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Joseph Smith et les Mormons
Decades in the making and already generating advance praise, an original graphic novel biography about the life of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints In Joseph Smith and the Mormons , author and illustrator Noah Van Sciver, who was raised a Mormon, covers one of history’s most controversial figures, Joseph Smith—who founded a religion which is practiced by millions all over the world. The book discusses all of the monumental moments during Smith’s life, including the anti-Mormon threats and violence which caused his followers to move from New York to Ohio, Smith’s receiving the divine commandment of plural marriage, his imprisonment, his announcement to run for president of the United States, and his ultimate murder by an angry mob in 1844 at the young age of 38. With a respectful and historical approach, and strikingly illustrated, this graphic novel is the ultimate book for those curious about the origins of the Mormon faith and the man who started it all.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published July 26, 2022
27 people are currently reading
1927 people want to read
About the author
Noah Van Sciver
90 books207 followers[copied from: http://nvansciver.wordpress.com/about/]
I am THE one and only Noah Van Sciver, cartoonist/comic strip artist and illustrator. I’m best known for my alternative comic book series Blammo and my weekly comic strip 4 Questions which appears every week in the alternative newspaper Westword. My work has appeared in The Best American comics 2011, Mad magazine, Sunstone, The Comics Journal, MOME and numerous comics anthologies. I’m currently hard at work on my first graphic novel The Hypo which will be published by Fantagraphics books upon its completion. I’m a cancer and I hate seafood, and adventure.
I am THE one and only Noah Van Sciver, cartoonist/comic strip artist and illustrator. I’m best known for my alternative comic book series Blammo and my weekly comic strip 4 Questions which appears every week in the alternative newspaper Westword. My work has appeared in The Best American comics 2011, Mad magazine, Sunstone, The Comics Journal, MOME and numerous comics anthologies. I’m currently hard at work on my first graphic novel The Hypo which will be published by Fantagraphics books upon its completion. I’m a cancer and I hate seafood, and adventure.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
July 17, 2022
I was more impressed by the craft of this book than I was by story itself. That criticism shouldn't be taken too seriously; as a life-long Mormon, and a critically inclined one, I've read SO many versions of the early history of my church and my faith that it was very difficult for me to pick up this profoundly original and obviously very thoughtful attempt to tell the story of Joseph Smith without thinking, on every page, "well, Van Sciver left this out, but he included this; I wonder how that's going to fit into what comes next?" The only part that I found genuinely engaging as a matter of plot was his treatment of John C. Bennett, the slick con-artist who made his way to the top of the Mormon hierarchy in Nauvoo before his sexual predilections led to his downfall and turning against Smith--through Van Sciver's art, I found myself, not sympathizing with Bennett, but partly understanding him, and that's no small accomplishment. But no, overall I found myself mostly fascinated by how Van Sciver told the story, rather than getting something out of the story itself. As a work of comic story-telling, it's a huge accomplishment. There is no omniscient narrator; every panel is either a stand-alone visual or includes dialogue between characters (most of which, except in a few wonderfully creative instances involving Emma Smith) that are well attested within existing historical records. So as a story, it's fine; as an artistic accomplishment, this treatment of my church's history deserves a lot of respect.
August 9, 2022
I’ve seen people clamoring for an HBO-style prestige drama about the life of Joseph Smith and the rise of the Mormon church for a while. Well, I think this is it! It’s just come as a graphic novel instead.
Noah van Sciver’s life and relationship to religion do a lot to inform the reading of “Joseph Smith and the Mormons.” Van Sciver was raised in a large Mormon family until the age of 12, when his parents divorced and his mother told him the church was false and they would no longer be practicing. He says in the concluding notes for the novel that he spent a lot of his life feeling his story with Mormonism was not finished and he needed to look for answers, to understand Joseph Smith for himself.
You can see that quest on every page of “Joseph Smith and the Mormons.” Presented entirely through dialogue and without an explicit point of view on the veracity of the events, Van Sciver presents a Joseph Smith that slips through easy categorization. It’s not a direct copy, but the Smith here was very reminiscent of the Smith Fawn Brodie depicts in “No Man Knows My History”: a young man led by the culture and religious upheaval around him to turn his morally dubious treasure-seeking quests into a religious enterprise, operated on an increasingly large scale, while he struggles to outrun his early deceits and ever-present moral failings. While Brodie depicts Smith as a “pious fraud,” though, van Sciver is more close-lipped.
Around Smith are colorful characters, evocatively drawn, and the landscape of the early United States that almost feels like a character itself. Van Sciver places us as a fly on the wall while events unfold, alliances are created and betrayed, and faith is sparked and dampened.
This is not an exhaustive depiction of early Mormon history, but it is a conscientious one. It fills in much of the context the present-day church would prefer to forget, including the obvious influences on the composition of the Book of Mormon, the pettiness and sometimes outright hostility of Smith, and - most explicitly - the emotional and moral tragedy of polygamy. But rather than tell the reader how and what to think, Van Sciver presents the dots and lets us connect them ourselves.
It would have been impossible to depict all of Joseph Smith’s life. It’s a really wild story, full of perplexing wrinkles and maddening behavior. For the most part, I think Van Sciver’s cuts are the right ones - they allow the reader to see the appeal and the ascendancy of Smith before he is ultimately done in by his own overreach. The one exception is the church’s Missouri period. Van Sciver depicts it here almost as the glossy, morally black-and-white narrative the church tells, where the Saints are hapless victims of violent and backwards religious bigots (who also happen to hate the Mormons’ northern feelings on enslavement - a stance the church quickly reversed when they realized it was putting themselves in danger, a sad flip-flop not shown here). In reality, the Mormons met violence with violence, leveraging their large voting bloc and threatening, burning, and sexually assaulting the Missouri settlers where possible. There is a lot more gray here that foreshadowed later developments, so it feels odd not to include it. That said, some portions (including the Haun’s Mill massacre) are depicted just as horrifically as they are still felt today and do a lot to explain Smith’s later mindset and decisions.
