Note: This is the first of an occasional series a guest blogs profiling the talented friends of New Creation Now. Look for Lisa's coloring work to appear in a future chapter of the "Ragged Capes" webcomic.
It's difficult to write a bio as a Christian comic artist without including God's prominent hand over my life. I always tell people I'm a very happy wife and mom of three teens/young adults, who teaches and happens to do art on the side. About the comic ministry, let me try to explain:
When I turned 21, I was saved and shortly afterwards, graduated with a BFA in graphic design. I began to do freelance work until the time I married and started raising a family. Over a short period of time, I found I couldn't work and stay home with the kids since they constantly needed my attention. I didn't want to send them to daycare. A job immediately fell into my lap, so I pursued a career in the public school system teaching and caring for elementary aged kids, and was able to bring my small kids with me. I considered this a gift from God! I enjoyed the students and being able to be with my children but I could only take freelance jobs on occasion and began to miss the art experience. Hard to believe, but nearly thirteen years went by. After a change in my employment and a few years of teaching preschool, I began to feel very restless. For the record, I was doing an excellent job but knew God had other plans for me. I began to pray earnestly that God would show me His direction since I knew it wasn't to be in the teaching profession.
When my oldest attended elementary school, anime fell upon America. I remember feeling heartbroken with what was being fed to our kids, and as I began to pray, I felt a sudden urge to begin comic art. This wasn't something I had planned; I hadn't read comics since the time I was 14 or so and knew nothing about manga. But after my oldest son started collecting manga, I had picked up a pencil to draw a cover and immediately knew in my heart that God was leading me into this field, literally knowing nothing about it. I was so overjoyed that I started to cry! I already knew how to draw and create layouts very well, so this line of work seemed to make sense.
In 2003, I spent all of my free time (which was very limited) learning about comic art, and manga in particular, frequently picking up graphic novels that I liked to study them. There were so few being distributed in America at this point, but I loved the body of work and quickly tried to teach myself. I poured every spare hour often staying up till 2 am learning, while still teaching in the classroom. I remember praying daily that God would use me as a manga-styled artist to help others. I began to develop my own style with a heavy Asian influence which I was told was very appealing to both manga and non-manga readers. And after showing my work to some friends and family, I decided to post a small website. I began to get immediate responses and interest from small to large-scale publishers, so I pursued this avenue more actively.
After a "go-ahead" from God and my husband, I was able to quit teaching to continue my first comic, "Shelter of Wings," a Christian-based graphic novel. To my astonishment, it was quickly picked up by Brethren Entertainment and published in 2006. I spent two years completing the project with their help, since raising a family was my first priority. During this time I also did freelance for other publishers and independent comic creators and writers. I became busier then I wanted to be, and felt I couldn't keep up with the demands of others, a growing forum, art responsibilities, various projects and ministering to people
(something I loved to do). It was difficult to maintain communication with the readers and to update anything. My family time was lacking, with illnesses and difficult issues beginning to surface. Things abnormally broke down in the house and with our vehicles all at once. We had three basement floods in a month. I quickly became exasperated and exhausted. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't maintain a simple comic work schedule.
Ironically (or maybe not), after a time of reconciliation with God and my family in 2007, another teaching job fell into my lap. I can't say I was overjoyed but knew it was from the Lord. As much as I struggled with the decision, I felt it best to go back to work, this time at a learning center for students K-12. It was a difficult transition to make since I knew my calling was not in the teaching field, but I believed this to be completely God's will. During this time of being "away" from comics for the most part, I felt torn, not understanding why He was leading me away from this path when I knew He had given me a gift and wanted me to use it. But it did provide much needed relief from deadline stress so I was thankful. I found rest here as I learned to listen to God's voice in the quiet. To become patient, humble, faithful, and being a great wife and mom mean more to me now than 100 novels on the shelf. I had told God at this point that I would rather be a nameless nobody and to promote His name only then to receive praises from man. I gave up my rights as a comic artist and put my future into His hands.
