Ron Lapitan Books

12/10/2020

This month's installment of "Ron's Baha'i Comics" is a Christmas special. Read it on Webtoon: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/rons-bahai-comics/more-christ-part-1/viewer?title_no=544592&episode_no=4&webtoonType=CHALLENGE

Happy Holidays!

"If religion becomes the cause of dislike, hatred and division, it would be better to be without it, and to leave such a religion would be a truly religious act. Any religion which is not a cause of love and unity is no religion."

-Bahá'í Faith

11/01/2020

A new something I started working on to eventually be a webcomic. It’s drawn on B4 paper which is the kind Japanese mangaka use (10inx14in, which means more drawing space), which is why if you’ve ever tried to copy a page of manga onto our standard 8x11 you probably wondered how they fit so much drawing into a small space. Haven’t yet found a machine able to make a good scan of this paper, so here are the rough photos.

05/09/2019

Do I have any friends in the Mechanicsville, PA area around Sep 2019? Particularly those passionate about both graphic novels/comics, sci-fi, and religion? Interested in changing culture in the process of nerding out about culture?

Then find your tribe at TheoCon, the Con where discussions about superheroes meet spirituality, geared towards promoting inclusiveness and the celebration of all backgrounds. Get your tickets now at theocon.live!

Proud to work with the incredibly inclusive and thoughtful band of geeks bringing TheoCon 2019 to life.

"The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony; as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord." -Baha'i Faith

Interested in the intersection of pop-culture and religion? Passionate about changing culture in the process of discussing pop-culture? Find your tribe at TheoCon, the Con where graphic novels and sci-fi meet spirituality, geared towards inclusiveness and celebration of all backgrounds. Get your tickets now!

10/23/2018

The science lesson which sparks the first conversation between the protagonists of "They Wrestle With God," giving an intro into their diverse belief systems. From episode 1: "Creation or Evolution?"

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
- Leon C. Megginson

10/21/2018

"Kadija Khan"


A Hadith, or saying of the Prophet Muhammad as recorded by His followers, says that when you see injustice, you should do away with it with your actions. If you cannot do this, you should speak out against it with your words. If you cannot do this, you should hate it in your heart.

What can a person do beyond this? In this age of media, you can also create an image; to inspire other people to hate or love something, to speak out, to take action.

The Muslim protagonist of "They Wrestle With God," Kadija Khan, is an aspiring photographer. As she explains her passion for the power of images to highlight injustice and contribute to social change throughout the story, it also gives her opportunities to describe the strong themes of social justice in Islam.

It also creates many opportunities for discussions with her friends about what kind of images are useful to inspire action and about the nature of human motivation. In the movie "Tomorrowland" (2015), a secret society injects a vision of an apocalyptic future into the minds of humans to shake them from their apathy with fear in order to change their behaviors. To their dismay, instead of being scared into action, they embrace the dark vision and turn the apocalypse into tv shows and comic books. "And the reason you embraced that future was that it asked nothing of you today," explains the mastermind behind the vision. Can people be moved by images that highlight the darkness of the present or that paint a fearful vision of the future, or do we need a vision of the future that teaches us to love what we can be, a vision of something we can work for instead of knowing only what we hate?

The portrait in the back is Kadija's icon, Danny Lyon. In the 1960s, Lyon was the photographer for the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee when a group of African American high school girls in Georgia were arrested by police and detained in a secret jail where they were unheard from for over a month. After hearing that they were being held in an isolated facility called the Leesburg Stockade, he traveled there and secretly photographed them through the bars of a window. Once published, the photos sparked the public outcry which led to the girls' release without any charges, and so a photograph led to the correction of a faceless abuse of power.

"O you who believe! Be steadfast maintainers of justice, witnesses for God, though it be against yourselves..."

-Qur'an 4:135

10/19/2018

At a workshop at school by the Muslim Writer's Collective, where Muslim-youth writers and their friends bring stories or poetry they have been working on, read them as a group, and give the writer praise and criticism. I came with the drawing script for the first episode of "They Wrestle With God," the graphic novel series I have been working on which follows a Mormon, an atheist, a Muslim, and a Bahá'í as they navigate high school, their differences, and their commonalities. I also brought the character designs and some of the finished pages.

