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I think as artists sometimes we get so focus on our own goals and dreams and projects, we overlook meeting the needs of those around us, those who need us at that moment, like family, a wife, a husband, children, family, even a neighbor, or stranger. I don't want the ministry that God gave me to be built on screwing those around me, so there needs to be a balance of helping others and reasonably working on your art. If you are getting into arguments with someone because your not giving them any attention then it's time to put down the pencil and give that person who needs you some Quality time.
Sometimes we get so busy in life we forget to put the love we have for others into action. If you say you love someone but don't put any action behind it then it's meaningless.
I'm an artist and I know how it can be sometimes, that we need to finish. But if you were to put others before yourself the ideals would come easier, God just works it out that way. The slower you go the more time you have to think. And to walk away from something you just made and then to come back to it later, you get to see it with fresh eyes instead of looking at it for hours. Those hours can be used to cook to give your wife a break, Watch your neighbors kids to give them a break, etc.
As an artist this scripture changed my life, so I figured I would share it with my fellow artist in Christ.
Oh yeah, and when your child says, "Look Daddy Look," or "Daddy watch this." Go ahead and take a few seconds to look at what they are trying to show you. The page your working on will wait. lol Trust me.
Here's a link to a 2-part interview did by Eric Shirey over at thespectralrealm.com at this year's Dallas Comic Con. Enjoy!
Hey gang, just wanted to share my thoughts and some pics from this year's Chicago Comic Con.
I had not did this event, (which has previously been known as Wizard World Chicago), since 2006 when I had released Acts of the Spirit. That year I was quite disappointed with the event, my sales and the lack of foot traffic...which probably explains why I stayed away so long.
But this year's show was quite a different experience for me. There was significant foot traffic in the artist's alley area all 3 and 1/2 days of the event and Saturday's crowds reminded me of a day at Comic Con International (in San Diego) with isles so filled with people it was difficult just to try to move through the hall.
Back in 2006, it seemed that the crowd was very indifferent to Eye Witness, which I determined by the few number of people that actually stopped to ask about it or grabbed a free poster. While during this year's show, it seemed many more people were interested in finding out just what the heck it was about, stopped to hear my pitch and gobbled up the free Unknown God Posters as fast as I could autograph them. And of course, when more people stop to take a look, that usually means more will purchase.
There were a number of "brother creators" in the house this year also, which gave me an opportunity to refer people I knew were in search of comics and GN's with Christian or spiritual content, to their tables. There was Dr. "Solo" Perry of Honors Studios, with his War in Paradise comic...which. if you haven't seen it, is a beautifully rendered story of Angels and Demons which is reminiscent of the widely popular Archangels comics of the '90's. Got a chance to briefly meet Marc Moran, who shared with me his massive Conqueror and Conqueris graphic novel...can't wait to give it a read. I also got a chance to touch base briefly with the gang over at Kingdom Comics...who had a whole table of different faith based comic offerings. Also a big shout out to Martin Oakly and George Macas, who were also in attendence selling (literally) tons of comics they had just purchased!
As with most major conventions this one was loaded with people in costumes. There was the requisite Joker in the Nurses uniform and Captain Jack Sparrow, groups of characters from the World of Batman and X-Men, as well as two guys who created home-made Iron Man and War Machine armors, that I would have sworn was the product of Marvel studios. But this was the only one I felt compelled to run out and get a picture of.
This young girl was the perfect Hit-Girl!
As with any of the Wizard promoted events this one had a real nice assortment of celebrity, movie and TV guests. But the biggest surprise along those lines was an appearance on Saturday morning by the newly convicted ex-governor of IL, Rod Blagojevich. He was there to sign autographs, have your picture taken with him and in general attempt to start building his a new war chest for his upcoming retrial. Granted I did not leave my table to go see how many people actually gave this "character" their money, but when they announced his arrival most in the hall let out a thunderous boo!