For me, the biggest reason this novel was memorable (apart from any other media about Smith or the early church) was the depiction of Emma Hale, Joseph’s wife. Often reduced to a humorless nag or, at best, an enigma, Emma in “Joseph Smith and the Mormons” is a fully imagined person, with an emotional life and agency that transcend her husband’s story. I’ve never seen Emma shown with this degree of empathy, and it does so much to bring home what life was like for her and other Mormon women.
Apart from the story and the artwork, the book itself is beautiful. It reminds me so much of the church’s early books, with a faux-leather cover, tinted pages, ribbon bookmark, and inside cover art. It’s definitely a book to keep, and I will definitely be thinking about it for a while.
Noah van Sciver’s life and relationship to religion do a lot to inform the reading of “Joseph Smith and the Mormons.” Van Sciver was raised in a large Mormon family until the age of 12, when his parents divorced and his mother told him the church was false and they would no longer be practicing. He says in the concluding notes for the novel that he spent a lot of his life feeling his story with Mormonism was not finished and he needed to look for answers, to understand Joseph Smith for himself.
You can see that quest on every page of “Joseph Smith and the Mormons.” Presented entirely through dialogue and without an explicit point of view on the veracity of the events, Van Sciver presents a Joseph Smith that slips through easy categorization. It’s not a direct copy, but the Smith here was very reminiscent of the Smith Fawn Brodie depicts in “No Man Knows My History”: a young man led by the culture and religious upheaval around him to turn his morally dubious treasure-seeking quests into a religious enterprise, operated on an increasingly large scale, while he struggles to outrun his early deceits and ever-present moral failings. While Brodie depicts Smith as a “pious fraud,” though, van Sciver is more close-lipped.
Around Smith are colorful characters, evocatively drawn, and the landscape of the early United States that almost feels like a character itself. Van Sciver places us as a fly on the wall while events unfold, alliances are created and betrayed, and faith is sparked and dampened.
This is not an exhaustive depiction of early Mormon history, but it is a conscientious one. It fills in much of the context the present-day church would prefer to forget, including the obvious influences on the composition of the Book of Mormon, the pettiness and sometimes outright hostility of Smith, and - most explicitly - the emotional and moral tragedy of polygamy. But rather than tell the reader how and what to think, Van Sciver presents the dots and lets us connect them ourselves.
It would have been impossible to depict all of Joseph Smith’s life. It’s a really wild story, full of perplexing wrinkles and maddening behavior. For the most part, I think Van Sciver’s cuts are the right ones - they allow the reader to see the appeal and the ascendancy of Smith before he is ultimately done in by his own overreach. The one exception is the church’s Missouri period. Van Sciver depicts it here almost as the glossy, morally black-and-white narrative the church tells, where the Saints are hapless victims of violent and backwards religious bigots (who also happen to hate the Mormons’ northern feelings on enslavement - a stance the church quickly reversed when they realized it was putting themselves in danger, a sad flip-flop not shown here). In reality, the Mormons met violence with violence, leveraging their large voting bloc and threatening, burning, and sexually assaulting the Missouri settlers where possible. There is a lot more gray here that foreshadowed later developments, so it feels odd not to include it. That said, some portions (including the Haun’s Mill massacre) are depicted just as horrifically as they are still felt today and do a lot to explain Smith’s later mindset and decisions.
For me, the biggest reason this novel was memorable (apart from any other media about Smith or the early church) was the depiction of Emma Hale, Joseph’s wife. Often reduced to a humorless nag or, at best, an enigma, Emma in “Joseph Smith and the Mormons” is a fully imagined person, with an emotional life and agency that transcend her husband’s story. I’ve never seen Emma shown with this degree of empathy, and it does so much to bring home what life was like for her and other Mormon women.
Apart from the story and the artwork, the book itself is beautiful. It reminds me so much of the church’s early books, with a faux-leather cover, tinted pages, ribbon bookmark, and inside cover art. It’s definitely a book to keep, and I will definitely be thinking about it for a while.
August 15, 2023
Noah Van Sciver was raised as a Mormon until his parents divorce when his mom pulled the kids out of the church. This had a big impact on Van Sciver who was a true believer, he had his whole life planned out around the church's beliefs so the change created a lot of confusion and stress. He's still not a Mormon but wrote this book as a way to explore the world he was in.
Joseph Smith is a supposed prophet who talked to angels through some golden tablets he found and translated into a new book of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, when he was just 24. Before that he was a sight-seer using a magical stone to help people find buried treasure. Later as the leader of the Mormons he set off with his followers to establish a communal Zion. All taking place in New York State, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois in 1820-1840.
The comic is all told through dialogue and visuals, no narrator but Van Sciver does share a lot in the notes section. I think its a good way to tell a story like this. The supernatural elements are drawn in a different color to really separate it from the mundane events. It's really hard to read this and not just think Joseph Smith was a charlatan especially later when he uses his church to create a fake bank, coerce young women into having sex with him, and a bid to run for President! Regardless of my feelings towards Smith, Van Sciver does a great job handling his tragic end.
Probably more information in this book than I ever needed to know about Joseph Smith. I'm interested in hearing the opinion of a Later Day Saint on this book. Would the Church deny some of the events that happen here?
Joseph Smith is a supposed prophet who talked to angels through some golden tablets he found and translated into a new book of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, when he was just 24. Before that he was a sight-seer using a magical stone to help people find buried treasure. Later as the leader of the Mormons he set off with his followers to establish a communal Zion. All taking place in New York State, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois in 1820-1840.
The comic is all told through dialogue and visuals, no narrator but Van Sciver does share a lot in the notes section. I think its a good way to tell a story like this. The supernatural elements are drawn in a different color to really separate it from the mundane events. It's really hard to read this and not just think Joseph Smith was a charlatan especially later when he uses his church to create a fake bank, coerce young women into having sex with him, and a bid to run for President! Regardless of my feelings towards Smith, Van Sciver does a great job handling his tragic end.
Probably more information in this book than I ever needed to know about Joseph Smith. I'm interested in hearing the opinion of a Later Day Saint on this book. Would the Church deny some of the events that happen here?
August 13, 2022
My knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is limited to HBO's Big Love and Broadway's The Book of Mormon. The church sent me a free copy of their book once after I jokingly called an 800 number from a late-night TV commercial, but I only flipped through it for a couple minutes and put on a bookshelf in case I ever had need to reference it . . . and that has never happened.
