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Image from Fansided’s “Dork Side of the Force” section.

Dear heavens. It’s nearly Thanksgiving Break, and I’ve decided to torture my students by making them write research papers. Is it sheer agony for them? Not quite– they’re writing on a topic related to social media, which at least offers them some choice– but very few people outside of a university office tend to love combing through databases to serve up some MLA-formatted argumentation.

I figure, if I’m making the students do it, I should do it– and give them a good example to work from in the process. But then I modified that second thought and decided to do a research paper on if Star Trek is better than Star Wars instead. It’s written with all of the enthusiasm and logic that a 15-year old version of me would muster, and it’s by no means conclusive. At the very least, it’ll give my students a chance to unpack how you make points, then quote and cite info to support them– all while laughing at my nerdy tics.

If you’d like to burn five minutes on it, it’s a thing of hideous beauty. Check it out here!

Well, a good amount, I think.

The last time I updated this site with any regularity, I was the communications director for my church, freshly married– and I posted a good bit about my design projects and what I was learning in life. When I decided to really put my comics work out there, I moved my flag over to Tumblr (hey– it was 2012) and let this thing lay fallow.

Then last year, I put some contextless comics pages up here with a promise of more to come. They’re the initial pages of my current graphic novel project, Waking Life, and I was exploring serializing it as a webcomic on my own time. Fortunately, Comicker Press picked it up, and now they do the hard work of updating it and putting it out in the world four times a week.

I changed jobs a bit (doing communications for a local Christian foundation for two years), then a bit more, coming back around to my education background and taking a position with my local high school. All the while, I’d been teaching on a volunteer basis with youth and adults at my church. Now I’ve got 125 teenagers that have to put up with me on the reg. I make them write a fair amount. I also have them read a lot of graphic novels. 🙂

I now have TWO kids. I have a contract and a publisher. I’m wanting to make a mark in students’ lives, and in the lives of those who choose to read my work. I want to document that again. Analyze what’s good. Unpack the things I find that work, and the things that I’m running up against.

Blogging is so 2008. (I’m pretty sure I should just be doing a newsletter now, amirite?) But I drive a minivan now and maintain a Roth IRA. I’m considering a return to cargo shorts. Out of fashion is my brand.

So let’s get antiquated. Let’s get reacquainted. There are comics to make, students to mold, and things to learn.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Hi all,

This site… is back. And I’ve got some things to share. Here’s a taste:

More to come soon…

Hey all!

It’s been a long string of weeks since I’ve posted any content up on Benjamite. Some of that’s due to a busy professional season; some of it’s due to increased commitments within my church and community. Neither of those are bad things, but they’ve refined my notion of what I want to post online and how.

This blog initially started as a home for thoughts and essays about my personal life, and was specifically targeted at college friends. (We actually started a nice little network of blogs so that we could make long updates and keep in touch.) Last year, I transitioned it into a home for my comics and design work, but the more I think about it, this blog takes some time and care to maintain– and there’s not much of a comics or design community on WordPress. At least, not right now.

So I’ve started a new blog– one that’s smack in the middle of a vibrant online space where lots of folks share the interests I’m trying to cultivate. And I’m inviting you to join me.

It’s called Hipogram, over at Tumblr, and it’s a comics-focused site where you’ll be able to find all of my current pen-and-ink type work (along with some short ideas on other comics I’m mulling over). It’s quick to update, easy to stay on top of, and it’s an area where, frankly, I can communicate the Gospel through my words and actions to a community that’s unfamiliar with it.

In the meantime, this blog will stay up as an archive. Nothing’s going to be hidden or shut down.

I’m excited for this new venue. Come check it out!

My Brand New Blog

-Ben

I visited a local event called ComicPalooza this weekend, which was great fun. It was a decently-sized comics convention: plenty to do and see, a healthy amount of distributors, a good mix of artists and smaller publishers, and lots of opportunities to meet and connect with other folks who are passionate about making comics.

It also offered some great opportunities to get feedback on my work, which I haven’t had so far. I mean, friends and family have always given me encouraging input, but it’s nice to have some strangers who do the same thing tell you exactly how your boo-boo might stink.

Basically, I’m leaving the weekend feeling energized and grateful, and like I’m part of a larger community of comics-makers, instead of just a guy doodling pages on an island.