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The advice for this one is real simple. Avoid it.
Okay, you won’t listen? You say you want to include religion for a bit of “real world” flavor?
Fine. If you refuse to accept my initial sage advice, here you go. You can always use these fine points for writing comics with religion.
1. Keep It Vague: See, you can have a character believe in God. But do not really show them going to Church. And don’t make it clear what denomination they might be. If you do, that might require research and then, you might even have to contemplate how to portray the character’s lifestyle. It’s much simpler to give them jewelry that “indicates” they are religious. A cross, for instance(If your character is a Christian). That will tell your audience this person has religious beliefs. No need to show more, that covers religion. Do not, however, burden your audience with specific types of iconigraphic jewelry that might explain what denomination of faith they adhere to. This also applies to a character being Jewish. It’s a little different for Muslims. Still avoid suggestions that they go to Mosque. But you can show them doing things like reading the Koran and praying. It shows you are culturally aware.
2. Villains: Villains are the big exception to # 1. See, your villain can be excessively religious and talk about God all the time. Religion is a great shorthand to tell your readers,”This person is an evil and hate filled bigot!” This is particularly effective if you are writing an X-Book for Marvel.
3. Uptight!: This is important. Portray your religious characters as conservative. And really uptight. Afterall, we all know that, for example, all christians are uptight prudes, terrified of sex and change. A note to artists, a couple options for portraying the religious: Really hot. This primarily pertains to young female characters (especially who might “cast off” their prudishness for the hero). Another choice is to portray them as withered and ugly. We all know religious people hate fun, it should show how repression has made them ugly. And finally, all your religious men, especially preachers/priests, should be lecherous. The should be secretly (or blatantly) after getting into someones-anyones-pants. This all leads to # 4.
4. Satire: Satire is your catch all so that if someone is offended, you can just say, “What-you don’t get satire?” This way, you make them look stupid.
5. Flip Flop: Go for Polemic Gestault. What is that? Basically, it’s the inversion of things traditionally considered good or evil. Say for instance, you want to do a comic book about people who face off against supernatural forces. Now, all our lives we are told God and angels are good. So shake things up. Make God a selfish bastard without any concern for his creation. Make the Angels jerks and cowardly losers. Or make the angels downright evil. Make Satan or other demons sympathetic and just outright “misunderstood”. Not only will you trip your audience out with something they have never seen before in the history of comics…you can make an entire critically acclaimed career off of it!
There you are, the best and most sensical approach to religion in comic books.