Over the next few months, I spent most of my time in the classroom and with my family, but found that God began to mercifully show me many things. As I tried to be content with teaching, He began to give me insight that I would be doing comic work again according to His timeframe. At this point, I'm trusting that I will continue comics part-time until God gives me the go-ahead to quit teaching again if it's His will. If not, I've learned to be content. For the record, I choose selectively the type of projects that I'm able to work on.
Ironically for me (and after a long hiatus), there has been great development in the Shelter book series as we now wait for distribution, although I'm not able to disclose info at this point. I've learned so much from the first volume; and the second has been underway for quite some time. To keep people from waiting so long, I felt the urge to begin a small Christmas webmanga that I still update, hopefully to complete by Christmas. Since God is good to me, there is also a collaborative project of another genre in the works!
My goal and prayer in life is to make a difference in people's lives across the world. I found out through a time of humbling, learning to be patient and leaning on God that He is seeking those who seek him first to just follow him; to be in his presence is worth just as much if not more than to do great works in His name. I believe that as long as we obey His lead with humility and faith can we expect to achieve His goals. The biggest blessings by far didn't come from people who told me how much they've changed through my work, or how much it has inspired them, but from God's pleasure in my obedience. I realize I'm still a work in progress as a wife, mom, and daughter of God, and that I have a long way to go as a comic artist, but I know He'll continue to guide and direct me according to his timing and grace.
If you'd like info for the Shelter of Wings project or to purchase a book, you can access info at the Brethren site:
http://www.brethren-et.com/BESite3/products_sow.html
or my personal site with a blog and other fun stuff here:
www.shelterofwings.com
And the Christmas webmanga can be accessed from my personal site here:
http://myangelsnow.tripod.com/stars/index.htm
God bless!
--Lisa
shelterofwings@gmail.com
Ragged Capes © 2009 & tm New Creatiion Now .All rights reserved.
A Shelter of Wings ChristmasBy Lisa Hutchinson © 2008 Bretheren Entertainment Media
This is the third and concluding part of the interview discussing New Creation Now’s web comic Ragged Capes. The interview was conducted in July 2008 by Don Ensign with Ragged Capes creators Ralph E. Miley and Kevin Yong.
Don: The obvious primary audience for Ragged Capes are comic book fans —because you are taking this strictly comic book genre and using it to delve into human issues and human nature —our fallen nature and presenting a Christian perspective. So is Ragged Capes only aimed at comic book fans who are familiar with the super hero genre?
Ralph: One of the things I saw as it relates to comic books was the old Lois and Clark TV series and it was Superman and his relationship with Lois Lane. And here is a guy with spandex flying around doing super hero things but what I found what was so interesting was that my wife loved it. And the reason my wife loved it was not for the super hero stuff but the relationship that Lois and Clark had. We would watch it —it was the only super hero story she ever watched -a guy flying around, but she watched it because of the relationship and we would talk about it and she would say you know what I think Clark should tell Lois about his secret. We would have these discussions about relationships and we are talking about comic book characters so it really touched something in her and that was the appeal of the initial series and that was the reason for its success. It drew upon an audience of women who liked it because of the relationship, And I think that is the real potential of comic books- people who may not even like comic books will suspend their disbelief and—well OK he’s wearing a blue and red suit and but they like the relationships. Things that are universal-people who may not normally embrace comic books will embrace the universality of the message. One of the successes-if you look at Finding Nemo -its an animated cartoon and yet it had a universal message about fatherhood and that appealed to a lot of people so they were able to suspend their disbelief so OK then this is a Clown fish going after his son. But they were drawn in by the message and I think that is the potential the comic book hero has that the people who are not necessarily comic book readers will be drawn in by the message. Because they will say I know that person. They can relate to that person. I know how that person feels.
