I conceived this in 2014. Today I think I would have instead written Gospelman as preaching against spreading the Gospel by means of defacing public property, but back then I just thought this was humorous and cute. :-) Maybe I'll have a Gospelman Adventures story in which I use this one time gag as a means of Gospelman reaching a graffiti artist or teaching a Christian that defacing public property in the name of Christ is wrong with Gospelman himself showing repentance over doing this. I've been writing Gospelman as a Golden Age superhero who isn't allowed to do anything wrong as he needs to be a good role model, but I realize lately that I need to show him humbling himself and repenting if he is to be a role model for Christians at all. But I am uncomfortable with marring the character's reputation or image among readers. Maybe using this graffiti comic strip canonically for a later Adventure story is one way I could do this without going too far out of my current comfort zone.
More Creator Commentary from the Patreon post of this comic strip:
Anyway, I was later concerned with how I portrayed the vandal as a black teenager. I'm not saying that black young people don't enjoy graffiti, they do and I know some, but I mean that I published this before I was able to publish any Gospelman comics featuring Gospelman's best friend from his college football days, a co-star of the series, Bob Jefferson! The character was created by Richard Best, my co-writer on the series, but I admit that he and his family weren't scripted as a black family nor as Gospelman's old college buddy. I added those elements in later. Bob and his wife and two children will become a part of the main cast of both the kids and older readers comics series in the future! I think it's imperative that comics, especially Christian comics, have role models that the readers, especially younger readers, can relate to. A cast of positive Christian role models that are not restricted to only white people is necessary and will become a part of this comic in the future. To restrict any ethnicity to negative roles only would be irresponsible at best. But it will take a long while for me to get the scripts written and artwork done. Please, stay tuned!
Creator's Commentary:
I conceived this in 2014. Today I think I would have instead written Gospelman as preaching against spreading the Gospel by means of defacing public property, but back then I just thought this was humorous and cute. :-) Maybe I'll have a Gospelman Adventures story in which I use this one time gag as a means of Gospelman reaching a graffiti artist or teaching a Christian that defacing public property in the name of Christ is wrong with Gospelman himself showing repentance over doing this. I've been writing Gospelman as a Golden Age superhero who isn't allowed to do anything wrong as he needs to be a good role model, but I realize lately that I need to show him humbling himself and repenting if he is to be a role model for Christians at all. But I am uncomfortable with marring the character's reputation or image among readers. Maybe using this graffiti comic strip canonically for a later Adventure story is one way I could do this without going too far out of my current comfort zone.
More Creator Commentary from the Patreon post of this comic strip:
Anyway, I was later concerned with how I portrayed the vandal as a black teenager. I'm not saying that black young people don't enjoy graffiti, they do and I know some, but I mean that I published this before I was able to publish any Gospelman comics featuring Gospelman's best friend from his college football days, a co-star of the series, Bob Jefferson! The character was created by Richard Best, my co-writer on the series, but I admit that he and his family weren't scripted as a black family nor as Gospelman's old college buddy. I added those elements in later. Bob and his wife and two children will become a part of the main cast of both the kids and older readers comics series in the future! I think it's imperative that comics, especially Christian comics, have role models that the readers, especially younger readers, can relate to. A cast of positive Christian role models that are not restricted to only white people is necessary and will become a part of this comic in the future. To restrict any ethnicity to negative roles only would be irresponsible at best. But it will take a long while for me to get the scripts written and artwork done. Please, stay tuned!
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