Christianity and comics

After my last post I did some thinking...dangerous, yes, I know.

I recall having discussions with my good artist pal Steven Butler before about the decline of quality in comics. Any of us could go on for great lengths about how The Dark Knight changed comics.

While I will be one of the first to agree that TDK was a very well-done and very good work, it was the turning point that sent comics on a dark spin. So many comics are "dark" now.

What Steven and I used to talk about (and I'm not trying to put words in his mouth--the words are all mine, but I have great respect for the guy!) is how in the "old" comics there was always a clear "good" and "bad." No, the good guys didn't always win, but it was always clear who was good and who was bad. PLUS, there were always repercussions to decisions made--bad decisions usually brought about negative repercussions.

Our conversations almost always went back to Stan and Jack. I've always wondered about the religious background or moral beliefs of Stan. I don't know what they are, but you have to assume he's got some strong religious foundations because of the positives of all the characters he created, co-created, and/or wrote.

Reading Michael Brewer's book reminded me of all those things.

It almost seems like people today find a purely good or purely evil character hard to believe - which, I've read and seen some novels that are pretty captivating in which the characters are good, but make the wrong choices. Or an evil character can have moments of pity or understandable motivations for being bad. As far as the Christian stand-point goes, I can make bad decisions or be slow to respond to God's will in my life. But I agree, I notice all the time about the darkness in art and story-telling. It seems so prevalent (typical) that I can't understand why people aren't getting tired and bored with it. I think as Christian artist's and writers, we can be realistic and captivating to the world, but introduce people to things they may have not thought of before (like the hope of Christ), or why Christians think and do the things they do. Is this possible? Or has decades of secularism and lack of respect or discipline created such an influx of selfish pessimism that people would rather wallow in the muck?

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Comments

Spike April 2, 2008 at 3:49pm

I agree that comics have gotten so dark-themed that I find them too depressing. I mentioned sometime recently that even when attractive women are represented, they are hacking somebody to pieces. The only thing palatable at my local comic shop is "Groo the Wanderer."
I wouldn't call this a decline in quality, though. Quality of drawing and print reproduction have improved. It's content that has gotten gloomy.
I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that this is just a cycle. Art and literary styles come and go.
Roland Mann November 15, 2007 at 7:36pm

Do you think maybe this secularism is particularly strong in comics? Despite this NING group, Christians are NOT a very large part of the comic book industry. Sad, but true.
And yes, I think Christians can still present a realistic world and reveal the positive/Godly aspect.
Look at David. We hold him up as one of the "greats" of the Bible...yet he made mistakes. Christians today are no different...(well, I haven't cut the head off a giant)
Strad November 13, 2007 at 5:15pm

It almost seems like people today find a purely good or purely evil character hard to believe - which, I've read and seen some novels that are pretty captivating in which the characters are good, but make the wrong choices. Or an evil character can have moments of pity or understandable motivations for being bad. As far as the Christian stand-point goes, I can make bad decisions or be slow to respond to God's will in my life. But I agree, I notice all the time about the darkness in art and story-telling. It seems so prevalent (typical) that I can't understand why people aren't getting tired and bored with it. I think as Christian artist's and writers, we can be realistic and captivating to the world, but introduce people to things they may have not thought of before (like the hope of Christ), or why Christians think and do the things they do. Is this possible? Or has decades of secularism and lack of respect or discipline created such an influx of selfish pessimism that people would rather wallow in the muck?

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