"The Way Out"

Doubts

Shall these Bones Live?

Sketched during church today. The Message was about Ezekiel in The Valley of Dry Bones.

God Wants Your Lunch

Lately, I've been noticing that I make three kinds of comics:
1. Learning comics. These are comics that teach. These are my T.A.I.L.S. comics and Curriculum Comics.
2. Art comics. At least that's what I call them. These are comics that are my own personal expression. They come from ideas that I have that make me say, "That would make a great comic!" I put The Mighty Andar and other comics making experiments in that category.
3. Bible comics. I am fascinated with how comics can be used to tell any kind of story there is to tell. The Bible provides a lot of inspiration to me, and I like re-telling the stories from this book using my own style of drawing.

This comic strip illustrates the Biblical story of the Loaves and the Fishes. I made it to share with the children in our church. I will give them a copy, but I also present it by putting one panel up on a Powerpoint screen and talking a little about each picture.

Everyone always asks, "How long did it take you to make it?" It's hard to say. First I read as much as I could about this story. This story is told in all for gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each author adds slightly different details. I combined all versions into one. Then, if I can, I try to find commentary by from Bible scholars that explains the significance of various elements of the story. (One site that was very usesful is here).

I like to look at how various translations of the Bible say the same thing but with different words, King James, NIV -- but my favorite to use is the Message Bible. This is a Bible paraphrase that attempts to publish the Bible in "street language" -- the way people really talk, without the thee's and thou's. The script for this is almost straight out of that Bible, with a little artistic license here and there.

Once I had the information, script, and plotted out how many boxes on each page, I started and finished it yesterday in one day of drawing! Ideally, I could spend more time on five pages, but I gave myself the deadline of having it finished today.

The Mantle of Elijah -- Part 2

I've finished the story and I've come to a conclusion: I do not like to draw crowd scenes. Unfortunately, if I'm going to illustrate any more of these Bible tales, I'll probably have to do more of them. Crowds frequently seemed to assemble in those days. Until the advent of CNN I guess people had to go check things out themselves in person.

The other tricky scene to illustrate was the parting of the Jordan River. Having never seen a river parted in person, I can only speculate what it must of looked like. Did it pile up on one side or did it momentarily solidify like jello. My drawing looks like the latter, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

The Mantle of Elijah -- Part 1

The church I go to is quite small, but once a year, we let our pastor go on vacation. When he does, we all do our best to fill in for him. Somebody grabs a guitar, somebody else a Bible and attempts to say something edifying. Last week was my turn. What I do is make a comic ahead of time. I make each panel a slide in a Powerpoint program. Then I tell the story with the pictures and make comments along the way. This story is about many things: zeal for God, discouragement, burnout, and the Call of God on an individual's life. I believe God has a job for each one of us. We do what we can for others and for Him and that's responding to that call. He is the ultimate artist, who has made a separate design for each one of us.


As in the story of Gideon I drew, this Bible story refers to The Angel of the Lord appearing. Many Bible scholars believe this is a pre-incarnate visitation of Jesus.


That's all that is done so far. I will add more to it next week.

Bible Comics: Moses in the Wilderness

Once in a while I teach a Sunday School lesson at my church. I like to make my own comics to give the kids. My favorite Bible to use is the Message Bible. The script for this one is almost straight from it. This Bible paraphrases the text in to "street language".

The story ends kind of abruptly since I stopped working on it when I ran out of time. I think the main lesson this story can teach us today is "Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better."

Gideon: From Wimp to Warrior

My last post was the rough draft of this comic. Here's the final version. Bible stories are interesting, but more than that, I believe that many times there's a message for us in it. This story illustrates how a good leader doesn't just see flaws, they see potential. The best Leader of all sees each one of us not just as we are, but what we're capable of becoming.

Challenge #10: The Fifteen Minute Comic

This was our homework at 52 Comic Challenges this week:

"Now that you’ve pushed yourself through a 24 hour comic, why not try a 15 minute comic?"

Homework for Artists and Writers: Think of it a “gesture drawing” for comics. Take two pieces of letter sized copy paper. Fold them in half and staple to make an 8-page book. Set the timer for 15 minutes and get crackin’. It’ll have to be scribbly and fast to make the deadline so think fast and draw faster! Good Luck!

I used the opportunity to map out an eight page story I had in mind to do. Every year our church has a Pastor's Appreciation Sunday. We give him the day off and a few of us pitch in to take over music, sharing for the day, etc. I had in mind to tell the Bible story of Gideon in comic form. I made two 15 minute comics to plot it out (to be honest I went a little over, but worked as fast as I could in the spirit of the idea). Then I drew four pages of it. I'd like to finish the next four pages soon.

I put the comic story in Powerpoint format and shared it today. A lot of work, but everyone said they liked it. I believe comics have the power to teach, even the important messages that are in this story. In this post, I'll share a few pages of the rough draft.

"Gideon: From Wimp to Warrior"