A former Marvel and DC Comics artist, Brazilian-born Sergio Cariello is the illustrator of The Action Bible, an updating of the David C. Cook’s successful Picture Bible, releasing this month.

How does your faith inform your art?
Because my parents brought me up taking me to church and Sunday school, I learned about the Bible at a very young age. Even as I kept drawing and getting published, I had a strong desire to know God better, so I went to a Bible school to study God’s Word full time at age 16. But I never stopped drawing and I dreamed of one day combining the truths of the Word with my ability to draw.

How did your career develop?
After I finished further Bible training in New York, I applied to an art school there and was accepted. I became a janitor in a church 40 miles away in order to attend (art school). Later I entered the business as a letterer for Marvel. Soon I was fulfilling my dream of drawing comics for a living, working at home.

What was your greatest professional achievement prior to this Bible?
I was fortunate to be able to draw Spider-Man, Avengers, Batman, Wonder Woman and many iconic characters in comics, but one character who got me an Eisner (Award) nomination for best new series in 2007 was The Lone Ranger.

How do your illustrations differ from the original in The Picture Bible?
I have a great respect for the original work done by (André) Le Blanc. Mine differ in style, just by being a different artist with (my) own personal tastes. Maybe also in the dynamics introduced, where I tried to jazz it up and modernize it, adding more impact and action to it, hopefully implementing what I’ve learned in my career as an artist for so many different genres.

What is it like to draw Jesus?
It’s a great thrill combined with a great weight of responsibility. I imagine Jesus not as portrayed in most history books, with very delicate, angelic gestures, but someone strong, well built, ready to walk a few miles on foot and work hard as a carpenter, always ready for the task ahead of Him—even the one that took his life for three days.

Which was the hardest Bible story to illustrate and why?
The battle scenes were the hardest ones because of all those people I had to draw (laugh).

Don’t cartoons trivialize the Word of God?
Only if the ones behind the production don’t have the respect and the seriousness of the content. No matter if the style is cartoony or different from one someone might be used to seeing, the key is the motivation behind it.

Mainstream thriller and Hollywood script writer Andrew Klavan’s young adult “Homelanders” series has been optioned for a movie, as the April 2009 hardcover debut title, The Last Thing I Remember, is released in softcover this month.

Are you concerned that some of the faith element may be lost in the film?
“You hope it will stay true to the original, especially the theme and the ideas, but you really don’t have a lot of power. ... Summit Entertainment made the “Twilight” books (into films) that had a definite undercurrent of faith and morality, and they kept that stuff in. There is always a danger with this in Hollywood.”

With a long and successful mainstream career, what brought you to Christian publishing?
“What brought me to Christian publishing was I became a Christian myself, which I hadn’t been. I was born and raised a Jew and lived many years as an agnostic, even an atheist for a while, so it was a very slow conversion. ... So when Thomas Nelson contacted me and asked me if I was interested in working in the young-adult (genre), I just loved that, and before they finished the sentence, I said, yes, I’m interested.”

How has writing for the Christian market been for you, as your mainstream work is known for being quite gritty?
?“Working in young-adult novels, the vision tends to be a little softer anyway. I don’t deal with the same kinds of subjects with young people that I deal with for adults. It’s just not the same market, so in that way I fit in. I do sometimes feel that there is a narrowness to the Christian market that can hurt storytelling, and I’ve worked very hard to keep my stories immensely exciting, very fast-moving.”

How has coming to faith changed your writing?
“This really surprises me more than anyone. ... One of my great fears as I was struggling with the issues of faith was I didn’t want to lose my sense of realism. You can’t tell stories about life if you don’t see life as it is, in my opinion. The funny thing is that I found that embracing faith has made my view much more realistic. ... I have found that by embracing Christianity has made my worldview much more realistic ... understanding people much deeper, on the one hand, and I think much more compassionate on the other, so I have been very happy with the work I have produced since my conversion. It really has been an absolute pleasant surprise.”

