Customer Reviews

The Grand Inquisitor (Crossroad Book)

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(This review first appeared at http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/)

At first glance, it seems designed specifically to freak out everyone in its numerous potential overlapping markets--an intricately Gothic comic book, its dialogue written in elaborate blank verse, its plot inspired by and title borrowed from Dosdoyevsky's heavy-going Grand Inquisitor, and filled with all manner of strange hellfire, Marian visions, doctrinal arguments, and one deeply creepy Infant of Prague statue. But the author knows all that, already, and it is to his credit he forged ahead to produce this suspensful theological roller-coaster ride of a graphic novel.

The brilliance of John Zmirak's first graphic novel, The Grand Inquisitor, is precisely that its genre-bending, everything-but-the-sacristy-sink extravagance works so well. Uptight crypto-Jansenists will probably initially dismiss it as frivolous, beige Catholics as a Traddy screed, but those who actually read the text, and consider its elaborately-drawn pages for more than five seconds, will be rewarded.

(Plus, the illustrations have all sorts of wonderful little surprises embedded within them--conclaves, Tridentine liturgies, Cardinal Mahony playing golf, and my favorite, the Infant of Prague in full armor.)

The tale is simple, but all its permutations are profound. Sometime in the near future, a papal conclave drags on as the College of Cardinals finds itself at a deadlock. Tension mounts outside the Vatican walls. The liberals stage a walkout and hurl their scarlet robes to the crowd below in protest. The few remaining electors choose a complete unknown as the next pontiff, an African monk from a forgotten Traditionalist order. (Think Hadrian the Seventh, but with real saints and real sinners facing off rather than an empty conflict of aesthete poseurs and vulgar bureacrats). Unfortunately, one prince of the Church, possessing his own strange and alarming agenda, arranges a mix-up at the new pontiff's airport pickup. The vast bulk of the story deals with the confrontation between the cardinal--incidentally, a dead ringer for Teilhard de Chardin--and the simple priest, now imprisoned in the mental ward of a Roman hospital along with a dozen or so deranged papal claimants of a less legitimate nature. What happens next will decide the fate of the Church, and with it, the world.

In the hands of nearly anyone else it might have turned into a clunkily-plotted Dan Brown novel, but instead it takes a wholly unexpected and thought-provoking turn. Indeed, it amazes me how quickly the reader is drawn into the story, even though it contains no car-chases or fantastical BOOMs! and ZAPs! but focuses instead on the claustrophobic struggle--sometimes spiritual, sometimes quite physical--between the African Carthusian and rightful pontiff-elect, his captor, and a mystical Eastern-Rite cardinal the villain has also imprisoned. All three are remarkably well-imagined and believable characters, wrestling with equally believable, though terrifying, existential problems. Even the traitorous, wire-pulling cardinal does his dark deeds out of the twisted sort of logic you or I could succumb to in the face of despair.

While deliberately lacking the (reverent) snarkiness of his Bad Catholics Guides series, it still operates in much the same way--a Christianizing search-and-rescue operation of a whole genre that simultaneously functions as counter-cultural polemic and intra-ecclesial critique while at the same time still holds together as a coherent and gripping narrative. The luminous blank verse doesn't hurt either, and its stylized solemnity is the single fixed point in a swirlingly tumultuous tale.

The plot--with its scheming clerics and wild visions--is, of course, a fantasy, a theological thought-experiment, and nobody would claim otherwise, but reading it can't help make you wonder if perhaps you too might be guilty of the same self-rationalizing waterings-down of Catholicism that lie at the heart of the book's conflict. Zmirak is articulating something very complex here--a return to Tradition with real, serious mercy, rather than the amnesiac indifference that has unconsciously colored much of our cultural and religious life for the last forty years. It is not about any one pet issue, left or right. It is about the Faith. The Grand Inquisitor is not about any one agenda within the Church today, but for a call for the Church to simply be the Church, just and merciful, reasonable and mystical, ever-ancient and ever-new.

Sometimes fiction can capture a truth better than simply reciting the facts. The "Grand Inquisitor" is an example.

Ever since the moment of its inception, the Catholic church has faced seemingly insurmountable challenges.

