By Seán Michael Wilson & Michiru Morikawa (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-021-8
Scottish émigré and citizen of the world Seán Michael Wilson has a splendid and well-earned reputation for “Deep†comics that tackle real issues (Iraq: Operation Corporate Takeover {with War on Want}, Goodbye God? – an Illustrated Examination of Science Vs Religion with Hunt Emerson) but is equally adept at more straightforward and hugely entertaining strip material (The Story of Lee, AX: Alternative Manga).
Here, those seeming opposites collide and combine in a superbly engaging and wickedly barbed tale of lost love, disillusionment and grief-filled reaction that is both hilariously acerbic and potently thought-provoking.
Aiding and abetting a great deal of impious soul-searching is award-winning manga illustrator and poster artist Michiru Morikawa – who worked with Wilson on Yakuza Moon, Demon’s Sermon, Musashi and The Faceless Ghost – and lends a fine gloss to the proceedings which begin with a robbery…
Devout Christian David is still reeling from the death of his wife and child when he decides to confront God and force him to explain his actions and motivations. With no other recourse the aggrieved sinner starts methodically breaking the Ten Commandments – beginning with ‘Thou shalt not steal’ – but is utterly unaware that two antithetical gentlemen are watching him…
Before long they are at his door, introducing themselves as Mr. Black and Mr. White; offering counsel and unwelcome advice the bereaved David doesn’t want to hear. Nor does he believe they are the supernatural advocates they seem to be as, whilst they bicker over him, it becomes clear to the apostate that they don’t yet know what his game plan actually is…
As David continues his celestial attention-getting campaign in ‘Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s… (house; thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is neighbor’s)’ through a spot of coldly calculating seduction, White maintains his surveillance whilst Black slacks off and disappears.
Everything is not as it appears: White may well be the agent of an Interventionist creator, but his opposite number claims to be a simple disciple of a modern humanist rationalism rather than an operative of the Infernal Antagonist…
David doesn’t really care: his first two assaults upon scripture have won him nothing but fleeting physical pleasure so he ups the ante by robbing and desecrating a church before ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’ finds him contemplating how best to offend all the Abrahamic religions when there’s already seven-day shopping and the entire world has pretty much abandoned the concept of holy days…
The subversive private war takes on a far more public aspect when the bereft zealot creates an obscene statue and posts pictures on the internet, inviting the world to worship Graven Daven, the Indecent Idol in ‘Thou shalt not make for yourself a graven image’…
As fanatics of every stripe converge on his house, David ignores his constant prating gadflies and tells all in a candid TV interview, and, with the entire world caught up, subsequently moves on to the darker fringes of his scheme.
Firstly he destroys the gullible couple next door by shattering the edict ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbors’ before – with God still a no-show and with no hint of an apology or explanation forthcoming – planning his end-game.
It starts during a quiet little chat with the gobsmacked Mr. Black about the big one… the one about killing…
To Be Concluded…
Thought-provoking and deceptively low-key, this repurposing of an age-old question is unlike earlier graphic novels addressing this timeless theme (Eisner’s A Contract with God or Truth Faith by Garth Ennis & Warren Pleece come immediately to mind) as the focus and driver is more about human pain rather than indignation or betrayal. Moreover, by introducing a third philosophical force to counter both God and the Devil, Breaking the 10 moves the debate into fresh territory regarding what makes human beings moral.
Fresh, challenging and superbly enthralling, this is a book no saint or sinner should miss.
© 2016 Seán Michael Wilson & Michiru Morikawa.
Breaking the 10 volume 1 will be in selected retail outlets from June 29th and released on July 21st 2016. It can be pre-ordered now and is also available in all e-book formats.
For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/