200609291047Gannett News has a fairly comprehensive look at the new religious comics publishers:

LifeWay’s “Spirit Warriors” follows the adventures of six rebellious teens mysteriously orphaned as children who have uncommon God-given strengths. They unleash their “holy fury” to protect a local church when an evil villain “sucks the righteousness right out” of it.

[snip]Barbour Publishing was among the first Christian companies producing comic novels. The Uhrichsville, Ohio-based publisher last year launched a manga series called “Serenity” that is aimed at young girls. The books follow the travails of a troubled non-Christian teen who moves to a new town and a new school, where a Christian prayer group takes her on as its “project.”

The Christian-themed books have attracted the attention of the mainstream comics industry. Diamond Comic Distributors has begun placing them on the shelves of mainstream and comics bookstores. The company’s executives now attend Christian booksellers conventions in search of new titles. And Christian publishers have begun setting up tables at the industry’s Comic-Con conventions, where comic books make their debuts.