I'm grateful to have this graphic novel dramatization of the life of Joseph Smith to give me a little firmer grip on what was sort of going on there. It's not great on providing a lot of context to events, relying purely on character dialogue, but it paints an interesting portrait of Smith as a charlatan, swindler, crook and fraud (words directly from p. 265). Like a lot of religious leaders he abused his position to accumulate wealth, influence government, and seduce members of his flock.
At the same time, the book sort of has a neutral tone, and I wonder if Smith's followers might be able to read it and see it as a mostly positive look at a complex but devout prophet and martyr who was unjustly persecuted by his enemies.
The execution of story and art reminds me strongly of Chester Brown's Louis Riel graphic biography from two decades ago. This drags a little more though, taking me maybe four or five hours to read, and I found it hard sometimes to tell apart the dozens of white men with their various facial hair permutations. I've never been much of a fan of Noah Van Sciver, but I do admire the effort he poured into this brick of a book.
I'm grateful to have this graphic novel dramatization of the life of Joseph Smith to give me a little firmer grip on what was sort of going on there. It's not great on providing a lot of context to events, relying purely on character dialogue, but it paints an interesting portrait of Smith as a charlatan, swindler, crook and fraud (words directly from p. 265). Like a lot of religious leaders he abused his position to accumulate wealth, influence government, and seduce members of his flock.
At the same time, the book sort of has a neutral tone, and I wonder if Smith's followers might be able to read it and see it as a mostly positive look at a complex but devout prophet and martyr who was unjustly persecuted by his enemies.
The execution of story and art reminds me strongly of Chester Brown's Louis Riel graphic biography from two decades ago. This drags a little more though, taking me maybe four or five hours to read, and I found it hard sometimes to tell apart the dozens of white men with their various facial hair permutations. I've never been much of a fan of Noah Van Sciver, but I do admire the effort he poured into this brick of a book.
August 23, 2022
Holy cow! I am blown away by the book. Here is a list of all of my thoughts:
-I doubt it would be possible to create a more comprehensive graphic novel depicting the life of LDS church founder Joseph Smith Jr. Perfect for anyone who doesn't have the attention span to read "Rough Stone Rolling."
-I really loved that I got to read all of these stories in order to gain a fuller context for the events described. Growing up LDS, you loosely hear about many of these events, but they're always presented as one-offs to a faith-promoting lesson and aren't packaged in a way that provides insight into historical context. This book changed that for me.
-How is this book only $26.99? It's hundreds of full-color glossy pages. It has a padded-hardback cover and an inserted bookmark. Similar books typically go for $35-$49. It's a great deal.
-I feel this book is incredibly fair to the subject matter. Critics of Joseph Smith will probably wish it punched a bit harder. Faithful die-hard supporters might have to come to grips with a few scenes that don't typically appear in seminary lesson manuals. The author provides a pretty detailed bibliography at the end for anyone wanting to read more.
-I doubt it would be possible to create a more comprehensive graphic novel depicting the life of LDS church founder Joseph Smith Jr. Perfect for anyone who doesn't have the attention span to read "Rough Stone Rolling."
-I really loved that I got to read all of these stories in order to gain a fuller context for the events described. Growing up LDS, you loosely hear about many of these events, but they're always presented as one-offs to a faith-promoting lesson and aren't packaged in a way that provides insight into historical context. This book changed that for me.
-How is this book only $26.99? It's hundreds of full-color glossy pages. It has a padded-hardback cover and an inserted bookmark. Similar books typically go for $35-$49. It's a great deal.
-I feel this book is incredibly fair to the subject matter. Critics of Joseph Smith will probably wish it punched a bit harder. Faithful die-hard supporters might have to come to grips with a few scenes that don't typically appear in seminary lesson manuals. The author provides a pretty detailed bibliography at the end for anyone wanting to read more.
December 2, 2022
I kind of can't believe I finished reading Joseph Smith and the Mormons. Noah Van Sciver takes a microscope to Joseph Smith's life story, presenting the deep, often bland details of the founding of the Mormon religion (though they prefer to be known as Latter-Day Saints, I learned).
The author is a former Saint, so it's no surprise that this isn't a whack job on Joseph Smith. Instead, it's aggressively balanced. Smith makes numerous claims to angelic visions, which some believe and some don't. He crafts a religious document from "gold plates," though you'll never find those quotation marks in the book. Eventually, he states that God's scripture encourages multiple wives for the church elders, which, y'know, is inherently skeevy, but is presented here in a perfectly even, factual way.
So, it's hard to get a read on Smith (or Van Sciver). As a biography, I guess Joseph Smith and the Mormons works, because I now know his life story (perhaps too intimately). I'm also better versed in the founding of the Church of Christ of the Latter-Day Saints? That's not exactly something I was seeking out, but I'll be damned if I skip over a big, intimidating tome of a graphic novel by a prominent author when it's at the library.
Ultimately, I came away from the book enjoying the notes in the afterword much more than I enjoyed the dense story and its minute details. Van Sciver draws big characters in small panels with tons of dialogue, including lots of quotes from direct sources or scripture (which you are totally allowed to skip like i did). It's a hog of a book to read. My takeaway: Van Sciver should have told his own story, which sounded much more interesting and relatable than Joseph Smith's. Perhaps that's still to come now that he's got this behemoth off his chest.
The author is a former Saint, so it's no surprise that this isn't a whack job on Joseph Smith. Instead, it's aggressively balanced. Smith makes numerous claims to angelic visions, which some believe and some don't. He crafts a religious document from "gold plates," though you'll never find those quotation marks in the book. Eventually, he states that God's scripture encourages multiple wives for the church elders, which, y'know, is inherently skeevy, but is presented here in a perfectly even, factual way.
So, it's hard to get a read on Smith (or Van Sciver). As a biography, I guess Joseph Smith and the Mormons works, because I now know his life story (perhaps too intimately). I'm also better versed in the founding of the Church of Christ of the Latter-Day Saints? That's not exactly something I was seeking out, but I'll be damned if I skip over a big, intimidating tome of a graphic novel by a prominent author when it's at the library.