"I had a comment on your character designs. I noticed you do something a lot of comics do, which is draw the character wearing hijab with some of her hair showing, which isn't how I wear hijab. Like Marvel which recently created that one character with half of her hair covered and half of it showing. I was like, Yeah but no," commented one friend who herself wore a beautiful hijab.
"That's an amazing comment. I will definitely change this character design," I said excitedly. It made her happy that the suggestion was taken.

The friends even gave me tips on the character's dialogue to fit what they might say in the same situations. People are so cool. That's why I want to write comics that say just that.

"Tell me with whom you consort and I will tell you who you are..." -Goethe

10/14/2018

The cast of "They Wrestle With God"; a Mormon, an atheist, a Muslim, a Bahá'í. From episode 1, "Evolution or Creation?"

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and friendship."

-Bahá'í Faith

10/08/2018

Pages 3-4 from my next graphic novel series, "They Wrestle With God." Here the reader meets the large family of Emma Santos, the Mormon of the four main protagonists. A study found that Mormons marry more than any other religion in the U.S. and also have the most children, which is tied to their core theology which is called the "Plan of Salvation;" which encompasses their understanding of the nature of heaven, the purpose of life, and ultimately their vision of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Want to learn more about that? Read "They Wrestle With God" when it comes out, or better yet, go ask a Mormon friend.

Each of the characters and peoples of the story in their own way is chasing the Kingdom of God in their mind. Part of the fun of the story is getting to know them and figuring out what their Kingdom is.

"The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers." -Frederick Buechner

10/06/2018

Page 2 of my next graphic novel series, "They Wrestle With God." The first four stories give the reader a peek into the beliefs and outlook of each of the four main protagonists. In the first episode, "Creation or Evolution?", the reader gets to know Emma Santos, the Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) of the quartet.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy." -2 Nephi 2:25, Book of Mormon

09/20/2018

The first page of my next graphic novel series, "They Wrestle with God," which follows four friends, a Mormon, a Muslim, an atheist, and a Bahá'í, who navigate high school at the same time as they navigate their differences; and perhaps even scarier, their commonalities.

Each story arc follows a thought-provoking conversation or challenge of growing up, where the friends learn from each others' different ways of facing the world. The topic of the first episode: The belief in creation versus (or in combination with) the Theory of Natural Selection. It starts with a summary of Genesis, the book in the Bible which is interpreted literally by many to mean that the world was created in 7 days. Do science and religion conflict, or can they coexist?

Also: Look out for my next book, "We Laughed," which comes out in the next few months. Projected price is $15. $10 is for printing the book, and $5 will be put away for service related activities.

"And God said, Let there be light" -Genesis 1:3

08/18/2018

Our junior youth group bringing backpacks with school supplies to cousins, nieces and nephews, and classmates in their neighborhood who were not able to buy one, just in time for school to start.

"Without cooperation and reciprocal attitude the individual member of human society remains self-centered, uninspired by altruistic purposes, limited and solitary in development like the animal and plant organisms of the lower kingdoms."
-Bahá'í Faith

08/16/2018

"Backpacks"

A co-worker stopped me in the kitchen today to say that her church did a project to assemble brand-new backpacks with school supplies, and they had a surplus. "If you want any, just give me a number by the end of the week," she said.

After work, I took a quick drive to our junior youth group's neighborhood and knocked on 6 doors to talk to our jy families, older youth who were in our group years ago, and other kids we happened to know, asking who still needs a backpack before school starts and who knows friends who need a backpack.

"Muy guapo," I said as one mom showed me her son, who hadn't yet been born the last time we spoke. We laughed. In an hour, a bunch of kids and I made a tally of 25 friends to ask for backpacks for, including not only our immediate group but also relatives and classmates around the neighborhood.
"I know a kid there, and there, and there," said one young boy, pointing in three different directions.

It's awesome; how much good we can do, spontaneously, when each of us has our hands somewhere in the community, and we are all connected.

“The supreme need of humanity is cooperation and reciprocity. The stronger the ties of fellowship and solidarity amongst men, the greater will be the power of constructiveness and accomplishment in all the planes of human activity.”

-Bahá'í Faith