'They Also Have a Message': Graphic Novelist Tells Apostle Paul's Story

by Marcia Z. Nelson, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 8/13/2008

Author-illustrator Robert James Luedke started honing his graphic gifts in second grade, when he was asked to draw his teachers. It was the school's way of keeping him out of trouble, he says. In July, the Texas-based artist did a two-fer, attending both the International Christian Retail Show and Comic Con International trade shows to promote Eye Witness: Rise of the Apostle (Head Press, Aug. 13), the graphic story of how Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of the followers of Jesus, becomes the apostle Paul, the theological architect of the Christian church, part of an Eye Witness series on Jesus and the early years of the church.  

RBL: What kind of reaction have you gotten at Comic Con over the past few years?

Luedke: The first year, in 2004, I guess the best way I can describe the reaction is guarded. It was so unusual for there to be a Christian presence at Comic Con. This year it really seemed to bloom. People said to me, 'Have you been here before?' As we're wearing them down and we're there, they say, 'Hey, they're people just like us, they enjoy Star Wars and games and they also have a message to tell.' 

RBl: How do you see graphic novels developing in religious publishing?

Luedke: I think the consensus among people working in this area is that it's going to take a graphic novel or sequential comic that appeals to a wide audience and gets a lot of media attention. Christian booksellers aren't interested in taking big leaps and trying the untested. The interest follows the money—that's just how it goes. 

RBL: Did you go to art school?

Luedke: I've always had a gift that reared its head as early as second grade, when I was passed around from classroom to classroom to do portraits of teachers. I took art classes as much as I could and had a real good art teacher in high school who helped inspire me and keep me going, but in college I didn't go that way. I went through the University of Wisconsin and got a degree in broadcasting. 

RBL: What about your faith journey?

Luedke: By early 1999 I got out of publishing and moved on; I left comic books behind. Then I had a lot of personal things happen (and) all of a sudden felt very empty, like I hadn't achieved much. After being saved and in the next couple years, I constantly prayed for God to lead me and take me where he wanted me. The idea started to grow like the proverbial mustard seed. I made a commitment and started the first book (in the Eye Witness series).