Winona Lake artist Don Swartzentruber wrote and illustrated a series of short stories with theological and apologetics themes. Photo provided.

By Laurie Voss

WARSAW — Rare is the moment you can read a comic book while looking at an art exhibit. Such is the case if you pull out your phone and use a QR reader while viewing the original sequential art hanging in the Warsaw Community Public Library lobby the months of April and May. Winona Lake artist Don Swartzentruber wrote and illustrated a series of short stories with theological and apologetics themes. This faith-based sequential studio project started with an Indiana Arts Commission grant in 2009. These individual comic pages were created with an ink brush and gauche over a five year period.

These stories can be read in national literary magazines such as Driftwood Press, Forged, Raven Chronicles, Split Rock Review, FreezeRay, Meat for Tea, Show Bear and Helen Literary Magazine. In the spring of 2022, “Systematic Theology” will be in Fourteen Hills published by San Francisco State University.

Swartzentruber has spent much of his career exhibiting contemporary art. His painted compositions were always highly narrative, but some of his formative training was in illustration and animation. He developed storyboarding skills from art instructors like Jose Delbo (Wonder Woman), Tex Blaisdell (Little Orphan Annie), Hye Eisman (The Katzenjammer Kids), Joe Kubert (Tarzan) and Mike Chen (Robotech). His newer work pulls heavily from this comic art tradition.

From 2001 to 2021, Swartzentruber was an adjunct professor at Grace College and Theological Seminary teaching primarily Printmaking and Visual Narrative. Many of the Sermon pages were developed as classroom demos. Swartzentruber mentored students to illustrate their own spiritual journey using illustrated stories. Swartzentruber is now working on a graphic novel in the memoire genera. You can follow all his work at www.swartzentruber.com or on social media by following Carnival Sage.

Swartzentruber picked out some of his favorite pages for this special exhibit. So, stop by the library today and enjoy the show.