Acts of kindness: How two comic book writers were the first to know Sara was pregnant

Now it can be told.

Sara is in her 12th week of pregnancy - the first twelve weeks was us, keeping it to ourselves (mostly), trying not to jinx anything, and waiting.

At one point Sara suggested I find myself some books about pregnancy that I might enjoy reading. Since I wasn’t aware of Jon Stewart, Anthony Bourdain, or Paul Pope having written any books about pregnancy, I wasn’t sure where to start.

Enter Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick:

Matt Fraction, as I’ve written about here before, is my favorite comic book writer. He, and the extremely talented Kelly Sue (also a comic book writer), have two kids and have shared little bits and pieces of their journey as parents online with their friends, family, and fans. I’ve always enjoyed watching them and their kids from across the internet and think they seem like great parents. So I figured, why not see if there were any books they enjoyed. If I like their writing, chances are I might also like their choice in books.

So I got on Kelly Sue’s message board and specifically asked Matt if there were any books for expectant fathers that he enjoyed. He responded that there was a three book set he really liked, but couldn’t remember the name. No biggie. The search would continue.

Then, a few weeks later, I’m walking through the grocery store when I get a text - I pull out my phone to see a direct Twitter message from Kelly Sue, asking for my address, and saying that she and Matt would like to send me the set of books Matt had mentioned.

Let me make something clear here: I am a fan of Matt and Kelly Sue’s. I have asked them questions on message boards and I shook Matt’s hand at a comic book convention last year. That is the extent of our relationship. They don’t know me from Adam. Yet they took the time to track me down on Twitter, contact me, then send me the books ON THEIR DIME! I offered to pay shipping and they refused.

Comic book fans can be weird. Matt and Kelly Sue have written some of the biggest name characters in comics, from The X-Men to Supergirl to Iron Man. That kind of puts a target on your back for some people. One wrong move and all of a sudden there’s a blog out there dedicated to WHY YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SPIDER-MAN THEY WAY I DO. So, for the two of them to reach out like this, to a complete stranger, says a lot, to me, about their hearts.

I was already a fan of them both - now, Sara, who doesn’t read comics, is a fan. I will do everything in my power to ensure that our baby, once he/she is old enough to understand the intricacies of spatiotemporal holocaust, is a fan.

Thank you Matt and Kelly Sue.

(Just kidding about the spatiotemporal holocaust bit. Casanova is my favorite comic but I will not let my child read it until he/she is forty.)

We’re having a baby!

As far as titles go, that’s pretty straight forward. I was afraid if I got too cute, people might skip over it. And I don’t want anyone that knows us to skip over this - BECAUSE WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

Sara and I started trying back in September, while in Hawaii. We were under the impression that a baby conceived in Hawaii would grant us some sort of dual citizenship (then we remembered that Hawaii isn’t a country and that the man will always find a way to get you down). Months, and at least one false alarm, passed and now here we are, bun in oven.

We sat on the news throughout the first trimester just to be safe. So, as of this writing, we are at twelve weeks. Sara spent the first trimester sick as a dog - but kept up her usual work schedule because she’s carved out of steel.

We’re both really excited. And nervous. But mostly excited. Sara is going to make an incredible mother and I’m going to try my hardest to be the best father I can be. This kid will have a lot going for it - amazing grandparents, awesome aunts and uncles, fun and goofy cousins, and an entire network of devoted friends and family. It will never hurt for role models or love.

I have a lot more I want to say - but I’ll say it later. This is a moment that can pretty well speak for itself. WE’RE HAVING A BABY!

Conan - Then and Now

Yesterday, one of my co-workers brought me a big pile of comic books he had when he was a kid. It was a bunch of stuff from the early eighties - which I loved! I’ve collected comics my entire life, but the early eighties are where it really came to life for me.

The pile was mostly a bunch of old Iron Man comics (and a couple comic adaptations of the Condor Man Movie!!??!!). But there, in the middle of the pile, was one issue of Marvel’s Conan The Barbarian series.

