The past two weeks has seen even more professional progress of our parable contributors. We’re an active bunch, no doubt about that!

Top of the news list is the addition of Josh Alves’s Araknid Kid in the line-up for Sugary Serials, comics for all ages. Araknid Kid first made it’s appearance in DC comic’s Zuda Comics contest and placed 6th in the month of December. But it’s actually a blessing since now Josh gets to keep his comic without handing the rights over to DC. Check out a brief preview below.

While perusing blogs for this week’s news updates I noticed a lot of Parable artists participate in DrawerGeek’s biweekly art challenge. For those that don’t know the website, they post a weekly topic and artists are encouraged to draw a picture based on the topic given. The results are varying and, above all, extremely entertaining. Last weeks “Lord of the Rings” topic included art by Parablers Matt Yokom, Jeremy Vanhoozer, Michelle Gorski, Mike Maihack and Stephen McCranie.

That’s all for this time folks, tune in next week!

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Hey everybody. I’m Stephen, the creator of Windblown Wanderer, a story that will be coming out in the first volume of Parable. Mike Maihack has given me the opportunity to get to know the other Parablers by interviewing them, so, starting today, I’ll be posting the first interview with James Mar. New interviews will be posted on the first and third weeks of each month along with a sneak peek at some of the stories in Parable. That means, with the combined efforts of John Gunningham, this blog will update each week! So be sure to check this site regularly for updates and previews.

James Mar, a contributor for Parable: Volume 1, is a freelance illustrator and a cartoonist who has drawn over ten different comic strip series. He works so hard that he makes the rest of the staff feel like slackers.

Stephen McCranie: Out of all the stories done for Parable, Volume 1, your story, “A Dreamin’ Jenny Holiday Special,” was not only the longest, but if I recall correctly, you were the first one to finish! How did you accomplish this?

James Mar: I had a lot of free time and so I focused all my energy on this piece. I’m the sort of person who prefers to work on something uninterrupted from start to finish. Get the pain over with, you know what I mean?

S: Yeah. You work very hard toward becoming a cartoonist. It’s very inspiring. You’ve done over 500 comic strips for your two books, Golden Dreams and Five Star Banquet, and on top of that, there are still a couple hundred or so strips up on your website. My favorite is the Furious Dork! series. What inspired you to become a cartoonist?

J: I’ve always been interested in art, taking art classes all through school. In college, I sort of figured I wanted to do something in the entertainment arena. Filmmaking interested me but I wasn’t able to declare at the school I was attending. Animation was related and a natural fit. I studied some of that in college, minoring in it as well as some self taught cartooning for the student newspaper. Upon graduating, I couldn’t really secure a regular job in the industry so in the mean time I freelanced and worked on cartooning. And I’ve been doing that ever since.

S: The cartooning industry is harsh and unforgiving isn’t it?

J: I wouldn’t know; I feel like I’ve never even entered it!

S: Ha ha, you can do it! Especially since Parable should be on the shelves of bookstores all around America by the first half of this year.

J: My situation is partially my own choice. I wanted to get into storyboarding but I often got frustrated by portfolio rejections. At the moment, I’d rather make a finished comic out of something and actually show it to an audience.

S: Is there any projects that you’re currently working on that you’d like to talk about?

J: Hate to reveal this to you, but I already finished my story for Parable 2. I do have more Dreamin’ Jennie ideas but after each story, I’m not making any promises. I’m also working on a short story for Secret Identities. Mike Maihack actually referred me to that one! Other than freelance, I’m working on a comic book about comedy. That’s a big project to pitch to publishers.

S: Ack! Slow down! You’re leaving the rest of us Parablers in the dust! I knew you had it inked, but do you already have the story colored too?

J: Yeah. I was going to post it [in the contributor’s section of the Parables Forums] on Easter though. Don’t worry; I’ll take my break now.

S: Holy snap. Well, good look with your comedy book.

So, I noticed that you work a lot of your Chinese heritage into your comics. What was is like growing up in a Chinese home and how has it affected your work?