Ultimately, I came away from the book enjoying the notes in the afterword much more than I enjoyed the dense story and its minute details. Van Sciver draws big characters in small panels with tons of dialogue, including lots of quotes from direct sources or scripture (which you are totally allowed to skip like i did). It's a hog of a book to read. My takeaway: Van Sciver should have told his own story, which sounded much more interesting and relatable than Joseph Smith's. Perhaps that's still to come now that he's got this behemoth off his chest.
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February 23, 2023not bad not bad -- elegantly leaves it an open q whether smith was divinely inspired or a scammer while making it unequivocally clear that dude was an absolute dickhead. interesting too how van s. plays around w/ the whole disney "bad guys are ugly/good guys are handsome" thing by showing the same chars as grotesque when doing sth morally abhorrent but human when, yknow, being human. i feel closer to mitt romney than ever! (except i guess for that time he described lemonade as "wet" and "good")
August 6, 2022
I received a free copy of this graphic novel as part of a goodreads giveaway.
I knew very little about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints going into this. I’ve always been interested in learning about various religions, and I really love the graphic novel format, so I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book.
I picked it up about 8:00 in the morning, and I set it down about 4:00 that same afternoon. I could not stop reading it! I had no clue who Joseph Smith was at the start of this, other than presumably some part of the church. The opening scenes had me captivated, and I just wanted to keep reading more.
Joseph Smith’s story is incredibly intriguing, and Van Sciver did an incredible job writing and illustrating his life. There were parts where I questioned what had happened, where I questioned Joseph Smith’s motivations and intentions, and that is exactly what Van Sciver was aiming for. Van Sciver claims this book was a direct consequence of his own questions about the faith he was raised with, and that he did not want to answer anyone else’s questions for them. I tip my hat to you, sir, because I never once felt bias as I read through this. I felt my own moral compass stepping in at times and being astounded, but I never felt the author’s.
I felt disbelief, and faith, and astonishment, and horror, and so much else as I read through this book. This truly was a glimpse into Joseph Smith’s life, and I think it was done beautifully. I did not feel bogged down by talk of the church and their moral expectations; this wasn’t a book to convert you. It was a book to inform about the life and work of Joseph Smith, as the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
I knew very little about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints going into this. I’ve always been interested in learning about various religions, and I really love the graphic novel format, so I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book.
I picked it up about 8:00 in the morning, and I set it down about 4:00 that same afternoon. I could not stop reading it! I had no clue who Joseph Smith was at the start of this, other than presumably some part of the church. The opening scenes had me captivated, and I just wanted to keep reading more.
Joseph Smith’s story is incredibly intriguing, and Van Sciver did an incredible job writing and illustrating his life. There were parts where I questioned what had happened, where I questioned Joseph Smith’s motivations and intentions, and that is exactly what Van Sciver was aiming for. Van Sciver claims this book was a direct consequence of his own questions about the faith he was raised with, and that he did not want to answer anyone else’s questions for them. I tip my hat to you, sir, because I never once felt bias as I read through this. I felt my own moral compass stepping in at times and being astounded, but I never felt the author’s.
I felt disbelief, and faith, and astonishment, and horror, and so much else as I read through this book. This truly was a glimpse into Joseph Smith’s life, and I think it was done beautifully. I did not feel bogged down by talk of the church and their moral expectations; this wasn’t a book to convert you. It was a book to inform about the life and work of Joseph Smith, as the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
July 26, 2022
Not since Robert Crumb's Genesis has the marriage of graphic novel and religious text produced such startling results. Joseph Smith and the Mormons is an immense tome of over 400 pages and it is not only massive by length but also by volume–it is densely packed with full-color illustrations. There is, after all, a lot of history to get through and Van Sciver deftly weaves scripture and dialogue with his charming art style. Regarding art style, I was drawn to the impish characters and the restrained color palette, but what I appreciated most was when Van Sciver would dedicate an entire page or several wordless panels to create atmosphere and allow the story to breathe. In the footnotes, Van Sciver wrote that when creating this book he attempted to approach the source material as objectively as possible–that may have been an impossible task because the nature of adaptation means that one decides what to include and what to excise. Adaptation of religious work is even more challenging because in terms of tone it will typically lean in one of two opposing directions– the satirical or the reverential. Joseph Smith and the Mormons skews toward the latter, a refreshing approach since it has become de rigueur to be cynically critical of the Mormon faith. Whether you approach this book with credulity or skepticism, you will find much to admire in Joseph Smith and the Mormons. This book was clearly a labor of love for Van Sciver and I was very fortunate to receive an advance copy for review.
December 30, 2022
A Latter-day Saint myself, I'm always interested to read how the Church is portrayed in contemporary lit. I've been reading reviews of this book and see that it's well reviewed, and the author/illustrator is particularly highly regarded. Have to say that I'm not a frequent graphic novel reader and the style doesn't appeal to me personally.
I wonder if those who would pick this up would be predisposed to be critical of the Church and its founder? I think those unfamiliar with the religion would find much to ridicule here. It makes a difference, however, if the reader takes the time to read the author's note in which he tells us that he was raised in the church but lost the association when his parents divorced when he was twelve. His mother disclaimed the church and his faith faded away.
"As I grew older, my LDS past became a curiosity to me, something my brain couldn't quit picking at. After all, it wasn't my choice to leave the church. Who knows, I thought, maybe if I investigated it myself, I would find truth there and resume the path I had been removed from.
"I wrote and drew this book as a way of reconnecting with that part of my childhood." I respect that. The bibliography is very impressive. He traveled to historic sites, read, and attended church meetings.
Van Sciver comments, "Now I have this book and my study is finished. And I have the answers I was searching for, too." Sure wish I knew where his research led him!
As I read and saw depicted the imperfections of Joseph Smith, I was reminded time after time of a comment made by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a current apostle within the Church:
"Except in the case of His only perfect begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. It must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it."
I wonder if those who would pick this up would be predisposed to be critical of the Church and its founder? I think those unfamiliar with the religion would find much to ridicule here. It makes a difference, however, if the reader takes the time to read the author's note in which he tells us that he was raised in the church but lost the association when his parents divorced when he was twelve. His mother disclaimed the church and his faith faded away.
