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Drozd, Andrew – Coexisting

Website (down as of 4/25/10)

Coexisting

Full disclosure here: I think people who take every part of the bible literally are silly, silly folks. There are plenty of good lessons in there and more than a few entertaining stories but, well, some parts contradict other parts, so it’s just about impossible to take literally. People who think that dinosaurs lived at the same time as people and that carbon dating is a tool of the devil, well, they’re just funny. And if you believe all of these things, I’m sure that you’re a perfectly wonderful person, and you’re more than welcome to believe whatever you like over there, and I’ll do the same over here. Deal? OK. Sorry about the unexpected rant, but it seems like irrationality is taking over these days, what with evolution being defeated in a mock trial and Kansas literally trying to change the definition of the word “science” so they can get creationism in schools. This book (remember how I’m supposed to be talking about a comic?) is about Andrew (the author), Carl (his gay friend) and Marcus (a Seventh Day Adventist and homophobe). Andrew and Carl are trying to get a team together for a three on three basketball tournament, spot Marcus playing basketball and immediately want him on the team. The rest of the book (focused mainly on Andrew) deals with the morality of shopping at Wal-Mart and Andrew, who seems to feel the same way I do about the evolution subject, trying to get answers from Marcus about the whole thing. What I love about this book is that there are no easy answers to anything here. Andrew tries to be tolerant about the whole thing, then finds out that he just can’t, then has some serious doubts about how he reacted to the whole thing, but we never get to see exactly how the whole thing is resolved. The sparse, relatively simple dialogue and art really amplify the black and white nature with which the two main characters see the world but, as I said, you’re not going to get a simple declaration of somebody being right and somebody being wrong here. A surprisingly complex book (especially considering I was talking just the other day about how few comics even touch things that are current politically), I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s a website, this one is $2.99 and it comes out in July…