“Life of Parson” – A Comic Based on the Humor of Everyday Faith

“Life of Parson”

a comic based in the humor of everyday faith

I’ve had an idea in my head for a long time.  It basically goes like this: There are two things that you don’t see in PopCulture very often these days; people going to the bathroom and people going to Church.  While the first I understand, the second I don’t.  Faith plays a huge role in life, and I’ve particularly felt its impact on my own heart and my desire to love and do good in the world.  While I don’t own a Television Studio or a Movie Production Company, I do have friends that are excellent illustrators and I absolutely love to write.  In this case, I’ve partnered with my friend Mark Marianelli, of New Hampshire, who has an amazing illustration style.  I’ll be doing all the writing.  We love to laugh (as you may have experienced with our projects at Six AM Comics) and we are faith inspired people, so why not base a comic on the life of a good young pastor trying to do good.  I think this could push against some of the faith based stereotypes I’ve encountered and explore the silliness we all experience in community in general.  There is a huge chest of goodies that our pop culture doesn’t explore a whole lot these days.

For your pleasure, here is our first ‘Life of Parson’ Comic (Click Comic to Enlarge):

I hope this interests you?  And if so, once I have 50 interested people signed up on this “Special Persons“ contact list, I’m going to send out the second comic and the scripts as well as some interesting “Making Of” materials.  We’re not going to publish this like we do with our other webcomics because we want to test the interest in this kind of endeavor.  If the newsletter grows, Parson will flourish and the content will flow.  If it doesn’t, then we have many projects in the works.  Take a moment to let us know this is something you would like to see happen.  If it takes off, we’ll try and publish in different venues, but this is a test.  Lets see where this goes.  Sign up now below:

Get all the upcoming Comics –

Join Parson’s “Special Persons” Newsletter

Please share this blog with anyone you think will be interested.  Thanks in advance.

Pass It On: Waldo Date’s Carmen Sandiego – Brilliant

I love mashups and this is beautiful.  My 1st – 3rd grade life was full of big Waldo adventures and then in 4th – 6th grade, I spent so much time at the library looking for Carmen Sandiego with a World and USA Atlas.  This pic is worthy of passing around.  (Its being passed around on facebook, so you will have to find the source on your own):

Pass It On: Right and Left Brain Visualized by Missouri Institute on Natural Science

Thanks Missouri Institute of Natural Science for being Awesome and presenting this Mercedes Benz visualization on Facebook.

The text for the left brain reads:

“I am the left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.”

And for the right brain:

“I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.”

Personally, I employ both sides as needed.  I like to think I am balanced, though sometimes I am too far on one or the other side and I scare myself.  😀 -Dan

Want to See What People Gave Up for Lent this year Through Twitters Eyes? Wonder No More – And Happy Easter ;)

Christianity Today posted this visual representation of what people gave up for Lent this year.  As Easter comes, I will start wondering what life with Television is like again as I stop fasting.  Looks like there is a lot of sarcasm, but a lot of people giving up social media.  Very interesting.  Well, they’ll be back after tomorrow 😉

Flobots Rise is Amazing Music – Love This Stuff

Flobots continue to wow me.  Top 3 – Arcade Fire, Civil Wars, Flobots.  Simple and sweet music to the lyric listener’s ears.

Pass It On: The Sleek Sheen of Darth Vader in Typography – Beautifully Done

I often peruse Gizmodo blog, and this really caught my eye (I was a Graphic Design major in college before switching to Religion/Philosophy).  Full pic below, and here is some info from the Giz article (click to jump)

Evan Travelstead has created this poster of Darth Vader using only typography and all his famous quotes, from I find your lack of faith disturbing to ***SPOILER ALERT***Luke, I am your father. The results are… remarkable. Here’s the full poster:

Old and New Media Distribution Methods – Picture

I Just scribbled this using the Pencil Tool in Paint.  It is a picture I saw in my mind today while reading about the tanking of Hulu, thanks to the Networks that bought it, then decided rather than build a platform and pioneer it, just take lots of money from Netflix.  A kernal in that article is about how Networks are losing ground and revenue to open distribution of media (easily downloaded media).  I’m a history kind of guy, so I naturally thought of “The way things probably used to be.”  I may be wrong, but this is what I pictured in that moment.  !

See the Article I wrote on Multempire using this Pic.

Pass It On: Clark Griswold Post Card

via www.posterdistrict.com clark griswold

(thanks http://chadswanzy.tumblr.com/)

Fun with Photoshop – The Youth Minister Thinking of Seminary

This is an image I made for a repost of my old “Should Youth Minster’s Do Seminary?” blog for my new Youth Ministry Resource/Conversation Blog @Multempire (http://multempire.tumblr.com).

A Thought on Youth Group Names/Logos

Here are some Youth Group Names/Logos I’ve been involved in:

(1) Gravity

(website) – Gravity was a student chosen name, the tag line is “Experience the Pull” and the Logo represents all the values of the Youth Ministry.  The Logo is always in the background reminding the students of the values each time its explained.

(2) Surf (website) – Surf was in place at my current youth ministry as an Acronym, but it matched the ethos of the Island that we live on, full of beaches.

Here is the blog post I’m responding to: Why I am Sorta Against Youth Group Names by Architecht

I recently read this article on Youth Group names and I didn’t think it was a big deal to me until I realized as I wrote my response that I didn’t agree.  That perhaps it was a matter of perspective, and seeing a name and logo in its proper context, you might be able to utilize it well.  (I’ve included two Logo/Names I’ve worked on developing, and then added the link to the blog I’m responding to, and then my response.)

Here is my response:

For branding purposes, it isn’t an issue of whether you have a name, or don’t have a name.  The key is to have a vital ministry that meets needs.  If you are doing a great job, the name won’t matter, people will call it what they want to call it.  It may be called “An awesome place” or High School Ministry, or “Powerhouse” – whatever.  As long as your space is a place where students feel comfortable, your ministry has stable leadership, and the purposes of youth ministry are being met, does it really matter?

In the long run though, youth ministry names sometimes do make a difference.  After about four years of a stable youth ministry, it is good to have a brand presence so that students who are thinking about their discipleship (and especially for creative/visual) students, to have an anchor point in their mind as to what is the place they are working out their identity.  Say your youth ministry is called “Refresh” and the logo is the word, with a symbol of water (for baptism or the holy spirit or being refreshed experientially), and it is effectively utilized on letterhead to parents and students, it is on tshirts for trips, on calendars and informational packets, it is on posters around the youth room, and on web presence (facebook, youth website, and downloadable images).

When you hit that saturation point, students can draw the logo on their book covers at school and it fulfills two good purposes.  (1) They remember the goodness and fullness of your program.  They know they belong somewhere and that symbol denotes that relationship.  (2) It advertises to others the fact that your ministry exists.  When another student asks what the logo means, the student (if you’ve spent the time to explain the name and logo to the kids) can tell the other what the ministry means to them.  “It is my youth group.  It is where I have people that care about me.  It is where I meet Jesus.  It is where I grow as a person.”  All these things can be associated with a visual element to your ministry – and denoted in a name.

I believe that is very important, and if stuck out, becomes a vital part of a ministry.  If your logo gets used by the church in promos for youth group, the youth see that they are part of the overall church, and that their presence matters.  All because of a name and a logo tagged to an experience.  Then again, if your group is not a good experience at all, then why promo it at all?

Don’t rely on a logo or a name – make it part of the whole – the good – and let it be associated under the banner of Christ.