Graphic Novels to Recommend

I’ve just recently read a couple of exceptional Graphic Novels, and I thought I’d pass them on to my faithful readers.

American Born Chinese
Story and art by Gene Luen Yang
Published by First Second

I remember reading the first part of this when it was serialized at ModernTales.com, and I was very impressed with it there, but the addition of color by Lark Pien really takes it to another level. I’m not the only one impressed by the book, it’s been named as a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award in the "Young People's Literature", and an Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story. To say it’s about a teen coming to terms with his ethnic identity comes close, but there’s just so much more to it than that. And I love the way a spiritual angle was worked into the story.

Persepolis
Story and art by Marjane Satrapi
Published by Pantheon

It took me a while to get to this one, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. Persepolis is the story (autobiography) of a young girl living in Iran during the late 70s and early 80s. Now, I’m a little older than the author, so what I primarily remember about Iran during that time was the Hostage crisis, and sad to say, I didn’t give much thought to the turmoil going on there. But in Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi gives us an insider’s look of sorts at the political climate in Iran during that period, and it’s an eye-opener. The fact that the story is told from the point of view of the author at that age puts a very unique and touching spin on the story. You can’t help but feel for Marjane as she deals with the revolution in her country.

The Lone and Level Sands
Story by A David Lewis
Art by M P Mann and Jennifer Rodgers

I actually read this one a year or so ago, but I wasn’t blogging then, so I figured I’d bring it up now.

The Lone and Level Sands tells the familiar story of the Exodus as the Hebrews are delivered out of Egypt, but with a twist, This time it’s told from the Pharaoh’s perspective.

This book does an excellent job of giving the reader an idea of what it must have been like to be an Egyptian during the time of the plagues. And while the Pharaoh is a sympathetic character throughout, the book does not shirk the hand of God at work during these events.

KITTENS!!!

I am such a bad blogger. A lot has been going on, but I just haven’t had a chance to post on much yet. So in an attempt to get it together here we go.

A couple of weeks ago we discovered that one of the neighborhood strays had a litter of kittens under our deck in the back yard. Well, the sound of tiny kittens mewing was just too much for my youngest daughter to resist, and so we had to bring these little ones in. We were able to separate Brenna from two of the kittens that we found a very nice home for, and we decided to keep the other two (the little orange guy and the little fuzzy black girl).




Our Pug, Cassie has been very interested these new little playmates too.




Now all we need to do is catch the mother so she doesn't leave another batch of stray kittens around )regardless of how cute they can be).

The Z Graphic Novels are coming!

Zondervan's line of Graphic Novels are coming close to their release date. Zondervan's marketing department has been shopping them around the general and CBA book outlets since last November, but the books have just recently been listed in Diamond Distribution's catalog for shipping to comic outlets this July.

Here’s a rundown of the titles included in Zondervan’s initial launch. Each book is in the "Manga format": 5" x 7.25" of B&W art with approximately 150 pages of story content.

The Manga Bible: Books 1 & 2
A translated collection of the Korean Manwha Bible, packaged by Lamp Post, Inc.

The Bible is larger than life, and kids will love reading its stories told through the graphic storytelling of Korean manwha. Readers will enjoy learning the Bible’s characters and landscapes portrayed through this cutting-edge style of art now popular around the world.

Tomo Books 1 & 2
Book 1 written by Rob Corley, Book 2 written by Jim Krueger, Art by Arial Padilla

Hana would be like any other thirteen-year-old immigrant trying to fit into life at an American school, but she also battles hostile, animal-like warriors from the dimension of Argon Falls. In discovering secrets about her identity and her past, Hana bravely faces both her enemies and her destiny, tutored by her grandfather sensei, as well by a shape-shifting creature named Tomo.

Son of Samson Books 1 & 2
Written by Gary Martin with art by Sergio Cariello

Samson’s mighty son Branan traces his famous father’s footsteps as he battles the Philistines. Throughout the different episodes, with both humor and action, he learns about God’s purpose for his life and inherited strength.

