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. 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:

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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!

New Cartoon Gospel Tract

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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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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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Free Download of “Are You A Good Person?” Cartoon!

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Are You A Good Person?, an animated short film I produced for Living Waters featuring the voice of Kirk Cameron, went live on YouTube less than four months ago and has already racked up over 130,00 views. People are asking if they can purchase DVDs of the film for use in churches, Sunday schools, etc. Foreign language versions with subtitles are springing up online. Atheists are making their own videos criticizing the cartoon. I even know of one man who converted a U-Haul style trailer into a traveling movie theater so that he can screen Are You A Good Person? at various fairs, festivals, and other public events free of charge.

For those who want to own a copy of the film I’ve got great news. Living Waters is now offering it as a free download, no strings attached. You don’t have to sign up for anything or even create a login. The download is even in HD! It’s in Quicktime .mp4 format so it should import easily into iTunes.

Living Waters still owns the copyright to the film but they seem to have waived their right to charge money for people to view or share it. As a ministry Living Waters simply wants to get the message of the film out to as many people as possible.

If you are so inclined, please help spread the word. Of course you can also still link to or embed the YouTube version as well:

100,000

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Two months ago an animated piece I did for Living Waters went live on YouTube. As I write this it has had 99,990 views, just ten short of the 100k mark. YouTube does not update their view counts in real time so its very possible that by now the actual number has already passed that landmark. I’ll know for sure when YouTube posts the updated view count in a couple of hours. [EDIT: Yup, we are now over 100,000 views.]

The animation is about five minutes followed by a one-minute promo that was tacked on by the client. An alternate version of the animation was also posted on YouTube, identical except with a shorter promo. That version has received considerably less views (18,312 at last count) but if you put the two together we passed the 100,000 mark a few days back.

I am totally blown away by these numbers and by the overall positive feedback I’ve received. This project was personal for me and I poured a lot of myself into it. I also hired two excellent animators to help me out (Michael Foster from SaltyGraphics and Chance Dodd from Little Wolf Pictures) and they also worked extremely hard. It’s very rewarding to see that it has gone this far and I’m grateful to everyone who has taken the time out of their busy lives to watch my little cartoon.

If you like the message and want to share it with friends, or if you or your church want to embed it in a website, please feel free to do so.

New Animation: “Are You A Good Person?”

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I’m proud to announce the completion of a new animated short film that I produced and co-animated for the ministry of Living Waters. They are perhaps best known as the producers of The Way of the Master, a Christian reality series hosted by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron:

The cartoon is loosely based on a Gospel tract I illustrated for Living Waters back in 2006, and both are adapted from Ray Comfort’s best-selling book Hell’s Best Kept Secret. I was also inspired by many of the UPA and Disney educational cartoons from the 1950’s. The goal was to communicate a very serious and important message in a fun and entertaining way yet without watering down the content. It was a tough line to walk but I think we pulled it off.

I wrote, designed, produced, and edited the cartoon. The character of Mr. Nice Guy was animated by two very talented and hard-working animators: Michael Foster from Salty Graphics and Chance Dodd via Little Wolf Pictures. They also animated a couple of misc. shots. The rest of the artwork and animation was done by me. Mr. Nice Guy was voiced by Kirk Cameron and the Narrator was voiced by radio pastor David Jeremiah.

This was a giant project that took many months to complete. We ran into a few hurdles and setbacks along the way but the team at Living Waters couldn’t have been more gracious and helpful. They were absolutely a dream client to work with!

Of all the hundreds of projects I’ve worked on to date, this one was the most personal for me and also one of which I am most proud. But then, I’m so closely attached to it that its very hard for me to look at it objectively anymore. Besides, it doesn’t really matter what i think, it’s what the viewer thinks that’s important. So I value your input. I’d be very grateful if you could watch the cartoon (it takes 5 minutes plus a one minute promo at the end). Then, if you are so inclined please leave a comment and let me know what you think.