When a publicist offered to send The Holy Ghost: A Spirited Comic by John Hendrix (Abrams Comic Arts, 2022) for review, I (Mike) accepted enthusiastically. I had just interviewed Grant Snider for his book, The Art of Living,
from the same publisher, and am very fond of his philosophical one-page
comics. I expected something similar from Hendrix, as his book has an
introduction by Patrick McDonnell, another thoughtful and spiritual
cartoonist who recently took a half year off to work on a project with
the Dalai Lama.
I very much enjoyed Hendrix's art -
his drawings of a little blue ghost, or more properly I suppose, a
little blue spirit, and his foils, an anthropomorphic squirrel and
badger.
The publisher's promo text reads:
Does God exist? Is there a heaven? What’s the point of it all? Do we even matter?
This collection of thought-provoking, humorous comic strips is a series of conversations between a squirrel, a badger, and a friendly blue ghost who may or may not be one third of the Holy Trinity. Charming, witty, and at times poignant, yet never holier-than-thou, New York Times bestselling and award-winning illustrator John Hendrix tackles some of life’s greatest questions. Whether you consider yourself faithful or a nonbeliever, these delightfully off-kilter comics deliver laughter, comfort, and philosophical musings with humble, honest spirit—and just the right dose of playful irreverence.
and
this highlights my major issue with the book - it is a deep dive into
Christian thought, not really philosophical musings writ large.
There's
a strong tradition of religious cartoons and cartoonists - single panel
cartoons such as Brother Juniper, odd excursions such as Al Hartley's
Christian Archie comics, the evil evangelism of Jack Chick's tracts, so I
should not have been surprised I suppose. Hendrix's afterword (not
foreword) is clear -- he doodled a lot of these cartoons in church while
listening to sermons. "The comics became a way to preach to myself over
many years and many seasons of life." Fair enough, but as I've grown
older, I've become less tolerant of proselytizing.Still,
the art is very well done, the cartoons are often clever, and I decided
to turn to my wife Cathy, who is religious, to the point of being her
church's volunteer librarian. She
found this to be a book that reminded her of teachings she'd
encountered over the years and enjoyed revisiting some of those big
questions illustrated with a whimsical blue ghost. She sees Hendrix's claimed influences of Schulz and Watterson in the art. The following are her thoughts on the book -
Trying
to make sense of the Trinity, particularly the Holy Ghost is one
paradox after another. Many of the illustrations reminded me of the King
James Version of the Bible's description of faith: "Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
I
love the typography of the strip title. For each one, he does something
different. A couple of cartoons stood out for me. On page 120, the very
first cartoon done in his sketchbook, illustrates "Be Thou My Vision,"
my favorite hymn based on an old Celtic tune. However, the analysis is spot-on. Who does not care anything about money or being well-thought of? On
page 115, the Ghost and Squirrel are playing checkers, and the Ghost
says, "King of Kings me" to which the losing Squirrel replies "Enough
with that." This very light-hearted cartoon is one of my favorites.
In
the end, Hendrix succeeds in holding in equipoise the bad things
happening in the world, but also the love and all the beautiful things.
He shows that still, small voice that sees a small light in the dark.
So
there you have it - two viewpoints on one book. We both agree that the
artwork is lovely, and Abrams has done its usual fine job -- except for
one thing -- the cartoons are too small. Many of them would have
benefited from being European album-sized instead of a slightly
larger-than-usual hardcover, both for the art and the text. Even the
Artist's Note appears to be in 8 point type, which won't appeal to the
older reader who is probably more likely to purchase this book. In the end, we were both glad of the opportunity to read the book, and glad the strips are collected for a broader audience.
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| An example of 'too small' reproduction |
And Cathy's church library is getting the review copy...
