It’s been decades in the making, but now Joe Endres finally holds the finished product in his hands.
The product: the first issue of his comic book series Colossians. “Colossians was an idea I’ve had mulling around and developing in my head since I was a kid, when I created some of these characters,” Endres says, recounting how he created the book’s first character in 1978, as a custom action figure.
Over time, new characters and ideas were added to what became Colossians, but after 1986, the year he became a Christian, the main theme did not change. “It’s based on a line from Larry Norman’s ‘UFO’: ‘If there’s life on other planets, then I’m sure that He must know, and He’s been there once already and has died to save their souls.’ Made me wonder what if? And then, why not?”
Like most comic books, Colossians is a team effort. While Endres wrote, lettered and inked the book himself, Thom Pratt drew the penciled artwork, Mark Melton and Hale Burkhin colored the book, and Jeff Slemons provided a fully painted cover.
Colossians is about “a band of unlikely pirates, mercenaries and misfits who find themselves unwittingly banded together in an adventure way beyond anything they’ve dealt with before,” Endres explains. Like the comic books Endres grew up reading, he wants readers to enjoy the science fiction trappings and interesting plotlines, but it is the characters he has developed over the years that he hopes will hook readers.
“We focus on the main characters and how their lives begin to change when confronted with the truth of Christ in this most unusual setting,” Endres says, adding, “Maybe if the readers see a little of themselves in these characters, they’ll also see how Christ can change them.”
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2012 issue of FamilyFiction Edge digital magazine. Subscribe for free today!