Sharing My Story

My interest in comics did not cease when I was
working with Campus Crusade. I took a different
direction. Here is an excerpt from my August-
September 1977 prayerletter that discusses a
special project that I'd worked on during those years.

"Have you ever had a dream? A dream that excited
your mind and spirit. A dream that would not let you sleep
at night. A dream that thrust you to the brink of your
own creative abilities. A dream that after years of
struggle to keep alive in one's imagination would
not let itself die, but would continue to resurrect
itself after the primary stimulus had worn down.
A dream that was uniquely yours to see to its fulfillment.
I have had such a dream and with the perseverance
and determination that the Lord has given me
I saw it to completion.

"As a young child I discovered that I had a desire
to draw, to create flat, yet dynamic image on paper.
As I proceeded into my teen years I became
fascinated with cartooning. Also the art of graphic
story telling intrigued my mind. Living outside the
city on a small farm it was difficult for me to get
involved in extracurricular activities at school
(health problems limited my sports involvement).
I developed much to the bewilderment of my
parents at that time an insatiable appetite for
cartoons in all forms, especially newspaper comic
strips and comic magazines.

"Consequently again much to the surprise and
perturbation of my parents I would spend great
quantities of time at the drawing board sketching
my own comic stories. Being naturally creative
and wanting to get involved in the actual comics
process I started doing my own graphic stories.
Working out of my own imagination and fantasies
and putting them down on paper in a two dimensional
form became a consuming passion. Looking at it from
two points of reference this was beneficial. It gave
me a chance to develop the small ability that I have
in creative writing and it provided me something
concrete to illustrate. Also it allowed me a chance
to delve into the problems of drawing and develop
my greater talents in that area. Interestingly enough
elements of my own Christian faith made themselves
apparent in many of these stories.

"I can remember distinctly an incident that happened
in my early teen years. As I was telling my oldest
brother about my interest in this area, he challenged
me with the idea of doing comic versions of Bible
stories. Of course this had already been done by
both secular and Christian publishing companies,
and far better than I could ever do it. But the idea
of having a Christian theme or characters who were
Christians stuck very strongly in my mind. After that
time many (if not most) of the stories I did had in
them some type of Christian theme or characters.

"During this time I began to be involved in what is
called today comics fandom. Through letters and
amateur publications (and only rarely in person)
I made contact with persons of like interests. It
was an involvement that was very meaningful to me.
I had several correspondents as well as writing letters,
doing drawings and comic strips and scripting articles
for various amateur publications.

"I had a desire to communicate my faith in Christi
to these friends, but usually I was quite unsuccessful.
I continued this involvement throughout high school
and college. I was always wanting to share the
reality of Christ with these people."

Continued next week