Forward by JCServant

Sean Sellers was executed on February 4, 1999 for the murders he committed. In his own words and his testimony, he states that it was satanism and demons that caused him to kill.

Several years later, I found a website that his family put up for him. I found a link that had a letter written specifically to young Christian comic creators. I read it and print it out. For years it has sat on my desk in the middle of a pile of drawings. A few weeks ago, I ran across it.

After some recent events, the letter really struck a cord with me. I feel that now, more then ever, we need to be reminded of our responsibility that we carry. And I think that Sean's letter does that very well. Note that the first half is about the mainstream comics industry, and the second half is about what we can do to improve the Christian comic community.

Christian comic books are going to happen. It may take a while, and we may always get the same treatment as Christian music does, but eventually they're going to come into their own era. We're standing on the edge of that era now. That brings me to some concerns I have about the direction we take, and about the industry in general.

When I was a kid there were only four or five real comic companies. Marvel, DC, Gold Key, Disney and Archie. At that time, the comics code Authority was in full force and kept a kind of censorship on everything. The comics code is the reason we see the word "BLAST!" so much rather than the word "DAMN!" Comics weren't allowed to have vulgarity, nudity or brains and guts spewing everywhere. That kept a lid on everything, but it also tended to trap comics into the younger ages. Adult comics were rare. It was hard to deal with gritty adult issues under the comics code boundaries, so as creators and fans got older, and comics bean to expand, the code was opposed, and today the independent companies disregard it altogether.

This in itself is not a bad thing. I don't like the idea of having some outside regulation determining what I can or cannot write and draw in MY comic book. I'll make my own decisions on that, thank you. But, we need to understand also what that has done to the industry, and what it will continue to do. Without any kind of standard or boundary, many comic creators are failing to regulate themselves. They take the freedom as a licence to write and draw anything they want without thinking of the effects or consequences it might have. Creators are just having fun, working in their own little worlds, focusing on sales, money and success. Very few comic creators have any purpose beyond that I think.

The reason I say that, is because I open a copy of WIZARD or PREVIEWS, and an AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT catalog and what I see there disturbs me. Half naked women with swords, occult based "heroes", demons and monsters and evil, all being made to look heroic, cool and desirable. When I was a kid, I read comics a LOT. I'd sit in my room, read and reread my back issues until I had them memorized. My heroes, the people I wanted to BE like, were comic book characters. The values they held, were the ones that appealed to me. I can't help but wonder today how many eleven year old boys are reading SPAWN, THE DARKNESS, THE TENTH, etc and losing their own moral guidelines on the values they find in those pages. That bothers me alot, because I don't think Todd McFarlane or Marc Silvestri take that seriously - if in fact they even really care. One of the reasons I became a Satanist when I was 15, is because every image I had seen of the occult, from books, movies and comics, portrayed it as being cool. And NON of those made it as cool as some of these do today. I know me. If I had been reading THE DARKNESS when I was 14, that would have been my hero. It's what I would have wanted to sell my should to become. I would have taken it that seriously. Because of that, I think it's really important that comic creators consider seriously those kind of influences. Power begets responsibility and creators need to acknowledge the power they have and meet it responsibly. But I don't see them doing that.

Let's face it, a whole LOT of comic book fans are adolescent boys who typically don't have great social skills. They're the ones who spend their time watching STAR TREK, BABYLON 5, playing MAGIC: THE GATHERING and getting few dates. Comic creators may say I was an exception, that there was something already wrong in my life for comics and other things to be taken so seriously. yeah, I'll accept that. The reality of my life sucked. I never have liked reality very much. I have always preferred the fantasy of comics, moves and books to the real world. But to say I'm a great exception, an adulteration, is to completely disregard the facts. The very thing that made me an aberration, also made comics appeal to me. The type of person who is most likely to take such things overly seriously is also the type of person who is most likely to be an avid fan. you can't really get by that. The truth is comics have appeal and influence. As creators we've GOT to always be aware of that and factor it into our creating.

The reason I think that is not done however, is because Greed is what's running this industry right now. Everyone dreams of following Todd McFarlane. I do. I admit it. I'd LOVE to have toys and a movie based on my comic. We all dream of something like that. But everyone is being so success oriented that responsibility goes out the window. One result of that is all the new titles that are coming out. This really has me irritated with the industry. One thing I respect McFarlane very much for is sticking to SPAWN. I don't think SPAWN is the best influence in comics, but Todd joined IMAGE with SPAWN as his goal. And he put time and devotion into it.

