Indy Comics Writer

A friend contacted me yesterday with a job opportunity. Her church is looking for someone to write a limited series of comic books that explains, through biographical stories, the tenants of the church’s faith. Did I know anyone, my friend asked, who’d be interested in taking on that project?

Well, sure. I know myself!

Here’s the thing. I am not a religious person. At all. But I respect those who do hold deep religious beliefs. And thanks to my Catholic-school upbringing and education, I’m fairly well-versed on religious matters. (Even my high school had four years of religion classes!)

So I know I can do this assignment. It’s like people say: You don’t have to be an orphan to write about being an orphan. But you damn well better know what it feels like.

The challenge here will be to make the comic script, if I get the assignment, interesting and educational at the same time. That can be a challenge. I remember reading Classics Illustrated when I was a kid. I remember them as being extremely boring, at least compared to the adventures of Spider-Man, Iron Man and their pals.

So that’s the key: How do you make a teaching comic — which is what this assignment would be — also one that kids will enjoy reading? To me, the key lies in creating characters that kids of today can relate to. It’s hard for kids to understand the motivations, or care about the motivations, of historic religious leaders. But if you can turn those religious leaders into real people, with real doubts, challenges, successes and failures, well, we can all relate to that.

Stay turned. We’ll see if I do write for this church and, if I do, if I can do it well.

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