All orders placed before Jan 31st are 30% off and include a free digital download for instant reading. Orders taken by Dec 9th will get their books in time for Christmas. I’m told Parable will be up on Amazon and a few other places in a couple of weeks as well, but the Lamp Post store is the only place people will be able to order the discounted bundled package. The ebook is also available separately.

Don’t forget there is also a 70 page preview located HERE.

Help us spread the word!

Until then, make sure to check out the preview now available featuring pages from the seventeen new stories found in Volume 1.

Also by Ovi: The Beginning

Saturday, July 25

11:00am-12:00am Spirituality in Comics— Panelists discuss the influence of spiritual themes in comics and popular culture, and the importance of spirituality to readers, creators, and the stories they tell. Moderated by Leo Partible (Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture), with panelists including Doug Ten Napel (Creature Tech, Catscratch on Nickleodeon), Caleb Monroe (The Remnant for BOOM Studios), Scott Sava (The Dreamland Chronicles) and Holly Golightly (School Bites). Room 3

Besides my wife, who came along to snap pictures and offer emotional support, I spent most of my time with fellow Parabler Ben Avery and the talented Ken Raney and it was great sharing our thoughts on art and comics and God and how they can all be integrated into awesomeness. We discussed for a bit on the last day how the whole conference felt more like a spiritual retreat than your typical film festival/art gathering. Maybe it had something to do with being up in the mountains or how super nice and selfless everyone was there. We were surrounded by creative intervals in the middle of, in my opinion, one of the more beautiful regions from God’s portfolio. Ben, Ken and I have all been invited back next year. I want to encourage any of you- if you are interested in using your art talents for more spiritual purposes, want to connect with other Christian creative types, or simply want to see what the current marketplace looks like and where its going- to sign up and attend next year. After only its second year it’s still a small conference that needs to grow and be encouraged because Lord knows we need more gatherings of this type. I don’t think I’ve ever been so inspired to create something meaningful than I was on the drive back home.

And for those of you wondering about the publishing status of Parable, some possible opportunities arose for that as well. Its too soon to say if anything will develop or not, but be assured this will be the FIRST place I announce a publisher if and when something becomes official. I will say that people did enjoy the preview copies I brought with me and you could tell there was general excitement for something like it to be out and available in the marketplace. For now though, it’s not too late to keep Parable in your prayers.

I head BACK to NC this weekend for Heroes Con in Charlotte, and then I look forward to finally taking a few days off.

May 31st – June 4th is the second annual Gideon Media Arts Conderence and Film Festival in Ridgecrest, NC. This year there is a big push towards graphic novels (yeah!) and I’ve been invited to be on staff with Ken Raney, Art Ayris, and fellow parabler Ben Avery. In addition to a panel discussion, a graphic arts gala and some one-on-one time with the students, I’ll also be offering a couple of workshops- one on webcomics and the other on comic anthologies. These are both subjects I feel I know plenty about at this point, even though there are a gazillion more experienced creators in both those areas that might have a lot more to offer. The difference in this case is that all of the workshops and events at Gideon will have a Christian emphasis to them and (hopefully) give everyone involved a stronger insight on how we can use our creative talents to better serve the Lord. Gideon will also be the first opportunity to see Parable in full book form, since I’ll be bringing a few sample copies with me to show around (although that probably won’t be as exciting as watching me try to talk in front of a room full of people).

Gideon is still excepting registrations so if you’re interested in attending, click HERE to find out the details. And for more info on the Graphic Arts section of the conference, including Ken, Art, and Ben’s involvement, click HERE.

I hope to see some of you there. I think it’s going to be a really fun time!

Newsarama took the time out to interview me about Cow & Buffalo’s new book (available now!) as well as the various other projects I have going on. During the interview, I give a little insight on the publishing status of Parable, Volume 1 and  talk briefly about volume 2. Click here to read it now.

Stephen McCranie: I like your story for Parable Volume 1, entitled “A Stylite Story” because of the strong historical elements. When did you first hear about Simon the Stylite, and what exactly inspired this story?

Ben Hatke: The seed of this story appeared one evening during a group discussion I was having with some friends. The original topic was economics, but we had strayed into other areas—notably spiritual practices. One fellow, an undergraduate, said that he thought the Stylites had achieved the highest form of the monastic life. Looking back, I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize the pun he was making, but to me it was very funny. You know… because they were the “highest” monks. I thought it was funny, anyway.

So I started reading a little more about the Stylites and Simon sort of struck me as this guy who just wanted to be left alone but, like all dynamic people, he found solitude a little difficult to manage. You know, you can’t really decide to live on top of a stone pillar without attracting attention.