But as this picture here shows, even pro. wrestlers enjoy the Eye Witness series! If you don't recognize him, this is the legendary, Raven, of the WWE, getting his copy of book one!
Overall this was a very fine show for me...the best outside of the Creation NW music festival...in amount of sales. Now I'm really looking forward to the next Wizard sponsored shows I'll be doing in the fall leg of the Unknown God tour, in Boston, Austin and Atlanta!
R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/
Well, it’s been a few weeks since the San Diego Comic-Con (or, technically, “Comic-Con International: San Diego”) and I guess it’s finally time for me to quit procrastinating and write up my report on the show. Sorry for the delay. In addition to the usual sleep deprivation and sensory overload that accompanies the convention (making the "Walking Dead" banners throughout the convention center very appropriate), I also managed to catch a nasty cold on the last day of the show so by the time I got back home, I was feverish and coughing and was pretty much wiped out for the next two weeks. By the time I was back on my feet, so much other work had piled up while I was sick that my intended convention report got pushed back yet again. So… before anything else can go awry, here it is!
THE TABLE
Table space was more cramped than usual this year. The consensus of the other vendors is that the tables shrunk in comparison to previous years. Still 6 feet long as promised, but they seem narrower, and more tightly packed against the aisles. In previous years, we had room for the display rack, a half-table full of giveaway tracts, and still space for table signs, a candy bowl, and a clipboard for a sign-up sheet. This year, we had to forgo extra table signs, and the sign-up clipboard had to be stashed away behind the display rack.
The CCAS convention events are first and foremost intended as an outreach ministry, not a fundraising tool, but we still do offer Christian comics for sale so as to offset the costs of the table. We usually end up making at least enough to cover the costs of the table itself, while the hotel and travel costs are just considered out-of-pocket expenses that we volunteers pay as part of our ministry.
This year, God blessed us with enough to cover the cost of the table and still had enough left over to cover a hefty chunk of a downpayment for next year’s convention season. In fact, the sales of books were surprisingly good, considering the fact that access to half our table was blocked by a trash can which the convention placed directly in front of us to catch water dripping from a leaky pipe overhead. (We tried to make light of this by posting a sign offering “free baptisms”, but after four days of being unable to have the leak repaired, that had gotten old.)
We got many positive responses from other Christians who were discovering us for the first time, as well as expressions of relief that there were Christians here representing something other than the angry Westboro protesters. (The attention given to the protesters was wildly disproportionate to their actual impact. There was just a small handful of them, they protested outside the convention center from behind a police barricade with no direct contact with anyone, and they were there for less than an hour on Thursday afternoon before departing to go picket their next scheduled target.)
Our table was next to a fellow Christian artist, and across from several other small publishers with whom we struck up friendships and apparently made a very positive impression. The result was that if someone did make a rare complaint about how “awful” it was that "those Christians" had a table at the convention, our neighboring non-religious exhibitors would actually defend us and praise how friendly and helpful we had been to them.
As always, the CCAS table featured a wide variety of comic-style tracts that we gave away for free to all who would take them. Our tracts included everything from the Street Comix (mini-comics with art produced by CCAS members and published by the Foursquare Missions Press for a street ministry outreach for gang members, prostitutes and the homeless) to classic Jack Chick tracts (but only the ones offering clear Gospel messages, not anti-Catholic conspiracy rants, FYI), as well as free sample booklets showing preview pages from the soon-to-be-released Action Bible from David C. Cook.
We carried a very wide mix of comics this year, actually more than we had room to display on our table. Most of it was new: Ralph Miley and I had just produced two new titles through the New Creation Now imprint (Ragged Capes and the New Visions Anthology); Kingstone Media was offering childrens’ titles focusing on Bible stories of Moses, Noah and others; Kurt Kolka brought new copies of The Cardinal; Clint Johnson had a limited edition ashcan preview of Matthew Cross: Faithwalker; Headpress Publishers had released a new installment of the Eyewitness series; and the Voice of the Martyrs had produced a new comic book on overseas persecution, Hope Amid Horror. We also carried older, evergreen titles such as Buzz Dixon's Serenity manga series, the Proverbs & Parables anthology, and the various “Z” Graphic Novels by Zondervan and Lamp Post Publishing.
