cheers i'll try get my hands on that robert alter.
chester brown is brilliant in my opinion, but he's pretty insane / controversial as well.
that new book, mary wept, is well worth picking up. he does a good version of the talents parable in it.
he argues that he sees the "real" intention of the story, which has been disguised / hidden / altered by prissy Christians.
So he makes it all about God rewarding people who spend all their money on gambling and whoring, as that is a more fitting use of a "talent".
He's a really amazing cartoonist, tho not for everyone. He basically broke up from a long-term relationship in odd circumstances (she asked if he minded her sleeping with someone else, he said fine) and went onto become a frequent user of prostitutes.
This led to him writing a memor of his expereinces, which is really interesting (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paying_for_It). He basically makes a radical pro-prostitution argument, arguing that it makes more sense than a "normal" monogamous relationship...
He's also a lapsed Christian, so he then set about looking at all the stories in the bible related to prostitution and sort of reimagined them all, which is that mary wept book.
but he did those gospel adaptations i posted years ago, as sort of b-sides to his "proper" comic, yummy fur.