"As I grew older, my LDS past became a curiosity to me, something my brain couldn't quit picking at. After all, it wasn't my choice to leave the church. Who knows, I thought, maybe if I investigated it myself, I would find truth there and resume the path I had been removed from.
"I wrote and drew this book as a way of reconnecting with that part of my childhood." I respect that. The bibliography is very impressive. He traveled to historic sites, read, and attended church meetings.
Van Sciver comments, "Now I have this book and my study is finished. And I have the answers I was searching for, too." Sure wish I knew where his research led him!
As I read and saw depicted the imperfections of Joseph Smith, I was reminded time after time of a comment made by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a current apostle within the Church:
"Except in the case of His only perfect begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. It must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it."
August 7, 2022
A compelling look into the large cast of characters who influenced the development of early Mormonism. This book is particularly good at painting the broad strokes of historical progression, as important theological and organizational leaders entered and exited the story, and as the church moved around between New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. I was particularly struck by how many times the fledgling organization faced existential threats and may well not have survived.
This book isn’t for kids (it’s very up-front about Joseph’s extramarital affairs, and it doesn’t shy away from graphically depicting the violent confrontations between Mormons and their neighbors). Many faithful Latter-day Saints (members of one of the surviving offshoots of Smith’s original church) may disagree with the portrayal of some important events, but the author has a good bibliography and thorough explanations about the ways in which he condensed the narrative to fit into 450 pages.
This book isn’t for kids (it’s very up-front about Joseph’s extramarital affairs, and it doesn’t shy away from graphically depicting the violent confrontations between Mormons and their neighbors). Many faithful Latter-day Saints (members of one of the surviving offshoots of Smith’s original church) may disagree with the portrayal of some important events, but the author has a good bibliography and thorough explanations about the ways in which he condensed the narrative to fit into 450 pages.
October 18, 2022
This is a tough one to review. The art and the whole creative effort put on it by Noah Van Sciver is really commendable: he's done an exceptional job telling the story of Joseph Smith and his Church, in what is said to be a neutral narrative.
However, and after reading this to get some enlightenment regarding this whole religion that surrounds me in daily life (I live in Utah, after all), I don't really find anything positive in the historical part of this graphic novel, or in Joseph Smith himself.
And being agnostic as I am, that's all I'm going to say, out of respect.
However, and after reading this to get some enlightenment regarding this whole religion that surrounds me in daily life (I live in Utah, after all), I don't really find anything positive in the historical part of this graphic novel, or in Joseph Smith himself.
And being agnostic as I am, that's all I'm going to say, out of respect.
September 8, 2022
Religion is a VERY touchy, VERY personal subject so I’m not going to use my review to comment on the actual story of Joseph Smith and his founding of the Mormon sect of the Christian faith. Instead, I’d like to focus on Noah Van Sciver’s attempt to adapt that story and all I can say is that this is quite simply Van Sciver’s masterpiece. While I may like some of his other comics more (looking at you “Saint Cole”), “Joseph Smith And The Mormons” is, without a doubt, Van Sciver’s most confident, most assured, most epic, and most astounding graphic novel. As I flipped through the pages, it was evident that everything he had done up to this point was building towards this singular achievement. The pacing, the art (those splash pages!), the dialogue, the research, the focus, all of it is the product of Van Sciver’s relentless, incremental, and steady growth as a storyteller. “Graphic novel” has always stuck me as a pretentious, reductive label for long form comics but it may actually be appropriate here. “Joseph Smith And The Mormons” is graphic and it is novel.
November 30, 2022
Although I do not practice the Mormon faith I'm very interested and love learning about different religions around the world and Mormonism is fascinating to me.
Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Noah Van Sciver is a fun way of learning as the book is written with pictures, easy to understand and fun. It's a beautiful book.
✨Thank you to Goodreads for the giveaway ✨ as well as the author and everyone involved in the production.
Elise-
Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Noah Van Sciver is a fun way of learning as the book is written with pictures, easy to understand and fun. It's a beautiful book.
✨Thank you to Goodreads for the giveaway ✨ as well as the author and everyone involved in the production.
Elise-
September 11, 2022
Faith/religion is a very personal thing. To the non-believer, most religions seem crazy, led by delusional, autocratic leaders, guided by seminal texts with often questionable content. I grew up in a church in part guided by the teachings of John Calvin, and attended Calvin College, a small college associated with the (Dutch) Christian Reformed Church. Having left that church and that religion more than half my life ago, it is tempting for me to enumerate all the ways it seemed to the non-Calvinist world (including me, now) insane, or at the very least misguided, focused on total depravity predestination and so on.
Growing up in a religion--I was required to go to church for services twice on Sunday, and my parents in the previous generation went three times, the middle service entirely in Dutch--and a descendant of the theologian Abraham Kuyper, I was steeped in religion, and part of the process of creating a religion seems to me staking out theological territory that delineates right religion from wrong religion. So in my religion all other religions were seen as lacking, including Mormonism, also known as the Church of Latter Day Saints. We were introduced to Joseph Smith in World Religion classes--to his visions, his "divine inspiration" to create a sort of competing religious text to the Bible, his divine decree to establish polygamy as God's Will--as a kind of fraud. Calvin was seen by my religious community as rational and devout and Smith--who was killed by an angry mob in 1844 at the young age of 38--as insane, but to others, atheists, both were and are seen as ludicrous, I suppose.
I say all that to acknowledge and respect what I take to be Noah Van Sciver's magnum opus, Joseph Smith and the Mormons, his most ambitious project, accomplished at more than 400 pages over decades. Van Sciver was led out of the Mormon religion by his mother, who divorced Van Sciver's Mormon father, so he spent his life wondering about Smith and whether Mormonism might have been the way to go for him. So it's personal, and detailed, and in it he tries to be objective, not commenting on the story he tells in graphic novel or biographical fashion, with lots of notes and an afterword.