THE PANELS
The Saturday morning panel focused on “Spiritual Themes in Comics” and had the following writeup in the convention guide:
The panel wasn’t bad, but wasn’t as good as previous years. This wasn’t the fault of our panelists, just the reality of the placement and crowds. Scott and the panelists did well, but as for the attendance and audience enthusiasm, those seemed only fair to average. A large part of this was due to our change in venue. Last year, our panel was held inside the convention center, and our room was packed to overflowing. This year, in a smaller room, we had plenty of open seats left. The lights were also turned down so dim as to prevent video recording (although we were able to record the audio of the panel and hope to post it online as a podcast soon.) We got in to the room late, because the previous panelists (a Twilight fan-fiction author fan group?) were slow in ending their session, and their crowds simply moved directly outside the door of the room where their loud continuing conversations threatened to drown out our own panelists inside the room. Let's just say the acoustics of the room were somewhat lacking at that point.
Our scheduled non-Christian panelist (Holly Golightly) was not able to attend the panel; she had told me earlier that there might be a scheduling conflict with events going on at her own booth, and I believe she told Scott that the fact that it was being held outside the convention center also played a factor. We were able to replace her spot on the panel with Brett Burner of Lamp Post Publishing at the last minute. As a result, our Saturday panel lacked the back-and-forth diversity of viewpoints we normally have. Our panelists did great, but having the subject of “Spirituality in Comics” discussed only from a Christian perspective felt like it was lacking something. Personally, I think the Christian POV on the Saturday panel is showcased better when it can be compared and contrasted with other viewpoints. Still, our roster of available panelists are often outside of our control, so we work with whomever God brings us and we trust Him for the results. We’ll see what we can try arranging for next year
The Sunday morning panel with Buzz Dixon, Eric Jansen and Sergio Cariello went better. The convention had fixed the lighting by then, so I was able to record the panel with video as well as audio. (Again, postcasts will be forthcoming, Lord willing.) Also, there was a gap in the scheduling between our panel and the next, which allowed our panel to go long and take up to half an hour of extra time for questions and answers. Here was our official writeup in the guide:
Sergio provided an opening devotional about the impact our lives make upon one another, and how even seemingly unimportant artistic efforts (like his freebie contribution to the Proverbs & Parables anthology a decade ago) cause ripples and rebound in unexpected ways (in Sergio’s example, he explained how the art he did for that old anthology ended up putting him in a position where he was chosen to illustrate the new David C. Cook Action Bible, which has been an extensive multi-year project and labor of love for him.)
The panel discussion started off with Sergio's experience with the Action Bible, and Eric's experience with his Christ of Prophecy comic produced and distributed worldwide through Foursquare Missions Press. The discussion then widened to include a discussion about the Genesis adaptation of Robert Crumb and other examples of non-Christians creating art based on the Scriptures. We had a very interactive audience, with even staffers from the convention getting involved in the Q&A.
Out of the many other events at the convention that went very well for us, the one event that did not go so well for us was the “After-Hours Mixer”:
I think there were several reasons this event fizzled. One was the setting: In previous years, we had a relatively small room, but we were free to rearrange the chairs and microphones, which provided a cozy atmosphere of fellowship. This year, we were in a large hall where all the chairs were firmly anchored in rows and even the microphones were bolted down to the floor. We were hoping for the feel of an after-church fellowship hall, and we got a lecture podium with pews instead.
