A Post OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

A project of mine that is quickly gaining popularity is my weekly comic strip, Of Biblical Proportions. Conceived during one of my daily runs, it was formulated based on the various experiences and conversations from my 2008 PresenTense Institute Summer Fellowship.

The comic strip takes lines and stories from the Bible and adds a modern, humorous twist in the form of a comic strip. The idea was to launch it right after the holiday of Simchat Torah based on the weekly Torah portion, but more as a guideline to provide my strip with some structure than to create a real Jewish comic strip (hey, the Bible is the #1 book in the world - and is taught as literature in classes regardless if you are Jewish, Christian, Atheistic, Scientologistic, etc.)

Before I had a chance to draw one sketch of the strip, three friends/relatives sent me a link to the 2008 Jerusalem Post New Cartoonist Contest. I applied, and I won! Here was the winning submission:


I officially launched the strip as planned just for fun. After a mere 3 strips, the Orthodox Union (who had already approached me about some freelance opportunities for their website), offered to purchase exclusive online rights to the strip for the next year. I agreed, and every week my little strip that could is now included in their weekly e-Newsletter, which goes out to about 40,000 people.

My next step is to get the strip into newspapers. I'm planning my next move, and although I have already been approached by editors to include the strip in their papers, I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to get the strip out there so as broad an audience as possible. Suggestions and tips are welcome from all!

The whole point of the strip is what I love to do - take something that is old and wonderful, and make it new, accessible, & fun for today's generation. I immensely enjoy creating each strip, and look forward to seeing where this new path takes me.

Stay 'tooned for the strip each week - new comics are posted at www.ou.org on Wednesdays and archived on Fridays at www.obpcomics.com (where the complete archives can be found).