Talk about your unfortunately named antagonists…

I was never that into Conan. The only Conan books I ever remember owning were a few issues of Conan The King - and that was because he had these ninja bodyguards that I thought were cool when I was a teenager.

I just recently started buying Darkhorse’s Conan series, though, because it’s being written by Brian Wood and drawn by Becky Cloonan, two of my favorite creators. Their first story arc on the book is a retelling of the Robert E. Howard short story, Queen Of The Black Coast.

The series is two issues in so far, and it’s awesome.

Flipping through the old issue of Conan The Barbarian from the 80’s I noticed a page that basically recapped everything we’ve seen in Wood and Cloonan’s new series so far. It was a very weird experience to really only be aware of one Conan story - and to suddenly see it popping up in two different places at once.

When I got home, later that day, I pulled out the Wood and Cloonan issues and made a side by side comparison with the Marvel Conan book. Observe:

Conan fleeing local authorities:

Conan being attacked by pirates:

Belit taking Conan as a mate:

I find this really cool. Serendipity! You can even see a little nod to the 80’s issue in the costume Cloonan gave Conan in those first two panels!

No doubt there are some comic fans out there on the internet that would hold this up as the evils of decompression in comics - that would be stupid, though, because one is a quick recap in the middle of a larger story - and one is a straight re-telling. Two completely different things. Did I just build a straw man and knock it down? Yeah, but I spent the early 90’s arguing on the internet and I’m still kind of paranoid.

But I digress… Comics are awesome.

Joy Division, Aztecs, and Digital Comics

Sam Humprhies is a rising star of the comics world. He’s written a Fraggle Rock comic, a sic-fi comic about pansexuals, and his newest book, Sacrifice, is about a Joy Division fan who gets magically transported back to the time of the ancient Aztecs. This is the definition of eclectic.

I was really excited to pick up Sacrifice, but none of my local shops were carrying it (between this and the recent selling-out of Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga, I’ve learned that it might be time to start pre-ordering some stuff…). So what’s a guy to do? Well, I decided to dip my toe into the waters of digital comics for the first time.

I love print comics. I love the feel, I love the smell, I love the whole reading experience. I would be sad if print comics ever went away. But more than i love the feeling of reading a print comic, I love the feeling of reading a good story. So, I decided to download the first three issues of Sacrifice to my iPad and see what I thought.

I used an app from Comixology to download and read Sacrifice. The app lets you choose between viewing comics a page at a time or animating between panels, one at a time. I tried both methods, but found that reading Sacrifice really worked with the panel to panel method. I’m not sure that would be the case with every book - but Sacrifice artist, Dalton Rose, is a great storyteller - and his panels create a visual flow that really worked in this format. A comic with less clear storytelling would probably suffer.

Rose has a very simple, stylized line work that could be blown off as “crude” by anyone used to the art in your standard super hero comics. There’s some real beauty and depth going on in those pages, though. Check this out:

Beautiful.

After reading the book, it’s no wonder that Humphries’ star is on the rise. He takes an unusual concept and turns it into a clear, engaging story. Honestly, the concept alone would get him hipster love from now until Aztec doomsday (Joy Division! Aztecs! Blood!) - but the fact that he actually goes beyond the high concept and pulls the story off is the real testament to his skill as a writer.

So get on the Humphries train early! One day he’ll be writing 40 to 50 Marvel titles and you’ll have missed your chance to be a jerk and say stuff like, “Man, remember when he used to be good?”

Almost Amish launch party at Morris Book Shop

Nancy Sleeth, a friend of Crossroads, has written a new book called Almost Amish - One woman’s quest for a slower, simpler, more sustainable life. I’m a big fan of Nancy and her husband Matthew and the way they’ve seamlessly combined their love for this planet and their faith. Both Matthew and Nancy are thoughtful, articulate, and open-minded.

On March 23, Morris Book Shop is hosting a launch party for Nancy’s book. If you’ve never been to Morris Book Shop it’s an incredible local, independent book store. If you visit it once, you’ll be back. It has a charm and authenticity that’s too often missing in the modern world of national big chain book stores.