J: My experience of growing up in a Chinese home, I’d say is probably like growing up in any American home, only the food is different. I grew up with all the 80’s American pop culture stuff like anyone else born here. My education was important to my parents, but the pressure became more self-imposed than through them. I worked hard but I wasn’t one of those extraordinary kids that got straight A’s or had multiple talents. I’m sure every household is different but my family speaks mostly English to each other. I wish I were fluent in Cantonese Chinese but learning another language takes a lot of time, practice, and effort. While my neighborhood demographics were like half White, half Asian, I never experienced major racism there. It wasn’t until high school, college, and beyond did I really make an effort to “reclaim” a heritage and culture. I still feel like I’ll always be too Americanized but I’ve picked up a lot of stuff since. My work is more Chinese focused because it’s just who I am. It’s an effort to be more freely personal to me and give more variety to the landscape. But I’ll always feel some inadequacies in trying to create fictional characters who aren’t me regardless of race, heritage, gender, age, etc…

S: I see. Have you read American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang? He’s definitely my favorite Christian cartoonist. I tried to get him to join the Parable staff, but he was too busy at the time.

J: No, I haven’t. I actually don’t read a lot of comics probably compared to most comic people. I watch a lot of Chinese and Japanese films though.

S: I’d definitely recommend it. It’s a retelling of the Journey to the West with a Christian twist and a modern interpretation. Okay, two more questions and then we’re done.
How did you become a Christian? How has this influenced your work?

J: I grew up with my parents taking me to church but that was off and on. I really didn’t accept Christ until college at a retreat. During this time I was in seeking mode and didn’t completely “get” or understand everything but I conversed with one of the leaders and just let go of any hindrances and accepted Christ on faith. I’ve learned a lot since then and while there are still mysteries that may never be answered, I’d still rather put my faith in God than anything else. I think my work is affected content wise at least in keeping it “clean” but I occasionally feel more inspired to serve Christ through my abilities.

S: It is a good thing to be able to serve God with your talents isn’t it? Okay, last question… do you do kung fu?

J: After graduating college, I did take lessons in kung fu, wing chun style. I guess I did it ‘cause it is cool, cultural even if stereotypical. I did that for 2-3 years but currently, I’m not taking it anymore. Too much testosterone.

S: Ha ha, that’s awesome! Well thanks for the interview, James. I appreciate it.

If you’d like to see an 8 page preview of James’ story for Parable: Volume 1, “A Dreamin’ Jenny Holiday Special,” click here.

In two weeks, tune in for an interview with Michelle Gorski!

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Hey! Happy belated new year to you all! Hopefully it was a great 2007, I know mine was. As Mike was kind enough to introduce my arrival a couple days ago I shall keep my entrance brief. I am John, the writer behind “Thistles”. I’ll be helping update this Blog with all the interesting things that parablers are doing. My aim is to update twice a month, in the second and fourth weeks. This will depend mostly on newsworthy items. Speaking of which, here’s the headlines for this post!

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” is the second feature length film from Veggietale’s creator Big Idea Productions. You’ve probably heard about it if you have kids, venture into Christian bookstores or walked past a theater lately. What you may not know is that Parablers Tom Bancroft, Rob Corley and Monika Brozda played a huge role in the development of the film through Funnypages Productions. Check out their Blog entries here to see the extent of their amazing work. “The Pirates Who Don’t do Anything” hit theaters this weekend, definitely check it out.

Tor Harald Blom has launched a new webcomic featuring his most excellent painting skills. “A Cup of Tea: Diary in Memory of a Forest” can be found here. His comic “Illuminated” is in the upcoming Parable. Blom’s website is a good one regardless, check out his work at Jigglepaper Studios.

Bryan Ballinger has a new shirt up on threadless.com and the polls are open! This parabler deserves a few props for his design. Check out the details on his blog Breadwig. If nothing else then for the name, most excellent use of imagination.

Thats all for now.

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Happy 2008 everyone! I know there was a serious lack of posts last year- partially due to the actual creation of the content in Parable, but also because of the lack of time I had to make sure everyone was updated on what we were all up to. Well, as we all gear up to start work on Parable 2, fellow Parabler and writer John Gunningham is stepping up to help make sure this site is updated more regularly. He’ll be keeping tabs on all of us to make sure this is your one-stop place to find out what news and creations we have up our sleeves as well as anything else he might feel is important or entertaining for you to know. Make sure you wish him a warm welcome.

And hey! Parable is coming out this year! We’ll have news and  art on that as things develop. Should be a great year!

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