• British publisher released The Manga Bible, illustrated in Japanese comic book style
• Characters have superhero-like personas
• Christian publishers work to appeal to visually oriented younger generations
• Popular culture applied to faith a long-time practice

This is no children's Bible. A British publishing company released a version of the Bible illustrated in the style of a Japanese manga comic book.

British artist Siku, creator of The Manga Bible, said on the Bible's Web site that earlier attempts to use Western artwork to attract younger audiences to the Bible were dated. Manga, he said, penetrated into Western pop culture through cartoons, blockbuster movies like "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill" and music group Gorillaz's animated personas. It was the most cutting-edge option for his Bible, he said.

In The Manga Bible, Siku said the depictions of Jesus and other biblical characters were inspired by super heroes. In Jesus' first appearance, he is silhouetted to give him a "hard-edged, gritty, stranger-walks-into-town" image.

Siku said he and the other creators broke down the different books of the Bible to create a continuous, chronological story that is compressed into just more than 200 pages of graphics and text.

While this Bible is consolidated into one storyline, he did include the Pauline letters.

"People ask 'How can you dramatize Paul's letters?' Siku said. "People tend to think of Paul as a hard-nosed man on a mission. We have demonstrated something quite different in (The Manga Bible)."

Laura Minchew, vice president and publisher of Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson, Inc., said sprucing up Bibles with artwork and modern styles is not a new concept.

Kids aren't reading as much as they used to, she said, and innovative methods are necessary to capture and engage them. Two of Thomas Nelson's best-selling children's Bibles include the "Princess Bible," which has a pink sparkly cover with a bejeweled snap, and a Bible for boys that looks like a treasure chest.

A trend in the Christian publishing industry, Minchew said, is to create Bibles that follow a fashion or act as an accessory. BibleZines, for example, look like fashion magazines and contain Bible excerpts with captions to help young people apply biblical themes to their lives.

"We realize how much this younger generation is visually-oriented," said Brian Singer-Towns, senior editor at St. Mary's Press, a Christian publishing company whose products are geared toward 10 to 19 year olds and which also produced a manga-inspired Bible. Singer-Towns said publishers aim to use an artistic style that is familiar to young people.

"We look at popular culture and appeal to sensibilities of the younger generations," he said.

Faith is always new, he said, and pop culture has always been applied to faith to help make it appealing and relevant. Classical art and music were applied to faith because they were popular in their time. Similarly, the popularity of manga and anime today can supplement faith resources like the Bible.

Singer-Towns said even Jesus went to parties, but while he was there he challenged people to live morally and share their wealth with the poor.

Manager of local religious bookstore Probucolls, 1933 W. Wisconsin Ave., Karen Scharnick said trends in faith styles vary culturally. In the inner city, she said many prefer the traditional King James Version of the Bible, which uses older language and emphasizes verses. In Probucolls' suburban sister store, customers tend to prefer the New Living Translation or New International Version which are written in modern language and read more like a book.

Scharnick said that religion and faith are definitely permeating into our everyday lives. Jewelry, fashion, music and literature have all begun to show Christian influences, she said. "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books are very popular and have Christian messages.

"Someone who would never pick up a Bible would pick up 'Chicken Soup for the Soul,'" she said. "The Gospel is getting out to people who would never darken the door of the Church."