I just finished a show of comic book art as well as a few of my figure drawings and abstract paintings at a small Christian college, Northwestern, in Orange City Iowa. It was all work you can find on this website. The nature of the content was requested by Phil Sforza one of their professors who had seen my stuff at a small gallery here in Lincoln called The Project Room.
He specifically asked for my Armed and Dangerous series, "Hell's Slaughterhouse" -- pretty strong Sopranos type stuff -- violence, language, sex -- definitely intended as adult material -- also probably the best comic I've ever done. I'm don't consider myself a Christian and I was a bit nervous both about the material and showing up to talk about it at a religious based school.
At first, we definitely seemed to have raised a small tempest. The night I arrived there was an open meeting to discuss the content of the show and several faculty members graciously defended my work and the decision to show it. I was savoring the prospect of a hot debate, but unfortunately, no one spoke up on the other side. I'm guessing the complaints had come from donors who had never looked at the comic but objected to what they'd heard about the language.
Well, I was a bit disappointed -- it's been years since anything I've created has raised any hackles and controversy has a youthful feel to it. But I had a great time participating in some rather heady theological discussions with a missionary who had spent much time in Africa among the Fulani tribes-people.
The college actually ended up buying several of the drawings and I met a painter named Rein Vanderhill who does brilliant work. More about him in a couple of days.