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For
most of my life I have been a fundamentalist Christian. My first job was illustrated
Sunday school publications.
My artwork for Christian heavy metal
bands was in the faith-based marketplace. I taught at a conservative
Christian college for twenty years. Most of my friends are believers. Most of
my life I believed I had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I purchased the Carnival Sage web
domain in 2009 with the intention of writing and drawing apologetics material
for evangelism. I trademarked the brand and invited Christian scholars to
submit articles to the site. I was awarded an Indiana Arts Commission grant
to illustrate sequential art that dealt with the best of the Bible has to offer, Proverbs and the
Beatitudes. I was exposed to skeptics such as debates featuring Christopher
Hitchens, and liberal Christians like Bishop John Shelby Spong.
We switched to a more conservative and
reformed church. For several years I ran Theology
Think Tank in my home as a way to sort through my reading and Bible study.
As I studied scripture I building short
stories into sequential narratives.
I titled these “Sermons.”
Eventually they were published in
literary journals.
As I ran into more and more problems in
my Bible study I considered other
options such as universal salvation and liberal theology. For several weeks a ancient near east scholar did
a Bible study in my home with some
of our closest friends. Once I was able to see the Hebrew scriptures with
better clarity I was able to step back for the New Testament. At the age of 48 I became apostatized from my fundamentalist
religious convictions.
It took a couple of years of trying to find myself as an atheist. Eventually
I started leaning towards deism.
Eventually
I transition to another sequential project. This time I started crafting a mythical
biography exploration the complexities of Christian theology.
The novel was formed in words…
and drawings, simultaneously.
The script stayed with me more then my cell phone.
from coast to coast
north and south of the boarder
on scraps of paper, on my laptop, in a sketchbook, and in a script
binder.
It started to develop as a
Pilgrims Progress for apostates of
fundamentalism.
Forty-seven chapter grew into a graphic novel. The story evolved on small sheets
of newsprint using ink and colored pencils.
I stopped attending church, but stayed submersed in Christian teachings via
sermons and Bible audio.
The
story stayed in constant revision and change, year after year.
I
asked many friends, family and Bible scholars
to review the script and give feedback. Many did, despite their objection to
the premise of the book. Much coffee was consumed in talking about and writing
the Carnival Sage script.
All
sketches up to this point are concept and storyboard only.
Final edit is scheduled to start September 2023.
Illustration of the project will follow in December.
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