i first heard about ‘the almighty bible’ while sitting across the table from a friend at a sushi joint. he pulled out a copy of the then hot-off-the-press physical copy of genesis. as i thumbed through it, he explained how they had one of the top animation studios in korea working on this project. i’d seen other attempts at visual bibles, illustrated bibles, manga bibles, and the like. but this was a step above. for one, it’s full color on every page. the artwork, coloring and line work is as good as any illustrated book out there, in any genre (better than many).
my friend told me their plans to release additional books, covering the whole story of the bible (while not every book or passage).
then he mentioned their plans to release the whole thing as an ipad (and iphone) app. my first thought was, “sure, lots of people have said that.” seeing the skepticism on my face, he pulled out his ipad and showed me the app, with genesis loaded in. and i have to say, i was blown away. something about the illustrations on that backlit screen just make them that much more vivid, that much more alive. and there are a bunch of little interactive things in the app to make it cool — some pages can load as actual moving animations (simple, but mesmerizing). there’s a map tab to quickly get geographical reference. and there are bits that show you where you are in the overall storyline of scripture.
i was smitten.
i read about a quarter of my books on my ipad now; but i’d never seen anything like this.
i took the book home and showed my son (who is 13), and he LOVED it. and once i got the ipad app, he read it and played with it for hours.
there’s almost a sense where any illustrated version of the bible has to have a translation approach, just like any translation. and i really like the approach the creators of ‘the almighty bible’ use — it’s accurate, but easy to read.
there’s a nice website about all of this, and i expect it will have more and more added to it in the months to come. i’m sure the sweet spot for these books and app are pre-teens and young teens; but i’d want this even if i didn’t work with middle schoolers or have a 13 year-old son. i want to read the stories this way, and visualize the action and emotion and setting.
exodus is out in book form now, and i like it even more than genesis. i’m stoked about seeing what’s next.
the books and app are available on the almighty bible website; the books are also on amazon (and other places), and the app is in the app store (it’s a free app, that comes with the first section of genesis. the additional 3 portions of genesis are only 99 cents each!).