Kevin: I agree, it is the human side of the character study that will draw people into these stories. At the same time, the fact that we are choosing to tell these stories with super heroes is because there is kind of a sort of shorthand language that has been built up around the genre. Even the more causal of comic readers are still familiar with the success of all these different super hero movies and TV shows will recognize the imagery: the “Dark Vigilante lurking in the alleys” or the “Super Villain on death row” or “the square-jawed Super Hero in a cape swooping down from the sky“. There is a certain visual and narrative short hand to all this so that even if you are not familiar with this particular character you at least have a general expectation of what they represent to the genre. That helps us set the stage rather quickly for these short stories, in that the readers at least start the story with a working set of expectations from the superhero genre: from there, we take it in our own direction.
Don: So you are playing off the success of the super hero films to find an audience who are normally resistant to the genre. The deeper studies about human nature within Ragged Capes will hold the reader who isn’t conceptually enamored with super heroes. Hopefully the audience has been prepped right now with all the movies coming out that they will read it and get past the “capes.” Thanks Ralph and Kevin.
Copyright 2009, New Creationnow, All Rights Reserved.
This is the second part of the interview discussing New Creation Now’s web comic Ragged Capes. The interview was conducted in July 2008 by Don Ensign with Ragged Capes creators Ralph E. Miley and Kevin Yong.
Ralph: The second character was the “Lioness” character, whose basic motivation was anger. I explored why she was so angry, in the sense that she wanted to do the right thing but she was doing the right thing based on her childhood experiences. And so those childhood experiences formed her and drove her to become what she is, but the motivation is not for the good of humanity but simply to bash the villain’s teeth in. Even though they are criminals she gets no satisfaction from doing the right thing but the satisfaction comes from just beating them to a pulp. Even though the result is that the villain has been captured and now he is in traction for 30 years (laughs) or has to eat food out of a straw now. The other character we created is the villain featured in the first chapter -- actually Warren Fitzpatrick created the character but what we did was add a little more action to the story. What the character ended up being was one who really flows along the line of the whole Ragged Capes theme --”all of our righteousness is as filthy rags”. And what the villain does is see in the minds of people and what he sees is that “none are righteous no not one”. That is what he sees: the uncleanness of man, the sinfulness of man, and because he is not a hero he doesn’t know how to cope with it in any other way except to lash out in judgment against everyone. It didn’t start out that way, but as we wrote the stories we saw how there are Biblical truths that apply to each of the chapters.
Kevin: Yes, the chapters were originally structured so each one would be an unrelated, stand-alone character study. But as this project came together we started realizing there was an overall theme running through all four of them, in that each one featured characters that have to face the flaws they see in human nature -- both their own and in the other heroes and villains they encounter. For example, with the character Ralph was just talking about -- “Grip” the super villain -- we wanted to explore why he chose this path in life. The reason he is a dangerous killer is because his telepathic power lets him see all the bad sides of human nature but he can’t do anything to change it. He lashes out in hopelessness because he never encountered the Gospel, never encountered the hope that the sinful hearts he sees can be changed and restored. So the path he chose as a villain reinforces that hopelessness and makes it even less likely he can ever escape it.
One of the benefits of doing this as an anthology is that we can use different characters to examine the same basic question of a sinful human nature from multiple angles. Sometimes the characters find answers, sometimes they hit a dead end, but the reader gets to follow along with all of it.
Don: Ralph bought up the idea of Lioness dealing with her issues which stem out of her childhood relationship with her father. I assume she at least recognizes those are things she needs to deal with. How is Lioness going to deal with the anger issue? Is she going to submit it to the Lord and everything is going to be fine or are there going to be other chapters in her life dealing with the theme of anger.
Ralph: She doesn’t recognize the connection between her anger and her beating up villains. We as the reader see it and we can see the connection but a lot of times in our human experience, the hurts of our life we don’t always make the connections as to how they motive us until they are brought to light through Christ. But because she is not a Christian she doesn’t see those connections. She doesn’t see her pain has caused her to be how she is.I think that is true with anybody. People who find themselves in one relationship after another they don’t make the connection with maybe because of abuse or because of a lack of a father or because of circumstances around them. They don’t necessarily see that connection. They know “I’m in this situation and that is all I know”. And that is how they respond because it’s all they know until Christ comes in and shines the light on it -- and sometimes even when we know Christ, we still don’t want to let go of our anger.