To say the story is, for non-religious types, especially, a kind of slog is to understate the experience. Unless you are Mormon, you won't care to read the fine print of Mormon history. The art is among his best ever, but the story could have been accomplished in half the time to get at the essence of Smith's life and ideas. And his wife! This is by my count the fourth nineteenth-century book Van Sciver has illustrated and/or written: his book The Hypo, about Lincoln; a book about Johnny Appleseed; a book about the socialist politician Eugene Debs, and this book on Smith, and my collected impression is that these books are text-heavy, strange, focused on pretty wacky folks (sorry) on the whole. Compared to his humorous and/or touching books such as Saint Cole and Fante Bukowski, these historical books are deadly serious, completely without humor, and comparatively dull. But give Van Sciver credit for his ambition to come to terms with Smith and the religion in which he had been raised. I can see why others might five this five stars, as his masterpiece.
Growing up in a religion--I was required to go to church for services twice on Sunday, and my parents in the previous generation went three times, the middle service entirely in Dutch--and a descendant of the theologian Abraham Kuyper, I was steeped in religion, and part of the process of creating a religion seems to me staking out theological territory that delineates right religion from wrong religion. So in my religion all other religions were seen as lacking, including Mormonism, also known as the Church of Latter Day Saints. We were introduced to Joseph Smith in World Religion classes--to his visions, his "divine inspiration" to create a sort of competing religious text to the Bible, his divine decree to establish polygamy as God's Will--as a kind of fraud. Calvin was seen by my religious community as rational and devout and Smith--who was killed by an angry mob in 1844 at the young age of 38--as insane, but to others, atheists, both were and are seen as ludicrous, I suppose.
I say all that to acknowledge and respect what I take to be Noah Van Sciver's magnum opus, Joseph Smith and the Mormons, his most ambitious project, accomplished at more than 400 pages over decades. Van Sciver was led out of the Mormon religion by his mother, who divorced Van Sciver's Mormon father, so he spent his life wondering about Smith and whether Mormonism might have been the way to go for him. So it's personal, and detailed, and in it he tries to be objective, not commenting on the story he tells in graphic novel or biographical fashion, with lots of notes and an afterword.
To say the story is, for non-religious types, especially, a kind of slog is to understate the experience. Unless you are Mormon, you won't care to read the fine print of Mormon history. The art is among his best ever, but the story could have been accomplished in half the time to get at the essence of Smith's life and ideas. And his wife! This is by my count the fourth nineteenth-century book Van Sciver has illustrated and/or written: his book The Hypo, about Lincoln; a book about Johnny Appleseed; a book about the socialist politician Eugene Debs, and this book on Smith, and my collected impression is that these books are text-heavy, strange, focused on pretty wacky folks (sorry) on the whole. Compared to his humorous and/or touching books such as Saint Cole and Fante Bukowski, these historical books are deadly serious, completely without humor, and comparatively dull. But give Van Sciver credit for his ambition to come to terms with Smith and the religion in which he had been raised. I can see why others might five this five stars, as his masterpiece.
October 3, 2022
This is an odd book. I was very interested in the afterword where Van Sciver talks about being raised LDS and no longer believing, but wanting to write a "fair" book about Joseph Smith even though he knew it would still not win any friends among the LDS community. It's very jarring to just see really wild shit told and illustrated straightforwardly, and then to have the endnotes with citations and especially things like calling the Book of Mormon's depiction of Black people to be "indefensible." I wish they had been on-page footnotes or something. Not really sure who this book is for--the non-LDS person who's interested in the Church will probably be turned off by it but so would the average devoutly LDS person. IDK.
It does feel like a notable...accomplishment? It's very long...
It does feel like a notable...accomplishment? It's very long...
May 29, 2022
Long but fascinating account of Joseph Smith's life from his early days as a seer who claimed to help unwitting locals find lost treasure (which never seemed to turn up) through his ascension to the head of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Van Sciver, who was raised in the church but moved away from it when his parents split up, views the story from the vantage point of someone who understands the nuances but has also researched the history. He doesn't offer opinions, just presents the facts and lets the characters do the talking. The book is long but so is the story, and the constant twists of Smith's real life make for compelling reading.
October 17, 2022
I don't think that Joseph Smith's life is very book-friendly. There isn't a neat narrative arc if you are telling the story of his life. There are just too many weird and interesting things to say. It's so caught up in the history of the church, too, that it's difficult to tell the story of his life without getting into the entire early history of the church. I do a lot of summarizing of secondary sources in my Wikipedia work, and it ends up being extremely dry. This is my roundabout way of saying that... I found parts of this book a little boring, mostly because it was difficult for me to hold the narrative threads together, despite me knowing a lot about Mormon history. I don't fault Van Sciver for that. It is because the history is just that complicated.
That said, I loved how Van Sciver treated the visions with his blue-outlines of the vision-receiver relaying the story to another person. I feel like it really encapsulated something about most visionary experiences, which are that we have to imagine them for ourselves. The way Joseph Smith goes about trying to found the bank, despite having no expertise in it, is portrayed sympathetically. At the same time, I was like "what about all the speculators on the Mormon side of things?" I know that Van Sciver had to skip over a LOT of things and combine people and simplify for the sake of storytelling. The way he portrayed Joseph Smith getting into polygamy was interesting too. It definitely brings up topics that any church history buff would want to discuss. Van Sciver presents them in a neutral way, like I would in my Wikipedia writing, but of course, there is bias in what ideas and incidents we choose to include. I think Van Sciver tried to do a very fair portrayal of Joseph Smith, and I admire that.
THE ARTWORK is incredible. Van Sciver is a complete pro, and the whole thing is in COLOR. He can summon the emotions of panic or peace with a mere palette selection, but he goes further than that. The facial expressions of the characters, the line art, and the pacing of the action between the panels all work together to create settings that drip with expressiveness. There are a lot of talking heads. But they are interspersed with panels that take up an entire page and could be framed art on your walls at home.
The book design of this graphic novel is another very pleasing part of it. The foam layer in the front hard cover, the ribbon bookmark, the gilded edges, the brown of the book that is reminiscent of the brown of the first edition of the Book of Mormon--they combine to create a beautiful, serious-looking graphic novel.
