Carnival Sage. A website for Christians and Skeptics. Apologetics and Atheism

 

The Graphic Novel – Don Swartzentruber, MFA


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.






Carnival Sage is a trademark of the Swartzentruber Studio. All rights reserved.
keywords: christian apologetics, exvangelical, biblical exegesis, christian literature, faith-based literature, religious graphic novel, atheism, new testament studies, hebrew bible, the historical jesus, religious art and media