For an exclusive, extended audio interview, visit the Christian Retailing book blog at www.christianretailing.com.

A church ceremony scheduled last month to mark a long-forgotten miscarriage of justice coincided with the release of a film version of the subject’s life, The Lena Baker Story (0-12236-13045-1, $26.98).

The PG-13 rated docudrama recounts the story of the 44-year-old African-American who was the only woman ever sentenced to die in the electric chair in the state of Georgia, after being convicted of killing a white man from whom she was trying to escape after suffering years of abuse.

Speaking of her faith in her last words, Baker—whose early life included imprisonment for prostitution—was granted a posthumous pardon in 2005 after authorities ruled she had been wrongly denied clemency. In January a headstone in her memory was to be dedicated at Mt. Vernon Church in Cuthbert, Ga., where she worshiped and was buried.

Antarctic documentary follows extreme explorer to the bottom of the world

A documentary-style account of an epic trek into the frozen wilderness of Antarctica, Surrendered and Untamed (978-0-801-01374-4, $14.99) aims to warm viewers’ hearts towards more risky faith in God and His promises.

Released this month by Baker Publishing Group, the 74-minute program follows extreme explorer Alex Harris as he attempts an unsupported, near-700-mile hike to the South Pole. The South African who has scaled the world’s seven tallest peaks battles sub-zero temperatures, frostbite and broken equipment in his quest.

Singer-songwriter Michael Card visits the Gospels in his new “Biblical Imagination Series,” with books, DVDs and CDs dedicated to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Christian Retailing talked with him about the series and its first installment on the Gospel of Luke.

What do retailers need to know about the “Biblical Imagination Series”?

It’s going to cover the four Gospels initially. We’re thinking it’s going to take five to six years to finish it. There will be a book, a record and a teaching video on each one of the Gospels. … The video has already come out, it’s with Day of Discovery. The book and the record are coming out with InterVarsity. 

You started with Luke. What drew you to his Gospel?

I had just written a book on slavery, and because of that research, I became convinced that Luke was a slave, so (with) this whole idea of engaging with your imagination, you ask, who is it that wrote the Gospel? What is it about their personality, what about them as an individual would shape the Gospel in certain ways? So I started out just trying to read the book as having been written by a slave. Certainly he was a doctor—we know that for sure because Paul said so. So that’s how I got into it. The book really came to life.

Four-piece Dove Award-winning hard rock band Red’s third album, Until We Have Faces, is released Feb. 1 on Essential Records.

 What’s the inspiration behind the new record?

Anthony Armstrong (guitar): We are all fans of C.S. Lewis and his book Till We Have Faces. The record is not really about the book, but there was a phrase (there) that we all kind of gravitated towards, and it talks about that no human being could ever receive messages from the divine until they find their true identity. That’s the most relevant thing that stuck out to us in the last record cycle ... meeting a lot of kids and a lot of people who are kind of searching (for) who they really are. ... This record—that’s the anthem for those people.

How has Red’s music changed since the last album?

Michael Barnes (vocals): We combined some of the elements that we loved about the first record, End of Silence, and the inspiration that had, and Innocence and Instinct, some of the heaviness and the drive that record had. Until We Have Faces is those two records on steroids.

As an unapologetically Christian band, how has it been playing on the road with leading secular bands (Papa Roach, Godsmack)?

Randy Armstrong (bass): There’s obvious differences in the content, but at the end of the day, we are all musicians just trying to do the same thing, make a living doing music.  ... We really try to find people where they are at and inspire them and really brand sort of a lifestyle change through our music.

How has the digital revolution impacted Red?

Randy Armstrong: The digital age has leveled the playing field for a lot of music because bands don’t sell records anymore. It all comes down to, are you going to earn it on the road by playing live shows?

Anthony Armstrong: It’s also a place for our fans to find out, to gather and talk about the music.

What does 2011 hold for Red?

Anthony Armstrong: We are going out on Winter Jam (through) March.