That said, I loved how Van Sciver treated the visions with his blue-outlines of the vision-receiver relaying the story to another person. I feel like it really encapsulated something about most visionary experiences, which are that we have to imagine them for ourselves. The way Joseph Smith goes about trying to found the bank, despite having no expertise in it, is portrayed sympathetically. At the same time, I was like "what about all the speculators on the Mormon side of things?" I know that Van Sciver had to skip over a LOT of things and combine people and simplify for the sake of storytelling. The way he portrayed Joseph Smith getting into polygamy was interesting too. It definitely brings up topics that any church history buff would want to discuss. Van Sciver presents them in a neutral way, like I would in my Wikipedia writing, but of course, there is bias in what ideas and incidents we choose to include. I think Van Sciver tried to do a very fair portrayal of Joseph Smith, and I admire that.
THE ARTWORK is incredible. Van Sciver is a complete pro, and the whole thing is in COLOR. He can summon the emotions of panic or peace with a mere palette selection, but he goes further than that. The facial expressions of the characters, the line art, and the pacing of the action between the panels all work together to create settings that drip with expressiveness. There are a lot of talking heads. But they are interspersed with panels that take up an entire page and could be framed art on your walls at home.
The book design of this graphic novel is another very pleasing part of it. The foam layer in the front hard cover, the ribbon bookmark, the gilded edges, the brown of the book that is reminiscent of the brown of the first edition of the Book of Mormon--they combine to create a beautiful, serious-looking graphic novel.
December 4, 2022
The author certainly put a lot of work into this. A lot of research. A LOT of drawing. The production value is great, with its hundreds of pages of colored pictures and its golden-plates feel.
It made the events of history more interesting than what I've studied before, and it gave a broad, years-long view of the whole saga and the man behind it all, while still being succinct enough to hold my attention. I was raised Mormon (no longer practicing) and they didn't teach us a lot of this Sunday school.
As with most graphic novels I read, I had a hard time keeping some of the characters straight, especially the minor ones, because the drawings look so similar. That said, I did feel invested in many of the characters, even some of the ones we only saw briefly.
Some of the scriptures and hymns and sermons went on longer than I would have liked, and longer than necessary to get the point across, but they were woven in quite skillfully.
I am surprised by how many reviews talk about how neutral this account is, because it felt fairly anti-Mormon to me. Of course, maybe it's just that the truth is rather anti-Mormon. Or at least the particular set of truths that the author chose to tell. Or maybe it's just me getting defensive (even though I'm no longer a member and have my own issues with the church) because I don't like it when people use church history to attack current members, and this will give plenty of fodder.
Why did it strike me as anti-Mormon? The artwork, though skillful, made some characters appear more buffoonish than I thought strictly necessary for a neutral account. There again, it may just be a side-effect of the graphic novel genre. Sometimes the spin of the story seemed to clash with the (very interesting) endnotes. For example, the endnotes talked about how the early revelations on plural marriage came from study of the Old Testament, but the novel put the emphasis squarely on Joseph Smith just wanting to have (in the parlance of the time) carnal relations with more women than poor Emma. And though the book did briefly mention a few of the teachings and principles of the church that I would consider good and healthy, it spent much more time on the controversial, wacky, sketchy, and downright cultish aspects of the early church.
The author has some major talent and told an interesting story. I think this is one of those books where the reception will depend greatly on the reader.
Personal enjoyment: Maybe 3.5
It made the events of history more interesting than what I've studied before, and it gave a broad, years-long view of the whole saga and the man behind it all, while still being succinct enough to hold my attention. I was raised Mormon (no longer practicing) and they didn't teach us a lot of this Sunday school.
As with most graphic novels I read, I had a hard time keeping some of the characters straight, especially the minor ones, because the drawings look so similar. That said, I did feel invested in many of the characters, even some of the ones we only saw briefly.
Some of the scriptures and hymns and sermons went on longer than I would have liked, and longer than necessary to get the point across, but they were woven in quite skillfully.
I am surprised by how many reviews talk about how neutral this account is, because it felt fairly anti-Mormon to me. Of course, maybe it's just that the truth is rather anti-Mormon. Or at least the particular set of truths that the author chose to tell. Or maybe it's just me getting defensive (even though I'm no longer a member and have my own issues with the church) because I don't like it when people use church history to attack current members, and this will give plenty of fodder.
Why did it strike me as anti-Mormon? The artwork, though skillful, made some characters appear more buffoonish than I thought strictly necessary for a neutral account. There again, it may just be a side-effect of the graphic novel genre. Sometimes the spin of the story seemed to clash with the (very interesting) endnotes. For example, the endnotes talked about how the early revelations on plural marriage came from study of the Old Testament, but the novel put the emphasis squarely on Joseph Smith just wanting to have (in the parlance of the time) carnal relations with more women than poor Emma. And though the book did briefly mention a few of the teachings and principles of the church that I would consider good and healthy, it spent much more time on the controversial, wacky, sketchy, and downright cultish aspects of the early church.
The author has some major talent and told an interesting story. I think this is one of those books where the reception will depend greatly on the reader.
Personal enjoyment: Maybe 3.5
November 10, 2022
This book finds itself in an unusual position as far as books about Mormon history are concerned. Difficult incidents like treasure hunting and Fanny Alger mean that this book is a hard sell for the vast majority of faithful LDS members. But the book also takes angelic visions and Mormonism's communitarian ethic as seriously as its protagonist does, rather than as sinister inventions clearly meant to pull the wool over gullible members.
The full-color artwork is fantastic, managing to be beautiful while covering a lot of narrative, traits I don't usually find in the same graphic work. Though some of the minor characters can be difficult to tell apart, it's hardly a fault as the cast is huge. Van Skiver packs all of Joseph Smith's young life into one volume, which is a feat since many Joseph Smith comics barely manage to cover the First Vision. Speaking of which, this volume does not open with the First Vision which is a unique choice.
And did I mention the plush cover with gold embossing and a ribbon bookmark? I hope this book finds an audience because it richly deserves it. Anyone looking for a different, accessible yet accurate version of the Joseph Smith story could do much worse than this for a first introduction to this controversial part of American history.
The full-color artwork is fantastic, managing to be beautiful while covering a lot of narrative, traits I don't usually find in the same graphic work. Though some of the minor characters can be difficult to tell apart, it's hardly a fault as the cast is huge. Van Skiver packs all of Joseph Smith's young life into one volume, which is a feat since many Joseph Smith comics barely manage to cover the First Vision. Speaking of which, this volume does not open with the First Vision which is a unique choice.
