This week, Plough Publishing House released By Water: The Felix Manz Story. The new graphic novel, the first in a three-book series of graphic novels telling true stories of heroes of the Radical Reformation in Europe, is written by Jason Landsel, scripted by Richard Mommsen, and illustrated by Sankha Banerjee. With the book now in stores, The Beat is pleased to present an exclusive preview, which finds young Manz fighting back against a group of bullies.
Here’s how Plough describes By Water: the Felix Manz Story:
By Water is a true story of friendship and betrayal set in the Swiss city of Zurich. It chronicles the conflict between establishment reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) and his student Felix Manz (1498–1527), who at first reveres Zwingli as a father figure but ends up drowned on Zwingli’s orders for insisting that only adult believers should be baptized. In this dramatic visualization of the birth of the Radical Reformation, water is both wonder and weapon, a symbol of new life and a death sentence.
In a statement, Plough Publishing House Editor Sam Hine described the concept of the book series By Water kicks off:
“This trilogy tells the story of the radicals from the Reformation period who tried to build an alternative society inspired by Gutenberg’s Bible and Thomas More’s Utopia. These graphic novels skillfully combine historical figures and events with imagined scenes and encounters to create an ambitious, action-packed and historically accurate account of young people standing up for their convictions.”
Check out the exclusive five-page preview of By Water: the Felix Manz Story below. The full-color graphic novel is available in stores now. The later books in the series, By Fire and By Sword, have yet to be announced or scheduled.
