Dr. Doctrine's Christian Comix #1
Fred Sanders
Reviewed by Darren Hick

Dr. Doctrine's Christian Comix takes a mentor/guide approach to its narration, falling in the same tradition as Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe and Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. That's about where the comparison ends.

Although not particularly militant in its rhetoric, it's clearly aimed at an already-Christian audience. (Okay, the reader must get past the odd Christocentric passage like "Among other bizarre things they [the Gnostics] taught, they believed in a whole host of gods, sub-gods, and demi-gods who coupled with each other to populate the heavens," but thankfully they're few in number.) Certain assumptions of the audience are presumed by the author, and it thus manages to avoid the hard-sell of most Christian tracts published in comics form -- but beyond that his audience is presumed to consist of the already converted, I'm stumped... Despite assuming that his audience understands such concepts as liturgy and monasticism, he goes to great lengths to simplify such Christianized concepts as theology and glory (even going so far as to offer Glossary entries for "revelation" and "imagination"). Further, though Sanders' first issue takes the position of trying to explain theological metaphors, it is so interspersed with unexplained metaphors that the uneducated would be lost in the teaching of the lesson.

With so much space being given to basic concepts of Christian imagery, I was at least expecting some original thought. True to form, though, while some theological aspects are fairly well flushed out, there's no heavy thinking going on here. I suppose I shouldn't have expected much in the way of original philosophical thinking in a comic hosted by an anthropomophized sheep named, of all things, "Dr. Doctrine." Again, Sanders is playing both ends against the middle to unfortunate effect. The dialogue (er...monologue) and concepts in DDCC are too complex for young children (as Sanders tears through such concepts as "The Hand of God" and the Tetramorph and introduces such historical theologians as Irenaeus of Lyons and Anselm of Canterbury), but the cutesy, anthropomorphized host and periods of unrepentant paternalism are bound to put off anyone over the age of 10.

The book is, it must be said, very fully designed and rendered, both visually and conceptually, which in almost any other case would be a good thing. Sanders' basic use of comics is actually quite admirable. His mix of the highly iconic Dr. Doctrine and examples of ancient Christian art melds as well as McCloud's forays into such territory, and his combination of word and image are surprisingly advanced. What is discouraging is that Sanders has undoubtedly settled into this particular pattern of storytelling: strong comics for an undefined audience.

Comics have a particularly strong potential in the teaching arena, as evidenced by the likes of Understanding Comics and Will Eisner's military instruction manuals from the '40s. The difference is that McCloud and Eisner are not only talented cartoonists, but also talented teachers. Sanders is the certainly the former, but falls short of the latter.

Dr. Doctrine's Christian Comix #1-#4 are available for $4 an issue through InterVarsity Press, the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895