The Bible as Graphic Novel, With a Samurai Stranger Called Christ
Ajinbayo Akinsiku wants the world to know Jesus Christ, just not the gentle, blue-eyed Christ of old Hollywood movies and illustrated Bibles.
Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is “a samurai stranger who’s come to town, in silhouette,” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels.
“We present things in a very brazen way,” said Mr. Akinsiku, who hopes to become an Anglican priest and who is the author of “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation.” “Christ is a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.” . . .
New York Times, February 10

I stumbled across this a few months back and even used their Jesus computer wallpaper for a week or two, but it kept weirding me out.

At last year's Cornerstone festival, I met Paul Nethercott, a missionary working in Japan. He was really excited about Manga Messiah, a manga adaptation published by New Life League Japan of Jesus' life (which, from what I could tell, is a separate project from Akinsiku's).

Here's an interview with Roald Lidal, one of the folks behind Manga Messiah:

I bought a copy of Manga Messiah when off the Doulos last year because I thought it would be interesting to see how they communicated Jesus through this medium. It is certainly very high quality and you can definitely feel the Japanese manga style coming through. Importantly it was drawn by Japanese manga artists so they were to remain true to the genre. Interestingly, although the English version came out in 2007, the Japanese version is not out till 2008, so you can see that the international side of things has taken prominence. I wonder: are there more manga readers in the English-speaking world than the Jpaanese-speaking world. Or is it just that there are more Christian/churched manga readers in the English-speaking world?

everyone I've shown it to has thought it was very good, although some felt the style was aimed at too young an audience.

Interesting question. From what I've read, manga is one of the fastest growing literature/publishing markets in the U.S., and one of the few that turns a pretty decent profit. I think you get a sense of that if you walk into any Barnes & Noble/Borders: the manga section is one of the few sections that's actually growing and taking up more shelf-space. At least, that's how it is here in Nebraska.

That being said, I don't think manga has quite the widespread cultural dominance here in the States that it does in Japan, where it's so deeply ingrained within the culture. Here in the States, I think it's safe to say that manga is largely perceived as something for kids and teens, and most of the manga that I've seen are definitely geared towards those audiences. In Japan, OTOH, there's manga for every age and interest group. What it's like in the rest of the English-speaking world, I'm not sure.

Where can you get this? I have a handful of kids in my youth group who LOVE manga. They would be totally into this.

EDIT: never mind. I found it on Amazon.

And everywhere else. I worked at a small Borders in western Pennsylvania for a few years; the section went from three shelves in 2003 to severals SHELVES full in 2008. We had some complete 30+ issue series, and they always sold well. No matter what the title was.