"My intent is to achieve comedy. Involving my angels in a race around the globe to forestall man's every inhumanity to man, or their abject failure to do so, doesn't serve very well my purpose of telling funny stories about funny characters."
This is the crux of the issue. A comic set in a concentration camp would need to face some difficult issues. A comic set on a slavers' plantation would need to face some difficult issues. Dare I say it, a comic about who have power over global suffering must face issues just as difficult and sensitive (not a comparison between Angels and slavers or Nazis, but between situations of emotional peril). And its not just man's inhumanity - floods have wiped out thousands in China and Bangladesh, last year a a single earthquake killed more people in Gujarat in India than in the entire WTC disaster. I do not blame God, only natural laws. But then again, I don't believe God sends Guardian Angels.
He already sent someone, didn't He?
It is only humorous to think of an Angel watching over a shopping mall if you can ignore the fact that this in an incongrous place to try to watch against suffering, pain and death, considering how much of this goes on elsewhere in the world.
Religious comics will always be on the fringe. They deal with issue that are often too powerful to turn into comedic images. Suffering and death, eternal damnation, judgement, atonement, prayer to a God who so often seems silent when we need Him most, whom we can easily thank for the good things in life and feel driven to blame Him for the bad despite all our efforts - these are the issues pressing those who believe in the word of the Bible.
How to eek a smile out of all that without avoiding it all? I couldn't fathom how to guess.
As you can probably guess, I lost someone recently to a horrific death - and I'm fighting of a significant amount of bitterness. I apologize for the slights I have made. Just because I cannot find a smile in your work, it doesn't mean others cannot - and I wouldn't judge them for doing so.
Perhaps one can smile in heaven, secure in the knowledge that earthly suffering - no matter how horrible - is fleeting. A cosmic pinprick against the span of eternity.
"My intent is to achieve comedy. Involving my angels in a race around the globe to forestall man's every inhumanity to man, or their abject failure to do so, doesn't serve very well my purpose of telling funny stories about funny characters."
This is the crux of the issue. A comic set in a concentration camp would need to face some difficult issues. A comic set on a slavers' plantation would need to face some difficult issues. Dare I say it, a comic about who have power over global suffering must face issues just as difficult and sensitive (not a comparison between Angels and slavers or Nazis, but between situations of emotional peril). And its not just man's inhumanity - floods have wiped out thousands in China and Bangladesh, last year a a single earthquake killed more people in Gujarat in India than in the entire WTC disaster. I do not blame God, only natural laws. But then again, I don't believe God sends Guardian Angels.
He already sent someone, didn't He?
It is only humorous to think of an Angel watching over a shopping mall if you can ignore the fact that this in an incongrous place to try to watch against suffering, pain and death, considering how much of this goes on elsewhere in the world.
Religious comics will always be on the fringe. They deal with issue that are often too powerful to turn into comedic images. Suffering and death, eternal damnation, judgement, atonement, prayer to a God who so often seems silent when we need Him most, whom we can easily thank for the good things in life and feel driven to blame Him for the bad despite all our efforts - these are the issues pressing those who believe in the word of the Bible.
How to eek a smile out of all that without avoiding it all? I couldn't fathom how to guess.
As you can probably guess, I lost someone recently to a horrific death - and I'm fighting of a significant amount of bitterness. I apologize for the slights I have made. Just because I cannot find a smile in your work, it doesn't mean others cannot - and I wouldn't judge them for doing so.
Perhaps one can smile in heaven, secure in the knowledge that earthly suffering - no matter how horrible - is fleeting. A cosmic pinprick against the span of eternity.
But then there's Hell.
I think I'll shut up now.