Everything in Color with Stephanie Stalvey & Sarah McCammon at Loyalty Bookstore

Ms. Stalvey is in black.

 They're talking about what it took to write autobiography comics online.

Present day is in color. Past is sepia.

Page 81 was one of the first pieces of art and it's meant to recall saintly depictions of women.

 

 

(this was meant to post live from the bookstore, but I couldn't get any signal) 

The Holy Ghost by John Hendrix - A joint review

by Mike Rhode & Cathy Hunter

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.

An example of 'too small' reproduction

 

And Cathy's church library is getting the review copy...

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Dick Wright

by Mike Rhode

Dick Wright of The Providence Journal-Bulletin was the 1983 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Editorial Cartooning. As Dave Astor has written, “Wright worked for the [San Diego] Union-Tribune … (starting in 1976) and later joined The Providence (R.I.) Journal, the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, and The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. Currently [2005], he’s affiliated with the Gwinnett Daily Post of Lawrenceville, Ga. He was syndicated by Tribune Media Services, then Copley News Service, and finally for several years in the early 2000s by Daryl Cagle. His work was collected in the book If He Only Had a Brain... in 1998. The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco “houses over 300 political cartoons illustrated by famed cartoonist Dick Wright in the mid-1990s.” He retired from editorial cartooning in 2005, around the same time he was profiled by the Washington Times. Wright has recently returned to editorial cartooning.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I draw editorial cartoons.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I use a brush, pen and India ink.

 

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in 1944.

Why are you in the Washington area now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I live in Warrenton, Virginia.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I am self-taught. I went to Long Beach State University and I majored in finance.

Who are your influences?

Mad magazine, and especially Mort Drucker. Also, Walt Disney.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I think I would do more local cartoons.

What work are you best-known for?

I can't think of a single piece of work. In general probably my caricatures.

What work are you most proud of?

Well, when I started I was pretty rough. I guess that given where I started I am most proud of what I developed into. My work is a far cry from when I started. I had some help along the way. Mort Drucker was a great encouragement to me as well as Karl Hubenthal in Los Angeles.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I am content to do cartoons about Virginia at this point in my career.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I used to keep a file of "ideas" that I used to trigger new ideas. If you worked at it long enough something would come.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I think that the future in cartooning is in online venues.

What local cons do you attend?

I don't attend any.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

I worked in DC for Scripps-Howard Newspapers. I got to know DC a bit. I guess being in the middle of the action was my favorite thing. I ran into many people that were real players. I enjoyed that

Least favorite?

Traffic.

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

The Smithsonian.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

I love Mexican food just about anywhere.

Do you have a website or blog?

I have a website for a book I wrote called "Growing Big In God". I wrote short messages about many topics about life. I was a pastor of two churches and used my experience and knowledge to help others deal with the tough side of life. Dick Wright Cartoons is my Facebook page with new cartoons.

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

I work from home anyway so it really hasn't impacted me much.

 Can you tell us a bit about being a church pastor and your faith?

I grew up in church. I had a very powerful experience with God at about the age of thirteen. From that time forward, I was deeply engaged in church and was very focused on spiritual things. On my own I began to read the Bible every evening before going to sleep. In reading the Bible, I learned a lot about God and it changed me. Even as a young teen, I became very interested in someday serving the Lord as a pastor. My parents were middle class. We struggled financially even as my dad worked two and three jobs as far back as I can remember. When it came time for me to go to college, I did not have you the heart to ask for help in going to college. I was interested in going to a bible college to become a pastor. Instead, I attended Junior College with no particular direction. I dropped out and got a job as a draftsman because I could draw. In those days we actually drew by hand the things we were building. I advanced quickly and moved up to a junior designer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. I became interested in engineering.

By then I was married with two little girls. I wanted to become a senior designer, but you had to be degreed. So I went to Long Beach State studying engineering and worked full time. While I was at Long Beach State I began to draw cartoons for the university newspaper, the 49'er. I did this a couple of years and finally I went to some local newspaper editors and asked them what they thought of my work. They were very encouraging and began to print a few. This changed my whole direction. I began to consider changing my career goal from engineering to cartooning. I spent about two years contacting newspapers looking for a job. Finally, I was hired at the San Diego Union as their back-up cartoonist and illustrator and I was on my way. It didn't take long for my editorial cartoons to be used more and more and I became the lead cartoonist. I was in San Diego for about eighteen months and then moved to the Providence Journal and that is where my career took off. I was focused on being as good as I could be. I would get up at about four in the morning and read the paper cover to cover. My intent was to know what was going on so my cartoons had substance. I worked at it. I became syndicated and my list of papers grew to about 420. This was a lot, since at that time there were only about 1700 dailies in the country.

