2010 Review

Posted 30 Dec 2010

This is the season I like to take stock of what has happened over the last year, followed by a session of wondering what the New Year might bring.

Cartoon drawings
I’ve continued to work from the studio in our home. I really enjoy my time drawing these Bible-based cartoon illustrations. Here’s a list of some of the cartoons I’ve drawn this year:

Exodus 07-12 – the 10 plagues of Egypt
Numbers 21 – Bronze Snake. I had this cartoon made into a printed canvas, which looked good.
Job 38 – God speaking from the whirlwind.
Proverbs 07 – The bedroom of death.
Daniel 03 – The fiery furnace. I really enjoyed drawing that one!
Matthew 04 – Jesus calls Simon & Andrew (2 of his disciples.)
Matthew 14 – Jesus & Peter walk on water. I really liked the way the waves & lighting came out in this illustration.
Luke 02 – The Nativity – Stable & animals. This became my No.1 best selling Christmas card design for 2010.
Mark 14-15 – Jesus arrested.
1 Corinthians 1 – Two roads. This illustration was drawn at A3 size (normally I draw at A4 size) & is a favourite of mine.
2 Corinthians 12 – Thorn in the flesh.
Revelation 01- John on Patmos

Altogether I produced 43 finished Bible cartoon illustrations this year.

I also produced 4 scenes that make up the “The Bridge”, a Gospel illustration. This marked a slight departure from purely Bible-based illustrations, into the realm of cartoons designed to help explain the nature of the problem of sin & God’s plan to help overcome it, via Jesus sacrifice on the cross.

The website
I’ve spent quite a bit of my time writing articles & sections for the website this year.

I’ve written 65 Blog entries (including this one)… that’s about 1 entry every 6.5 days.

The website has grown in scope over the last year. Dan, my website technical genius has done an amazing job of converting my ideas for the website into something that actually works! We have added PayPal, shopping cart & automated downloading functionality to the website, to allow viewers to purchase cartoons as quickly & easily as possible. This was certainly a challenge, but we got there in the end!
Currently we are interested in introducing new sections, like the “Articles & Issues”, “BC Encyclopaedia” & “Search by Famous Bible Story.” Once we’ve ironed out all the technical bugs, I’ll start to populate these new sections with articles & links. The idea behind the new sections is to provide additional, background information to our viewers, regarding the cartoons.

2011 will see a new home page, a new Main navigation page, a viewers comments function, new Merchandise items & other features being added.

Merchandise: Christmas card sales
As our first ever venture into sales of merchandise with a Bible Cartoons flavour, I must say we have been delighted with the number of sales of the 3 Christmas cards we produced this year. Thank you so much to everyone who purchased the cards. The clear favourite was the Animals & Stable design, probably because of all the cute & cuddly animals! Based on the strength of these sales & the interest shown, we are encouraged to produce other merchandise ideas next year… so watch this space, & this website!

Marketing
We are entering an exciting, new phase of the Bible Cartoon Project. Towards the end of 2010 we have engaged a marketing company to help us to promote the project, which marks a change in emphasis for us. Up until now, we might have called our efforts rather more “homespun”! Certainly we have been doing everything in-house (including all our promotion activities), on a shoe-string budget & on the basis that if it sounds about right, we’ll do it… more or less!
However, we recognise that we are not marketing experts, & that the Bible Cartoon Project really deserves to be put on a more professional footing. So 2011 will see use venturing into the world of a Facebook “fans of Bible Cartoons” page as well as advertising in Christian magazines. Our hope is to see an increase in the number of website viewers & people using the Bible Cartoons website as an online resource.

One aspect I am particularly interested in pursuing is providing our viewers with different ways of commenting on the cartoons & website. I’d like to collect viewers comments & opinions from the website, from the blog, from the “fans” facebook page, & from any other sources I can think of! It is very important to us to hear from our viewers & to take into account their view & opinions.

We are really looking forward to 2011, both in terms of new cartoons I can draw as well as the marketing & promotional ideas we’d like to try. It’s all about getting the word out about this Bible Cartoons Project to as many people as possible. Ultimately even that goal is about telling a needy world about the amazing God we serve & the urgency of seeking Him sooner rather than later.

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas & that God blesses you richly in the New Year.
Martin

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