Author and artistic director Sean Lewis will read from his new graphic novel, *Saints: The Book of Blaise*, this evening at Prairie Lights.

By Isaac Hamlet
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Depicting the Catholic saints as superheroes could sound like a strange artistic choice to some, but for author Sean Lewis, the somewhat odd juxtaposition made for a perfect fit.
At 7 p.m. today at Prairie Lights, Lewis will read from his new graphic novel, *Saints: The Book of Blaise*.
The series represents a first foray into the world of such writing for Lewis, who was recently named the interim artistic director of Riverside Theater, 213 N. Gilbert St. The drive to begin writing the story — originally published over nine issues — came when Lewis was working on his play *Out of Bounds* with illustrator Benjamin Mackey.
“I’d hired [Mackey] to draw projections for [*Out of Bounds*],” Lewis said. “So one day, we were drawing the set and the stuff he was turning in to me was very ‘comic book.’ ”
From there the two of them began bonding over a mutual love of comics. Eventually, Mackey pitched him a concept.
“I’d been sitting on this idea of [Catholic] saints for superheroes for a while,” Mackey said. “[Lewis] grew up Catholic, so he latched onto it quickly.”
From there, the duo began meeting for sessions about how to depict these reincarnated saints. As they began trying to assign superpowers, they hit on an idea.
“What if the way they were martyred became their power?” Lewis said.
St. Sebastian — who died in a hail of arrows — became able to produce arrows from his body on demand. St. Lucia gained a second level of sight as a result of having her eyes gouged out. St. Stephen, who was stoned to death, gained the ability to weaponize the Earth around him. Then there’s the titular St. Blaise.
When Sebastian meets Blaise at the beginning of the story, he’s an atheist and a roadie for a death-metal band. While with them, he uses his powers to heal the throat of the lead singer, who keeps losing his voice between shows.
“Sebastian was definitely my favorite character to illustrate,” Mackey said. “He’s a gorgeous, half-naked man that runs around with divine abandon. And he also wears cat shirts. What’s not to love there?”
The two saints quickly go to recruit Lucy, the reincarnation of St. Lucia.
“[She’s] the complete opposite of what you see of most female comic-book heroes,” Lewis said. “Her whole body is covered up, she’s got a long dress, she has candles in her hair, and she’s insanely devout.”
The three protagonists live in a world in which God has seemingly disappeared, and some fear the reincarnation of the saints signals the arrival of the end times. As such, Archangel Michael — the book’s antagonist — begins to build a doomsday cult to help him hunt down the abominable saints.
“Michael is an amazing warrior,” Lewis said. “God sends him to fight wars, and he wins all the time, very brutal. If his main existence is as a bloodthirsty warrior, what happens when his general goes away?”
Fleeing Michael, the saints are pressed to figure out their plan of action while grappling with what their individual missions are and how to fulfill them.
Lewis feels that, in some ways, these stories offer more true-to-life versions of the saints than those displayed in the “comics” he used to read in Sunday school.
“I distinctly remember being in Catholic school reading about St. Francis, and he’s walking on a patch of grass, and he has no problems, and he sees a lamb, and he helps heal the lamb, and other animals come because he’s very nice, and the book ends there,” Lewis said. “But he died. Basically, to become a saint you have to be killed horribly. And some of the saints did questionable things; some of them were warriors in their own right and did things where you think, ‘That’s kind of screwed up.’ ”

Event: Sean Lewis Reading, *Saints: The Book of Blaise*
Where: Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque
When: 7 p.m. today
Cost: Free