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July 9,
2004
BY CATHLEEN
FALSANI - RELIGION WRITER
Pretty much
everything I know about comic book conventions I've learned from "Chasing
Amy."
So I was fairly
stunned to encounter a deep, theological discussion about the nature of
faith and culture at my very first visit to a comic "summit."
To be fair,
it was the inaugural Christian Comic Creators Summit, a gathering of 14
comic book authors and artists in a lounge at Judson College in Elgin.
Not exactly the massive Wizard World or Comic-Con conventions where thousands
of enthusiasts pack arenas to debate the finer points of Peter Parker
vs. Spider-Man.
Best. Comic.
Ever.
The Christian
comic creators I met were dealing with something more fundamental. More
transcendent.
More Jesus-vs.-Spider-Man.
Among the Christian
comic creators were professionals who have penned their own comics for
years, amateurs just starting out, and one peculiarity: a Christian who
writes for secular comics.
Since 2000,
Chris Yambar, a prolific comic writer, pop artist and pastor from Youngstown,
Ohio, has been one of the lead writers for the Bart Simpson comic book.
He also pens the cult hit Mr. Beat comic, with its eponymous beatnik hero.
One of his most popular Mr. Beat stories is affectionately known as "Coffee
with Jesus."
Most of the
other Christian comics have created superheroes with names like Mr. Christian,
The Armor-Bearer and The Cardinal. And most of the Christian comic book
story lines involve time-honored battles of good against evil, fought
with the power of the cross -- sometimes literally.
Yambar, who
bears an eerie resemblance to the Simpsons character Comic Book Guy with
short-cropped hair instead of the ponytail, works his Christian message
into his comic in a more subtle way.
"Kind of like
your favorite cereal," Yambar explained. "Sometimes there's a cartoon
character on the box, sometimes there's a cartoon character in the box.
"Sometimes
it's just funny," he said of his Simpson comic. "And sometimes there's
a free prize inside." He was, I believe, referring to Jesus and not a
secret decoder ring.
During his
presentation on the first day of the summit, Yambar and his irreverence
ruffled feathers.
"I come from
a very different philosophy of comics. I take what's called the missionary
position," he said, waiting for the laugh, which never arrived.
"I'm an infiltrator....
When you go into a culture, you become a part of the culture. You do not
remain an outsider in the culture. You learn their ways, you know what
they eat, you know where they live, you know how to speak to them, you
learn their language.
"I don't believe
in separating the sacred from the secular. I think that breeds schizophrenic
behavior," he said.
Jesus, after
all, was a carpenter for the better part of 30 years before he got around
to turning water into wine.
Yambar's reasoning
is a classic paradigm in Christian theology called "Christ of culture."
It's one of five that famed theologian Richard Niebuhr described in 1959
to explain the tension between Christianity and culture.
Christ of culture
says, basically, that Jesus was part of culture when he walked the Earth,
so Christianity should actively engage culture. Another paradigm -- Christ
against culture --describes efforts to isolate Christianity from culture
and its evils to keep it holy. Then there is Christ and culture in paradox,
which finds balance in the friction between Christ and culture.
Pretty heady
stuff. But it's exactly what was being played out at the fledgling comic
summit.
Despite the
lukewarm reception, Yambar continued with vigor.
"People talk
about Christian comics. I'd like to see more Christians in comics. You
say, 'There aren't enough good comics out there.' You know why? Christians
refuse to get involved in their industry. Everyone wants to work from
an outside position," he said, pantomiming water swirling while making
flushing noises. "Let it go. Put on a new mind. Get involved in your culture.
Get involved in your people, face first. Make it happen. Earn the right
to be heard.
"Don't produce
a book and say, 'Nobody's paying attention to my book!' Maybe your book
stinks. Maybe you're not marketing it right. Maybe you're taking yourself
out of the market before your book is even produced because you want to
-- Oooh! -- be separate and be holier."
Amen, brother.
D.R. Perry,
32, is a Chicago cop who writes and draws a new up-market comic called
War in Paradise, about the fall of Lucifer. It looks a lot like something
you might find in Marvel or DC comics rather than on the racks of a Christian
bookstore.
"Most Christian
books are by Christians for Christians," said Perry, 32, who is shopping
his comic to several publishers. "What I'm doing is creating books by
Christians for everybody that have the look that the secular community
demands but the content to please the Christian community."
Christ and
culture in paradox.
He wants to
jump-start a Christian comics industry that can truly compete with the
secular market.
"There are
a lot of Christians in the secular market who work for Marvel and DC who
are friends of mine. Yet, they can't afford to pursue Christian comics
because they don't pay the bills. I'm trying to start a house that has
the same quality, the same financial backing, so that this popular Christian
talent in the secular market can come over and do Christian comics that
aren't boring," he said.
That would
be refreshing. So much of what is marketed as "Christian" (read: Safe
for Christians) -- be it music, art or literature -- is at best mediocre
artistically.
"Let people
in on the party. Hello!" Yambar shouted at his fellow Christian artists.
"Get Jesus up off the mantelpiece and let him run around the yard!"
That led to
the following exchange between Yambar and Sherwin Schwartzrock, 33, of
Minnesota, author of the Anointed series of Christian comic books and
arguably the most successful of present-day Christian comic creators.
Schwartzrock:
"Obviously based on your theory that we should be in the world...."
Yambar: "Theory?
. . . That's no theory. That's a lifestyle."
Schwartzrock:
"Your execution of your theory. What do you want to do here?"
Yambar: "You
tell me what you want to write, and I'll give you the best story you've
ever read."
I almost ducked,
expecting spirited chest-thumping and Bible-tossing to begin.
Torrence
King, 30, and Dwayne McNutt, 39, produce Christian Superheroes
Comic Magazine and Christian Powers Society comics, featuring
the Mr. Christian and Armor-Bearer characters. They're hardly
blockbusters -- selling a couple hundred copies a year -- but that's not
the point, King said.
"There is a
difference with measuring success. You can have success with a million
copies sold. And you can have success with one copy sold to a child who
needed to read it who was about to commit suicide," King said.
"What you're
presenting to us is cool, and what you're doing, that's where you're going,"
he told Yambar. "But there are others who are up and coming that might
follow a different path."
Yambar agreed,
to a point.
"That's right.
And they should follow the path that is designed for them as an individual,"
he said. "What I'm saying is get in tune with your scout master so you
don't go walking through the poison sumac and end up blaming him for it."
So much for
preaching to the choir.
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