Special Title: Eternal Laugh
Hello! My name is Michael Calhoun, and I would like to welcome you to Wonder Dove. I have been a cartoonist for twenty some odd years ,poking fun at my past jobs and employers (maybe that is why they became past jobs...hum) I would doodle just about anything. I became a member of a local STAR TREK club and that opened the doors for my cartoons. I could use the Star Trek universe and have fun creating my own little corner. I would draw a strip for the club newsletter, and I got a great response from them (the captain even sent a few to the international newsletter)
Time went on and someone who liked my work told me about a class that Scott Rosema (a comicbook artist for DC and Marvel comics) was holding at the Krasil art center in St. Jospeh Mi .After I took that class my whole cartooning view changed. I remember a conversation I had with Scott, I had mentioned that one reason I took his class was to steer away from the bulgy-eyed characters I drew to something closer to marvel quality and his response floored me" why ? I like what you got going here". Unbeknownst to me someone else liked what I had going and I wasn’t listening.Every once in a while I got ideas for a Christian superhero.I would jot the ideas down but never took it serious, besides. I had to work and bring home the bacon for my family I didn’t have time to work on such a big project . I would be at work and the ideas would pour in. I went to some fiends and asked them to help (for I was deathly afraid to step on someone’s doctrine),but wherever I turned I got either promises of help or no help at all. so I did what I did best, I went back to work and placed this project on the back burner.
God does not like to be placed on the back burner, and I found this out much like Jonah did (oddly enough the story of Jonah was always a favorite of mine) I should have known that God had a reason I would like that story so much. He placed it in my heart because He knew that that was just what I ! was doing....pulling a Jonah.God wanted me to draw and I wanted to make money. The Lord didn’t have a whale in my future, just a whale of a wake up call. I started to have trouble at work, walking , lifting and thinking at times. I went to the doctor and after a while found out I have Multiple Scelrosis. I was put off work and my first thought was VACATION I can stay home play PLAYSTATION and watch movies till I get better and go back to work.Well I can picture God in heaven, smirking at me thinking "oh really!!". My left arm went numb and it hurt at the same time, figure that one out ( with God all things are possible) well that quashed my gaming and for the life of me I couldn’t get excited about any movie I came across. what could I do?
I started to draw more and you probably think that was the birth of Wonder Dove. No. I started drawing more star trek strips and Eternal Laugh cartoons (for my church newsletter) and then my Wife who is our home Internet guru found Phil’s plea for artists. we were all ready to give him all the Eternal laugh cartoons he could handle, but God said this is where Wonder Dove needed to go , and put it into Phils heart to accept nothing less.(thank you Lord) I didn’t have hardly anything done in Wonder Dove but Phil said he would love to see it and that was that.
I have been drawing ever since and I thank God for all the cool Ideas he gives me. He also helped get rid of some of my fears about the strip.Wonder Dove is drawn in black and white and then sent to Phil who does a masterful job at coloring it. since I started to really do the Wonder Dove series God has removed the pain in my left arm , and I have noticed that though I get weak in my arm and legs from time to time my drawing arm is unaffected.( still can’t play video games too well though "giggle") In the past I have had people pray over me and even anoint me with oil as they prayed for healing . I feel it was God’s will that I am where I am now. and whenever I pray it is to know his will. I have had alot of support on the project and I want to thank my wife who inspires me, helps me when my illness gets the best of me and organizes the clutter that comes out of my head (she really is my Nabila) because without her faith in me and the talent God gave me none of this would have ever hit the light of day. Thank you to all and finally................ this Jonah is done playing Jonah !!!.
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Thank you!!
Sincerely,
The Wildlight Staff