So here’s your chance to support a great lady, purchase an interesting book, and visit a cool bookstore all in one move. More info below in the flyer below. Click it to make it bigger:

On Kony 2012 and putting Africa in the proper context

For a couple of days last week you couldn’t go anywhere online without seeing someone post a link to Kony 2012, the video campaign to raise awareness about brutal Ugandan guerrilla fighter Joseph Kony and his atrocities and war crimes.

Soon after that you couldn’t go anywhere online without seeing people debating the relative merits of Invisible Children, the organization responsible for the campaign.

Prior to the controversy, I was only marginally aware of Invisible Children and their work, so I’ve spent the past could of days trying to do a little research. The internet is full of passionate testimonies both in favor of and against Invisible Children. The signal to noise ration being what it is online, I’ve had to be selective as to what I really pay attention to.

As I read, I find myself giving the most credence to the opinions of people who have actually been to Uganda or present what I consider to be a reasonably nuanced view of the decades long conflict(s) taking place in there.

I am a long way from making up my mind about Invisible children - and maybe “making up my mind” isn’t really that important to begin with. Maybe a better goal is just becoming better informed in general. As many of the sites I’ve visited, though, have pointed out - getting informed is a lengthy and difficult process that requires quite a lot from you.

Throughout the process of my reading, there’s one piece that has had the most impact on me - and it actually only makes a passing reference to Invisible Children and Kony 2012.

John Edwin Mason teaches African history in Virginia. He’s written a multi-part essay entitled, A Brief History of African Stereotypes in which he discusses misconceptions about Africa, the double-edged sword of Western relief work, and the burden that comes with telling the kinds of stories Kony 2012 is trying to tell.

If you’re struggling to make heads or tails of this controversy (or maybe more importantly, if you’ve already made up your mind), I highly encourage you to read this article. It takes an appropriately long view of history and forces the reader to look at the bigger picture of Africa.

10 In 20 - Oh My Me

This month’s 10 In 20 release is new to me - but I’m immediately a fan - check out Oh My Me and their song Derenda:

Apparently they’re out in Austin this week making their South By Southwest Debut.

Why I Love Comics - March 2012

The Manhattan Projects

When I first saw this comic advertised, I didn’t pay much attention. I imaged it to be a historical/political comic - and while I have plenty of room in my heart for such books, I just wasn’t feeling it on first glance.

Then I saw the”S.” I had been reading the title as “The Manhattan Project,” but that’s not it. It’s The Manhattan Projects. Plural. Interesting…

Then I read the blurb for the book:

“What if the research and development department created to produce the first atomic bomb was a front for a series of other, more unusual programs? What if the union of a generation’s brightest minds was not a signal for optimism, but foreboding? What if everything…went wrong?”

That’s all it took. It’s not a comic about history, it’s a comic about fictional history!

There’s another “what if” question that could be added to the above blurb - a question about Oppenheimer, whom the first issue revolves around - but asking it might be a little to spoilery.

Writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Nick Pitarra do a great job. Pitarra has a young Frank Quitely thing going on. Fans of today’s slick, polished super hero comics would probably find the look of the book somewhat “sloppy,” but there’s an energy in the linework that would disappear under high polish. I’m a fan of the look and of Hickman’s smart, twisty story so far.

The Greenest Church In Lexington - An Interview with Caleb Mathis

I love where I work. As far as churches go, there’s not very many like it in my experience. One of the things I love about it is the people I get to work with. We have a diverse staff with diverse passions that are all being put to use trying to love God and love the people around us.

One of the people that I particularly love is Caleb Mathis. Caleb is a young, inteligent guy with a great heart - and there’s not an ounce of pretense in him. What you see is what you get - and that, to my mind, is a pretty rare thing. Caleb is extremely passionate about taking care of the environment. I love his heart and his vision in this area so much that I asked him if I could ask him a few questions about it and post it on my blog. He graciously agreed. It’s a long read, but totally worth it. If, after reading this, you have any questions for Caleb about starting a Green program at your church, hit me up in the comment section and I will get you in touch with him.

