By Katie Vasquez
Sketching with just a pencil and paper. Cartoonist and illustrator Melinda Steffen, also known as Mindy Indy, loves to let her creativity flow.
“I’ve been drawing all my life. I just never stopped,” said Steffen.
She’s drawn a lot of different comics, but she is proudest of her most recent heroes called God’s Superheroes, the series highlights amazing real-life Catholic women and men.
“It really was the perfect, like the perfect, like meeting of worlds here because, yeah, it’s like I draw in a very, like, exciting and dynamic style, like comics are. and then it’s like incorporating the faith,” said Steffen.
She drew her first volume in 2021, telling the stories of saintly figures like Blessed Carlo Acutis.
“I learned about Blessed Carlo Acutis from this book and he helps me with tech problems like all the time,” said Steffen.
And famous lay Catholics like “Lord of the Rings” author, J.R.R Tolkien. Mindy says this page took her 15 hours to complete.
“I totally geek out on Tolkien and I was like, yeah, like drawing my versions of, you know, the characters,” said Steffen.
She offered Currents News a sneak peek of the second volume in the series, coming out in the fall. It features heroes like Saint Marianne of Molokaʻi.
“It was really fun drawing those illustrations because it’s like, oh, Hawaii is so beautiful, and I incorporated the cool plants and stuff,” said Steffen.
Mindy attends mass every week at St Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village. She says that blending her faith and drawing skills has been a highlight of her career, especially when she sees other Catholics enjoying her comic.
“A woman comes up to me, she sees this book,” said Steffen. “And she is like, my daughter loves this St Therese drawing because her name is Therese and so she carries this book wherever she goes. And I was like, oh my gosh.”
Mindy ultimately hopes to continue the series… but who her next hero will be? That’s a super-secret.