News
Christian Comics Crack Global Barriers
ORLANDO, Fla. – Sept. 3, in the year of our Lord 2013–
Kingstone Media CEO Art Ayris calls it his “Columbus and the New
World moment”—the first week Kingstone Christian comics launched
a mobile sales app—and he saw six downloads from . . . Saudi
Arabia.
It’s just one more example of how a Florida pastor’s passion to
reach new audiences with the Gospel through comics and graphic
novels has exploded into worldwide demand, taking the Christian
message to multitudes of people around the globe, often in
hard-to-reach nations.
“At last count, with the current licensing agreements and app
downloads, we will be in 93 countries,” Ayris said. “And we
predict that number will expand as word about the Kingstone
Comics app spreads and new products emerge from the Kingstone
art studios.”
Ayris founded Kingstone Media—publisher of Kingstone Comics—to
combine top Christian writers and top artists from the comics
world. In addition to speaking the language of young male
readers in the United States, comics more easily reach the
millions of illiterate and semi-literate people worldwide. The
company recently launched Eternity, the first graphic novel from
New York Times best-selling Christian author Randy Alcorn. The
book quickly landed a Spanish translation deal with the
Assemblies of God international publishing arm. Now, requests
have poured in from around the world for additional translation
and licensing agreements.
“This summer our first-round international partners came back to
us and said, ‘This stuff is selling like mad,’” Ayris said.
“Within two months new publishing and licensing partnerships had
sprung up for Russian, French, Burmese, Finnish, Hungarian,
Tamil, Tagalog, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Malaysian, Belgian, Polish and Romanian languages as well as
partnerships into Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya and Papua New
Guinea.”
100% Cristão executive Wilson Pereira Jr., also president of the
Christian Stores Association in Brazil and an early Kingstone
co-publisher, met with Ayris and determined to build Kingstone
Brasil. And they are. After a successful first run, 100% Cristão
licensed all Kingstone Comics products for Portuguese worldwide
for print and digital.
“Biblical stories and principles are universal and the beautiful
images in Kingstone products communicate to anyone anywhere,”
Pereira said. “Now, we make these publications even more
powerful by translating them.”
CLC International, one of the largest Christian literature
ministries in the world, also is partnering with Kingstone to
expand internationally. CLC was an early adopter of the
Kingstone vision in utilizing comics and graphic novels as a
next-gen tool to communicate God’s truth across cultural
borders. Working with their network of national partners, CLC is
translating and providing cultural context of Kingstone comic
products into additional new language clusters and markets.
“Comics and graphic novels offer an exciting new tool to
communicate God’s truth across cultural borders,” said Gary
Chamberlin, director of CLC Europe. “We believe these
contextually translated products will speak into the hearts and
minds of many across Europe and Asia.”
Kingstone is the leader in Christian comics and graphic novels,
seeking to break into the rapidly growing comics market that hit
$750 million U.S. sales last year. Using top writers such as
Alcorn and top artists from the comic world, Kingstone is known
for gripping story-based comics. Next year will see the
completion of the 12-volume Kingstone Bible, the most
comprehensive graphic adaptation of the Bible ever made.
Kingstone also brings to engaging graphic life apologetic titles
such as The Book of God and 101 Questions About the Bible and
Christianity series.
Kingstone recently released the Kingstone Comics universal app
for both Apple and Android devices. Ayris stated, “Our desire is
to provide economically priced, but highest quality, Christian
comics for kids, teens and adults worldwide.” ComiXology, the
leading digital comics marketplace, recently added Kingstone
Comics to its headliner lineup, as did iVerse Media, the leading
provider of digital material to libraries nationwide. Kingstone
products are also available through major retailers such as
Barnes & Noble and Christian book stores.