Graphic Novelist Answering God's Calling
by Staff
July 25, 2008
DALLAS, (christiansunite.com) -- August 13th, won't just be another Wednesday to Author/illustrator, Robert James Luedke...it will be the culmination of 24 months of his blood, sweat and tears. Luedke is the creative force behind the groundbreaking Eye Witness graphic novel series, (www.headpress.info), and is the national release date for the third volume in the series, Rise of the Apostle.Luedke is what is known as in the publishing world as "self-publisher". As recently as a decade ago, that term held negative connotations within the publishing industry. But today the publishing landscape has changed dramatically and self-publishing has become a viable and respected way for authors to bring their projects to the marketplace. According to Luedke, "More and more recognized authors are finding it harder to get publisher backing for their projects, have found that advances have either shrank dramatically or disappeared all together and that print- on-demand technology has made it easier than ever to control their projects from creation through to release."
With the creation of a graphic novel, there is a whole other layer of difficulty that prose self-publishers don't have to deal with. Not only does, Luedke, write Eye Witness but also personally hand-draws all the illustrations, (usually numbering around 600 per book), does the lion share of the coloring and supervises all the production and marketing for each book. The process takes from 18 to 24 months per 100-page volume.
The award-winning graphic novelist created his Eye Witness series, not because he saw a business opportunity, but rather because of a divine calling! After becoming a born again Christian in 1999, Luedke went in search of his purpose and after two years of prayer, discovered he was being called to re-enter the pop-culture dominated field of comics and graphic novels, (which he had walked away from years earlier), to share the Gospel story through his creative gifts and business experiences within the field. Eye Witness became his vehicle to adapt the story of the birth of the faith, through a method that was entertaining as well as spiritually enlightening and attractive to a growing number of un-churched teens.
"From the beginning I realized that I would have to go the self publishing route," states Luedke. "When you are doing something no-one else has tried before... and especially if everyone tells you that you're crazy... you have to have faith that God will open doors to make it happen!"
