A Contract with God

Perplexed.  Mesmerized.  Enthused.  Many words come to mind when I think of how I felt after a blistering 2 and half hours of reading A Contract with God.  I literally couldn't put it down.  People called me and I told them to wait because I had was on a voluntary mission to finish it in one sitting.  After the first story, I wanted to know what happened to the new good, young man who picked up the contract and signed his name.  Also, I thought the way the story was crafted to show him gradually becoming more evil and more wicked with every step he took towards blasphemy was beautiful.  The depictions only got deeper and more cruel, as did his animation of his face.  I could barely tell what he looked like underneath that beard, then suddenly you realized how torn and cruel he was after the loss of his daughter.  Even when he becomes so twisted and misconceived as to think to have a new daughter and name it after his old daughter, his face almost writhes off the page.  The others, while they were also phenomenally well done, couldn't compare in the awe and subtlety that Contract had.  It was by far my favorite story and I think reflects quite well on an opposing story of Job.  Like what if when everything went bad in Job's life, he decided to make a contract and stick to his guns; but it started to go wrong again and again.  As it dove closer and closer towards blasphemy, he finally through away all faith and went his separate way to eventually find his way back to where he started to redeem himself.  I thought it was a counter story to Job in that if some actions had been different and his faith had been stronger, then it would have ended differently for him.  Interesting thought I suppose, but I'm going to re-read both stories (Biblical and graphic novel) to compare and contrast any possibilities.