Marked

by Steve Ross

Book Overview

An occupied country. A people infested with demons. a time of revolution. a liberator rises. One of the oldest and most powerful stories in human history comes uniquely alive in this telling of the Gospel of Mark. Join a carpenter as he changes the world. And join Steve Ross as he re-imagines the ancient story, with all of its power and mystery intact. Told with unexpected and startling imagery, Marked will forever change the way you think about this...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596270020
• ISBN13: 9781596270022
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Seabury Books
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 10.4"
• Age Range: 13 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Re-discovering the dynamite in Mark's gospel

I picked up a copy of Steve Ross's Marked a couple of years ago, flipped through it, and for some reason was unimpressed and put it aside. I read it more thoroughly recently, and it knocked my socks off. Ross has succeeded in re-telling Mark's gospel in a way that avoids sickly piety or slick preachiness. His rejuvenation of biblical scenes that have become too familiar or too institutionalized is incredible. Through his imaginative reconstruction, Ross actually succeeds in making Mark's gospel interesting, relevant, and--mirabilis dictu!--plausible. Ross's Marked is as much an indictment of contemporary American Christianity as it is a re-telling of Mark. The true believers--the Pharisees of Jesus' day--are drawn as properly attired respectable church-goers. But each of them--clergy included--wears a blindfold. They have eyes, but don't wish to see, and when the Jesus figure of the book, an androgynous figure who looks anything but the typically bearded guy we associate with Jesus, rips off the blindfolds, the sudden light is painful. And speaking of atypical representations: the twelve apostles are wonderfully drawn as genuine social outcasts. They include a spike-haired punkster, a couple of dimwits, John Deere-capped yahoos, a glamorous hooker, a blind, near-autistic kid, and so on. Losers and misfits, everyone--yet absolutely, unconditionally embraced by this strange man called Jesus. But the Jesus of Marked shouldn't be mistaken for the Jesus meek-and-mild creampuff of Sunday School fame. That's the kind of Jesus that the respectable blindfolded worshippers want. Ross's Jesus is a man who loathes injustice, cruelty, and stupidity, and isn't afraid to attack it. As he shouts while disrupting the Temple moneychangers, "For the last time, I'm Not NICE!" Ross's visual imagining of Mark's gospel is astoundingly creative, but stubbornly loyal to the spirit and message of the gospel. The Pharisees who try to fast-talk Jesus into a corner are depicted as manic-eyed and creepy game show hosts; the rich young man who asks what he must do to be saved carries a mountain of (oppressive) luxuries on his back; Roman soldiers are depicted as helmeted, sunglassed state troopers; the death and resurrection of Jairus' daughter becomes an exploitable media-moment; and the angel in the empty tomb (which has a street address of 1546, corresponding to Mark 15:46) is the sad clown Canio from the opera "Pagliacci." What creativity! Read Ross's Marked, then re-read Mark's Mark. Things will be different--but also the same.

Amazing artistic skill.

Each page is a work of art and all put to good use in the retelling of Mark's Gospel. Action, drama, passion, love and adventure. It's all here. -Scott Carlton, New York City

Breathtaking!

It's so exciting to actually have a COOL bible-based graphic novel to match the level of quality that's out there in the secular world. I can't wait to see what he'll do next!

Marking time

Marked's greatest accomplishment is making the most familiar story exciting, surprising and full of the chaos of reality as it is lived. The drawings are witty and gritty. The shellacked-hair gorgon who is losing her patience with the unauthorized miracles is laugh out loud funny - Margaret Thatcher on a good day. For those who know the gospel of St. Mark, it is thrilling to see it filtered through a new and contemporary sensibility. For those who don't want to read the same-old same-old, Marked succeeds brilliantly in its retelling. It triumphs where Jesus Christ Superstar only thinks it does.