St. LOUIS — The Holy Ghost is visible, chatty and even a quipster in a new comics collection by John Hendrix.
Sometimes the Ghost wears headgear (Santa hat, football helmet, party cone). And he hangs out with a squirrel and a badger, who ask questions, or offer answers, about God, life and death.
“It’s definitely the most personal work I’ve made,” Hendrix says. “Anytime you’re writing about issues of faith, it invites questions about your own doubts, your own certainty about things.”
People of faith always have doubts, he says, but putting “The Holy Ghost” out in the world feels a bit like he published his own journal.
“This was really a thing I did for my own amusement, almost like a journal. I published them on a Tumblr, on an online blog occasionally.”
But after years of sketching the Ghost during church sermons or when he was seeking distraction from a work deadline, Hendrix felt he might have a cohesive set of comics for a collection. He’ll launch his Abrams book next week at an event at High Low.
In the foreword, “Mutts” illustrator Patrick McDonnell writes that the book is “my type of comic strip: quiet, playful, comforting and thoughtful,” and says: “John doesn’t necessarily provide us with answers but instead poses some good questions. Big questions conveyed with humor and kindness.”
The small, kindly Ghost is a heavenly blue, drawn almost like a simple comma with short, stubby arms and big, dark eyes. In the book, Hendrix writes:
“Though I am taking some semi-irreverent liberties with the trinity, I would like to state in clear terms that I am not positing that the Holy Ghost is a literal blue ghost. My goals were never to make any kind of dogmatic statements about Christian theology.”
Instead, the comic often features the doubtful squirrel asking questions and the Ghost asking one in return or replying with a simple statement. On one page, the squirrel holds a sign saying “There is no God!” The more dogmatic badger holds another: “God is real!” As they yell at each other to “prove it,” the Ghost says: “I’ve made lunch. Would either of you like a red-herring sandwich?”
In some ways, Hendrix says, both the squirrel and badger reflect him. “People’s idea of what religious faith is is often different than what it really is,” he says.
Hendrix, 45, lives in Webster Groves with his family and teaches at Washington University, where he created an MFA program in illustration and visual culture. His younger child, 13-year-old daughter Annie, helped paint some of the Ghosts in the book with the fluid acrylic technique Hendrix favors. The medium acts somewhat like watercolor, he says, but because it’s plastic and dries hard, more color can be layered.
His picture books and graphic literature are usually geared toward younger readers, but the new book is for all ages. Included among his books are biographical titles such as “The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler,” “John Brown: His Fight for Freedom” and “Miracle Man: The Story of Jesus.” He also illustrates books for other writers, such as the Ronan Boyle series written by Thomas Lennon.
Hendrix’s books receive stellar reviews and often are included on best books lists or are discussed as Caldecott Medal possibilities.
But when asked whether the religious themes of some of them may keep them from top awards, Hendrix says he believes they might.
“I think I understand the tension in our current political climate — why that would be uncomfortable to people.”
But, he says: “I’ve made peace with that. I would love to win a big-ticket award like that, but at the end of the day, I can’t control what I’m most interested in. So I just have to make things I’m passionate about.”
His next book, “The Myth Makers,” will be graphic literature about the friendship between writers C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and how their relationship affected their creation of the fantastical worlds of Narnia and Middle Earth.
It is scheduled to come out next year from Abrams. Geared toward young adults who are studying things like “Beowulf” and other myths, it will give a thumbnail history of myth creation, Hendrix says.
“It’s a cool project. A little too ambitious, actually.”
As the Ghost and some of Hendrix’s other subjects might counter, “What’s new?”