TimeFlyz Book 1 & 2
Written by Ben Avery with art by Adi Darda

Laurel’s ordinary life changes to extraordinary when cyborg flies shrink her down and take her on the adventure of saving the world. Racing through and against time to famous places of the past, learning about history and faith, Laurel discovers that even an average girl like her can make a valuable contribution to a team.

Kingdoms Books 1 & 2
Written by Ben Avery with art by Mat Broome

1 & 2 Kings and 1& 2 Chronicles tell the history of Israel and Judah following the Davidic dynasty through the exile in Babylon. Against this historical backdrop of the rise and fall of maneuvering kings and warring empires, the fictional series Kingdoms traces the saga of the dedicated advisor Iddo and his descendants. As he remains loyal to the memory of the just King Josiah and labors to keep his nation faithful to the Lord, Iddo struggles to protect his own family—including his son, Berekiah, and later his grandson, a young prophet named Zechariah.

Hand of the Morningstar Books 1 & 2
Written and Illustrated by Mike Miller

With the world watching, the opposing forces of super-powered beings clash in battles that reveal whether those who serve the elusive Morningstar, said to be a wise and powerful heavenly creature, fight for the cause of good or evil.

For more information on these, go to: www.zgraphicnovels.com

Busy Week = Misc. Stuff

It’s been crazy busy lately, but I’m trying to make an effort to update regularly. Here’s some miscellaneous stuff I’d like to pass along:

My Interview: I was recently interviewed by the folks at Jazma Online, a comics, art, movies and entertainment site.

The first round of the second Fist-A-Cuffs tournament is up and running! Fist-A-Cuffs is a type of fantasy extreme fighting league dreamt up by the marvelously warped mind of Sam (Tiempo Finales) Hiti. In Fist-A-Cuffs, artists are invited to design original fighters which are then pitted against each other, visitors to the site vote for their favorites and the winners proceed through to the next level. This second tournament is a tag team event and boasts some truly inspired and disturbed creatures. Check it out… if you dare!

Todd Webb has been toying with a couple of new characters that I absolutely luv: Larry and Stu, the Extinctosaurs.
Check them out here: Extinctosaurs
And here: Extinctosnacks
And here: Some Extincto-More

And finally, in preparation for his third novel, Tribulation House, Chris Well has a great interview over at INFUZE. I’ve been waiting for this book ever since I set down his Deliver Us from Evelyn last summer.

Feed My Starving Children Comics

Here are some new comics from Sherwin Schwartzrock for the ministry, Feed My Starving Children.

Feed My Starving Children in a non-profit organization committed to feeding God's starving children hungry in body and spirit. Their approach is simple: Volunteers pack nutritious meals made up of rice, soy, vitamins and dehydrated vegetables, and they partner with relief organizations worldwide to distribute these meals to starving children.

Community Comics has been given the opportunity to help spread the awareness of Feed My Starving Children and to encourage the volunteers to continue their work with this very worthwhile organization. We would also like to open up the opportunity for other artists, companies or studios to provide art for future two-page comic flyers. A small amount of room at the bottom of each comic will be allowed to promote the artist/company/studio's website. For the cost of producing 2 pages of comic art, FMSC will guarantee distribution of 80,000 flyers directly to Christian teens. The flyers will be kept in circulation for successive years, so the promotion could reach 500,000 teens by 2008.

Please contact Sherwin Schwartzrock if you’re interested in learning more about this unique opportunity.

Feed My Starving Children

Crosswind Comics and the Gospel Tract Society

Daniel Schwabauer of Crosswinds Comics recently passed this information my way, and I found it to be a very encouraging testimony. They’ve been targeting non-traditional outlets for their comics for several years now and it’s great to see them get this lift.