I'm downright mad at Jim Lee, Liefeld and Silvestri. All starting their own companies and just throwing together all these new titles. It's like they think MORE is better. Let me explain why this bugs me. I'm a fan and an aspiring creator. I only have so much money to spend. Someone begins doing a comic like Cyberforce for example, and because I like Silvestri's work, I buy it. Then I get hooked on it. I like the characters. Then Silvestri leaves, but I keep buying it, and he goes and starts another book. Well, I STILL like his art, but I also like Cyberforce. Now, I have to buy two comics, or choose between them. That's irritating enough as it is, but as a creator, I'm working hard myself on characters, stories, struggling along here, and these bigwigs are tossing out new books, ideas and characters left and right. You know how HARD it is to come up with something unique or original these days?! It's like these guys are just creating stuff because they CAN, plus they're saturating the market with so many titles that when I try to publish mine, it becomes one in 500 that month. i've put my should into mine, while they've been just trying something new to see if it works.

I want to see more creators put themselves wholly in to their creations. Like Dave Sim and CEREBUS. man I have respect for that guy. He's been publishing Cerebus for about 20 years, even closer to that issue #300 mark. Way to go Dave. When a person puts that kind of commitment into a creation, it's going to produce quality, depth and become something. I say to all these top cows out there STICK TO ONE THING! If you get bored with a comic and want to move on to something else, kill it. End it. Quit being greedy, and give us little guys some room in the marketplace.

Which brings me back to CHRISTIAN COMICS. If you're going to be a comic creator, take all this to heart. Success is important. If we're not successful, then we're failing, and there's nothing especially righteous or Godly about failing. But define success by your OWN standards, not a standard set by an industry moved by greed. Focus and work HARD on your ART and your STORIES. You can't get good comics by drawing pinups. The only way you get good at comics is by drawing whole comics. Make the comic itself your first goal. Not success, but QUALITY.

A friend of mine and I were talking about dreams and commitment the other day. Lots of people dream of becoming or doing something, but few of them seem to actually DO it. The reason is usually because few people put the commitment in to their dream, to MAKE it happen. Being a comic creator can seem kinda cool. I mean comics are bold, larger than life, and comic artists in particular become celebrities to us. It's easy to project this image of an ideal life into being a comic creator. But the truth is it's not so glamorous. Being a comic creator means sitting at a desk for eight hours a day doing detailed, meticulous WORK. It requires a LOT of self discipline, and most people simply don't have what it takes to do that. If you're going to make a career of this, prepare yourself for long hours alone, sitting hunched over a table, getting to know the DJ's on the radio stations you listen to better than you know your friends. The work itself is pretty boring. The reward comes when you've finished, and you step back and admire something that took you more hours than anyone else could possibly appreciate.

If you're young enough that you're in school, spend some of your Summer Break time, or weekends, and MAKE yourself put in a couple of straight 8 hour days on your comic. If you can't do that, then you probably won't be able to make a career of it. To make a career, and be successful, you're going to have to demand quality, and quality comes from commitment. The more TIME you put into something, the better the quality will be. And one comic is a LOT of work. Very few people can write, draw, ink and letter a comic on a regular basis and produce anything of quality. They just each take too much time.

That brings me to my plan for future success of Christian comics. I think the two things that will make or break Christian comics are #1 Everyone trying to do everything on their own and #2 all of us trying to be exclusive about it. The first thing we all need to do is figure out what we do WELL. Some of us are great writers, but average pencilers. Some of us can write and draw, but we ruin our page with out inking. No one else there in this industry can produce a regular title working alone. So we need to stop trying. But in order to do that we need to take a hard look at ourselves and SOMEONE is going to have to step up into the supportive roles.

Typically a penciler gets most of the attention. We mention Jim Lee a lot, but we seem to forget Scott Williams who has done so much of Jim's inking. Darkhorse has published a book on comic book inking, and we need some artists to accept that they're not great at penciling, but they CAN be great inkers, and begin offering their services as such. That means making a commitment to quality, and to the VISION of Christian comics ABOVE personal ambitions to be the HEAD and do it all.

We need writers willing to write for other peoples characters, pencilers willing to draw comics that are not their own creations, inkers colorists, the works! And we need to find each other easily.

The second thing is being exclusive. What I mean by that, is each of us creating a whole universe each our own. Let's face it. It's hard to come up with anything original these days, and for every hero we create, we need quite a few original villains. I say we work TOGETHER here. How about uniting under a single working banner? Not one company, but just a united front. A singles universe where we can pool our creative resources. Where we don't have to create so many NEW things all the time. By working together, we could use each other's villains; and have crossovers with each other's heroes. We will be stronger together like this, than we are apart.

So, to answer both of these things, I am forming INTREPID COMICS. This is NOT a company. It's just a banner. It will be like a club or something, specifically for Christian comic creators. We'll set some guidelines to make things easy for everyone to share, and compile a directory so we can get in touch with one another. I can't do this by myself. If it's going to happen, I need to hear from you all.

Write me, show me your work, tell me your plans, and together we'll make this happen. If we each COMMIT to our own book, or to the skill we have to contribute, and work to pursue QUALITY and EXCELLENCE, with the conscious responsibility toward our fans as both customers spending their hard earned money on us AND as people whom we may influence, then I believe we can make a real mark in this industry.

May what we all dream come to pass.

In Jesus Name,

Sean Sellers

Link to our bulletin board discussion on this article.

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