NCE: Don, tell us a little about your background and your spiritual journey.
DDE: I was born May 26, 1948 to W. Russell and Lucille Ensign in Bellingham, Washington. I am the youngest son of four children, all sons. I grew up in a fundamental, Bible-believing church and heard the gospel from the nursery on. I probably asked Christ into my life a half dozen times as a small child, but never had the assurance of my salvation. That is until a crisis point in my life occurred, when I was ten, my brother, LeRoy took me aside and explained the gospel and I then prayed to receive Christ as Savior. I was born again in 1958. Sometime later t the urging of my father I went forward in an evangelistic meeting.
NCE: Tell us a little about how your interest in comics developed.
DDE: The earliest comic book memory I have was on a trip to western Colorado to visit relatives when one of my older brothers purchased a 1953 copy of Fawcett's Lash Larue (I still have the coverless copy of that issue). My brothers had bought comics earlier that that, mostly Dell Walt Disney comics, but they weren't comic collectors by any means. Comics were just part of the childhood reading diet we had as kids.
NCE: You were involved in early comics fandom weren't you?
DDE: Yes, I began reading the Silver Age DC Comics (Flash, JLA, Mystery in Space, Green Lantern, Hawkman, etc) and Marvel Comics (FF, Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, etc) in the early 1960s. I responded to a letter printed in one of the comics by a man named Jerry Bails who sent me my first fan publication. I wrote letters of column, articles, amateur comics and published a one shot fanzine during the 1960s. My output was not large and was definitely not a BNF (Big Name Fan).
NCE: How did you get involved in Christian Comics?
DDE: After graduating from college I joined a para-church organization called Campus Crusade for Christ and was a graphic artist for them. During that time I went to the San Diego Comic Convention and eventually produced an evangelistic give away comics. Later I co-founded (with Paul Johnston) the Christian Comic Arts Society (CCAS) and started its first newsletter, Valiant (1984-86) and the amateur press association, Alpha-Omega (1985) which is still being published. (For anyone wanting more details on this go to Don's website www.shareyourstory.info and click on the Sample Bio button).
NCE: You have been very involved in the recent Christian Comics movement.
DDE: Yes, I've have the privelege of
working with Ralph Miley on Valiant Efforts Comics(1988-1991) and with Ralph and Kevin Yong on the New Creation newsletter (1996-1998) and the Proverbs & Parables collection (1999). I've also published the annual Guide to Christian Comics (2004-2008) with CCAS.
NCE: Sounds exciting.
DDE: Yes, the Christian comics movements has really taken off in the past few years and the best is yet to come especially with New Creation Entertainment!
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