Novelist Anne Rice to make graphic novel about Jesus

American author Anne Rice has captured the imagination of readers with her novels about vampires. Can she similarly attract attention to Jesus Christ with her latest project?

 

Rice has raised a call on crowdsourced funding site Kickstarter for help to produce a graphic novel about the life of Christ, "before and at the beginning of his ministry."

 

"I offer these novels to all Christians. And I offer them to all those who have ever enjoyed or valued my earlier books. Please understand: they are fiction, but they are fiction that seeks to bring the reader closer to the Lord in whom my life belongs," Rice said.

"You will find no watering down of the gospels in these novels. You will find no modern twists. I am a believer in every word of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," she added.

 

The graphic novel adaptation is adapted by Anne Elizabeth (“Pulse of Power”) and illustrated by Mike Miller, artist of the hit DC Comics' “Injustice: Gods Among Us” and cover artist for George R.R. Martin’s "A Game of Thrones".

 

Rice also said the novels are "well-researched in every historical respect."

 

Rice imagined the early stage in Christ's life before his baptism in the Jordan and the miracle at Cana.

 

She did so with a faithful approach to the culture and realities of the time.

 

On the other hand, she said she believes in Christian art - "that we can paint pictures, write music, create great films, and write novels about Jesus and that these efforts can serve Our Blessed Lord."

 

"If these novels of mine do not serve Him, if they are not for Him, then they are worthless," she said.

 

The project proponents said proceeds of pledges will go mainly to paying the art team and offsetting the production cost of the physical copies of the book as well as handling, packaging, shipping and creation of bonus materials.

 

$48k target

 

Rice also pointed out the target $48,000 may seem like much money, but "it's the bare minimum it will take to make a 100-page graphic novel of this quality and get everything produced."

 

"Ideally, we want this to be about 150 pages, and unabridged. If we do manage to get over the $75,000 mark, we will expand the number of pages and throw in some extras. But for now, we want to make sure we hit that first funding goal, so we set it as low as possible," she said. — TJD, GMA News