I’m reminded of Jonah who actually knew the Lord and how Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and I’m thinking to myself after the first day I would have been crying out to the Lord. But it literally took him a three day period in the belly of the fish to finally come to the conclusion “I’m in a situation I can’t get out of and I need to cry out to the Lord”. And this was a person who heard from God -- how much more with people who may not have the light of the gospel to shine on them, that they may continue their bitterness or in the midst of their storm and choose to accept it. And that is where Lioness is at. That is the character she is.
Don: It sounds like there is more fodder for future Lioness stories. It is one thing for the reader to see it but the character doesn’t. This might be a downer for the reader who thinks “Wow I have insight into this character’s personality and soul,” but the character goes obliviously and merrily along beating people to a pulp. (Everyone laughs). So Ralph, you think there is definite room for character development in Lioness, even though she is not necessarily going to become a Christian right off the bat? Or are we letting too many cats out of the bag?
Ralph: Not really. How many times do we look at people and we see their lives and we say, “Boy your life is a mess.” And they say, “Who are you to judge me?” (laughs). They are going with this loser and we see that they are dating a loser and they still continue in dating losers and so the reader is just being an observer just as we observe our friends and family lives. Eventually what is going to happen is that she’ll come into contact with Christians and she is going to look at their lives and eventually see something in them that basically runs contrary to all of her thinking. Because in her thinking, all males are dogs and so when she comes into contact with a Christian male who’s nothing like that, it will run contrary to her thinking and that is how some people are won to Christ. The life we live before them and they see those differences, they say “OK then, there is something different about that person”. That is going to be her growth, not necessarily that she is going to receive the Lord right away, but it’s the growth that comes from observing the lives of the Christians that are going to be brought into her life.
Kevin: One more thing that I’d like to add -- I’m very pleased at how smoothly Ragged Capes came together, considering how many people were involved in creating it. And I like how it works on several different levels: I like that each chapter leads into the next in advancing the overall theme of Ragged Capes, but at the same time each chapter works as a stand-alone character study. It wasn’t something we tried to force into the stories as they were written, they just grew that way naturally as part of the creative process.
Don: Ragged Capes #1 contains four different stories which are all character studies that lead to a resolution —if not for the characters— at least for the reader at the end of the book. At this point, we are talking about a web comic with the option of a future print edition. So there doesn’t necessarily have to be a Ragged Capes #2. How do you feel about that?
Ralph: No, but there doesn’t necessarily have to be just one issue either. I like the premise that we are really dealing with Biblical themes using people in spandex (general laughter). And really serious issues and the visuals lend so much to it and you look at it and say--oh my goodness is this a super hero story and no it’s not the grim and gritty, but these are actual people. And so it could lead to an ongoing series, but maybe not. As you say, each chapter stands alone and can be read separately, and it could be wonderful to continue it because I think it is a wonderful premise.
Kevin: Ragged Capes was originally designed for print, but will debut as a web comic before the print run. And like we’ve all mentioned, there are a lot of different ways it can progress from here. Each chapter is not just a standalone short story, but also works equally well as a springboard from which we can tell ongoing stories of these characters in the future. This may lead to a second Ragged Capes anthology, or perhaps a spinoff series focusing just on Lioness or Virtue or -- it can go in any number of different directions.
Ralph: Exactly.
Interview concluded next week
This interview discusses New Creation Now’s web comic Ragged Capes. The interview was conducted in July 2008 by Don Ensign with Ragged Capes creators Ralph E. Miley and Kevin Yong.
Don: OK, the topic is Ragged Capes. Ralph, were you the one who came up with the original Ragged Capes concept? Why don’t you start it off and then Kevin can chime in with his contribution.