Patrick: On staff you’re known as the recycling guy.  The Green guy.  The dirty hippie (sorry, I’m the only one that calls you that).  It’s obvious to anyone that spends a little time with you, that you’re passionate about caring for the environment.  Have you always been that way?  When did you first kind of become aware of this passion?

Caleb: Haha! Actually, my parents love to tell that story of how, as a kindergarten student, I fussed at my dad for leaving the water running while he brushed his teeth. I’m not sure if I learned that lesson at school or from watching Captain Planet – but as a child, I do remember being “creation care” minded.

That being said, as I grew up, I abandoned that type of thinking for a long while, mostly as a way to “fit in.” I grew up steep in the church (my dad’s a pastor) and Christian culture (like I didn’t seriously listen to secular music till college), and environmentalism was something that Christian culture always associated with “liberals” – and that was certainly not something I wanted to be a part of! I just took on the predominate thinking of that Christian subculture which, ironically, didn’t value the creation.

In college, propelled by a number of books I was reading, I came to the realization that Christ wanted to redeem much more than just my heart – he wanted my whole life. That meant rethinking my views on everything, including environmentalism. Even just a cursory search of the scriptures shows that God cares very deeply for what He has made and expects mankind to care for it as well. Honestly, I have no idea how the Christian culture of past years was able to maintain their negative stance on environmentalism when nothing in scripture supports their view.

That was a long answer, haha, sorry.

Patrick: You’ve started a “Green Team” inside of Crossroads’ student ministry.  What’s that all about?

Caleb: Last summer, we offered a “summer school” for the students in XSM. We’d meet, every Thursday, for a lesson and activities, and then we’d go out to eat together. I was put in charge of this summer school and kind of just went out on a limb with the topic of Creation Care – I knew how important it was for the students, early on, to realize God’s love and mandate for us to care for the planet, but I wasn’t sure if kids would attend. Surprising, a good number of students showed up, week-in and week-out, and we had an especially large showing from the middle school students. When summer school was over, many of the kids expressed a desire to keep meeting together – they were now full of knowledge about the environment, but they needed an outlet to work toward change – so the Green Team was born.

We meet once a week to take of all the recycling in the church, and then at least once a month for a different type of “green” activity – we’ve painted storm drains for the city, gone on camping trips, right now we’re in the middle of changing the church’s light bulbs from incandescent to CFL. The kids are really the heart and soul behind the Green Team – every week they come in excited, with new ideas to implement – it makes heading up that time very easy!

Patrick: You guys have recently joined in a local competition of sorts.  Tell us about that.

Caleb: Sure thing – the Green team enrolled our church in the Live Green Lexington Games, which is a competition between local schools, business and churches to see who can implement the most “green change” over the course of a year. Somehow, I missed the boat on that for the first half of the competition, but we enrolled in the Games at about the six-month mark. There is a huge checklist of green changes, and each one of them corresponds to a certain point value. As we go through our church making changes, we earn a certain number of points – and the school, business and church with the most points at the end of the competition (July) wins! 

The games have been great because it gives the Green Team a checklist to work on – we’ve recently changed all our Exit Sign bulbs to LED (using much less energy), set out cigarette butt receptacles at the entrances (cuts down on litter) and created a green policy for our office workers to follow. The games have really energized the Green Team kids, as it gives them a goal to work toward!

Patrick: In a recent email to the rest of the Crossroads staff you mentioned a desire you and the kids in the green team have to make us “the greenest church in Lexington.”  Why is that important and how do you get there?

Caleb: I firmly believe that the way we treat the creation (the planet and the 7 billion people living on it) reflects our feelings for the Creator. God places extreme value on His creation, but if our daily lives do not reflect this value, then there is a disconnect between us and the Creator. 1 John explains – “If anyone says he loves God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar.” I feel the same way about the planet, we can say we love God, but if we recklessly use and abuse his Creation, do we really love God? One of the first commands given to Adam from God was for him to take care of the garden that God had created for him (Genesis 2:15). That commands travels through time and is our command today… how can we say we value the Creator when we abuse His creation? Our churches, among other things, are a place where humanity should correctly connect with God. Our church buildings need to preach the same love and respect for God as our Sunday sermons.

