Of course this brings up several issues. One, are comic books art? If they are —then does the combination of literary/storytelling elements(dialog, captions) with the purely visual put it into a different category than what Rookmaaker is speaking of?

The third group sees room for both approaches. For instance, when Ralph Miley and I were working on our Valiant Efforts title several years ago we opted for the second approach. Previous to this I had developed a comic called Tales of Antediluvia(reprinted in AOs #14-17) which was strictly evangelistic as is the recent AO Challenge. My point is — it is OK to operate in either one or the other or on different occasions both modes. 

Having said this another separate but related issue comes to the forefront. What makes a better story—the evangelistic or the pre-evangelistic approach? If the main criteria is to avoid “holy propaganda” then the pre-evangelistic is probably the best. Themes of value can turn up in either type of story. In my Antediluvia story, the hero Kenan sheds tears of remorse over the deaths of enemy soldiers he killed in self defense and ministers to the dying. I feel that compassion is a very important theme. “Love Your Enemy,” should set apart Christian comics. This  theme is increasingly alien to the non-Christian comics writer. The worth of a single human life and its eternal destiny as portrayed in the AO Challenge is a extremely valid theme.   

 
From Alpha-Omega #56,  1994