And did I mention the plush cover with gold embossing and a ribbon bookmark? I hope this book finds an audience because it richly deserves it. Anyone looking for a different, accessible yet accurate version of the Joseph Smith story could do much worse than this for a first introduction to this controversial part of American history.
December 27, 2024
Everything I know about Mormonism comes through cultural osmosis, meaning a whole lot of jokes from South Park, Heretic with Hugh Grant and long underpants. I expected this to be a similar kind of tongue in cheek story with a lot of poking fun at it BUT it isn’t that at all. It is a sincere history that follow Joseph Smith as he creates The LDS church… now, some of the beliefs are certainly out there (he had gold plates that told a secret part of the bible and he translated them within a top hat) but I’m not sure it’s anymore crazy than whatever form of Christianity I was raised, tons of truly outrageous stories.
I liked that it never portrayed Smith as a schemer and for the first 10/12 of the books I believe that he believed that his story was the truth once he got into the multiple wives theory it did seem like he was just chasing ladies with his power.
Overall, a great read and educational.
I liked that it never portrayed Smith as a schemer and for the first 10/12 of the books I believe that he believed that his story was the truth once he got into the multiple wives theory it did seem like he was just chasing ladies with his power.
Overall, a great read and educational.
December 10, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Its a streamlined, yet dense biography of The Church of Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith. I had my own assumptions about the church and its beliefs, but I wanted to expand my knowledge and formulate an informed opinion. This book definitely allows one to do so, with a very comprehensive look at the full life of Smith. Starting with his days as a scrying "treasure hunter" to the rise of the LDS church and their many tribulations. Sciver's art wonderfully captures the American landscape of the 1800s and each character is drawn with distinction. Emotions are beautifully illustrated, and wordless panels carry weight. One of my favorite artistic choices was using a distinct blue/white line work to separate visions/unconfirmable events from those that were verified.
I recommend this read if you are interested in a unique part of American history.
I recommend this read if you are interested in a unique part of American history.
Read
December 6, 2025I read this because I’ve been binging Real Housewives of SLC and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and I wanted a better understanding of Mormonism that didn’t rely on Southpark lol. It is absolutely just as crazy as I knew it would be. As someone who was raised in the Catholic Church and never once actually believed in what I was being indoctrinated into, I don’t understand how people can fall for stuff like this. It’s all nonsense. From the clear misogyny in having multiple wives,, the racism with the evil ones having “black skin” it’s all just so icky. It further reinforced the fact that dogmatic religion is a bane and hindrance to society. I’m glad to get the full story on how this started though so I know what I’m talking about when I say that Mormonism is ridiculous 😂
July 11, 2024
Reading about the founding of the Latter-Day Saints is always mind-boggling. This belongs next to Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven as two books that really give you all the information you need to know about the religion.
This one is written by an ex-LDS, but the biography, from what I can tell, was about as objective as it can be.
Recommended for anyone who likes to put their cool rocks in their hats.
This one is written by an ex-LDS, but the biography, from what I can tell, was about as objective as it can be.
Recommended for anyone who likes to put their cool rocks in their hats.
February 8, 2023
Well-researched and documented, this graphic novel presents an even-handed, coherent account of the life of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormons. Van Sciver's style is simple and contains moments of real depth. The book has a Works Cited section, suggestions for further reading, and notes by the author.
February 5, 2023
I’m not sure anyone else will like this book as much as me, because I am a religion nerd and and particularly interested in Mormons recently. But it was a really good summary of the life of Joseph Smith, which it is surprisingly hard to find outside of the LDS church, I only know of two other books that are quite old and dense. It did a really great job of just presenting situations, and not assigning morality to them. Now I need the Brigham Young sequel lol
Read
January 8, 2025Literally just a retelling of Joseph Smith's life. Thought I should read due to my mormon ties but sadly my great great grandma (and all my other mormon politician family members) were outside the scope of this book. Also like polygamy is BAD!
August 6, 2024
Genuinely loved this so much. Beautiful art style and storytelling Like oh Wow. It’s a gaddamn Mormon graphic novel
August 9, 2022
This book is dripping with transparency and honesty. I was most impressed by the appendices, in which Van Sciver briefly speaks on his history with the subject, his motivations, and his earnest attempt at creating an unbiased work, while acknowledging that it would be impossible to please everyone.
Additionally, the endnotes are extensive and nearly as interesting as the rest of the book. I tried reading them along with the relevant sections of the book, but abandoned that quickly. I'm happier reading them after completing the book.
It takes great writing to make me despise a character for their behavior, yet have sympathy for them because of the circumstances they find themself in. NVS does exactly this with his depiction of Joseph Smith. I celebrated when he received his come-uppance, yet was also sad when he was persecuted.
Really, I expected to encounter some sort of bias in this book, considering Van Sciver's experience with the LDS. But I haven't found it. It is extremely neutral and accomplishes his stated goal of presenting the story as-is and leaving opinions up to the readers.
Even if you are not directly interested in the subject, this is worth a read simply because of how masterfully crafted the story is. As a huge bonus, the physical book is beautifully done, with a puffy, not-quite-leather-ish texture with gold accents, "aged" yellowed page edges, and a marking ribbon. I would love to see more books given this treatment.
Additionally, the endnotes are extensive and nearly as interesting as the rest of the book. I tried reading them along with the relevant sections of the book, but abandoned that quickly. I'm happier reading them after completing the book.
It takes great writing to make me despise a character for their behavior, yet have sympathy for them because of the circumstances they find themself in. NVS does exactly this with his depiction of Joseph Smith. I celebrated when he received his come-uppance, yet was also sad when he was persecuted.
Really, I expected to encounter some sort of bias in this book, considering Van Sciver's experience with the LDS. But I haven't found it. It is extremely neutral and accomplishes his stated goal of presenting the story as-is and leaving opinions up to the readers.
Even if you are not directly interested in the subject, this is worth a read simply because of how masterfully crafted the story is. As a huge bonus, the physical book is beautifully done, with a puffy, not-quite-leather-ish texture with gold accents, "aged" yellowed page edges, and a marking ribbon. I would love to see more books given this treatment.
July 30, 2022
A portrait of ego(s).
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