Just yesterday, I read an article about a little church in Germany who’s outfitted their roof with solar panels – they make enough electricity to power eight more churches their size! And by switching to solar, the energy they are using doesn’t come from burning coal, a process that not only pollutes the air, but destroys the earth through mining.

Many people are scared by the prospect of going green because they perceive it to be expensive and time-consuming, like having to retrofit solar cells on your roof. And that is a great idea, but I would encourage others to start small. Before you install solar panels, work on increasing your recycle, or printing less, or choosing to not purchase sytrofoam anymore. Small changes really do add up – and if you can get into the habit of continually add another small change, another there, you’ll eventually find yourself in a place where purchasing roof solar panels isn’t such a wild or extreme thought.

Patrick: In recent years we’ve seen more and more churches embracing the idea that we need to be good stewards of the planet, but there are still some that are resistant to that that sort of thing.  Without trying to get into their heads too much or demonize them, why do you think some religious bodies resist the idea of environmentalism?  You obviously see it as something that fits very comfortably into your faith - how did you get to that place?

Caleb: I’ve thought about this for a while. Some people seem to equate caring for the environment as a slippery slope that could lead to something extreme like worship of the earth. Of course, every movement has its “crazies,” and there’s some people out there who deify that planet. For a Christian, that’s obviously not an option – we don’t worship the earth, rather we care for it because we worship the one who made it.

Other folks, I believe, are turned off from the green movement because it’s so long been tied to the political left. Many churches seem to want to ally themselves with a political movement, and your more traditional/fundamental churches seem always identify with the political right – a branch of politics with little use for environmental stewardship. Like you said, I don’t want to demonize these churches, but it seems they are more concerned with stopping a political agenda, or electing a certain official, then they are with following God. The entire body of scripture teaches and supports care for the planet – to ignore this issue just because it’s favored by a certain political party, is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

My feelings about care for the environment, as I said earlier, really blossomed in college, when I finally sought to personally know God, and not just be told my others what He was like. As I sought after Him, and spent time in prayer and the scriptures, it became obvious that this was something He cared about.

But I also look at environmentalism as a way to engage in justice. The scriptures make it very obvious that God cares for the poor. Poor environmental stewardship has affect the poor in vastly greater ways than everyone else. For example, if climate change increases the temperature on earth, Americans with their air conditioners will be fine, but children living in rural Africa will die. Water contamination doesn’t affect us, because we have plants that filter and purify our tap water, but if a company’s factory in a third world country is allowed to pollute local bodies of water, then disease will spread. The examples could go on and on and on. I find it hard to believe that a Christian could look at the scriptures and not recognize God’s desire for us to care for creation, but even if that was the case, they should support environmental efforts as a way of pursuing the type of justice for the poor that God so adamantly cares about.

Patrick: Environmentalism has been highly politicized by people on both sides of the political spectrum.  For you, is this is a topic that transcends traditional politics?

Caleb: Washington wants to politicize every issue, and this is especially detrimental in the case of environmental sustainability. I hope that, one day, environmentalism can transcend political boundaries because (at the risk of sounding a little dramatic), the future of our lives depends upon it.

That being said, I’m not willing to wait around for Republicans and Democrats to agree. I’ve learned to stop looking to political parties, agendas or candidates for my hope. Let’s be honest, a politician’s job is to get elected, and once there, stay elected – it sounds a bit cynical, but every decision they make revolves around that. In the past few years, the word compromise has become taboo in Washington; Democrats and Republicans don’t want to work together – and of course, each party blames the other way. I’m afraid that environmentalism won’t become a unifying issue until its too late, so I hope and pray that the Church leads the charge on championing this issue. For all the reasons I’ve mentioned above, the Church is uniquely qualified to lead the creation care movement – and if its something we believe that God supports, we should be doing it anyway.