The other problem was the timing. In previous years, our after-hours meeting was relatively ignored by the convention: they gave us an unused room and because there were no further events scheduled, they allowed us to just “hang out” without a set end time. However, with this year’s meeting down the hall from some larger events (the Masquerade, a Kevin Smith panel, etc.), the convention enforced a strict one hour time limit, at the end of which we were ejected and the room locked up tight. End result: we had just enough time for people to make introductions and say “Hi, my name is ___ and I’m a Christian and a comics fan” and… that’s about it. There just wasn’t enough time for much “mixing” to go on at our mixer. Oh well. We’ll know better for next year to be more specific with our requests of the convention as to what kind of room we need and how much time to expect.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
The convention itself has my usual complaints: it’s simply grown too large. It often took me over an hour to move from one end of the hall to the other, or to travel from one panel discussion and back to our table. As a result, I spent much less time at our table than I had planned to, because most of my time was spent trapped inching my through crowds trying to even reach our table. The size of the crowds, the noise, the claustrophobic gridlock in the aisles… it’s all too much for me. I keep coming back each year as an exhibitor as part of this volunteer outreach ministry, but there’s no way it would be worth it for me to come as a “fan” anymore. Not unless I was coming just to camp out to grab exclusive movie studio swag.
On the other hand, the “feel” of the show was not as oppressive as in previous years. I remember just one or two years ago when almost every table in the small press aisle seemed to be offering some sort of blood-soaked vampire or zombie book. Entire aisles would be nothing but a sea of gloomy black and red banners. This year’s offerings were much more diverse, with everything from funny animals to mystery to historical drama to comics for girls. Not that I have anything against the horror comic genre per se, I just like seeing more variety in such a big show as San Diego.
But overall? It was a good convention for the Christian Comic Arts Society ministry. Our panels went well, our table sales were exceptional, we met a lot of new Christian friends, and we gave away many tracts as well as all of the Action Bible samplers we had brought. (We grabbed a few extra from Sergio Cariello so we could have enough between us to last through the end of the show on Sunday.) We praise the Lord for this opportunity to minister, and we trust in Him as we make our plans for next year's convention season.
-Peter-
Okay...there's been a lot of debate (including in this forum) over just what Anne Rice meant by her declaration last week that she was formally resigning from being "A Christian". Now let's here it from her own lips, (from last night's Joy Behar Show):
Another year, another Comic Con. Once again there are the elaborate booths and displays, the massive crowds, the famous celebrities, and the amazing costumes. Kevin and Heather Yong and I drove to convention center early Wednesday morning to set up. Set up went smoothly with the CCAS material arriving to our table in a timely fashion. Though the length of the table was the same as last year, the width was notably shorter, giving us a smaller area to display. And the price will increase next year for the same table area. With the smaller table, this made things a little cramp with our neighbors.
There was a lot of new material from Christian publishers this year. The Voice of Martyrs produced Hope Amid Horror by Ken Raney, Ben Avery, and Rob Woodrum; Art Ayris and Kingstone Media had 2048, Babylon, The Beginning, The Christ, Elijah, Exodus, Martyrs, Moses, and Revelation; New Creation Now featured the New Vision Anthology and the long awaited Ragged Capes; Kurt Kolka was there for his first San Diego Comic Con with his Cardinal Special Edition #1; Lamppost debuted their black and white anthology, Toned; Headpress Publishing produced its fourth installment of the Eyewitness series, Dan Conner showed off his Heaven Forbid book; Clint Johnson brought his Faithwalker Victorious; and Lisa Hutchinson had her graphic novel, Shelter of Wings. David C. Cook sent promotional giveaways and a framed print to be raffled off for its Action Bible by Sergio Cariello. Plus there were the old favorites like Serenity by Buzz Dixon and Proverbs and Parables. The CCAS also had thousands of tracts by Jack Chick, Foursquare Mission Press, and ROX35.