In the last, unlamented century, secularism and atheism have attacked the church relentlessly. Millions fell away in Europe. Communists sent priests and nuns to the gulag, murdered them, or sent them to insane asylums. The 20th century had more martyrs than any century before. Those who stood firm in the church against battalions of those who chanted: change, change, change, were derided.

But at the core of the church is not men with their failings. It is the Holy Spirit, guiding it always to the truth. And that is the truth told in this graphic novel.

It's so unique, such a strange and intelligent story, that I think it is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. The pictures are wonderful. The language spare but gripping.

For every traditional Catholic, this a book to savor, and to send on to your friends and children.

"If you're already a fundamentalist Catholic, then this book will only reaffirm what you already believe." NO! The African Pope-elect starts out a fundamentalist, but undergoes a radical conversion in the course of his dialogue with the false progressive--not to any kind of progressivism, but to the mystical Christianity represented by the Cardinal of the Eastern Church. If you miss this, you miss the whole point of the book.

Zmirak shows, brilliantly, I think, how false traditionalism and false progressivism share a common vision, which leaves out the gospel of divine love and mercy. Hope is held out that the progressive is not finally damned, because the God he refused to serve was not the true God, but the Accuser--in Hebrew, Satan. After all, he did not conspire against Catholicism for selfish reasons, as the reviewer claims, but precisely for the salvation of souls.

Those of us who cling to either side of the sad debates of the last century are not ready for Zmirak's message. I pray that the new generations will be.

For those that are not Catholic, I would suggest you read this book as good fiction. Enjoy the excellent artwork. When the DaVinci Code was popular, I was told it's just good fiction, not dogmatic, read it as such. Well, the same should apply here. The Grand Inquisitor thankfully, has re-introduced me to how good graphic novels can be.

Catholics and non-Catholics will enjoy the excellent storyline and art. Get the book.

Dostoevsky's parable,"The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" may be literature's greatest commentary on the Human condition and its relationship with God and its own freedom.(Vladimir Solovyov's "War,Progress and the END of HISTORY~including a short story of the Anti-Christ is strong,lesser-known parable/contender).The PM reprise-retelling(in Post-modern format of GRAPHIC NOVEL)by John Zmirak and illustrated(profoundly,in tradition of Blake)by Carla Millar of The GRAND INQUISITOR is astonishingly comparable to its predecessors. The setting of the legend is Vatican ROME: Eternal City & seat of the world's Christian message of salvation for 3000 years.

The Pope has died. In CONCLAVE to elect the next(final/Peter II?)Holy Father conflict erupts:the "liberal"(pro-abortion;pro-divorce-pro-homosexual; "anti-dogma" Post-modernist)faction storms out in protest.Cardinal Mwome of Africa is arrested and interrogated by the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor. Mwome is to be the next(traditional,in the cast of John Paul II...and Jesus)Pope.

The stage is set for startling(often terrifying)debate between The Man of Faith
and the Man of Sin who would use the gift of Faith to defy God's plan of Salvation
(the Cross of Christ-"If you would be MY disciple...you must pick-up your cross, AND FOLLOW ME). Echoing Dostoevsky's Inquisitor,this Cardinal challenges Christ with complaint that this Command(despite all the Lord's suffering-offered GRACE)is too hard;unfair and a road map for humanity's personal & collective Damnation(blisteringly illustrated with Bosch-like visions of Hell).

Against arguments of Free Will and(genuine)Choice are offered anti-Commands of Post-modernism and moral relativism (You may not smoke; but Abortion...60,000,000 since Roe v.Wade...is a "Civil Right").
The onus of Individual Conscience; personal responsibility and SIN are inundated with PM psycho-babble;pop culture/Cafeteria theology and overt SELF-APOTHEOSIS. In the end the defiance of Lucifer is echoed(by the Inquisitor)Non Servo!"I WILL NOT SERVE."

This graphic novel...which concludes with a beautiful rendition of Sr. Faustina's picture of Christ dispensing oceans of mercy over the oriflamme, JESUS I TRUST IN YOU... is ultimately transcendent in artistry and message of Truth & HOPE.
Trust me: this is Augustinian work for the Believer/sinner;the lukewarm,and the atheist to ponder in our age of Nietzshean God-killing Madmen;of moral vacuity; and proud intransigence.Take and read(10 stars)

I am interested in religion and was intrigued by this book when I purchased it used. The art is very detailed, the artist is very good at portraits of aged men. I was a bit put off by the dense blocks of dialogue in tiny type but hoped it would prove to be enlightening of the way Catholics see the world. The concept of the first black Pope was fascinating and I hoped to learn more about the conflict of the many ways of believing in today's Catholic religion--I was raised Catholic but moved on later in my life and found fulfillment elsewhere.

