The subtitle is “The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.” That is a good capsule summary. Did you wonder what Christ did in those years between his appearance at the temple at 12 and the start of his ministry around age 30? There is no mention of those years in the Bible. Moore has filled the gap with a fanciful tale made up of whole cloth (including the cloth of the Shroud of Turin). In case you were wondering, he spent years traveling to Syria, Afghanistan, China and India in search of the three wise men and their wisdom (because he needs to learn how to be The Messiah). Along the way he learns to heal the sick, raise the dead and talk to the Abominable Snowman. Really. You have to suspend your disbelief to enjoy this, but if you do you will have a lovely time, thanks to his wise-cracking buddy, Biff, who has been brought back to life after being dead for 2,000 years, to write another Gospel, just so the record of Christ’s life can be complete.
The Shround of Turin episode is a good example. Christ is beaten up and his wounds are tended to by a couple of merchants from Turin. They are amused by the perfect image of his countenance that is left on the cloth that they use to dry the blood on his face and decide to take the cloth with them rather than discarding it. The rest, as they say, is history.
It is deeply irreverent, frequently scatological and thoroughly funny.
8 out of 10.