NCE: Wayne, tell us a little about your background and your spiritual journey.

WC: I was born July 29th, 1965 in Denver, Co. I have two older brothers (I'm the baby boy!), but I also have a younger sister. My family has always been involved with church, from Sunday School to youth groups. I was even the ring boy for 5 weddings! Heh.

I guess you could say that God has been after me for a long time, because He has blessed me and my family through countless situations. And before I could form an intelligent opinion about Him, I knew He was there. The first time I really acknowledged Jesus was when I was 16 years old. I was in San Jose, Ca. visiting my cousin(who is more like my uncle). I met some kids my age, and they took me around the neighborhood to party and stuff. My cousin livedin one of several similar looking condominium-complexes. When my new 'friends' dropped me off, It was at the wrong place!I was lost! I ended up wandering around all night, because I forgot to bring any contact info with me, so I had no way to call them!

I spent the night outside on a bus stop kiosk, and I found a comic I never saw before. It was a Jack Chick tract, and it help me get through the night. I prayed to God, giving my life over to Jesus, and felt the happiest feeling in my life! I thankfully remembered my friend's phone number the next morning, and she connected me with my family (yes, I was in BIG trouble!) Since then, I have had many other stop-starts with my spiritual walk with God, but I finally got serious just before I went to art school in 1987. I've stayed close to God ever since, and I continue to grow every day. I'm now married with two beautiful boys, and I am looking forward to using my talents and gifts to reach the kids with the Gospel.

NCE: Tell us a little about how your interest in comics developed.

WC: Well, I've been into comics ever since I can remember. My first superhero was Spiderman, hands down! Then I wanted to be Conan the Barbarian. I used to get all of my comics off of the comic book rack at the local 7-11 stores every month, and I just fell in love with action and adventure. As goofy as it sounds, I developed so much of my vocabulary from reading comics . I was always drawing as well, I was never far from pencil and paper. It was just who I was. Its funny, but even to this day, whenever I run into old friends, the first thing they always ask me is if I'm still drawing those cartoons! 

NCE: Sounds like you are very serious about art and comics.

WC: Yes, I attended art school in college(Otis Art Institute), where I  got my BFA. Then I went right into animation as a storyboard artist(Sony Animation/Warner Bros./Nickelodeon), and I still freelance to this day. Once I started my family I had to get some steady work(I'm now a teacher!), while I pick up work on the side.  Art is my passion, and I'm thankful that God has blessed me in this way.

NCE: How did you get involved in Christian Comics?

WC: Clint (Johnson) and I met while I was a freshman at art school, and we have been friends since then, often competing for the same jobs, and collaborating on others. He had developed this cool Christian superhero named Faithwalker, and I was intrigued that someone could be Christian and a superhero at the same time. It was awesome!

Anyway, years later, during the Image Comics hey-day, Clint called me up to work with him at this small art studio/publisher who were developing comics targeting urban youth culture. They had a great start, and seemingly bold plans for the future, so I was thinking this could be my big chance to cut my teeth doing comics. I drew and colored a short story of 5 characters(little bee/human kids) for a grocery store promotions campaign. It was the development of my cartoony style, and I was hooked!

The company eventually fell apart, but I had a new eye, and a new look to my art, and I kept pushing it in my freelance projects. I knew--through that I wanted my own characters, but something that was Godly. I was heavily into graffitti/hip-hop, and was influenced by that art style. I also discovered anime and manga, so I wanted to bring that to bear, since not too many people were doing that at the time.

In a blast of inspiration one night I called Clint and asked point blank," Hey man, do you have any characters that you have shelved that I could take a crack at redesigning?" He showed me an old strip he started called PERKY & THE HI-UPS...later called LIL' ROCK. The kid was cute, with overalls and glasses, but with that urban twist. I took it home and right away ideas flooded me, and I came up with an entire new look over night, and the rest is history!

NCE: OK, Wayne, we are going to get into that history of Lil' Rock and the Hi-Ups with you and Clint at another time-soon. Stay tuned.

Since then, Clint and I have worked hard putting together story lines and scenarios for LIL' ROCK, and we look forward to seeing how people react to him.

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