 Eyewitness - Acts of the Spirit
published by Headpress
Bob Luedke's epic retelling of the gospel story continues in Eyewitness: Acts of the Spirit, published by Headpress. As with the first book in the series, Luedke has pulled off the seemingly impossible, making a great tale out of something that has a huge danger of being very twee. The gospel may be the greatest story ever told, but my, we Christians know how to make it sound trite!
Acts of the Spirit continues where volume one of the series left off, following the dual story line of present day conspiracy, and another conspiracy 2000 years prior. I felt that this book was in fact an improvement on the first in a number of ways - the colouring in particular was great, it seems Luedke, who has been working on his own for some time now has a creative team whose talents he can call upon to beef up the strength of his book.
The cover is also a nice matt finish, which I find an improvement to the previous glossy look, and there is a general tone of increased simplicity in this title, which is welcome I think. Luedke is a very skilled artist, and I would say that his years of experience are really paying their way in this title.
As before I think that he has taken a number of difficult threads and tied them together very well - it would be disasterous to over emphasise any one aspect the plot - go one way and you face the danger of seeming anti semitic, go another way and you are likely to appear to be making some other kind of political statement. By having good and bad characters in all different camps, Luedke has dodged this one. He also shows an understanding of the political situation, not only in the middle east, but also in the USA, which adds weight to his creation.
New readers should know that this is an excellent book for introducing someone to an understanding of the gospel tale, taking them through it with a liberal dose of comic book style and panache.
Of particular strength I think are the aspects of the book that dwell on the supernatural. Luedke really seems to bring out the notion of the hyper real - the super natural being more real than the natural. His depictions of Angels for example are far fetched enough to avoid being idealised depictions of heavenly beings, but real enough to give a good idea that Angels could actually exist.
He also handles the present day stroyline well, with good plotting and sharp dialogue. Possibly his depiction of the character Rico is a little wooden, but then he is a minor player in some ways!
My one complaint (if it is a complaint) would be the cover. I hate to criticise people's covers, because they work so hard on them. This one is beautifully drawn, and extremely skillfully done, but for my liking its a little too Christian, it might have put me off an otherwise excellent book. I felt a similar way about volume one, but I guess Luedke knows his audience much better than I!! There are times when being a cynical brit doesnt help - particularly when you are trying to get product into bookshops...
So hats off ladies and gentlemen, we have another cracker on our hands!
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