I picked up The Truth is Out There as part of a deal from Catholic Answers. It's part of a trilogy, so I bought all three at once. I knew a little bit about it.
Here's the description of the book from the Catholic Answers site:
“Brenden and Erc are just your average interplanetary mailmen trying to find their way in the galaxy. But one day, while piloting cargo through the far reaches of space, they suddenly find themselves on a journey they didn’t expect: a journey to the truth.”
It's apologetics in comics form. It strives to reasonably defend the Truths of The Catholic Faith. At the same time, it strives to maintain a story that is entertaining. And, herein lies the challenge. I once had the idea of making a book like this. I incorporated pieces of that vision in KRUNK #3 and KRUNK #6. I did so in moderation in order to be subversive in a good way.
The main challenge of making a book like this lies in the fact that it might read like a textbook. Story and apologetics elements must be balanced. Furthermore, the apologetics elements must be integrated into the story in such a way as to make them read as cohesive elements of the story. If not, the apologetics elements are just tacked on to an, otherwise, cohesive story. The end result is a preachy comic that repels anyone who isn't already on board. That's one of the many (and there are MANY) failures of Jack Chick comics. The Truth is Out There does not have this problem.
The Truth is Out There walks the line between visuals and text heavy apologetics like a man walking a tightrope. And, indeed there are points when you think it's going to fall over to the text side. But, just like the performance of a real tightrope walker, the cartoonist forces the balance at the last minute. This makes for a compelling experience beyond what you read, because you're always wondering if it's going to go overboard at some point.
The artwork has obvious manga influence. The backgrounds often have lines instead of background. The figures go from somewhat representational to having giant mouths or big heads and tiny bodies at the drop of a hat. The general construction of most of the character’s faces is obviously manga influenced. This isn't an American copy of manga, though. The manga influences melt perfectly into the artist's intrinsic style.
Beyond Manga, Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, is definitely an influence on this graphic novel. The illustrations of smiling guys with glasses explaining complex concepts make me think this. I might be wrong. Maybe it's just the form of the comic following the function of the subject matter. Maybe the most straightforward way to do something like this is by using smiling guys with glasses explaining complex concepts.
Judging by appearances, and by the process work in the back of the book, the line art is hand drawn. Backgrounds have many illustrations of concepts that help to break up the monotony of watching a head talk. Black and white and color computer gradients make up the rest of the artwork. The dialogue balloons are computer lettered. I find none of these too distracting. I do find the computer text that makes up the titles for the chapters distracting. The fonts and gradients used harken to the bygone era of Windows ‘95. But this one design issue has little impact.
The artist definitely plays to his strengths. Regular eyes don't exist in this comic. Full figure images are brief. All in all, the art ranges from beautiful to awkward. But don't think that any of this is negative criticism. The slightly awkward artwork functions well.
A word about awkward artwork.
Those that criticize awkward artwork in modern comics fail to remember that every classic comic featured awkward artwork. Bob Kane, Joe Shuster, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby couldn't get work today, if they were alive. Their artwork is “too crude, too awkward.” But the characters that these men helped create established the comic industry as we know it.
The critics of awkward artwork also don't realize that the great thing about awkward artwork is that it actually reflects reality. Just imagine how you look sitting in a chair. It's not how a modern rendering of Captain America looks sitting in a chair. But it does look like how Steve Ditko renders Peter Parker sitting in a chair.
Awkward artwork also humanizes the art. It looks like a human made it. The overly tight illustrations in modern comics do not look like humans made them. Because of this, they lack charm.
So, because of the sometimes awkward artwork, The Truth is Out There definitely reflects reality and looks like a real person made it. That adds to its charm.
I definitely recommend The Truth is Out There for anyone interested in the meaning of life or for anyone interested in apologetics. It's a great book to give to a teenager or adult who needs the next step in their catechesis. It provides solid tools for answering the questions that come up when dealing with poorly catechized Catholics and non-believers. What I like best, though, is that, in making this comic, the cartoonist saved me from making a similar comic. I'm not sure if my results would have been that great.
George Tautkus
The Truth is Out There is available here.
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