REVIEWS/COMIC
STRIPS
Divine
Comedy:
The Hereafter as Sitcom
(Sample
episodes)
Do you believe in an afterlife? Do you buy
into the concept of heaven and hell? What’s your vision of
life behind the pearly gates? Well, the amusing comic strip “Divine
Comedy” by Damien Glez, tweaks the traditional
vision of fluffy clouds and harp-playing angels and takes it down
the road of television situation comedies.
In “Divine Comedy,” God is more
than a presence. He’s a full-fledged character with
perhaps more human qualities than we like to see in depictions of
the Supreme Being. Based on Michelangelo’s representation
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, this god (named “Lord”
in the strip) is hardly Biblical. Lord is much closer to George
Burns than anyone Charlton Heston ever
had to deal with.
The other main character ("Pete")
is based on St. Peter and is in charge of the keys to heaven. Think
of this traditional, easily flustered gatekeeper more as a frustrated
hotel manager trying to accommodate his strange and unusual permanent
guests.
Supporting cast? Oh, just about anyone you
can imagine from the annals of recorded history, show business and
whoever else might elicit a chuckle or two. This might be a bit
of a stretch. What I mean is, well, which location would you expect
to find Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe
and Louis XVI spending the rest of eternity?
Uh-huh, thought so.
But they pop up in “Divine Comedy,”
on those big fluffy clouds, trading quips with Pete and Lord. If
God could see everything and hear everything, then why couldn’t
Tricky Dick just run a little audio tape here and there? Ms. Monroe
turns up in her legendary skirt-blowing pose – aided by the
storm machine Pete has borrowed from Lord. An exchange between the
surrealist painter Pablo Picasso and Lord is a
highlight. And why is Gandhi so hard to find? The
answer’s a good one: he reincarneted...
“Divine Comedy” also finds moments
to attempt making a point or two. In one strip,
Pete is carrying a sign that says “Abolish Death Penalty.”
He explains that he’s not into politics, just logistics and
points to a sign on the gates of heaven that says “Full, due
to 20th century.” One would only wonder that, if the death
penalty were causing a lot of folks to enter the afterlife early,
wouldn’t the "other" place be filling up with the
guilty?
Assuming one is comfortable with just about
everyone getting to heaven (which might make the place seem a lot
like earth and probably a lot funnier than the real heaven), “Divine
Comedy” has quite a broad canvas to paint upon. After all,
how many comic strips or television sitcoms can boast of having
Sigmund Freud, Abraham Lincoln
or Jimi Hendrix standing by? It’s an entertaining
strip that atheists and churchgoers alike should be able to enjoy.
--John Weber
Sample episodes | 
