| Cathleen Falsani

Christian comic summit drawn into debate on faith

Pretty much everything I know about comic book conventions I’ve learned from “Chasing Amy.”

So I was fairly stunned to encounter a deep, theological discussion about the nature of faith and culture at my very first visit to a comic “summit.”

To be fair, it was the inaugural Christian Comic Creators Summit, a gathering of 14 comic book authors and artists in a lounge at Judson College in Elgin. Not exactly the massive Wizard World or Comic-Con conventions where thousands of enthusiasts pack arenas to debate the finer points of Peter Parker vs. Spider-Man.

Best. Comic. Ever.

The Christian comic creators I met were dealing with something more fundamental. More transcendent.

More Jesus-vs.-Spider-Man.

Among the Christian comic creators were professionals who have penned their own comics for years, amateurs just starting out, and one peculiarity: a Christian who writes for secular comics.

Since 2000, Chris Yambar, a prolific comic writer, pop artist and pastor from Youngstown, Ohio, has been one of the lead writers for the Bart Simpson comic book. He also pens the cult hit Mr. Beat comic, with its eponymous beatnik hero. One of his most popular Mr. Beat stories is affectionately known as “Coffee with Jesus.”

Most of the other Christian comics have created superheroes with names like Mr. Christian, The Armor-Bearer and The Cardinal. And most of the Christian comic book story lines involve time-honored battles of good against evil, fought with the power of the cross — sometimes literally.

Yambar, who bears an eerie resemblance to the Simpsons character Comic Book Guy with short-cropped hair instead of the ponytail, works his Christian message into his comic in a more subtle way.

“Kind of like your favorite cereal,” Yambar explained. “Sometimes there’s a cartoon character on the box, sometimes there’s a cartoon character in the box.

“Sometimes it’s just funny,” he said of his Simpson comic. “And sometimes there’s a free prize inside.” He was, I believe, referring to Jesus and not a secret decoder ring.

During his presentation on the first day of the summit, Yambar and his irreverence ruffled feathers.

“I come from a very different philosophy of comics. I take what’s called the missionary position,” he said, waiting for the laugh, which never arrived.

“I’m an infiltrator…. When you go into a culture, you become a part of the culture. You do not remain an outsider in the culture. You learn their ways, you know what they eat, you know where they live, you know how to speak to them, you learn their language.

“I don’t believe in separating the sacred from the secular. I think that breeds schizophrenic behavior,” he said.

Jesus, after all, was a carpenter for the better part of 30 years before he got around to turning water into wine.

Yambar’s reasoning is a classic paradigm in Christian theology called “Christ of culture.” It’s one of five that famed theologian Richard Niebuhr described in 1959 to explain the tension between Christianity and culture.

Christ of culture says, basically, that Jesus was part of culture when he walked the Earth, so Christianity should actively engage culture. Another paradigm — Christ against culture –describes efforts to isolate Christianity from culture and its evils to keep it holy. Then there is Christ and culture in paradox, which finds balance in the friction between Christ and culture.

Pretty heady stuff. But it’s exactly what was being played out at the fledgling comic summit.

Despite the lukewarm reception, Yambar continued with vigor.

“People talk about Christian comics. I’d like to see more Christians in comics. You say, ‘There aren’t enough good comics out there.’ You know why? Christians refuse to get involved in their industry. Everyone wants to work from an outside position,” he said, pantomiming water swirling while making flushing noises. “Let it go. Put on a new mind. Get involved in your culture. Get involved in your people, face first. Make it happen. Earn the right to be heard.

“Don’t produce a book and say, ‘Nobody’s paying attention to my book!’ Maybe your book stinks. Maybe you’re not marketing it right. Maybe you’re taking yourself out of the market before your book is even produced because you want to — Oooh! — be separate and be holier.”

Amen, brother.

D.R. Perry, 32, is a Chicago cop who writes and draws a new up-market comic called War in Paradise, about the fall of Lucifer. It looks a lot like something you might find in Marvel or DC comics rather than on the racks of a Christian bookstore.

“Most Christian books are by Christians for Christians,” said Perry, 32, who is shopping his comic to several publishers. “What I’m doing is creating books by Christians for everybody that have the look that the secular community demands but the content to please the Christian community.”

Christ and culture in paradox.

He wants to jump-start a Christian comics industry that can truly compete with the secular market.

“There are a lot of Christians in the secular market who work for Marvel and DC who are friends of mine. Yet, they can’t afford to pursue Christian comics because they don’t pay the bills. I’m trying to start a house that has the same quality, the same financial backing, so that this popular Christian talent in the secular market can come over and do Christian comics that aren’t boring,” he said.

That would be refreshing. So much of what is marketed as “Christian” (read: Safe for Christians) — be it music, art or literature — is at best mediocre artistically.

“Let people in on the party. Hello!” Yambar shouted at his fellow Christian artists. “Get Jesus up off the mantelpiece and let him run around the yard!”

That led to the following exchange between Yambar and Sherwin Schwartzrock, 33, of Minnesota, author of the Anointed series of Christian comic books and arguably the most successful of present-day Christian comic creators.

Schwartzrock: “Obviously based on your theory that we should be in the world….”

Yambar: “Theory? . . . That’s no theory. That’s a lifestyle.”

Schwartzrock: “Your execution of your theory. What do you want to do here?”

Yambar: “You tell me what you want to write, and I’ll give you the best story you’ve ever read.”

I almost ducked, expecting spirited chest-thumping and Bible-tossing to begin.

Torrence King, 30, of South Holland and his partner, Dwayne McNutt, 39, produce Christian Superheroes and Christian Powers Society comics, featuring the Mr. Christian and Armor-Bearer characters. They’re hardly blockbusters — selling a couple hundred copies a year — but that’s not the point, King said.

“There is a difference with measuring success. You can have success with a million copies sold. And you can have success with one copy sold to a child who needed to read it who was about to commit suicide,” King said.

“What you’re presenting us is cool and what you’re doing, that’s where you’re going,” he told Yambar. “But there are others who are up and coming that might follow a different path.”

Yambar agreed, to a point.

“That’s right. And they should follow the path that is designed for them as an individual,” he said. “What I’m saying is get in tune with your scout master so you don’t go walking through the poison sumac and end up blaming him for it.”

So much for preaching to the choir.