iPlates Volume 2: More Pure Book of Mormon Awesomeness

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by Seattle Jon:

A tyrant to depose.
A city to defend.
A family to save.

This post is a bit late to the party, but I wanted to write a quick blurb about Carter and Atwood's iPlates Volume 2 after the volume saved my family on Sunday. More specifically, the volume saved my four kids from having to hear their dad ask them to be more reverent in sacrament meeting as one-by-one they took in pure Book of Mormon awesomeness.

I wrote about how great (iGreat) iPlates Volume 1 was two years ago tomorrow. Stephen Carter, editor of Sunstone Magazine, and artist Jett Atwood have again combined their talents to continue the iPlates series, this time with Volume 2, Prophets, Priests, Rebels, and Kings, which is a collection of three comic books based on the Book of Mormon's Mosiah 12-13: "Alma in the Wilderness," "Gideon's Revolt," and "Zerin's Sacrifice."

For a good summary of the volume, as well as some nice quotes from Atwood and an interview with Carter, check out Doug Gibson's article at the Standard Examiner.

Below are some captures from the first 12 pages. I've selected panels with female characters for a reason - the inclusion of female role models is one of my favorite things about the iPlates volumes.

If you aren't familiar with iPlates, or want to see Volume III like I do, buy iPlates Volume 2 now!

Seattle Jon is a family man, little league coach, urban farmer and businessman living in Seattle. He currently gets up early with the markets to trade bonds for a living. In his spare time he enjoys movies, thrifting and is an avid reader. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Japan Fukuoka mission field. He has one wife, four kids and three chickens.

The Holy Ghost, Right On Time

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by Scott Heffernan:

Scott Heffernan is a graphic designer and photographer in Seattle. He works on the creative team at Archie McPhee doing all manner of strange things. He grew up a child of the ‘80s in Salt Lake City, served a mission to England/Wales, and got a degree in American Sign Language from the University of Utah. After marrying his sweetheart, they moved to Seattle and had three beautiful baby boys together. He loves toys, skateboarding, and thrift store shopping and has impeccable Modar. Twitter: @ScottHeffernan. Tumblr: ScottHeff.tumblr.com.
Image credit: Scott Heffernan.

Garden of Enid Comic Compilation

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Enid comics are posted on the comic homepage regularly on Wednesdays and Sundays and sometimes on days in between. You can also follow the adventures of Enid on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Trust us, this is worth reading and supporting. Some of our recent favorites are below (posted with author's permission).

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The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl

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Despite the author having a strong connection to MMM (see today's comic for an MMM mention), we're only just now drawing attention to the adventures of weird mormon girl, Enid Gardner, the star of the webcomic The Garden of Enid. Shame on us.

Enid comics are posted on the comic homepage regularly on Wednesdays and Sundays and sometimes on days in between. You can also follow the adventures of Enid on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Trust us, this is worth reading and supporting. Some of our recent favorites are below (posted with author's permission).

Guest Post: Seeds of the Feminine in the Book of Mormon

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For the past year or so, I've been working to produce a graphic novel called iPlates, which is based on a few chapters from the Book of Mormon. (See our Kickstarter here.) Before starting this project, I had thought of the Book of Mormon as having a worldview easily nailed down, but as I studied it for clues on how to structure my story, I suddenly saw the Book of Mormon's worldview popping up all over the map. I was thoroughly confused by this until I remembered my graduate studies in narrative form.

Scriptures fulfill two major functions. First, they give their followers a story to cohere around. Instead of presenting social visions, rules, and knowledge in abstract form, cultures often embed them in stories. The concepts stick better that way. I heard these kinds of stories often when I was spending time in an Alaska Native village.  I'd see the village elders (male and female) sitting with the kids, sometimes telling about a shaman’s adventures, sometimes telling about an accident they had survived (such as falling through the ice or breaking down in the middle of nowhere), sometimes telling about the antics of the mythological Raven. The elders were embedding culture and skills in those young minds. Along those same lines, it seems to me that the Jews managed to survive their trials intact at least partially because they had a book full of well-functioning stories to guide them. Similarly, I think, the Book of Mormon has provided the stories Mormons needed to cohere in times of hardship.

Carter & Atwood's iPlates Are iGreat

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

So, I've been a single dad to my eight and six year-old boys for the last nine days while my wife and two oldest travel throughout Thailand, Cambodia and South Korea on a service vacation. That first Sunday I was already exhausted and used the excuse that, "Boys, ward conference is kind of like stake break conference. Let's just take a family day." I felt no different yesterday morning, but decided to get them up, bathed, fed and dressed before our nine a.m. sacrament meeting.

I was already regretting my decision 15 minutes into sacrament meeting. The boys had somehow squirreled hot wheels into the building and were on their knees racing them on top of, around, and over every available surface. I tried to distract them by drawing what I thought were pretty decent renditions of a cave troll, Treebeard and Gandalf, but didn't get much more than two minutes respite. Desperate, I thought, "There has to be something in the "church bag" that will keep their attention for more than five minutes."

I passed over two iSpy books before noticing Stephen Carter's iPlates, a comic series based on the Book of Mormon. My first reaction was one of guilt ... Stephen had sent me a complimentary review copy months ago, but after failing to get my oldest to write a review of the comic book for MMM, I'd forgotten about it. Now, volume one of iPlates had my attention, and as I flipped a few pages into Ammon: Warrior Missionary and saw this, I thought, "This should do the trick."

As a seasoned member of the church who still finds the Book of Mormon incredibly dull, I enjoyed that iPlates wasn't a strict retelling of the narrative. At the end of the comic book, Stephen describes the collection as "historical fiction - with an emphasis on the fiction ... featuring 100% of the Book of Mormon's violence, tons of bonus character development, and a dollop of preaching big enough to keep your mom happy."

Well, Stephen, this time you kept the dad happy. And you also kept my two boys happy for much longer than five minutes.

About the authors: Stephen Carter is the current editor of Sunstone and the drawings are by Sunstone cartoonist, Jett Atwood. Support them (and volume two) by purchasing iPlates.

The Changing Meaning of the Beard in Mormonism

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by Andrew Beck (bio)