Life got very busy in the last 6 months:The most important thing is that I got married last October in a magical ceremony in Melbourne’s CERES community environment park! Of course, schedules were full before and during that event. Shorty after, this January, my wonderful wife and I moved from Australia to Indonesia for her new job. Yes, I am writing this from the steaming chaos of Jakarta!
And in the midst of that came another exciting news: The Melbourne City Council decided to give me one of their Annual Arts Grants for my next REIGN OF GOD book! This 2020 Annual Art Grant will help me get this project off the ground and put more bucks into marketing (which has been hard for me to master so far).
An Unexpected Blessing
I never really expected my last minute application to succeed, but now I have a good reason to make the book happen. My application for the grant was founded on this premise:
To create and publish a graphic novel that is a dramatic retelling of the New Testament stories. It will break new ground in the representation and evaluation of foundational faith stories, provoking conversations about ethical, spiritual and political values among believers and how they engage with art and society.
So, with this I’m excited to announce that THE REIGN OF GOD: Book 2 is going to come out at the end of this year with support from the City of Melbourne! A launch event is planned at All Star Comics shop.
Last November, all artists who received the grant—musicians, writers, dance performers and so on—were invited to Melbourne Town Hall to greet the Lord Mayor and City Councilor. (That time I found out that I am the sole comics artist there.)
Work in Progress
Since December, I’ve started working on making underdrawings (Bluelines, as I call them), and am about half-way done. Here are some panels:
In Book 2, the story shifts to Kefar Nachum (Capernaum) in Galilee, the town where Yeshua’s (Jesus’) ministry began! Shimon reunites with his friend Andreas (Andrew) and Yeshua will meet fisherman and future church leader Simon (Peter). There will be rousing speeches, exorcism, mystery, and more! It will depict life at the Sea of Galilee in beautiful detail and throw some characters against hard decisions. I’m already thrilled about some of the images and story lines.