October Newsletter 

Progress


We are steadily doing more and more pages. We have had several minors setbacks like my wife's broken foot, a funeral and then several bouts of illness from various members of the family. Hopefully, things will calm down now and we can start catching up. 

Here's how far we are along so far. 


 

Christian Resources Exhibition: Tomorrow  


Tomorrow I'm off to CRE for the day as a punter, many of you may also be there too, so give me an email if you have a stall or you wanna say hi. Our book will be there on display at the CLC stand too so if you're there with a friend be sure to drag them over an get some. 

creonline.co.uk
 

Get the last copies of Judges 1st edition


We are beginning to run low on the first edition of the Judges books. I have about 80 here and there are some waiting for distribution, so if you'd like to get hold of these original, larger size, numbered first editions please get those orders in asap! 

Shop link : https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/buy/

We are preparing the second edition for print now. It will be the smaller size that Joshua and Ruth are, and we will be adjusting the font to allow for the smaller format. 


 

Christmas Orders, HO HO HO! 🎄🎅 🕯🎁


A great gift for family and friends that you are keen to get more into the Bible! We look forward to sending them out to you and if you live far from the UK you may need to get these orders in soon to ensure they'll get there on time. 
 

 

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All new packaging


Exciting, right! We have decided to move away from those plastic bubblewrap jiffy bags to a more robust and environmentally friendly option of cardboard. For single books we have the reinforced envelop and for more these great all-card wallets. 

 

Prayer Requests


If you are a praying person please help us pray that we can secure a recent opportunity to arrange USA shop distribution through a large US Christian distributor. I am really confident that this would mean a real boost for the company. 

Please also pray for our continued health and productivity between now and the end of the Mark project so we can be ready for the summer events next year. 
 

Patreon 


More and more of you are getting involved and supporting the Patreon! Thank you! I create videos explaining the pages in depth, including the research, artist choices, character design and more. So aside from supporting our work, you can learn more about the Bible and it's setting and see the pages of Mark as they are finished. 

Example video


Go to : 
https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic
 

Joshua Launched


The launch has gone really well, bolstered by being featured in Christianity magazine, and our presence at the recent Christian Resources Together event. 

What would be really helpful is to see some extra reviews on Amazon to helps improve the visibility of the book in searches and confidence of other people to buy!

Here are the links...

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The Book and Kindle Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Joshua-Bible-English-translation/dp/0995603529

The Book and Kindle Amazon USA-https://www.amazon.com/Book-Joshua-Bible-English-translation/dp/0995603529

ComiXology- http://bit.ly/2eHp90M

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35993102-the-book-of-joshua
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HAVE YOUR SAY: Parables in different time periods?

My Plan for when Jesus tells a parable in the comic was to place them in different settings for the interest of the reader, to help understanding, a fresh way to see it and as a break from the 1st century. But is it a good idea?...

As parables are just 'stories' to illustrate a point, not memories, I thought it would be fun to change the setting. (Seen below). Here are some pros and cons:

PROs:
◦ Old familiar parables in a new light.
◦ More variety and thus more interesting.
◦ Break away from the 1st century. 
◦ Help understanding- sometimes a modern setting helps modern reader understand the point. 
◦ A hint that Jesus' examples are not limited to his human experience. 
◦ A wider variety of places and ethnic people groups can be used.

CONs:
◦ Too Jarring and Incongruous. 
◦ Uneducated people might get confused.
◦ Not the right feel for the "historically accurate" project. 
◦ Some people may really hate it/think it's silly.

CONSIDERATIONS: 
◦ The parables are clearly differentiated from the story with this pink colour scheme. (see Below) 
◦ A foreword in the introduction to the book could be used so people expect it. 
◦ The new setting would always support all the points of the original stories. 
◦ Though the events are not in the same time period they will themselves be internally historically accurate.

EXAMPLES: 
◦ Good Samaritan: Modern day Palestine
◦ Faithful Servant: Victorian (upstairs downstairs) 
◦ Sower: Modern day farmer and interpretation
◦ Rob strong man's house: Swashbuckler/pirate(below) 
◦ Wicked Tenants: Medieval- noble son has father's heraldry. 
◦ Prodigal Son: Heiji Japan (below)

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September: Joshua, Gifts and Injury

Today, we are launching the Book of Joshua officially in print and digital formats. The book is now available to buy from our website, available on Amazon, in Christian book shops and the digital version will be available through Kindle and Comixology (Comixology on the 6th). 

Since the last update, we've had some big blessings and a big set back, see below.
 

Book Launch Today!

Promo Video- Please share!
Video Link for Sharing : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyZdJC6fN8w

Please share this video far and wide!

How to Support the Launch

I really need your help getting the word out about this launch.

Review on Amazon and Kindle: This one is so important! If you've already read our Book of Joshua that you bought face-to-face or got through Kickstarter then please go to the Amazon/Kindle listing and write a little review (ideally a good one). Having lots of customer reviews helps improve the visibility of the book in searches and confidence of other people to buy!

Here are the links...


