Two Struggles Of Creating A Christian Comic Universe

When people hear the phrase “Christian comic book,” they often imagine a very specific type of story. As I’ve been building my own comic universe, I’ve realized that creating a Christian-based comic book world comes with a few unique challenges that aren’t always initially obvious. Here are two struggles I’ve run into.

Struggle 1: Christians Are Not Just One Audience

It’s easy to talk about “Christians” as if we're one unified group. In reality, Christianity encompasses diverse cultures, backgrounds, lived experiences and unfortunately, some questionable or even unbiblical things. Let's talk about three examples.

In example one, you have the "black church" and "white church". The things that resonate with the black church, such as struggles throughout black history or some things about black heritage, are most likely not going to resonate with the white church. My comic series Zero Hour Epsilon Force, contains many impactful and relatable real life themes such as mental health, family issues, and cancer. Black history, among other historical subjects, is also one of those many themes. This is mostly in Issue 1 since the comic was mostly advertised as "black comics" when I was starting out.

Example two is Biblical Gospel vs. prosperity gospel. In Zero Hour Epsilon Force, the characters live in a raw Bible-based universe, where subjects like sin and repentance are mentioned a few times. This is due to the characters dealing with major drama and high scale threats much like the villains in the Saturday Morning superheroes many of us loved watching as kids. Topics like sin and repentance probably aren't going to be talked about much, if at all, in a prosperity gospel.

And finally, example three is that even genuine followers of Christ can have disagreements. This even happened with Paul and Barnabas in the Bible (Acts 15:36-41).

Today many genuine followers of Christ may disagree on many Church related things such as how to interpret certain parts of scripture or just simply on how Christian content should be. Christians who may believe genres like action or sci-fi don't belong in a Christian comic may see Zero Hour Epsilon Force as "Not Christian enough" or "too secular".

These examples are just a few, so as a creator, this all means that I can’t realistically make a comic that perfectly represents every Christian or agrees with every sub-sect that identifies as Christian. So instead of trying to appeal to every person who says they're Christian, I’ve learned to focus on telling an honest story that reflects my own perspective, values, and creative instincts and trust that the right readers will resonate with it. That alone removes a lot of pressure.

Struggle 2: Christian Comics Like Zero Hour Epsilon Force Don’t Fit Clean Genre Boxes

Another challenge is genre labeling in general. My comic universe contains, superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, action, relatable real-world themes and of course, faith-based elements.

If I simply label my series as a “Christian comic,” or "Christian superheroes", many people might assume it lacks real action, resembling a sermon or something for young children. Because that's what a lot of Christian content is.

If I call it a “superhero, fantasy and sci-fi comic,” others, usually non-Christians that may want to try it in this context, might not expect to see Jesus appearing sometimes or certain characters talking about the Bible. So where does Zero Hour Epsilon Force fit?

The truth is: Zero Hour Epsilon Force exists at a midpoint. It’s a superhero, fantasy and sci-fi comic series with a raw Biblical foundation. Not a sermon disguised as a comic, and not a generic little kid's book with a Bible verse attached. The characters in the comic, despite being cartoons, fight real battles with high stakes while still being Christian-based and not every comic issue even has a heavy Christian theme.

Learning to embrace that hybrid identity has been important. Instead of forcing my project into one narrow label, I’ve started describing what it actually is: A story-driven, empowering comic universe that mixes superhero, fantasy, science fiction, action, and meaningful themes rooted in faith. That description may not fit neatly into a single marketing box, but it’s honest. And this, in a way, sort of also mirrors life a bit. Everything in life is not always "black or white" or "one or the other" but rather instead are more like complex layers.

Final Thoughts

Creating a Christian-based comic universe like Zero Hour Epsilon Force involves more than just incorporating faith into the story. It’s about navigating diverse audiences, blended genres, and expectations from multiple directions at once. But I’ve found that staying honest about what I’m creating matters more than perfectly fitting it into any single category. It's not going to appeal to everyone or even every Christian and that's ok. But it will appeal to the readers who resonate with its messages and that's the audience that's important

Buy Zero Hour Epsilon Force Today

Zero Hour Epsilon Force is an indie superhero, action, fantasy, and science fiction comic series that takes place in a raw Christian universe and uses a nostalgic Saturday morning cartoon art style. It's empowering and motivational but also doesn't shy away from the harsh realities that test faith. You can buy the series at Spidercade Studios.