S: So, you recently returned from a significant stay in Italy. Can you tell me about what you were doing there and what it was like living there?

B: Well, these days I’m trying to find a way to balance my work interests between comics and illustration on the one hand and painting and sculpture on the other. We stay in Northern Italy periodically to visit family, but it also gives me a great opportunity to study and grow artistically. This has involved a lot of reading, some study at the Charles Cecil atelier in Florence, and just a lot of painting and drawing and hands on learning. We stay in a pretty isolated (but beautiful) little spot in the mountains, but I’ve been lucky to have a lot of very talented artists come and visit—so I’ve had a lot of good people to work with.

This past summer there I worked on a statue, some portraits and several small still life paintings. As for what life was like, generally, I’ll just say that they have better cheese than anywhere else on earth.

S: I think I saw a picture of that statue in your blog, a Madonna made out of plasticine, right? Did that make it through the casting process okay?

B: Ha!  Not yet.  I had a very nice plaster and silicon mold made, but having them cast in metal was a longer process than I had time for, particularly because it involves making and correcting wax copies. So I stopped with the mold and brought it back here to the States. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the project this year.

S: I’m excited to see pictures of the final product on your blog! Now, I hear you’re working on a graphic novel for First Second.  Can you give us any hints on what the book’s about?

B: Yes!  This is a full length Zita the Spacegirl story. The first of two books actually. A short Zita story appears in Flight Explorer, which came out earlier this year but this new book is a lot more involved and has a bit more action. It will tell how this young girl from earth ended up on her own in the universe.

S: Cool—I read that story in Flight Explorer. Is this your first full length graphic novel?

B: It is.

S: I’m working on my first graphic novel as well, based off of a comic strip that I drew for my school newspaper. And I believe other Parablers like Sarah Mensinga and Jeremy Vanhoozer are working on their firsts as well. What aspects of the process have you found challenging so far?

B: The writing. Good writing is difficult in the best of circumstances, but I think what makes the creation of a really good GN so difficult is that, unlike a prose novel, when you make plot changes, or even small changes to a scene, it often involves redrawing a big pile of thumbnails (or worse, inked pages).  And then your hand starts to ache just thinking about making the change and you might just decide NOT to change it and then, suddenly, you’ve given in to mediocrity.

S: How did you become a Christian?

B: Well, you see I was baptized.

I don’t really have much of a “conversion story” if that’s what you mean. I was born into a Catholic family and ever since reaching the age of reason I’ve been weaving back and forth over the line between sinner and saint. Just like everybody else.

S: Finally, Mike Maihack told me you might have an interesting story that involves a bottle of wine, or something…

B: Early in the year, in April, it had been pouring rain for what seemed like weeks and everyone in the village was depressed. It was really unseasonably rainy to the point that there was a lot of flood coverage on the news. But one day the clouds suddenly lifted and the sun came out. My wife came running into the house saying “Ben, the wine is here! You’ve got to come see this!”

I went down to the fountain by the road and just about everyone in the village was there (which really isn’t a big crowd).  The yearly shipment of wine had arrived and everyone was filling up these huge casks -buying a year’s worth of table wine all at once.

The wine came on this huge truck, in a big tank, like a milk truck with a hose on the back.  So it was sunny for the first time in days, and people were filling their glasses from the truck hose.  It was great.

S: That sounds so awesome. What a great experience! Okay, now for our last question, have you taught yourself how to breathe fire?

B: …yes?

S: Awesome! And what made you decide to learn how? Was it hard to learn?

B: I’ve gravitated toward circus skills for a long time, actually.  Growing up I did a lot of gymnastics, and in the summers starting when I was about thirteen, I would unicycle everywhere (early on I fell down a lot).

In college I started juggling, and for a while my wife (who does a lot of the same things) and I would put on commedia and juggling shows at festivals. I had always wanted to do fire breathing because it seemed like a natural way to end juggling with torches. In the end I talked with a friend who had been part of a sort of traveling fire show and learned some of the different ways of going about it. I also read a few articles on the internet, then practiced with water.
It’s a fun thing to do when you’ve got a big group of kids around.

S: Did you ever burn yourself breathing fire?

B: Not really. I did singe the end of my hair once, but that was probably just a sign that I needed a haircut.

S: Ha ha, great answers. Thanks so much

B: Thank you. Back to work for me!

Ben Avery has started a new fantasy webcomic with artist Kneon Transitt. With only a few pages in, the  story has already featured dinosuars, a mysterious tribe and flying whales. That’s enough to get me hooked! Read it HERE.