I'm still in the beginning stage of development on my comic, but I've encountered a problem: my comic is very preachy. I want it to be accessible to Non-Christian readers, but I want it to have theology interspersed. What do I do?Also, any reccomended books and comics that do this well? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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That's an excellent article! Thanks for sharing - very insightful and encouraging.
Axiom Illustration said:
I wrote an article on my blog site about christian creativity that might be helpful. I got to thinking about it after posting my reply here back on December 11, and thought I'd jot down a few thoughts. Check it out if interested! I titled the post, Christian Star Trek? A Call to Christian Creativity!
How to market my story to both Christians and Non-Christians
I'm still in the beginning stage of development on my comic, but I've encountered a problem: my comic is very preachy. I want it to be accessible to…
I wrote an article on my blog site about christian creativity that might be helpful. I got to thinking about it after posting my reply here back on December 11, and thought I'd jot down a few thoughts. Check it out if interested! I titled the post, Christian Star Trek? A Call to Christian Creativity!
Christian Star Trek?
What if Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek) or Isaac Asimov (scientist and sci-fi author) had been Christians? It might be easy to think, as…
As for recommended books that are preachy yet popular, Robinson Crusoe comes to mind. (the original, not some remake/rewrite.) It does show its age at times on racial topics, but is still excellent. Crusoe's coming to faith and then his struggles with faith are major, major themes of the book and it doesn't hide it.
The above advice is great and I won't repeat it. I love this site.
KG, You're going to continually keep checking your work out (by prayer, by the Bible, with others) as you create. Most of your daily or weekly material is going to be created for just you and God, share it with each other and don't worry about what other think.
Prayer-practice-praise will mature you as a believer and artist; it will give you the depth to create for others when God directs your heart to do so. Doodle on scrap paper, sketch as worship, write down the little snippets of dialogue and verse in some sort of scrap book. God gives you both the talents and the drive to develop those talents; sometimes its fun and sometimes its frustration.
Yes, tough subject to be sure. Sure, sometimes talking about the truth and hope of Christ will come off as preachy to some - but if the Lord is working in people's hearts, it might be just what they need. One thing I've found is that people can sometimes have a double standard about "preachy" stuff. They say they don't want to hear Christians talk, but then listen to secular musicians, books, games, movies, and politicians "preach" about a variety of topics. Just goes to show that God's words aren't always going to be liked. Never have been. But the key is to not come off as rude, or use a lot of christian terms that non-christians might find hard to understand. Know your audience I guess! :)
I agree that sometimes you can be more ambiguous in sharing a message though. Not everything created by Christians has to have Bible verses all over the place. But sometimes maybe it should. For example, I do a lot of work apart from the Axiom Illustration christian cartoons (which are geared for a certain audience) that may not come off immediately as Christian. However, it does share a fundamental truth of Christianity that appeals to a wide audience.
Personally I think preachy is fine in certain circumstances and cultural contexts. But today almost all modern western readers can't stand preachy - which probably makes it inappropriate to do if you're trying to encourage non-Christian readers to get through your whole story and be positively affected by it.
Of course everyone thinks of CS Lewis when it comes to making the story approachable, non-preachy and Gospel-centered. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of other stories out there that do this (or maybe I just don't read enough of them). Alister McGrath wrote the Aedyn chronicles - similar to Narnia but less talking animals. I've read the first one and I highly recommend it.
Mostly I'd just say that it's really important nowadays to write a story that does not come off as an allegory to a Biblical event, or merely a modern retelling of a parable. Those are fine things to do, but non-Christians almost never read them - even though they encapsulate the Gospel in metaphorical ways, they are still considered very preachy and invalid to non-Christian readers (in my experience). And honestly Christians won't get as much out of it as you'd like, because as soon as they pick up on which story or parable you're allegorizing, they will typically tune out, because they already know the ending and the moral of the story.
So I say use all the tools of good writing, but do not write allegory lol. And maybe set it in an historical setting or unfamiliar culture so that readers have the benefit of distance from the subject/time at hand, which will allow them to apply the themes to their lives on their own and not feel like you're telling them how to apply it in their own time and circumstances
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That's an excellent article! Thanks for sharing - very insightful and encouraging.
Axiom Illustration said:
I wrote an article on my blog site about christian creativity that might be helpful. I got to thinking about it after posting my reply here back on December 11, and thought I'd jot down a few thoughts. Check it out if interested! I titled the post, Christian Star Trek? A Call to Christian Creativity!
As for recommended books that are preachy yet popular, Robinson Crusoe comes to mind. (the original, not some remake/rewrite.) It does show its age at times on racial topics, but is still excellent. Crusoe's coming to faith and then his struggles with faith are major, major themes of the book and it doesn't hide it.
The above advice is great and I won't repeat it. I love this site.
KG, You're going to continually keep checking your work out (by prayer, by the Bible, with others) as you create. Most of your daily or weekly material is going to be created for just you and God, share it with each other and don't worry about what other think.
Prayer-practice-praise will mature you as a believer and artist; it will give you the depth to create for others when God directs your heart to do so. Doodle on scrap paper, sketch as worship, write down the little snippets of dialogue and verse in some sort of scrap book. God gives you both the talents and the drive to develop those talents; sometimes its fun and sometimes its frustration.
Yes, tough subject to be sure. Sure, sometimes talking about the truth and hope of Christ will come off as preachy to some - but if the Lord is working in people's hearts, it might be just what they need. One thing I've found is that people can sometimes have a double standard about "preachy" stuff. They say they don't want to hear Christians talk, but then listen to secular musicians, books, games, movies, and politicians "preach" about a variety of topics. Just goes to show that God's words aren't always going to be liked. Never have been. But the key is to not come off as rude, or use a lot of christian terms that non-christians might find hard to understand. Know your audience I guess! :)
I agree that sometimes you can be more ambiguous in sharing a message though. Not everything created by Christians has to have Bible verses all over the place. But sometimes maybe it should. For example, I do a lot of work apart from the Axiom Illustration christian cartoons (which are geared for a certain audience) that may not come off immediately as Christian. However, it does share a fundamental truth of Christianity that appeals to a wide audience.
Good question!
Personally I think preachy is fine in certain circumstances and cultural contexts. But today almost all modern western readers can't stand preachy - which probably makes it inappropriate to do if you're trying to encourage non-Christian readers to get through your whole story and be positively affected by it.
Of course everyone thinks of CS Lewis when it comes to making the story approachable, non-preachy and Gospel-centered. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of other stories out there that do this (or maybe I just don't read enough of them). Alister McGrath wrote the Aedyn chronicles - similar to Narnia but less talking animals. I've read the first one and I highly recommend it.
Mostly I'd just say that it's really important nowadays to write a story that does not come off as an allegory to a Biblical event, or merely a modern retelling of a parable. Those are fine things to do, but non-Christians almost never read them - even though they encapsulate the Gospel in metaphorical ways, they are still considered very preachy and invalid to non-Christian readers (in my experience). And honestly Christians won't get as much out of it as you'd like, because as soon as they pick up on which story or parable you're allegorizing, they will typically tune out, because they already know the ending and the moral of the story.
So I say use all the tools of good writing, but do not write allegory lol. And maybe set it in an historical setting or unfamiliar culture so that readers have the benefit of distance from the subject/time at hand, which will allow them to apply the themes to their lives on their own and not feel like you're telling them how to apply it in their own time and circumstances