This went on for years, but I never forgot the early experience I had with God and my very distinct call to be a pastor. As my list of papers grew I reached my limit. I began to struggle to keep the numbers up and had to work harder just to stay even. I began to realize that there was no way I could sustain what I had been doing for years and I became discouraged. I began to question what I was doing, and for what? At this time I began to think about becoming a pastor and fulfill that early calling. I was 52 at the time. I began to seek out what was necessary to become a pastor. I had a friend who was a pastor who told me that in Virginia all you needed to become a pastor was to be ordained by a church and I could become a pastor. His church ordained me as I had 30 years’ experience leading and teaching the Word. Within a month I had gathered together a group of 21 people and we started a church and I was the pastor. In 12 weeks the church grew to 100 attenders. Three years later we completed a new church building. In five years, my church had grown to more than 400. I retired and then came out of retirement to help another small church get established. I am currently the assistant pastor at that church now.

 You mentioned Mort Drucker who just passed away this month, after a long life. Do you have any specific stories or anecdotes about knowing him?

 When I was trying to get into cartooning, I wrote Mort a letter with some of my work to Mad magazine. I received a letter back from him. He was gracious and encouraging. He offered advice about cartooning that was very helpful. One of the things he told me was that every assignment I get and send off should be better than the last job I did. He said this was the way to get better. He said that when you plateau and level off, keep working at doing better than your last job. He said this is how he improved. Mort was a very kind and gracious man. Many years later, when I was the cartoonist at the Providence Journal, I was involved is getting the program set for an editorial cartooning convention. I contacted Mad and talked to the editor and invited all the cartoonist to the convention in Newport. Mort and Jack Davis showed up along with some others. What a thrill! I have a photo of Mort and myself taken at the mansion where we were hosting the convention. He was so gracious and kind to me. What a great cartoonist, a great man. I miss him.

 4/23/2020: Updated with links to Wright's Facebook page, thanks to DD Degg of the Daily Cartoonist.

Andrew Williams - An Artomatic Interview

by Mike Rhode

Andrew Williams cartoon-based painting series at Artomatic in Crystal City is the religious-themed The Good News, but he also did a school newspaper comic strip called Mike and Moop. He's agreed to answer our usual questions.

 What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?  

Well I mainly do newspaper style comic strips on paint canvases.

 How do you do it? 

I use a combination of pencil and acrylic paint. I really want to get back into digital artwork, so I just bought an IPad Pro. We'll see how that works out.

When and where were you born? 

I was born on July 16, 1987 in Washington D.C.

Why are you in Washington now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?  

I actually live in Prince Georges County, Maryland now, but most of the time I'm in DC with my artwork, the city brings out my creativity.

 What is your training and/ or education in cartooning? 

Well, I'm a self-taught artist but I have done one year at the Art Institute of Washington for graphic design. As far as cartooning, I read a lot of comics and watch a lot of cartoons.



Who are your influences?  

Jesus Christ, Aaron McGruder, Hanna-Barbera and Banksy.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change? 

I would have copyrighted all of my images and stayed motivated fresh out of high school.

What work are you best-known for? 

I have to say Mike and Moop, only because I've been working on it for over 11 years. Mike and Moop originally appeared in Prince George's County Community College newspaper The Owl. However the Good News seems to be taking the spotlight nowadays.



What work are you most proud of?  

The Good News, because I really feel like the series is bigger than myself.

What would you like to do or work on in the future? 

As of right now I'm working on combining all of my strips into one book. AND Comics will be an anthology of all the comic strips I'm working on which will consist of Mike and Moop, GOODNEWS and Automatic Water pistols.

Does Good News tell a story?

Good News does tell a story. Unlike Mike and Moop and Automatic Water Pistols the story for GOODNEWS is already written (The Bible). So the purpose for the paintings and comic strip is less dialogue and more visual story telling. The maximum amount of text I want in the GOODNEWS is 10 words. The GOODNEWS ties into Mike and Moop and Automatic Waterpistols, because of the way the characters conduct themselves and the end moral of the stories, even though the characters never come out and say "Hey look, I'm a Christian".

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block? 

I like to watch artist and hip-hop documentaries. I feel like whenever I'm in a rut or have writers block, its best to look at other established artist for motivation. Exit through the Looking Glass has been on replay ever since I've started doing art shows again.

What do you think will be the future of your field? 

Everything seems to be going digital now, so old-school inking and pencil cartooning will either be obsolete or seen as retro treasures. As far as storytelling goes, I'm interested to see what future kids will have to talk about.

What local Cons do you attend? 

This year is the first year I applied to Awesome Con in Washington DC. I do plan on attending a few throughout the year.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

The People, Art and Chicken Wings with Mambo sauce.

Least favorite? 

Violence.



What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to? 

MLK memorial.

How about your favorite local  restaurant?

Ben's Chili bowl.

Do you have a website or blog?   

Instagram: @fir3inmybones

http://www.rawartists.org/dr3wwilliams

Catholid Herald article on animator De Angel

Youth minister uses his talents in animation to illustrate God's love

Arlington Catholic Herald

After years as a professional artist Miguel De Angel felt called to use art more directly in ministry.

Read the article.

De Angel's video on YouTube

Essa Neima exhibit opening

Essa Neima, Syrian animator,  is opening his exhibit of Christian-influenced oil on acrylic paintings tonight. These are religious images done in response to the ongoing civil war. "I'm trying in this show to represent the average people who just want peace." It's at the Church of the Pilgrim off Dupont Circle on P St & Florida Ave, NW.

