in meaning between "light to the nations" and "light of the world," the first would be an anachronistic use of the promise/calling first given through Isaiah to the exiles; the second anachronistically (and even inadvertently) imports various meaning implications of the New Testament phrase into this narrative.

The angry words of pharaoh (p. 117, panels 1-2) that follow this confrontation with Moses and Aaron concerning the vexing darkness are set within quotation markers in boxes above the panels: "Never see my face again, Moses! For in the day you see my face you shall die!" These words are almost straight from the RSV of Ex 10:28. Elsewhere in panel 2, pharaoh's speech (in balloon) does not have quotation markers, yet is clearly his speech. What this difference signals is not clear, and it is possible that some readers may confuse the boxed quotations as representing divine speech (of the sort expressed in Ex 19:21 perhaps).

Miriam's role in this version is very minimal. She is referred to by name on p.119 in panel 2, and her only other appearance, on p. 113, is quite incidental. Also on p.119 (panel 1), the use of ha-shem as a circumlocution for the divine name is a major anachronism (cf. similarly, p. 113, "the name"). The visualization of the sea-crossing (p. 137) comes straight from Cecil B. de Mille, but that is not a surprise since the author did credit de Mille by name in the introduction. The invented speech of pharaoh's recriminatory self-torment (pp. 144-145) seems very reminiscent of Job and is effective.

A helpful and realistic-seeming epilogue at the end (pp. 146-147) has Ramses II saying: "My lineage will endure. And my kingdom will survive. Egypt will flourish. I shall not depart this world until Egypt is again majestic—until we have truly overcome this time of trial and faith." The closing narration (p. 147) then informs the reader that "Ramses the Great ruled for 67 years. . . . Many of [the] structures from his nineteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom exist to the modern day in Egypt." This is an excellent summary, but it would seem that it will only serve to undermine the imported framing device that Ramses II is to be seen as an Ozymandias, whose fame and fortune was completely unraveled by time, leaving only an obscure and forlorn monument amidst the lone and level sands.

It is a minor quibble, but in the early section (pp. 5-7), where Ramses II is not yet pharaoh, Seti I is welcomed home by his young son, Ramses II, as Seti I has safely returned (in Ramses' words) "from Hittite battle to Tannis" (p. 5). A little later (p. 7), Seti I says to his son at dinner: "I was just telling your mother that we passed through Karnak on our way home." While such an itinerary is certainly possible, it seems geographically unlikely that Seti I would have returned from battle with the Hittites (most likely somewhere north between Egypt and Anatolia) by way of Karnak (the great temple complex at Thebes), so very far to the south of Tanis. Granted that such a route would be possible, since Thebes and its great temple of Amon are so important to the New Kingdom pharaohs, it seems very unlikely that, returning from battle, they would bypass Tanis in the Nile Delta and first go so far south to Thebes, almost as far as the first cataract of the Nile.

The following are corrections that will need to be made in the next printing (or editorial questions for consideration):

p. iii The odd orthography "Yaweh" first occurs here and then many more times throughout the book. But the accepted orthography is also frequently used (both spellings appear on p. 38). One can get the sense, at least for this frequent word, that this is before standardized spelling. On p. 101, even the Israelites praise "Yaweh" in panel 1. Perhaps there is a reason for this variation, but it is not readily apparent.

p. iv The quotation from Shelley lacks the close-quotation marker.

pp. 5, 10 Why is the spelling Tannis and not the usual Tanis?

p. 28 "We must convince Pharaoh to lesson [sic] his demands." (under panel 1)

p. 31 "perhaps the strange timber [sic] of my husband's voice—" (top of panel 1)

pp. 35, 94 Why the archaic orthography "magicks" for magicians, but "physics" for physicians (pp. 39, 77)?

p. 67 In Aaron's speech (panel 2), the word "who" has inadvertently been omitted.

p. 90 Pharaoh's English usage here is not good, perhaps betraying him as an "English-second-language" speaker (panel 1): "I have led my people wrong."

p. 97 Moses' words in the right hand balloon need to be syntactically restructured so that readers can be clear who it was that actually "enslaved our people." As it stands, the immediate referent for "who" is Joseph: "You may tell them of the wicked pharaohs who broke their word to Joseph, who enslaved our people for too long. . . ." Admittedly, readers familiar with the Exodus story will get it straight (perhaps on second reading), but for an unfamiliar reader it could be confusing.

p. 123 "May that day is [sic] still far off, father. . . ." The "is" here is simply a small bit of "moraine" left behind by a change of mind at the keyboard, and not noticed by spell-check.

Overall, this is a worthy effort to present the Exodus story from a different angle and in a medium that combines words and images as "text." It presents this illustrious pharaoh sympathetically as a complex human being, a loving husband and father, a "family man," and as valuing a bond with Moses ("cousin" and "kinsman," pp. 130-131). It is in general an effective construct for encountering this familiar narrative in wider perspective. The many inconsistencies noted above and questions raised simply serve to underscore the difficulties of this work of "transmediazation," of thinking carefully and responsibly into the layers of implied information in the print source text and representing them in the visual medium.

David G. Burke Dburke3350@aol.com

REFERENCES:

Bernstengel, Barbara, ed., "Guidelines for Adapting Scripture in the Graphic Novel Format." New York: Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, unpublished internal document (Jan 12, 2005).

Burke, David G. and Lydia Lebron-Rivera, "Transferring Biblical Narrative to Graphic Novel." SBL Forum (April 7, 2004 - May 4, 2004).

Elliott, Scott S., "Bible Comics—A Concept Paper Reporting on Theoretical Research on the Bible in the Medium of Comics or Graphic Novels." New York: Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, unpublished internal document (July 17, 2002).

Glazer, Sarah, "Manga for Girls." New York Times Book Review (Sept 18, 2005), 16-17.

McCloud, Scott, Understanding Comics. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

McGrath, Charles, "How Cool is Comics Lit?" New York Times Magazine (July 11, 2004), 24-33, 46.

Myers, Jacob, Grace and Torah. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975.

Sarna, Nahum M., Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel. New York: Schocken Books, 1986.

Stern, David, Midrash and Theory: Ancient Jewish Exegesis and Contemporary Literature. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1996.

Citation: David G. Burke, " The Lone and Level Sands," SBL Forum , n.p. [cited Sept 2005]. Online:http://sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=451