Review: “Francis: Herald of the Great King” by Voyage Comics
Some of the best Catholic resources for young people in recent years haven’t been traditional books but comics and graphic novels. In this niche, Voyage Comics is definitely at the forefront. Founded by Philip Kosloski in 2018, Voyage Comics strives to evangelize through heroic stories told through comic books. Kosloski’s vision has exceeded expectations. Today, Voyage is the world’s largest Catholic comic book publisher.
Why Voyage Comics Stands Out
I have reviewed a few of Voyage’s titles on this blog before. (See my reviews of Finnian and the Seven Mountains and The Mission of Joan of Arc.) From the outset, I was impressed with the quality of Voyage’s work, not just artistically, but in its storytelling and its understanding of what makes comics fun.
Graphic novels are extremely popular these days, and sometimes it feels like publishers are churning them out just because it’s a fad—because “it’s what the kids are into.” Some push content into graphic novel form without really understanding the elements that make a graphic novel successful. Not so with Voyage Comics. The people behind Voyage clearly love the comic book medium and understand it. This really shines through in every artistic and editorial choice they make. When you read a Voyage product, you are reading a real comic, not just content masquerading as a comic.
St. Francis: Herald of the Great King
Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has declared 2026 the Year of St. Francis of Assisi, in honor of the eighth centenary of his death in 1226. I was delighted to hear soon after about Voyage Comics’ latest title, Francis: Herald of the Great King.
Written by Philip Kosloski with fabulous artwork by Will Nathans, Francis: Herald of the Great King focuses on the early life and conversion of St. Francis of Assisi, following the young saint as he learns what it means to seek heavenly glory over worldly prestige and discerns God’s call in his life (the story of St. Francis is well-known, so I don’t think I am spoiling anything by discussing the main plot points here).
The story opens on the young Francis, who dreamed of glory as a knight, born into a wealthy merchant family with every worldly advantage lined up in his favor. Just as he prepares to ride off to the battlefield victory he has chased his whole life, God intervenes and completely changes his course. Rather than serving an earthly king, Francis finds himself enlisted by the King of Heaven, and the ambition that once pointed him toward chivalry and conquest bends instead toward poverty and proclaiming the Gospel.
Bringing St. Francis to Life Through Art
Kosloski and Nathans built the book around this contrast between worldly and heavenly glory to show how a young man hungry for heroism discovers his real quest was sanctity all along. The creative team consulted actual Franciscans during development to keep the details of Francis’s life and conversion historically grounded, and the comic draws on the saint’s own recorded words and prayers rather than the invented quotes that circulate so often in popular retellings.
The art holds up just as well as the writing. Nathans gives Francis’s Assisi a colorful, sunlit texture, and the panels tracking his slide from carefree “king of the feasts” into imprisonment and illness are well paced. As I’ve said before, Voyage Comics’ works feel the most “comic booky” of all Catholic publications in this genre. Kosloski and Nathans know their craft well.
What the Comic Covers
Francis: Herald of the Great King is 44 pages, but it goes by quickly. My two daughters loved The Mission of Joan of Arc, and when I unwrapped this new title, I think I had about five minutes with it before my kids seized it and ran off to read it. They read it voraciously, silent, focused, intent on the story. When they were done, my youngest expressed disappointment that she couldn’t go on with the story.
Disappointment when something is over is always a great sign of a successful literary experience!
Why the Comic Focuses on Francis’s Conversion
That being said, at 44 pages, there’s only so much that can be covered. St. Francis’s life was incredible and filled with so many memorable scenes, from his dramatic disrobing in the square of Assisi to his preaching before the sultan on the crusades, from his building the first manger scene to his preaching to the birds, from the taming of the wolf of Gubbio to the miraculous impartation of the Holy Stigmata on Mount Alverna. It would be almost impossible to cover this all in a single volume, and this is where Voyage was wise to focus exclusively on Francis’s early years and the events surrounding his conversion.
I think the chronology of Francis: Herald of the Great King goes up to the year 1208, so you don’t even get to the formal establishment of the Franciscans yet. This is smart, though, because it gives so much more breathing room for Francis’s conversion and the development of his spirituality, which are honestly the most interesting things about him. So many adaptations of the life of Francis have tried to cram everything into a single text or movie, and they often fail because the writer has to rush through things so quickly to get it all in. Kosloski and Nathans wisely avoid this by stretching his story out over several volumes.
I look forward to the next installment with great eagerness!
My Recommendation: Get a Copy of Francis: Herald of the Great King
Taken on its own terms, Francis: Herald of the Great King succeeds at what it sets out to do: it shows a Francis who is stubborn, restless, and more than a little full of himself before grace catches up with him, which makes his conversion all the more convincing. For an 8-to-12-and-up audience meeting Francis for the first time, that rawness is exactly the point. I highly recommend getting a copy of Francis: Herald of the Great King, available on the Voyage Comics website.
What are your favorite graphic novels? Favorite saint stories? I invite you to join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Community or our Facebook group.
