My Annual Good Friday Post

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Today is Good Friday. As a Christian this is one of the most important days of the year for me, the day we pause to commemorate the torture, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. You may wonder, why would a day like that be called “good?”

Because even though it was a terrible day for Jesus it was a very good day for you and me. How’s that, you ask? Over the course of my career I’ve had the privilege to work on several projects that help explain:

Are You A Good Person? Cartoon

First, here’s an 8-page cartoon Gospel tract I illustrated a few years ago for the ministry of Living Waters. Several million copies have been printed in English and it has been translated into over twenty languages. You can download it for free or purchase printed copies from Living Waters.

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Based on the tract’s success, Living Waters also hired me to produce an animated version, which I supervised with the help of two terrific animators (Michael Foster and Chance Dodd). If you like it you can download a free HD version to use however you’d like.

Finally, VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer recently completed a DVD series called “What’s In The Bible?”. I had the privilege of doing some animation and character design work on a few episodes.

Here’s a clip from the episode explaining the meaning of Easter:

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I don’t make any money or royalties off of these items. I just believe in them and want to share. Thanks for indulging me. Here’s wishing you a very happy Easter filled with smiles and jelly beans!

My Annual Good Friday Post

by

Today is Good Friday. As a Christian this is one of the most important days of the year for me, the day we pause to commemorate the torture, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. Some of you my wonder, why on earth would a day like that be called “good?”

Because even though it was a terrible day for Jesus it was a very good day for you and me. Over the course of my career I’ve been able to work on several projects that help explain that message, and every Good Friday I like to take a moment to share them:

Are You A Good Person? Cartoon

Here’s an 8-page cartoon Gospel tract I illustrated several years ago for the ministry of Living Waters. To date over five million copies have been printed in English and it has been translated into over twenty languages. You can download it for free in multiple languages at www.FreeCartoonTract.com, or you can purchase printed copies from the ministry of Living Waters.

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Based on the tract’s success, Living Waters also hired me to produce an animated version, which I supervised with the help of two terrific animators (Michael Foster and Chance Dodd). To date it has received over a half million views on YouTube and has been subtitled into 19 other languages. If you like the video you can download a free HD version to use however you’d like.

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Finally, VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer has recently completed a series of videos called “What’s In The Bible?”. I’ve had the privilege of working on a few of them. Here’s the trailer for Volume 10, which covers the life and ministry of Jesus including his death and resurrection. In this episode I designed a few of the characters and did a smidgen of animation.

Here’s a clip from the episode explaining the meaning of Easter:

[youtube_sc url=DQ7Dc_w_Tl8 width=430]

You can order DVDs or digital downloads from the series at www.whatsinthebible.com. Also, if you subscribe to JellyTelly.com you can stream all episodes of “What’s In The Bible?” to any computer or mobile device.

I don’t make any money or royalties off of these items. I just believe in them and want to share. Thanks for indulging me. Here’s wishing you a very happy Easter filled with peeps and jelly beans!

Christmas Animation for Living Waters

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One of my favorite clients is Living Waters, a Christian ministry run by speaker and author Ray Comfort. Recently they hired me to create a fun ecard explaining the religious meanings behind Christmas. The script and voiceover were provided by them, then I did the animation and editing. It’s a combination of some new animation combined with clips from an earlier short I did for Living Waters back in 2010 (which now has over a half a million views on YouTube!) Living Waters would love this ecard to go viral so feel free to share it with others if you are so inclined. And of course, merry Christmas!

New Cartoon Gospel Tract

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HeyKids-cover

Back in 2005 I illustrated a cartoon Gospel tract called “Are You A Good Person?”, based on a presentation by Christian author and speaker Ray Comfort for the ministry of Living Waters. To date they’ve distributed over five million copies of the tract and it has been translated into twenty languages. There’s even been an animated version produced (which I supervised) that has so far had almost 450,000 views on YouTube. By sheer numbers that little cartoon tract has been seen by more people than any other single project I’ve ever worked on.

Recently I illustrated another tract for their ministry, this time taking one of their oldest tracts and updating it with modern artwork. It’s called “Hey, Kids!”. There are eight pages total, and the last two pages are pictured below. You can read the entire thing and order copies from Living Waters here.

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(Click to enlarge)

Gospel tracts often get a bad rap, and rightfully so. Often they tend to be tacky, silly, cheesy, or insulting. Living Waters is one of the few ministries I’ve seen that actually tries hard to create Christian literature that is attractive, intriguing, and sometimes even humorous. Their goal is to create things people would actually *want* to read. Obviously it’s impossible to create literature of any kind, religious or not, that will appeal to everyone and offend no one. But as Christian tracts go they try to keep the bar pretty high, and I feel grateful to have been able to help them out.

Merry Christmas – Cartoon Edition

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Nativity

Merry Christmas everyone! I’d like to use the occasion of Christmas to post a link to an animation project I developed in 2010 for the ministry of Living Waters. They hired me to produce a short cartoon that explains the basic Christian message, and in a round-about way I hope it helps explain why the birth of Jesus Christ was such a big deal. To date it has received over 430,000 views on YouTube and has been subtitled into nineteen other languages. I only did some of the animation but I designed all of the characters, props, and backgrounds (the above image is based on a still from the cartoon). If you like the video you can download an HD version for free to use however you’d like.

If you haven’t already I’d be honored if you’d take five minutes out of your busy holiday to watch it. If not, thanks for indulging me. Either way, here’s wishing you a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

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Merry Christmas To All!

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I want to take a moment to extend warm Christmas wishes to all my blog readers. I didn’t have time to put together a fancy Christmas promotional card or email this year (the image above is from last year) so this blog post will have to suffice. Here’s hoping your Christmas is filled with happiness and peace!

Speaking of Christmas, one of the things many people celebrate during the holiday is the birth of Jesus. Have you ever wondered just why Jesus being born was such a big deal? I mean, we don’t celebrate the birthdays of Mohammed or Buddha. And what’s with that whole “born of a virgin” thing anyway?

Glad you asked.

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Last year I was hired by a Christian ministry called Living Waters to produce a short animation that explains the basic Christian message, including why Jesus came. To date it has received over 300,000 views on YouTube and has been subtitled into over twenty languages. If you like the video you can download an HD version for free to use however you’d like.

If you haven’t already I’d be honored if you’d take five minutes out of your busy holiday to watch it. If not, thanks for indulging me. Either way, here’s wishing you a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year!