Comic Belief

By Gretchen Murray
TRAVERSE CITY RECORD EAGLE (TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. November 14, 2007 03:27 pm

— How do you get kids interested in reading the Bible? Hand them a comic book.
Once the bane of mothers who considered them a total waste of a perfectly good summer, comic books are coming on strong as the hottest new thing in Christian book publishing.
The comic books, offering updated but accurate versions of biblical parables for older children and teens, are catching on as fast as they can be produced. Master storyteller Mark Carpenter of Grand Rapids is determined to join the growing trend.
Carpenter, a marketing coach, formed his vision for Dust Press, a small nonprofit company, a little more than a year ago. By February, finishing touches on the first book, “Fire From Heaven,” were complete, with copies appearing in stores in June. The premier episode pits the masked prophets of Baal against the prophet Elijah. The story is an adaptation of one told in 1Kings of the Old Testament. The second episode, “The Blessed Curse,” is nearing completion.
“We’ve been excited about the response, and production on ‘The Blessed Curse’ is in its final proofreading and on its way to the printer,” Carpenter said. “This story deals with the not necessarily obscure, but not real familiar story of Balaam and his donkey as told in (the Old Testament book) Numbers.”
Rainbow Bookstore owner Jim Hatch is well aware of the rising interest in Christian-themed comics and carries several series including Dust in his Traverse City store. Hatch said the Christian book world is seeing an influx in both comic books as well as graphic novels and manga (a popular Japanese-style comic book format) for telling the stories in the Bible.
“In terms of market for these books, there are kids who find these types of biblical resources more palatable than a plain text format,” said Jim Hatch.
While Dust markets their books to adolescent boys and teens, Rainbow Books also carries a series by Thomas Nelson, the Christian comic publisher of Goofyfoot Gurl, with a California surfing setting aimed toward adolescent girls.
Hatch says the popularity of these religious comic books has mushroomed just in the last 12 months.
“Zondervan, a Christian book publisher in Grand Rapids, has started producing a series of graphic novels, “Hatch said. “And they’re developing new series as fast as they can read the market.”
Carpenter defines his product as a comic book, explaining the differences between comics, graphic novels and manga mediums. A graphic novel customarily has a beginning, middle and an end, and comic books usually are part of a continuing series. Although around since post World War II, manga, the Japanese word for comics, are currently a multi-billion dollar pop culture industry in that country. Traditionally printed in black and white and around 80 pages long, they are smaller in size than standard American comic books.
“It all falls under the term sequential art, where time progresses forward with the use of panels. The format has the ability to pull the reader in. It’s really engaging,” Carpenter said.
The inspiration for Dust Press came to Carpenter one Sunday while sitting in Mars Hill Baptist Church in Grand Rapids listening to guest speaker Rev. Ray VanderLaan of Holland, an author, historian and an extraordinary biblical storyteller. VanderLaan unfolded the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
“He was explaining things about the story that made it all new,” Carpenter said. “Specifically when describing the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Well-traveled through the Holy Land, VanderLaan told us that the road was very narrow, maybe 30 inches wide. In other words the Samaritan in the parable could not have avoided noticing man’s inhumanity to man in all the details of the of the stranger lying in the road robbed and beaten.”
Carpenter’s mind took him back to a book of parables he had as a child.
“The artist chose to draw the Good Samaritan on a city street with sidewalks making it easy to cross to the other side and avoid the scene. I though that if we could create comic books to do stories justice by using a contextual relevance, it would open kids’ eyes to the wonder of the Bible,” he said.
The desire for realism adds a dose of bloodshed to the storyline, but Carpenter understands that parental input is key for making the Dust series a success. The appendix contains the word-for-word biblical verse as well as a list of talking points and commentary by Rev. Kent Dobson of Mars Hill Church.
Hatch agrees the stories have a violent edge to them that parents should be aware of.
“Although the goal is to engage kids in a biblical scenario, a parent might think they’re kind of edgy,” Hatch said. “I would not recommend them for children under 12 and with parental guidance.”
Carpenter feels they’re just the dose of reality today’s kids need to keep them engaged.
“The studies of kids who drop out of church after they reach their teens are tragic,” he said.
He aims to use the Dust series to influence that in a powerful way.
“Studies say kids don’t know the Bible is a resource, but there are stories in there with answers. We can show them amazing stories of people struggling with personal problems, and we want to show these stories with a rawness and to show success.”
Carpenter feels that today’s kids can handle a somewhat disturbing storyline.
“That’s the way the world is today. If we take part of this out, we’re saying we’re not trusting you can deal with the real story.”
And they’re aiming to earn kids’ respect.
“We’re about being totally honest,” he said. “The stories are just as raw, wild and challenging as they were back then. It’s the way it was. It’s the real story.”

Gretchen Murray writes for the Travers City (Mich.) Record Eagle.

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To learn more visit www.dustpress.com.

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