I have a lot of experience reading graphic novels, but soon found myself wading through almost incomprehensible dialogue, but I suppose if I was a practicing Catholic who believes in a literal Hell, and has read a lot of Catholic philosophy, I would love it and it would make more sense. The conversations between the characters does not read at all like normal human dialogue. The stiff, stilted writing literally screamed "this is Important!" It does show the many faces of the Catholic Church. All I really got out of it is that there are still many Catholics who believe theirs is the one True Path, birth control is the work of Satan, and anyone who fails to recognize this is simply deluded or lazy or willfully ignorant but a Merciful Christ will save them (present company included, I guess) from Hell nonetheless. It seems to have been written by someone who has some good ideas, has really thought about his subject matter, and sincerely believes in it, but really does not know how to write a graphic novel, or believable dialogue. I would have enjoyed it more and perhaps gotten more out of it if the writing was better. But perhaps one feels a need to use stiff, stilted language when writing about what you believe to be the One Truth. Maybe the author felt writing it more like everyday dialogue would somehow vulgarize it.

I would recommend this for anyone who is interested in religion and wants to see how traditional Catholics view the world and eternity and matters of spirit. Practicing Catholics who are struggling with issues of their faith should enjoy it particularly. I am sure it will give them much to think about. The art is very detailed, has a nice Michelangelo and William Blake feel to it, though the figures sometimes seem as stilted as the words. There are some good, surreal scenes of the damned being tormented in Hell.

This book presents an alarming but interesting interpretation of the "liberal" vs. the "traditional" views of the Catholic Church from the perspective of Dostoevsky's section in The Brothers Karamazov. The storyline will not be given away here, but I recommend this book for young adult readers and not children, as the story and illustrations provide disturbing images. If one is into graphic novels, this is one of the best.

I wrote this book. But I'm quoting a review by another author, who is too too busy to enter his comments here:

"An awe-inspiring achievement. Written in spare, supple, and beguiling blank verse, 'The Grand Inquisitor' offers an explanation of the Church's travails over the last generation that is at once breathtakingly inventive and thoroughly believable. It casts its piercing gaze toward secularism and Islamic supremacism and concludes with a magnificent expression of abiding faith and hope. This is an imaginative, insightful, and simply beautiful meditation on the reality of the Church and the world, the wheat and the tares before the harvest, and the holy dilemma of the lover of souls. Nothing short of a masterpiece."

--Robert Spencer, author of NY Times bestsellers "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and "The Truth About Mohammed."

Well, being an artist, I LOVE the style of art that Ms. Millar executes in graphic novel, very much reminds me of Byzantine art. I cannot imagine the great patience Ms. Millar must have to illustrate every panel as she did, all with tremendous details.

As for the story, I can only guess that one would have to be a student of Catholicism to understand more of what is being said and going on. I found myself reading some pages repeatedly, but had to give up in the middle as it was frustrating for me. Probably, this is written with a style higher than I could understand, I don't know. It seemed that to get a point across, a segment or sequence took more effort than necessary in words to communicate what was going on or really being said.

In a modern twist on Dostoevsky's parable of the Grand Inquisitor, this odd graphic novel asserts that the problems of the post-conciliar Catholic Church can be attributed to the diabolic machinations of one evil Cardinal. According to the story, this Cardinal has deliberately led the Church astray because- believing that the vast majority of mankind is incapable of following the Gospel and will thus be eternally damned- God will be forced to have mercy on us if we were truly ignorant. Through this cosmic loophole, this Cardinal paradoxically hopes to save men by leading them away from God.

I really didn't care for this book. The artwork was competent but ugly (with the Cardinals resembling Skeksis from "The Dark Crystal"), the premise was ridiculous, and the dialogue was redolent of bad heavy metal lyrics from the 1980s. Still, this story is so bizarre as to make it interesting, and traditional Catholicism is something you rarely find treated in a graphic novel, so it does have something of a novelty factor.