Ralph: Well, it was Kevin’s fault (Kevin laughs). And I am going to pass it to him because he showed me the Anime series and he can explain the series better that I can.
Kevin: OK. It started several years ago. I had been sampling different Japanese Anime series and I was telling Ralph about this one famous and controversial series called Neon Genesis Evangelion. It is about -- well, at first it looks like a stereotypical giant robots vs. aliens action show -- but by the end of the series you realize that the whole setup of the giant robots and the alien invasion is all an elaborate series of metaphors for psychological self-identity and existential dread. Dark, heavy, soul-crushing stuff. I showed Ralph a couple of episodes and Ralph was blown away by it. Not necessarily because of any profound truth in the anime series -- it was just depressing -- but he was blown away by the fact that you could even tell a story like that with giant robots. [Everyone laughs] After seeing it, Ralph’s thought was if they can tell that kind of story with giant robots, then why can’t we touch on deep issues of the human condition with guys in tights beating each other up? Super heroes can do just as well as giant robots! [Everyone laughs] And that was the premise that started the Ragged Capes anthology. It was basically an idea to take all the traditional archetypes from superhero comics -- the villain, the violent vigilante, the noble hero, etc. -- and then use those elements that everyone is familiar with and try and explore deeper issues of spiritual motivation. As for how it all came together, I’ll let Ralph explain.
Ralph: He is so right. Here they were, tackling about some deep psychological issues with giant robots. We can talk about deep psychological issues with people in spandex. I don’t see why not. We went from there and we decided to take superhero characters and really deal with some serious issues. We wanted to explore their motivations as to why they ended up the way they are- why they chose to be a villain or a hero-all of that. We initially called it the artsy project. Artsy meaning we don’t have a deadline. (laughs)
Kevin: And there it sat for the next four years!
Ralph: Yes, there it sat for the next four years. We received the scripts and we had thumbnails and we had one of the chapters penciled and one chapter inked and there it sat for four years. And what really got us motivated [was] when we started the New Creation Now web site. We decided to go with web comics because that would the least expensive because of traditional printing costs. And when I looked back on what we had done with the Ragged Capes and saw that this was a complete comic book-all we needed to do is get this project finished. I contacted other people to do pencils and inks and as a result we now have three chapters completely illustrated. We have the villain piece which is a stand alone piece. We were trying to find a penciller, but we were having a difficult time. Bud Rogers suggested this guy Dan Barlow who did an outstanding job. Wayne Cash did the second story which is the hero who does the right thing but for the wrong reason. And we were able to find an inker and a colorist for that which we did through the Ning site (CCAS Social Network site) which is a great resource and then we had Lisa Hutchinson do the color work for the Bud Rogers story, which was pencilled and inked by Bill Maus, who did an outstanding job. Now, we’re just waiting for the fourth chapter to be finished.
Don: Were the super heroes used in Ragged Capes selected from pre-existing characters that had been previously developed by Kevin and/or Ralph or were these characters created especially for Ragged Capes?
Kevin: Most of them are pre-existing characters. My character “Virtue” -- she’s appeared before in my superhero comic New Crew, in an anthology piece for A Christmas Treasury, and she also had a cameo in HeroTV. She is the overtly Christian super heroine in Ragged Capes. Her chapter deals with a confrontation with someone who knew her a long time ago back before she was a super heroine. So her struggle is as a Christian heroine trying to deal with the guilt and ramifications of a sinful past. Bud Rogers has a pre-existing character in his chapter of Ragged Capes, named “Excelisor”. Bud had his own stories worked out for him but when we proposed this project he donated his character to the cause and wrote up a chapter about this super hero who is the inspirational, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps guy. So his chapter is about the hero saving the day but still wrestling with self doubt of whether what he’s doing can actually make a difference. Ralph was either creator or co-creator on the two other chapters in the anthology, so he can explain those characters.
Interview continued next week.
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