Broken Frontier

After hearing from various fans of THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS who have used it as a jumping-off point to deeper discussions about religion and graphic storytelling, and after talking with teachers and librarians, writer A. David Lewis and artist Marvin Mann have put together a comprehensive Reader’s Group Guide comprised of three sections, each one usable either as standalones or together. Complete with background information, guiding questions, thought-provoking analyses, interviews, and additional suggested reading, the LaLS Reader’s Group Guide is free and downloadable as three separate .pdf’s.

The Guide is easy to get: go to http://www.aspcomics.com/lals_preview.html and download each of the three parts of the graphic novel that is “guaranteed to provoke” [Source: Joe Sutliff Sanders, VOYA, Aug 2006].

There are three downloads available:

**LaLS Reader’s Guide: Foundation. The starting point.
**LaLS Reader’s Guide: Advanced. Features an in-depth analysis by David Burke of The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) as well as additional discussion questions.
**LaLS Reader’s Guide: Creator Interviews.

“When Marv and I created THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS,” said Lewis, “one of our goals was to create a thought-provoking piece that would help increase intercultural dialogue and to show how it’s helpful and vitally important to look at cultural or religious differences from different perspectives. The Reader’s Group Guide helps build on that goal.”

The award-winning THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS (Archaia Studios Press (ASP), ISBN: 1-932386-12-2, $17.95, 160-page hardcover graphic novel, fully colored by Harvey-nominated artist Jennifer Rodgers) tells of the Israelites and their escape from their Egyptian masters. It’s a story told numerous times. But it's the uniqueness of this presentation that is intriguing. Comic book, literary and religion scholar A. David Lewis and artist Marvin Mann chose the graphic novel format to recast the Book of Exodus and tell it from a different point of view: that of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. Viewed through the eyes of Pharaoh Ramses II, the man who is perhaps either Egypt’s greatest leader or its worst villain, we see a man trying to rule wisely, love his family well, and deal justly in the face of a divine wrath. 

THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS is a book laced with subtle messages for our time and exhaustively researched. Lewis and Mann drew from the Bible---both Old Testament and New Testament---the Qur’an, Egyptian mythology, anthropology, archeology, and even modern pop presentations of the story of Pharaoh and Moses in preparing their version.

THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS is recommended for Young Adults and up.