Facebook/G+/Twitter etc: Please post about it, share the video, come and Like, Comment on and Share/RT our posts wherever you can find them on FB, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, Tumblr you name it. Especially on the launch day (today) and over this weekend.

Here are the links if you are not following them already, you can even like and comment on some older posts to help them get seen too. 

Received your Joshua preorder?: Please post about it :) 

Please Pray :Please pray that this third book will take off, that new people will want to report and blog about it and include them in their radio shows. Please pray we sell lots of copies to help provide funds for the project and make it a success and so that more people will start to read the Bible. 


Setback: Disaster! Wife injured,
family in Chaos!


On Monday this week, my wife broke her foot! Not skydiving or rally-racing but putting the laundry out. She will be off her feet for 4-8 WEEKS! This has meant I've needed to stop work during the day and look after the kids who are on their school holiday to do all her many chores, which is totally not tiring, honest  

Our church has rallied around though and we have a people bringing meals on a rota for the next two weeks and a few people who have taken the boys out so I can do some work. Thankfully, the eldest boy is back at school this Tuesday and the younger is going to start school on the next Monday so they will be at school most of the time which will help. 

If you are a praying person, please pray for a miraculous recovery. A few years ago, Sian broke her wrist falling off her bike and someone at church prayed for healing and at the review, with the Consultant, a week later told her it was not broken and as he couldn't explain it, he insisted there must have been a misdiagnosis or something. So, please pray. 

Blessings


Last weekend we attended our Regional Church gathering called Together at Westpoint, in Devon UK. A hundred or so of you signed up for this mailing list at the time so a big welcome to you! 

The stall did pretty well selling the books, and I ran a workshop about The Art of Creating Comics. I have a recording and I will be posting it in sections on our YouTube channel. 

I addition to that we were very blessed by God prompting people to give us financial gifts to support the project and/or us as a family, each one hundreds of pounds. We take this as a real encouragement and thank God for his provision. 

Patreon off to a great start. Come and join us!


Our Patreon page was launched two weeks ago, and there are 11 patrons, together donating over $40/month to help keep us going. 

If "Patreon" is new to you, put simply it's a way to donate $1/month (or more) to an artist to allow them to continue making art. In exchange, you get rewards! 

In this case, you can see the pages of the Gospel of Mark as they are completed which will be up to a year before they are in print!  And at a high tier, a "behind the scenes" video every two weeks about those pages, the historical research, bible insights and process. (Example at bottom of the pages) 

Check out the page! See the video! Find out about the other rewards and more here...

https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

Please consider being a patron and share the link with your friends! 

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Patreon is here!

Today we have launched the Patreon! 

If "Patreon" is new to you, put simply it's a way to donate $1/month (or more) to an artist to allow them to continue making art. In exchange, you get rewards! 

In this case, you can see the pages of the Gospel of Mark as they are completed which will be up to a year before they are in print!  And at a high tier, a "behind the scenes" video every two weeks about those pages, the historical research, bible insights and process. (Example at bottom of the pages) 

Check out the page! See the video! Find out about the other rewards and more here...

https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

Please consider being a patron and share the link with your friends! 

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July Newsletter

Happy July everyone!

Progress

We are starting the ball rolling on creating pages for the Book of Mark now. As ever, getting the ball rolling often feels slow to start, every new place researched, every new character needing character design and with such "minor" characters of the Bible as Peter the Apostle, the Devil and Jesus one needs to be careful to depict them right. 


It will be the summer "holidays" in a few days, which will mean the kid not being at school and under our foot. The plan is that I will still be working the same amount but this is alway a challenge. 


Joshua Launch and Pre-Order Now!

The date is fixed to the first of September! I have a few places lined up to promote it. One that I'm really excited about is Christianity Magazine August issue. It is going to be an interview rather just a review and it was going to be a page and now as they had some room they are expanding it to three pages! Such a blessing!

If you have any contacts with magazines, radio stations or podcasts that I should be asking, please let me know. 

You can pre-order Joshua NOW on our website! This means you pay now and we will send it to get to you on September the 1st.

(If you buy a Joshua bundle the whole set will be sent together at that time.)

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/buy
 

Preorder Joshua Now

This Month's Blessings

We are constantly relying on the Lord for the funding of this project, this month we were donated £1,000 by someone in our local church who wanted to support us and £300 by someone who found us online and wanted to donate. We are super grateful for the generous spirit of these wonderful people but also to God for putting this project on their heart.

Also, we attended a Christian Men's conference called "The Gathering" in a field near Swindon. We did really well and again got some more funds to keep this crazy project rolling. 

A friend through Christian Comic Art Society and backer Luis contacted me and offered to have a copy of each of our books and our leaflets on their stand and the CCAS stand at...only the bloomin' San Deigo Comic Con International starting this Thursday! 


Patreon

We are excited to be launching our very own Patreon next month! It will give you the opportunity to become even more involved with the work, still more up to date with the newly created pages and of course financially support the work. If you've already supported as a Kickstarter backer who has given a big pledge or donation in advance this is probably not for you, but for everyone else it's a small monthly subscription of $1 or so that gives you special benefits.

