This year begins with a new version of "Noah". This was the 10th time the material had been covered in BOYS' LIFE. The odd thing about this is, despite Anthony Castrillo only having done 5 years of the series so far, and 4 of those only consisting of half a year's worth of episodes each, this was already the 2nd time he'd illustrated this story-- the previous time being in 2002 (just 4 years earlier). The previous version of "Noah" took 3 episodes; the new version had 5. The B.L. BIBLE series hadn't repeated something in this short a space of time since 1966, which redid stories done only 3 years earlier in 1963.
Castrillo's use of photographic backgrounds (particularly for the skies) increased dramatically this year.
Next up is the story of "Abraham", the 8th time this material was covered, going back to August 1957. Something never mentioned in the BL series before, oddly enough, is that Abram started out as a warrior, and after many years of being so, and being childless, wondered who there would be to inherit his lands. Another detail shown here for the first time is Abram having a dream that predicted the 400 years the Israelites would spend in Egypt between the time of Joseph and Moses.
As several times, before, this includes the story of "Sodom And Gomorrah", the 7th time that story has appeared in the BL series, going all the way back to July 1956.
I suspect the more this series "jumps around", the more confusing it's going to become for anyone trying to follow the history of the Jewish people. Why can't they just adapt the book in sequence, like Andre LeBlanc did?
Finally-- and surprisingly-- the year ends with "Deborah & Barak". This was in fact only the 2nd time this story had been told in the BL series, the previous time all the way back in May 1960. One wonders, with all the detail lavished on the storytelling during the Frank Bolle years, why this story (and several others) were never tackled?
Story by (??) / Art by ANTHONY CASTRILLO
BOYS' LIFE / January 2006
BOYS' LIFE / October 2006
Copyright (C) BOY'S LIFE Magazine
Restorations by Henry Kujawa
See the Anthony Castrillo gallery at Comic Art Fans
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