Since 2003, Charles Schneeflock Snow has been writing and drawing Sordid City Blues, which chronicles the lives of young urban adults faced with difficult questions of relationships and faith. Sacred and Sequential met with Mr. Snow in a comfortable corner of the Internet to discuss his work and his recent resumption of the series after a five-year hiatus.

Sacred and Sequential:  Thanks for talking with us, Charles. Let’s start with the most straightforward question: What motivated you to write Sordid City Blues?

Charles Schneeflock Snow: It’s an obsession. I worry about sex and religion a lot (both by themselves and in combination). Drawing comics is the main way I cope with things that worry me, so here we are.

S&S: What kind of response to your work do you get (or expect to get) from readers who identify as Christians? How might this response be said to differ from that of other audiences

Snow: Well, I know some Christians who like the comic, and identify with the characters’ lives. Which doesn’t differ too much from the response of more secular readers, honestly. But SCB doesn’t have much penetration into Christian culture – there’s a long list of doctrinal and moral prerequisites you need for that that I could never live up to.

Which is fine. I’d never want SCB to be a “Christian” comic. Christian is a fine noun, but a terrible adjective.

S&S: The banner on top of the Sordid City Blues website notes “for mature readers.” Who would you say is your target audience?

Snow: Well, whoever reads it, I need them to be old enough to handle all the swearing and nudity. So that’s what I mean by mature. [Smiles]

Seriously, I’ve been trying to figure that out for years. I’m drawing it mainly for myself, and while I do like to share it, any readers I get are kind of a side effect. The comic has made me a lot of friends, though, so I think there are a lot of people who see themselves in it. Or, at least who respect the struggles my characters go through.

It’s a really hard comic to advertise! When I was 16 (for perspective, I’m 40, now), I wrote the words “Sordid City Blues” in one of my sketchbooks, and knew there was something I wanted to explore there; I just wasn’t sure what. I made a bunch of false starts before I started the current version when I was… 28? 29? Something like that. So it’s my life’s work, I guess. I don’t know why I made that choice – a calling from God, maybe? Some kind of insanity?

One audience (though I hope not the only one) would be lost sheep – people draw to a personal monotheistic God, but who haven’t really found a place in the visible Christian Church. It’s certainly where I’ve been, throughout most of my life.

S&S: Have any particular authors/books contributed to Sordid City Blues by way of inspiration?

Let’s see…

Comics: Jeff Smith, Carla Speed McNeil, Dave Sim, Manu Larcent, Alex Robinson, Osamu Tezuka, Steve Purcell, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (especially A Drifting Life), Bill Waterson, Charles Schulz, Dave McKean’s Cages, Neil Gaiman (especially his stuff with Dave McKean), Raina Telgemeier, and probably a lot of other stuff I’m spacing on. I haven’t been reading as many comics since my daughter was born, so a lot of these reference are pretty old. Sorry!

Others: Kurt Vonnegut, William Gibson, Iain Banks (both SF and literary fiction), Hayo Miyazaki, Connie Willis, Patrick O’Brian… oh, I could go on and on, but you probably get the idea.

S&S: The characters’ variegated experiences with Christianity is a focal point of Sordid City Blues. All of the identifiably religious characters seem to struggle to a certain degree. Do you mean to suggest that faith is a struggle in and of itself, or do these depictions of struggling believers result from an attempt to correct a perceived lack of representation of non-conventional religious conduct?

Snow: Every indication is that if you hang out with YHWH, you’re going to struggle. It may be an aspect of religion/spirituality in general – I think the Spirit calls us to be better than we are, and that’s hard work. But looking at the Bible alone, we see Abraham arguing with God, Jacob wrestling with God, David’s psalms of struggle and turmoil, the pessimism of Ecclesiastes, Job calling God on his bullshit, Jesus in the wilderness, Paul’s struggles with the thorn in his flesh. I think there’s a lot of struggle inherent in the Christian faith.

S&S: What do you think of depictions of Christianity in comics in general? Is Sordid City Blues trying to address certain misconceptions or misrepresentations?

Snow: It just doesn’t show up much, honestly, and most of what I’ve seen is super distorted, like the almost unrecognizable Christian God in Preacher. And almost every famous Christian creator I can think of is very conservative, which is something I’m definitely not. Jack Chick, Doug Tennapel, um… I honestly can’t even think of anyone else who has made a major contribution to comics with openly Christian work. It doesn’t mean they aren’t out there, but it’s something I’ve been looking for, and not something I’ve seen.

