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Billy Tucci’s A Child Is Born

By Andy Frisk
December 22, 2011 - 18:46

Billy Tucci has a lot to thank God for this Christmas as his wife beat breast cancer this year. This is no laughing matter, as cancer is no laughing matter. His wife’s recovery is a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing when anyone beats cancer, especially since so many do not. Yes, Billy has plenty to be grateful for, and part of his way of displaying this gratitude is to finally finish and publish a Christmas Nativity story that he has reported and speculatively been working on off and on again for a decade. It is an amazingly, nay rapturously, beautiful book. The artwork in A Child Is Born is nothing short of some of the absolute best sequential art ever, and the most beautiful sequential art rendition of the Christmas Nativity story ever printed. Unfortunately, the story pacing, and chosen images, again although incredibly beautiful, are not really inspiring in any intellectual or literary way. A Child Is Born is simply a straightforward word for word reimagining of the Nativity Story as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with a little advertisement for the DVD The Star of Bethlehem by Rick Larson worked in that posits a new scientific approach of regressive star mapping that demonstrates that the “Star of Bethlehem” was in actuality a celestial conjunction where “Jupiter passed Regulus a third time within The Lion” (the constellation of Leo). It’s a fascinating idea that is little expounded upon (directions to a website where you can order the DVD along with a short advertisement/essay with Rick Larson are included as bonus material). Perhaps if Tucci decided to do a little more with his visual interpretation of the Nativity Story, rather than simply adapt the Gospel stories, there would be more to the tale. Alas, this was not the case.

For what it is intended to be though, which is namely a straightforward and traditional retelling of the Christmas story, A Child Is Born succeeds massively. As mentioned, it has some of the most beautiful “First Christmas” art I’ve ever seen. Tucci is a rare talent, and I really enjoyed pouring over each and every panel. From a classic nativity scene to angles informing shepherds in the field of the Savior’s birth, each and every traditional Christmas scene is beautifully rendered. I just really wish that Tucci took advantage of his talents to give us something a little more less traditional, not in a storytelling sense per say, but in perhaps his choice of stock poses which includes those mentioned above as well as the traditional Madonna with Child cover image. Again, Tucci is a wonderful, talented, and inventive artist. He just doesn’t make use of his inventive talents here.

A Child Is Born is perhaps the most beautiful visual retelling of the Nativity Story on paper ever published, but unless you’ve never heard the “Greatest Story Ever Told’s” beginning, there is nothing new to experience here, again besides Tucci’s amazing art. 

Rating: 4 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12