The story of David and Goliath has a ring of inevitability about it that handicaps most attempts at retelling. But Kyle Baker's comic book version of
King David renders that classic confrontation in 17 wordless pages, comprising one of the freshest, most suspenseful and thrilling descriptions of its subject that you are likely to find.
King David is a biblically accurate, freewheeling, color-saturated biography of the boy who rose to become king of Israel. David begins the book as a scruffy Dennis-the-Menace-like kid and ends the book as a vain, hunky womanizer; King Saul is a glam-rock tyrant; his son Jonathan is a skinny punk rebel. (When he asks to borrow Saul's chariot and the king asks, "Where are you going, Jonathan?" he shoots back, "Out.") Many parents will deem the book's bloody battle scenes inappropriate for young readers.
King David's candor, however, is a virtue. This is real religious literature: it describes David's relationship with God in a style that's fully alive for readers today.
--Paul Power
