April 6, 2008...2:41 pm
Deepak Chopra’s “Buddha” comic book: Is it good?
So: Deepak Chopra’s comic book “Buddha” is finally out. Here’s the cover:
So how is it? Well, let’s try to answer that by asking some questions that one might have.
Q: Does Chopra take liberties with the source material? (The source material being the legend of the Buddha’s birth, life, and death.)
Sure, that’s a given. But then again, it’s clear that with so many traditions having their own presentations of the legend, Chopra’s not exactly being so cavalier as some purists will say. That being said, there’s something weird about the full title of the comic book, isn’t there? It’s “Deepak Chopra’s Buddha (TM): A Story of Enlightenment.” (For more of this kind of thing, see the Horse’s February 08 piece, “In Defense of Deepak and Dharma-Dabbling.”
Q: How does it look?
It looks like this, which is to say, damned good:
Q: Did I enjoy it?
Yeah! I really did. It’s cool to be reading something like this in comic-book form. The Buddha’s life has recently been told – with GIANT liberties taken – in Osama Tezuka’s massive, multivolume Buddha graphic novel. Tezuka’s version of things was very cool in ways, and not-necessarily-so-much in others. There’s only one issue of Chopra’s Buddha comic out as of this writing, but that one issue feels like a good comic book: appropriately epic, colorful, and appealing in how it plays with imagery and storytelling.
Q: Would I buy the next one?
Yep. But then, I’d buy it even if it sucked, if only because I think it’s a noteworthy development when a figure as well-known as Deepak Chopra decides to put his name on a comic book about the Buddha.) However, it really does seem to be off to a good start. And it’s nice to know that a “story of enlightenment” make for as cool and dark and complex a comic as a well-put-together superhero yarn.
Of course you’ll have to check it out for yourself to see if you agree. If you do, leave a comment here and tell folks what your take on “Buddha” is.
Thanks to Virgin Comics, who granted permission to reproduce imagery from Buddha here. All imagery in this post (c) Virgin Comics LLC.
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