Humor communicates! God invented it. Jesus used it. Most of us
enjoy having our spirits lifted by a cartoon. Ron Wheeler, of Cartoonworks comments that disarming cartoon humor means "people are more receptive to hearing the Gospel message."
comments that disarming cartoon humor means "people are more receptive to hearing the Gospel message."
A telling cartoon accompanying a recent article on outreach showed two despairing Christian workers clutching large Bibles
trudging along a street, one saying "I give up, I just can't find a way to reach these people!" Every shop and news-stand
is selling comics! The source for the article and cartoon was ROX35 Media,
a vital ministry which runs training courses on how to use comics and other media in evangelism.
This page addresses the potential for single stand-alone humor cartoons, as well as narrative stories
told in comic corm.
Comics are an under-used but strategic tool for outreach.
Cartoons to add to your site
There are several secular cartoonists who offer a daily cartoon to link to. They may not communicate
any particular message or worldview. But they are usually acceptable humor
to add interest to some types of evangelistic pages. Several of these artists allow you to link directly to the graphic
so the cartoon is incorporated into your own page and automatically updated daily. [Examples below.]
Also available are cartoons with an obvious Christian connection, either to use as static graphics
on a web-site, or to link to as a daily changing cartoon. Some are only intended for a Christian
readership, others have a lower-key or evangelistic intention. Many of them would suit a church page.
[Examples below.]
Cartoon strategy proposal
There seem to be few cartoons available which fit between these two categories.
I would like to suggest an online cartoon outreach designed for low-key evangelism with these characteristics:
Available for low-key evangelistic starter pages to incorporate directly into the page.
Cartoons to raise deep questions about coping with life, its meaning and purpose, in the
way that Peanuts often does. They might include a degree of
touching pathos which is not always a component of secular or Christian cartoons. The late Charles Schulz, a Christian, was a master of this genre. We honor his unique gift.
Could be a single picture or short strip telling a story.
Be of such quality that non-Christians would want to use them.
If this were to happen, it would either be necessary to write within the cartoon the URL of the related evangelistic page,
or require users to include a text link to that page in the way that these secular examples require. Ideally, both should be done.
The linked page could carry a range of other cartoons, but also be an entry point to evangelistic
material designed to mesh with the types of questions raised by the cartoons.
Ideally cartoons should change daily, certainly weekly.
There are many other cartoon options which could also be used for online evangelism. In particular, the use of online sequential comic stories (rather than single humorous cartoons) is a major opportunity which is barely being used:
Children's comic stories with a low-key message aimed at non-Christians. He Lived Among Us is a comic-strip telling of the life of Jesus in a large range of languages. You can also download the graphics and install them on your own site.
Animated cartoons: Flash/Shockwave presentations and tutorials, sound can be used too.
Samples: [1]
[2]
Fiction stories told in cartoon form for adult readers – this genre is very popular in Japan as Manga
and are also popular in the Middle East and other areas.
Cartoons.com is a comprehensive secular cartoon portal which
demonstrates many ways of communicating using cartoons.
Comics with an Attitude – material is also online, and the book is free to Third World users
Understanding Comics
[EU/UK]
Scott McCloud, 1994, Kitchen Sink Press ISBN 006097625X. "I recommend it wholeheartedly – it's a revelation in terms of graphical communication," says evangelist Nigel Chapman.
"Today's Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen", posted with special permission. For many more cartoons and fun extras, please visit Randy's Home Page.
Other providers offer cartoons, but you usually have to make a link
to the page on their server, which also displays a secular banner you have no control over.
This is not such a satisfactory solution, and the banner may be for e.g. online gambling.
Many of these are particularly appropriate for church sites where non-Christians will expect some Christian content – and be encouraged to
find Christians laughing at themselves!
Reverend Fun offer a daily cartoon which you can
link to at their site using this link or can use
a little preview graphic on your own site as shown to right. Their cartoons are primarily for Christian readers.
FREE AND SIMPLE: Syndicate this page's content into your site
• Insert this page's text directly into your own website.
then copy/paste (CTRL+C/CTRL+V) this Javascript code into your own page:
help | example.
(Please DO NOT copy the actual text of this page onto your own site:
reasons.)
Other options for re-use.
• Or please link to this page • Add a Bulletin subscribe form to your site.
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