The most important comic book I've ever written is almost finished.

Almost all the pencils are done. Coloring is starting -- I believe. (I may be wrong about that.)

I've worked on some big projects. George R.R. Martin's The Hedge Knight was BIG. Lullaby continues to attract an audience. My 24-hour comic book entry, which was chosen to be in the highlights anthology was an honor.

But it's TEMPEST that I consider to be my most important work.

We intend it to be a fund raiser for the Salvation Army, although if you're here, reading this, you already know that. I doubt many people come straight to Ben's Pen without going through the front pages. On those news pages (here) you'll see that a bunch of extremely talented artists have donated time and talent to draw pages for a comic book, and all proceeds from the sales of the book and the sale of the original artwork will go to the Salvation Army's continued hurricane relief work.

But that's not what makes it important.

What makes it important is it's message. And the message was unintentional. Sort of. Let me explain.

When we first decided to do this,we set out to make a comic book with the obvious message: help the survivors of the hurricane.

As we started, it dawned on me that it will have been almost six months since the storms hit before the book hits the shelves. And suddenly, for me, that became part of the message. Because by February, when Tempest comes out, many celebrities will have stopped stopping by for photo ops and you won't see any marathon fund raisers on NBC. (BTW, I was watching that fund raiser on NBC and some country singer was singing Petra's More Power to Ya. That was COOL.)

But the NEED will not be going away that soon. There will STILL be a HUGE need down south.

Jesus said, in a different context, "You'll always have the poor." But those words haunt me recently. We will always have the poor.

We can't stop giving just because it's not on Fox News or CNN.

For that matter, we can't stop giving just because it's not Thanksgiving.

We will always have the poor. And the poor need canned goods on weekends that aren't federal holidays as much as they need it on weekends that are.

If you'd like to help us with our Tempest project, check it out here or drop us a line.

Ben

PS -- Sorry I've neglected Ben's Pen so much. And I've got so much to talk about now, like the David graphic novel and the ArmorQuest comics and all that.

Past Ben's Pen articles:
That One Cartoon Song, You Know the One
"Dirty Diapers and the Apple of God's Eye" -- Thoughts on Art and Worship
The Ten Best Christian Comics You've Never Read, pt. 1
The Ten Best Christian Comics You've Never Read, pt. 2