A 2013 interview with him can be found here.

Former local comics scholar A David Lewis interviewed

Fanboy Radio #578 - Religion in Comics with A. David Lewis & G. Willow Wilson
31 January 2011
http://fanboyradio.libsyn.com/fanboy-radio-578-religion-in-comics-with-a-david-lewis-g-willow-wilson
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fanboyradio/fbr578.mp3

Joe Sutliff's Ark design

Local cartoonist Joe Sutliff has also been a furniture designer, and
is now designing an Ark for his family's Temple. We chatted at SPX and Joe sent me his design, noting, "Here's what it's gonna be - based on Exodus - a Burning Bush stained glass in the face of a Torah table, with a Moses and staff image made out of cut steel, that has added copper and brass elements (guess who gets to do that part?). I will also probably have to do the Hebrew lettering over the doors. Growing up Spanish Catholic, that urge to do something for a church is pretty strong. I'm planning on doing a limited edition woodblock print of the door art as a fundraiser for the temple."

Pretty cool, huh? Joe, let us know when the woodblock is out.

G. Willow Wilson on Draw Muhammad Day at Post blog

A Muslim cartoonist on "Draw Muhammad Day"
by G. Willow Wilson
Washington Post's On Faith blog July 15, 2010.

Haven't read it yet, myself.

Cavna on Comedy Central Jesus cartoon

Comedy Central considers giving Jesus his own show [online title: Comedy Central considering cartoon series about Jesus], By Michael Cavna, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, May 7, 2010; C05.

That darn Toles, continued some more

Today - a letter defending Toles from the earlier letters.

That darn Toles, continued

More letters to the editor - click the link to read them -
Editorial cartoon draws ire, gratitude
Washington Post April 1, 2010; A14

Regarding Tom Toles's March 29 editorial cartoon:

Crumb's appearance in Richmond

Here's a student mulling over it, and passing along the discount code - "The Good Book gets a new look," by Matt Fisher, RVA News October 22, 2009.

Based on David Hagen's comment earlier this week (boy I hope I remembered that right), and a ridiculous discount on Amazon, I've ordered the book.

Crumb features in Wash Post and NY Times

A book review - "An Artist Drew God & Saw That It Was Good," By Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, October 18, 2009.

And an interview (you need to click through to the slide show) - "Sketching His Way Through Genesis," By ALLEN SALKIN, New York Times October 18, 2009.

Any readers bought this yet? I did not, under the assumption I was in no hurry to read it and it would be remaindered in a year. Did I err?

Book of Esther comic exhibit in Baltimore

The exhibit opened today. See "New-age depiction of Esther's age-old story: Exhibit at Jewish Museum focuses on graphic novel's retelling," By Edward Gunts, Baltimore Sun March 8, 2009 for JT Waldman's graphic novel story.

Here's the basic information - "Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther," runs through July 26 at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and free for members. Call 410-732-6400 or go to jewishmuseummd.org.

Post on anti-Semitic Iranian cartoon book

This was on the wires a couple of days ago, but the Post appears to have a reporter in Iran - as much as I bash them at times, it's a good paper. I read most of the foreign reporting, but rarely note the bylines. See "Young Iranians Release Book Caricaturing The Holocaust," By Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post Foreign Service, Sunday, September 28, 2008; A23.

Post ombudsman on Oliphant cartoon

Here's the Post ombudsman on an Oliphant cartoon about Palin, with a ho-hum sort of defense of free speech as it applies to cartoonists on the web, which after all, isn't really the newspaper, but if it had been the newspaper, well, then by god, we wouldn't have run the cartoon because it criticizes beliefs in god of 750 likely non-subscribers to the Post... aw, just read the thing - "The Power of Political Cartoons," By Deborah Howell, Washington Post Sunday, September 28, 2008; B06.

Dan Wasserman, the Boston Globe's editorial cartoonist had a better response in "Pentecostals peeved at Palin cartoon" basically arguing that if you mix your politics and religion, then perhaps other people won't bother to separate them either.

Post religious blog on Oliphant cartoon

Gabriel Salguero, Pastor and Executive Member, Latino Leadership Circle, takes Oliphant to task in "Stereotyping Palin and Pentecostalism," Newsweek / Washington Post On Faith blog (September 22 2008).

He says, "Certainly, Mr. Oliphant is free to have an opinion concerning "tongue-speaking." I understand the genre of political cartoons, but I just think this is applying an old and unnecessary stereotype. To imply or even hint that good Christians who speak in tongues are naive or not able to lead is truly a leap to judgment. This may not have been Mr. Oliphant's intent but it has been construed in this way by some who have viewed his cartoon post. Certainly, very few would dare argue that the personal prayer practices of other religious groups makes them ill-equipped to lead."

Oliphant and the Pentecostals continued

In a post with a lot of comments, Alan Gardner quoted my earlier post on this and linked to a letter to the Post from a Pentecostal minister: Pastor Bernard's Response to Washington Post Cartoon, Tuesday, September 16th, 2008.