Russell, Mark & Wheeler, Shannon – God Is Disappointed In You

Website for Mark Russell

Website for Shannon Wheeler

God Is Disappointed In You

Be warned: this is pretty much a book review. What the hell is a book review doing on a comics review website? Well, this does come from Top Shelf Comix, and Shannon Wheeler does have some damned funny single panel comics mixed in with the writing. But mostly I’m just doing this to try and push this just a little bit further into the popular consciousness. Not that I have any grand illusions on my influence, but some people read this website, and those that do should read this book. All of them? Yep. Or to put it another way: how many of you have read the Bible, front to back, like it was an actual book? I’ve done it and it’s awful. Not much of a narrative thread, lots of stretches where nothing happens, repetitive passages, hilariously dated misogyny and homophobia, and parts of it are downright insane. Oh, and it’ll also take you months to get through it. But you kind of have to have a working knowledge of it, as the world is still full of nutbags who believe that the entirety of this book is literally true. Which is also a good indicator of a charlatan, as certain parts of it contradict other parts of it, making it impossible that it could all be literally true, but I’m getting off track (which will be a serious danger as I go on, so be warned). What Mark wanted to do with this book (as he mentions in the epilogue) is to boil the various books of the Bible down into understandable and damned funny bits, and he does that beautifully. That title is perfect (and he’s right, there isn’t a better one line summary of the Bible out there), the little red flap that’s included as a bookmark put a smile on my face, and the silver trim along the edges of the pages really makes this book look like a Bible from a distance. So your next question is probably whether or not this book will offend you if you are a believer and/or a regular church-goer (believe me, all kinds of people go to church out of simple inertia or out of a desire not to offend the rest of their family). As someone who is neither of those things (but was both many years ago), I’d have to say that this isn’t terribly offensive. Irreverent, sure, but the Bible is screaming out for that treatment, as so much of it is so very ridiculous. And really, I’d have to say that Mark went easy on it at times. No mention of the pricing scale the Bible used to make sure you were getting a fair price for selling your daughter into slavery (yes, that is really in the Bible, and it’s really something that the Confederates used as an argument for slavery back in Civil War times), no real mention of the many times that one book would contradict another one, including how many discrepancies were in the four books that told the story of the life of Jesus. But right from the start (“God created the human race to be his pets. As a first-time pet owner, God wisely chose to start small, creating just two people: Adam and Eve.”), you get a sense of the tone of this book, so if that’s too much for you, feel free to bail. I’ll think you’re being a baby, but chances are pretty good that we’re never going to have a conversation about this book, so don’t worry about it. From there you might expect this book to get bogged down in the same repetition that the Bible does, but that’s not a problem. Mark’s idea to treat the various letters from prophets as memos to the flocks was inspired, and Shannon never failed to add a comic here and there that summed up Mark’s summary perfectly. There are a few too many typos for my taste in the early going (I’m snobby about such things, so once it gets to half a dozen I get cranky), but they clear up about halfway through. This book is invaluable and I expect to read it at least a few more times in my lifetime, and to loan it out to a few people who could use the knowledge. Unless you’re an impartial biblical scholar, this also includes you. $20