Honestly, progressive Christians like me don’t even seem to make or read comics much. I’d cite Craig Thompson’s Blankets, but if I recall correctly, that’s about Craig losing his faith. Or at least there was my reading of it.

You know what I really love for its representation of Christian faith? The music of The Hold Steady. A reader introduced me to them – Craig Finn, the songwriter, really portrays people struggling with their faith and with the problems in their lives very beautifully. I like Kevin Smith’s Dogma, too – it really expresses the way it can feel when God comes into the life of a normal person. If that makes any sense?

I want to be clear, though: I’m not out to send any messages. I want to be honest, and true to my characters, and I try to put that before any kind of moral or agenda.

S&S: Sordid City Blues was on hiatus for five years. Did anything change in your attitudes toward the subject matter during this period?

Snow: Okay, this bit is going to be a little weird and crazy.

Keeping it just to religion, I’ve become more accepting of my doubts and my faith.

On the one hand, I’m the kind of person who likes to know what’s going on. I’m skeptical about most things (including most of the teachings of religion, to be honest), and I like a universe that’s neat and laid out and where I know what’s going on. I like a bit of mystery here and there, but science and culture provide more than enough for me.

On the other hand, I’m troubled by a deep longing for God. I have felt his absence acutely, and when I do feel his presence, it’s very real to me. Which I find troubling, even terrifying, because there really isn’t a place in my world view for Alien Space Whales drifting into my consciousness and rearranging my mind whenever they feel like it. Qualified mental health professionals assure my I am not insane, but I’m not so sure.

Anyway, I’ve come to accept that I’m never going to reconcile this contradiction, and that life is just weird. The important bit, for SCB, is that having accepted this, I’m now free to push the limits of my own characters beliefs, and see how they feel about these things.

I’m especially interested in Yoshimi, right now. Luther was my first major Christian character, but he’s a very simple fellow – not stupid, but not prone to a lot of deep thought. Yoshimi’s more like me – very intellectual about her faith, but also with a strong mystical streak. There’s a lot I can do with that, though it won’t be a lot of fun for her.

I’m sorry, Yoshimi!

S&S: Did anything change in your approach to writing?

Snow: Only a desire to take the gloves off, in terms of no longer shielding my characters from the consequences of their actions. I blame 21st century American and British TV dramas – great guides to long-term character writing, but also pretty dark.

S&S: Sordid City Blues feels very autobiographical at times. Are most of your ideas/characters drawn from personal experience? If so, how do you feel about sharing such deeply personal experiences in such a public medium? How do the real-life inspirations for the characters feel about your work?

Snow: Oh, you’re going to be so disappointed! No, not at all. It’s 100% fiction! Sorry!

I mean, it’s very personal in terms of the issues explored, and there’s some real life stuff in there. But it’s so mixed in with other things I’ve seen other people do, things I’ve made up, things I could have done, but didn’t, stuff I’d like to do, stuff I’m afraid of, and stuff I’ve been reading about on Wikipedia or RationalWiki that I couldn’t even identify a single story element that’s mostly autobiographical.

I mean, I did have a pastor threaten to break every bone in my body, once. But that was over porn, not because I’d had sex with his daughter. [Smiles]

S&S: Of course not. But, on the subject of sex, one of the focal points of Sordid City Blues seems to be the characters’ differing philosophies with regards to relationships and intimacy. Is sex-positivity something you feel strongly about promoting? Is part of the point of Sordid City Blues to defuse the tension between traditional sexual morality and a more liberal take on essential Christian values?

Snow: I just worry about sex a lot, and it comes out in my work. Also I love drawing naked people. SCB aside, I draw mountains of erotic art – not linked to from Sordid City Blues, though the erotic art audience seems to like the comic well enough.

Monogamy I can do. Modesty I can do. But I feel like even Progressive Christianity requires a level of mental purity which I simply cannot even aspire to.

To be self-critical for a moment, though: the sex in the older SCB material is very sugar-coated. I’m a gentle writer, who loves his characters very much. But they’re never going to grow if I don’t push them and try to find their weaknesses and limits. So the new material might wind up being darker than what I’ve previously published.