ART

A comic strip book scheduled to hit English bookstalls in time for Christmas has angered British churchmen and politicians because the work contains scenes from the Bible using four-letter words and gory, sexually explicit detail, according to Reuters. “Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament” depicts Moses taking down the Ten Commandments in a telephone booth and calls Samson “the Dynamite Nazarite.” Preview copies of the book have been distributed but members of the Church of England have demanded that it be banned, calling it “sick and perverted.” A spokesman for the publisher, Knockabout Publications, contends the material is “educational” and was taken directly from the Old Testament without being altered in any way.