Pride and smokeless fire

January 14, 2011 4:42 AM

The Word made another helper from fire to be its hands as it toiled on its creations. The Word gave them free will. Although they did not know their name, they were called the Jinn... Iblis, a webcomic take on the Islamic tempter figure by Kelli Nelson.

More at Cheap Paper Art:
Saint Expedite
Thief-2-era Garret
Brush-pen
Wishmaster
Weasel Sea

posted by kid ichorous (15 comments total)

That's cute, but if it was supposed to be Islamic then it missed a salient point about Iblis claiming he was better than man because he was made from fire, and that he asked God for and was granted respite from hell to tempt mankind.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:57 AM on January 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

i like.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:05 AM on January 14, 2011

That was amazing. Loved it.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 7:17 AM on January 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Absolutely brilliant.

A++++ Would sin again.
posted by seanyboy at 7:48 AM on January 14, 2011

That's cute, but if it was supposed to be Islamic then it missed a salient point about Iblis claiming he was better than man because he was made from fire, and that he asked God for and was granted respite from hell to tempt mankind.

It's roughly as theologically accurate as most cartoons based on Christian and Jewish origin stories -- it's interesting and beautiful to see this kind of work being done in the mythos of a faith that doesn't tend to get as much attention in the medium.
posted by verb at 7:49 AM on January 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Her other comics are neat too, especially The Three Men.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:02 AM on January 14, 2011

Beautiful, sad, cute, good.
posted by rahnefan at 8:34 AM on January 14, 2011

Kelli Nelson has a Metafilter account
posted by kid ichorous at 9:15 AM on January 14, 2011

Jesus—webcomics are getting really good these days.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 10:10 AM on January 14, 2011

I love this
posted by subtle_squid at 10:22 AM on January 14, 2011

Somehow, I gave a problem with anyone's holy books being made into 'comics'
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:58 PM on January 14, 2011

Ah, I thought it looked familiar. I ran into Kelli at APE here in SF in 2009 and bought a copy of Iblis off her then. It's signed by the author and everything, woo!

I was happy to see an exploration of the Islamic myths in comics form and it definitely helped that Kelli's work is beautiful. I would have thought that there would be more such endeavors with the US's engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq but this is unfortunately one of the few out there, the only other one to come to mind is Neil Gaiman's Ramadhan issue of Sandman. Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad also comes to mind but it's not specifically about Islam and its traditions/myths.
posted by ooga_booga at 5:29 PM on January 14, 2011

It's interesting to see what people make of the book. For me, the story is very much about fear of abandonment. I got the idea for the book when I was going through my own estrangement from my dad so it got more "feeling" oriented quickly (than, say, a strict re-telling). I choose not to focus on particular details of the story because they didn't directly deal with Iblis and his relationship with his father-figure. That's the meat. I think that's why "Fall of Satan" stories have power they do. It's a very basic, human story of familial disappointment.

Katjusa Roquette, if you think I've somehow been disrespectful, I wish you would say that instead of maligning an entire medium of expression. I may be clumsy but I assure you comics are not.
posted by cheap paper at 8:22 PM on January 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

There is nothing to prevent a comic from doing a perfectly acceptable job of telling stories from holy books. Even for a very high value of "acceptable". Some stories benefit from being made accessible. Some stories need different parts amplified to make them more clear.

And now, I am happier knowing where this "Iblis" name comes from, having wondered about it since the original Battlestar Galactica used the name.
posted by Goofyy at 3:57 AM on January 15, 2011

Also? METAFILTER'S OWN, yo.

Thanks for stopping in and sharing about the background, cheap paper. Really, really awesome work.
posted by verb at 10:34 AM on January 16, 2011 [1 favorite]