Last October, writer Justin Aclin and illustrator Nicolás Daniel Selma released the first of four issues of S.H.O.O.T. First, a comic book featuring atheists who “protect mankind from the supernatural threats that they do not believe in.” (They’re part of a team called the Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration Taskforce.)
I love the concept. As I wrote before:
It’s actually a very fascinating approach to the atheist conversation. We’ve said for a long time that doubt is the enemy of faith, that critical thinking can vanquish religious beliefs, and this graphic novel puts those ideas right at the center of a superhero-genre story.
If you missed the issues when they were first released, the entire first run of S.H.O.O.T. First is now available as a stand-alone book subtitled “Angels and Infidels.”
Aclin wrote on his blog:
… having held this book in my hands, I know that even if I never get published again (and at my most optimistic moments, I say, “Of course I will!”), I’ve put something out in the world that means something to me. Something that might even be able to mean something to other people that read it. And I count myself among the luckiest people in the world to be able to say that, and I have nothing but immense gratitude for all the people who helped make it happen, and especially to the people who put something of themselves in this book, too.
It’s a compelling story with characters we’re just not used to seeing in traditional comic books — so check it out and give Aclin an incentive to get to work on Volume Two 🙂