So in Daniel’s words:

As some of you know, we've been working on a 48-page color comic book based on the gospel of Luke. It has been five years in the making, not because we're really good, but because we aren't. Gabriel Valles (who actually is really good) did the pencils. Joel Chua and Carrol did the color. (Come to think of it, they're good, too. Pretty much everyone but me is good. :) Carrol and I have been telling each other that when we finally get the color done, God will give us the money to print it. Sounds crazy, but that's how Crosswind has always operated.

Last November we finally (finally!) finished the color. I took it to Sir Speedy to get some proof copies to show to potential funders, and as I was walking out with my laser-printed copy something just rose up in me and I knew it was going to work. As I got in my car I said out loud, "I know this is bigger than us, Lord, but thank you for letting me touch it." I'm sorry if this sounds pretentious now. It wasn't at the time.

Five days later I met with Tom Buttram of the Gospel Tract Society. I met Tom because, ironically, Bill Corum, the subject of our first comic book, gave Tom a proof copy of The Amazing Gospel. Tom asked Carrol and me to come to his office. I work for an insurance company, and I am, shall we say, jaded. I basically expected anyone to be interested in helping Crosswind Comics to be either 1) As crazy as me, or 2) A satanic cult member trying to foil God's plans by making the whole thing about money. (OK, I'm kidding about #2, but I didn't want it to be about money, because, well, as much as I really, really like money a lot, I consider this a personal flaw.)

So we meet, and I get the tour of their little building - half an hour from my house, by the way - and I sit down in Tom's office. Tom's dad started GTS in 1928. They never sell anything. All their stuff is given away for free. Hmmmm. They still have the first printing press his dad used to print single page tracts in his barn. But I'm still jaded. And I really wanted to know whether or not this is a God-thing, so I prayed for help. I asked God to let me know if it was Him or not.

Then Tom grabs the proof copy and holds it up and says, "This is bigger than Crosswind Comics. It’s bigger than the Gospel Tract Society. But sometimes God just lets us touch it." Coincidence? I don't think so. At the very least it was the expression of a similar heart.

Long story short, a couple of weeks ago we printed 85,000 copies in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. About half these are going into the prison system. We have an Indonesian translation completed, and people are working on Arabic and other languages. We expect to do another printing this summer, if not sooner.

But the coolest thing - which is too complicated to really explain in depth here - is that opportunities are opening for The Amazing Gospel to go to unreached people groups. The vision is for the book to be a kind of spear-point for missionaries reaching out to cultures that have never had a Christian influence. I'll post an update when we have more concrete info.

Meanwhile, Crosswind has officially become part of The Gospel Tract Society. They have support, printing presses, offices, a warehouse, and a quality staff. Frankly, responding to all the prisoners’ letters we got became impossible for us a long time ago. Merging with GTS makes sense. What GTS didn't have was much in the way of modern material. Most of their tracts are older. Tom Buttram told me he feels like a ship that finally found its cargo. In that case, I feel like a cargo that finally found its ship.

BTW: If you'd like a free copy of The Amazing Gospel, you can write to The Gospel Tract Society at 1105 S. Fuller St., Independence MO 64050-4221.

Crosswind Comics
Gospel Tract Society

Dean's Parable

The Wonder from Down Under has done it again, check out Dean Rankine's latest comic:

Heaven is for Trailer Trash (c) 2007 Dean Rankine

Dean's quickly become one of my favorite Christian cartoonists. His comics are always entertaining, and his quirky style and sense of humor put a fresh spin on spiritual matters. You never know what to expect from him, but he'll always leave you looking at things in a different way.

*****

UPDATE (03/09/07)

*****

It looks like Dean's latest comic, Heaven is for Trailer Trash, was pulled. However you can check out some of his other comics at his website Holy Cow! Christian Comics.

The First Post!

Well, I finally decided to jump into the blog pool.

I'm not quite sure what this will turn into, but for right now, I just wanted a centralized place to discuss some of the projects I'm working on, jabber on about the latest show/cd/comic/movie I enjoyed, and maybe even post some cartoons and artwork.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to get something fresh for you at least once a week.

For now, check out this info on these books I'm working on for Zondervan: Z Graphic Novels