You will get to see the pages as they are completed each month, about 10 or so, and you can comment on them and be among the first people to see them. This means you can also suggest changes if necessary and point out of anything is confusing or could be misinterpreted. If we get several Patrons and they are keen we might even do a monthly "Google Hangout" thing. 

Running a Patreon takes a little effort with uploading pictures and answering comments and questions so I'll need several Patrons to make it worth while, so if you can spare a dollar or more a month we'd be super grateful.

The next newsletter will come out when it launches.

The New Facebook Group

The new "Word for Word Bible Comic: Research, discussion and community" group is proving very useful, with many people enjoying finding out all about the historical research but also discussing the Bible and helping me to research things where I have hit a brick wall. 

If you haven't already joined please do so... 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity/


Prayer Requests

Please continue to pray for the comic to get out there more and more, that it does well at the San Diego Comin Con, and many people read the article in Premier. Please pray this book launch goes well and we sell lots of copies. As ever please pray for the financial provision and good health of the team and family and for us to have a stress free summer "holiday". 

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Why is there an Angel in Joshua 1:1

Kickstarter Backers are starting to get their copies of Joshua in the post. Someone has asked "What was the image in the sky based upon, on the first page?"

"Now after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh..." 

You might be thinking "What's this heresy, adding to the scriptures?!"... but no... This is the Archangel Michael (who is one of the Cherubim) and he is there because of Jude 1:9 -

"But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" "

...So it's Michael standing guard over the body before this event.

Why it looks the way it does is detailed in our other blog... 

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/the-appearance-of-cherubim

https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/bloggergrid/
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"I'll make you fishers of men" ... again?

In this 20m video, I ask you to give your opinion on how to present this event from the life of Jesus on the gospel of Mark graphic novel. I tell you about my research on the encounter between Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John and the differing accounts from Mark, Matthew and Luke. You can see the layout pages and give your opinion.  

Please Note: my skills are in drawing not oration or reading aloud see please bear with me. ;)

Verses: 

MARK 1

16 Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.17 Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”

18 Immediately they left their nets, and followed him. 19 Going on a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. 

MATTHEW 4

18 Walking by the sea of Galilee, he[g]saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”

20 They immediately left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them. 22 They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.

LUKE 5

Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3 He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.” 6 When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” 9 For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE "PALM SUNDAY" COMPETITION

We have created an exciting new competition!

WIN!! Be in the crowd at Jesus' triumphal entry in the new graphic novel on the Gospel of Mark! In this competition, you can have the likeness of you and a friend drawn into this crowd scene in The Gospel of Mark: Word for Word Bible Comic. Just retweet or tag a friend in the comments of the facebook post and you will both be in the running to win this prize. Tag multiple friends for multiple entries. Winner announced April 9th - Palm Sunday.

This competition is to promote our Kickstarter campaign, which you can support at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-book

Terms and Conditions below.

Find the post here :

FB : https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/videos/1325063117531944/

Tweet : https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic/status/844228077358108672

Here's the video. Find it here and start retweeting and tagging those friends

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE "PALM SUNDAY" COMPETITION 

Conditions: The Crowd-funding on Kickstarter must hit it's goal, or else there may be not Gospel of Mark comic for you to be drawn into. 

If you pledged to recieve the Kickstarter reward "You in the Bible" and win this prize, this will not give you a refund but extra faces to elect to have as well. 

Entries: FACEBOOK : Each time you tag a friend that counts as one entry, that entry includes you and that friend. If you tag multiple friends you receive multiple entries, each one with the friend creating the comment and the 'tagged' friend. 

TWITTER : Each retweet of the competition post counts as an entry. The winner may choose the friend they want as the second winner as tags cannot be tracked easily. 

If the post is duplicated/shared and people are tagged on those duplicates they will not be included, so please ensure you are using the original post from  https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/ or https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic

There will be one pair of winners across the whole competition, even if multiple versions of competition posts are created by the page https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/ or Twitter account https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic.

The winner will be selected at random from all the entries for the competition. 

Prize: The prize is to have the likeness of the pair of winners drawn into the crowd that welcome Jesus as he rides a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. You will each appear in at least 2 panels. You may decide if you are praising or not, but your clothes and position in the crowd will be assigned to you. You will not have glasses or anything too modern like hairstyle or modern tattoos, if you do have such things, they will be covered up a bit or interpreted as a first-century equivalent.

In the picture on the video is a man and a woman, but this is only an example and two people of any gender, age etc may be the winners. 

There is no cash prize equivalent. 

There are two winners assigned for the one winning entry. Each of those winners decides if they are happy to appear in the comic, if not they can elect someone else as long as they are willing. 

The image will be a comic style representation of the winners, not photo real unmistakable portraits. Please bear this in mind. 

You will be both identified as the winner with your real name, at the back of the book along with the Kickstarter backers, unless you wish not to be. 

You will both be contacted on your FB or Twitter account and on the post. Please be sure to check your "Message Requests" on FB and Direct Messages on Twitter after the 9th of April. 

https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/videos/1325063117531944/

https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/videos/1325063117531944/

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