With that much material, the CCAS had to stuff all that into a smaller display area. After the set-up there was some time to have lunch and relax before the Wednesday Preview Night. The Preview night boasted just as large of crowds as during the regular days. The Exhibit Hall was scheduled to open up to the attendees an hour earlier (9:00am) than last year, but they usually opened the hall a half an hour earlier (8:30am) than what they had printed on the official schedule. And the hoards of fans would come running through the hall to be the first in line for products at their favorite exhibitor.
The CCAS established good relations with our Small Press neighbors and that would prove to have a positive impact for Christ later. The controversial Westboro Baptist Church was scheduled to picket the Con on Thursday for 45 minutes. The Con has been around for over 40 years and Phelps group was there for only 45 minutes, with only 5-6 people. One attendee described it as drive-by protest. The CCAS is at the Con the entire 5 days from opening until closing making connections with the people there. I told our neighbors across the aisle how one year a child of one of the attendees wanted the free candy we offered from our table. When the attendee saw our sign she told her daughter, “We don’t take candy from THOSE PEOPLE.” Later that day, Jessica, our neighbor across the aisle related to me that one of the visitors at her table said to her, “How can you be across the aisle from THEM!” She responded, “What do you mean?” The person replied, “You know…THEM!” She noted that we were cool, in which the person said, “THEY start out small, next thing you know they’re trying to convert you.” When I told this story to Kurt Kolka, he immediately thought of the sci fi movie, “THEM” a story about giant ants. From there we digressed as only comic book geeks can.
The activity at the table was very consistent throughout the entire convention. There was very little down time at the table. People picked up the thousands of the tracts the CCAS made available over the five day period. Sales were exceptional, some of the best in the CCAS 15 year history at the Con. One person took a whole row of Jack Chick tracts to pass out among the attendees. Even though the CCAS has been there 15 years, there were still veteran attendees who came up to us saying, “I didn’t know there was a Christian Comics table.”
Then there were the panels. Due to a Comic Con oversight, they had not scheduled the CCAS for any panels and as a result, all the rooms in the convention center were booked up. Unfortunately, the CCAS panels were placed in the Marriot hotel next door. The rooms had poor lighting and they were smaller. Because of the change, one of our panelist for the Spiritual Themes in Comics was not able to attend. For the after hours meeting, in the past the convention organizers would allow us to stay beyond the scheduled time to have wonderful times of fellowship. This year, they restricted our time in the room to the designated time, so we were not able to have our normal time of fellowship. This was unfortunate because we had the biggest crowd for the after hours mixer ever. However, though I was not able to attend, I heard that the Sunday meeting of the CCAS with Buzz Dixon, Eric Jansen, and Sergio Cariello was outstanding. Hopefully, someone who attended the meeting will be able to give a more detailed report.
Sunday was just as busy as any of the previous days. One of neighbors across the aisle was going to leave earlier that afternoon. I approached them and asked would they mind if I prayed for their safety as they travel home. They were more than willing to receive prayer and I believe that it was an open door for the Holy Spirit to minister to their hearts. The Lord brought many people to the table and I see our time at this Con as being very successful. The break down also went smoothly, the lack of the four wheel dolly stretched out the time a little more. As usual, it takes a couple of days to recover after five days of Comic Con. Overall, it was an outstanding time, but I look forward to the break. Thanks must go out to the usual crew such as Kevin and Heather Yong, Buzz Dixon, Scott Shuford, and Holly Knevelbaard. Special thanks goes to Dan Connor and Leslie Ezeh, new to the CCAS table this year, whose help was invaluable. Without the Lord, none of this would be possible. It is He who is at work in us to both will and do of His good pleasure. Continue to pray for the CCAS as we endeavor to expand its prescence at these conventions.
Well, I’m back from the San Diego Comic-Con after five days of volunteer work helping the outreach ministry of the CCAS table and panels. (I think it's the group's 15th year participating at the Con, if I'm counting correctly.)
And as usual, I’m wiped out from the usual stress and sleep deprivation, as well as from catching a cold on the last day of the show. Expect a full report soon, as soon as I get my strength back.