"The Time of the Preacher" response questions

Were there any prominent symbols and how are they used?

            With anything having to do with Christianity, there is a lot of symbolism. There are the usual; the church, the preacher and the like. In this case they are used to demonstrate the hypocrisy that is sometimes found in small town churches. The “once-a-week” Christians, who only practice their religion on Sunday and then act however they want the rest of the week. There is also the interesting take on angels and demons, making them seem more like otherworldly beings rather than creatures of divinity. It seems to say a lot about the views of the writer.   

Is there an aspect of the story with which you were able to make a personal connection?

Coming from a very small, mostly religious town myself, the setting seemed pretty familiar to me. A lot of the people in the story sound like people I know from back home. Maybe not to quite the degree of intensity as the story portrays but there are still some similarities. Also the aspect that everyone in a small town knows everyone else’s dirty little secrets. Gossip travels fast in a town of less than 300.  

If you were to adapt this story to another medium, what changes would you make and why?

Well, for film I’d probably add a bit more background for the characters. I haven’t finished the whole thing so this may change, but right now there’s not a whole lot of back story for the “main characters.” In film, it’s important for the audience to make an emotional connection with the protagonists and one way to achieve that is to give the characters more of a history. In a graphic novel such as this, and even in short stories, it’s a bit more acceptable to simply have characters filling a role within the story without fully knowing them, but in film it can lead to apathy from the audience.