Spire Christian Comics The Strangest Comic Company

Image result for hansi the girl who loved the swastika
Copyright Spiree Christian Comics

Spire Christian Comics started in 1971. New Barbour Christian Comics would later get the rights to the comics and continue to print them until 1988. Al Hartley was the writer and artist for most of the comics. That name may sound familiar to fans of the Archie Comics. Al Hartley also worked for Archie Comics and this helped him to get approval to use the Archie characters for many of the comics.

Many of these comics featured Archie and friends with overtly religious lessons. They show a very different side to Riverdale. For instance we learn that Riverdale has a red light district. We also get to see the kids in town pray a lot and are scriptorians. Of course you better be if you want to overcome all the vice from the outside world like "Occult Activity," and "Witchcraft."

You might be surprised to learn that Al Hartley had previous worked on an adult comic before leaving his job and then finding Jesus. After that he would try to insert Christian messages in the real Archie stories. One story in the original Archie comics has Archie helping out inner city kids.

Around this time  Al Hartley worked on The Cross and The Switchblade for Spire Christian Comics. It did not get approval from the comic code authority because of its portrayal of drugs. It was popular enough that Spire Christian Comics began following the same formula of comics based on real life people and events. Other Spire Christian Comics that focused on real people include God's Smuggler, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash, Tom Landry and The Dallas Cowboys, and my personal favorite Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika.

Al Hartley was allowed to use the Archie character for the company. These lead to more overtly Christian tales then he had included in the official Archie Comics. The company would produce comics featuring Bible stories like Jesus and Noah's Ark. They even made kid comics which featured Barney Bear. 

I can't tell you about Hansi and not tell you what the comic was about. The story was based on the true story of Maria Hirschmann. She starts out a Christian but soon becomes an avid Nazi. After the Nazis are defeated the Russians treat the women badly and we learn that Hansi is fortunate that she is not well endowed as this keeps the Soviet soldiers from rapping her. Eventually Hansi goes to America and here she finds Jesus again. It is one of the most popular of all the comics titles they made.

Many of these comics and stories are very blatant in their proselytizing. The Archie comics look normal but once you get into the story you quickly realize something is wrong. Many of the comics are a bit over the top in their content. You probably wont be reading them because you strongly believe in their message. Even similar modern Christian comics I doubt would be so in your face with their message. They are a fun read to see a lost time.

What do you think about Spire Christian Comics? Do you think it would be interesting to read some of them? Do you have any? Let us know what you think below.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Upcoming Star Wars Films Announced

Image
Disney has just announced the next Star Wars films that will be released. Photo from https://www.amazon.com/FUZZY-EWOK-Star-Touch-books/dp/039487868X believed to be copyrighted by The Walt Disney Company From the classic 1980's children's book comes Wicket and the Dandelion Warriors. No one really knows for sure what this film is about because no one has read the book in the last 30 years. If it is successful though it will spawn a series of Ewok related movies based on classic Ewok books like Wicket Goes Fishing. Some industry experts suggest that Fuzzy As An Ewok would have been a better choice but  Disney says their touch technology is not yet ready for commercial production. They hope to have it ready in 3 years when they hope to release of Fuzzy As An Ewok. image copyrighted by The Walt Disney Company Darth Paploo will be the first in a series of more mature adult action films that take place in the Star Wars universe. It focuses on the Ewok Paploo as he t
Read more

Biggest Kids Events of the 90s Calling All Toons

Image
Copyright Buena Vista Home Video. One of the biggest events of my childhood came in 1990 with the Saturday morning special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This was no normal cartoon special. This was being broadcast multiple times and on every channel. As far as I knew that was the only time something like that ever happened. As a child I knew this was a big deal. To this day I think it was the only time that happened. What was so special that all the major networks would actually work together? It was the war on drugs. Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue featured all your favorite 80's and 90's cartoon characters to warn you of the dangers of drugs. In this particular case it was marijuana. The show featured many cartoon characters across the the networks. It had characters that were no longer even on TV. Some of the more popular characters to be featured include the Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Chipmunks, Alf, and many more. The story starts with
Read more

Forgotten Memories Dino-Riders

Image
The 80's were the best time for toys and kids cartoons. But with so many great shows some are bound to be forgotten by many. One such show was Dino-Riders. Dino-Riders was a 1988 cartoon made to sell the toys by Tyco. I can recall them existing as toys and getting them on Christmas I don't know if I ever saw the cartoon until recently. The show only lasted for 13 episodes. The premise was that two fighting factions from the future were transported back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. The good guys were the Valorians. They looked like normal humans and they befriended the dinosaurs. The bad guys were known as the Rulons which were animal like. They used technology to subjugate the dinosaurs. While the cartoon only lasted 13 episodes the toy line lasted for 4 series from 1988-1990. During this time toys, coloring books, and other common kids products were made based on the franchise. Marvel even produced a short comic series. The Dino-Riders had and international p
Read more