Patrick: Any closing thoughts?

Caleb: For anyone who is skeptical about the issue of mixing Christianity and environmental stewardship, I would just encourage them to look to the scriptures. Put politics aside, put even what you think aside, and take time to be educated on what God thinks about the issue. This could be very eye-opening for many believers who don’t currently embrace environmentalism.

If you find yourself ready to make changes to your lifestyle, I would encourage you to start small – you don’t have to sell all your possessions and buy a Prius immediately. Work your way up; add a different green change to your lifestyle each month. So there so much each one of us can do to lessen our impact on the environment – find friends who are doing the same and share ideas! Find me, I’d be happy to talk about it.

The Head And The Heart - Headliners - 3/6/12

Last summer I went with a group from Crossroads to Joplin, Mo to help with relief and recovery work after the tornado that destroyed huge portions of the town. We left Lexington at 9:00 pm, drove all night to get there, hopped out of the truck and immediately started cutting and clearing fallen trees from a farmer’s land. Later that night, exhausted and emotional from what I’d seen that day, I laid down on an air mattress in a gymnasium, put my earbuds in and tried to gear down.

Sara had made me a playlist for the trip. One of the songs on that playlist was Rivers and Roads by The Head and The Heart. It was the first time I had heard the song. It completely destroyed me. The song is all distance and longing - and there, miles from home, surrounded by people whose physical notions of home had been totally destroyed, it was incredibly stirring.

The Head and The Heart’s particular blend of pop folk makes great use of harmonies. Whenever you listen to a band that does really good harmony, you wonder if it will make the transition to live performance. I’m happy to say, after seeing The Head and The Heart play live last Tuesday, these guys don’t just sound great under studio conditions, they can genuinely play and sing live.

And Rivers and Roads was every bit as stirring in a music venue packed with stocking caps and beards as it was laying on the air mattress hundreds of miles from home.

Witness the majesty in the form which it was meant to be experienced in: shaky camera phone footage:

Dead Letter Office

Today I created a new folder on my desktop:

In the United States Postal Service, the Dead Letter Office is where undeliverable mail goes. For R.E.M. The Dead Letter Office was an album of B-Sides and rarities. On my desktop, The Dead Letter Office is where never-to-be-seen projects go to die.

My job at Crossroads is largely creative communication - take our given topic for the week and brainstorm about some funny, unusual, interesting way to supplement what our teachers are talking about. I create a lot of videos to this end.

This week we’re talking about relationships and how important it is to own your part of a problem. My idea was to do a Sesame Street style human/puppet interaction. As a kid we learn a lot about relationships from puppets - so maybe it would be funny to create a Sesame Street style video, aimed at an adult audience; surly puppets, adult reactions, that kind of thing.

So, I wrote a script, shot it, and started editing.

Somewhere around the first rough cut it became obvious that it just didn’t work.

The script was okay. The acting by my buddy Caleb was spot on. The pacing worked okay, I think. There was something when you put it all together, though, that just didn’t work. I showed it to someone else. They were very polite and positive about the piece - but agreed that something in it just didn’t hang together right.

So, we pulled it.

It was hard at first because I kept wondering - could I keep tweaking this thing until it got to where it needed to be? Maybe. But maybe not, and then you end up showing something that isn’t very good and doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do - and let me tell you, having something you made bomb in front of 2,000 people is not a fun way to spend your morning.

So, in the folder it goes. I’m not sure why I’m keeping it. Partly, I think, because it was a lot of work and I just don’t want to delete it yet. Partly because I want to look at it some more and figure out how I could have made it work. And partly because a folder full of never to be seen projects is a good reminder that everybody sucks sometimes. The way you stop sucking is by continuing to do the work. The more you work, the better you get.

As a closing note, beside all the work I put into it, I really hate putting it down because it contained a scene where a puppet throws a bunch of action figures in a blender, and I really really liked filming that.