Let’s say you start with a 3d animated Children’s series. You then follow that with three warrior angels, whose investigation leads to a discovery that means an all-out war for mankind. Meanwhile, a fallen angel is wanders between heaven and hell, fighting for mankind, as a castaway from both worlds. These are just a few of the creations that come from the mind of award-winning writer, Brannon Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth’s body of work easily indicates not just a familiarity with the comic and role-playing game industries, but an active role in it has well. He is clearly a fan of the art in which he participates, and as a man who has written for some of these works, he embraces it fearlessly. To hear him speak, you also realize that the larger story in the art he loves, is also quite central to his mind. This is evident in both his mission to glorify God, and to create something beautiful.

Juggling two roles as both Chief Creative Officer, and Chief Operations Officer at Brainy Pixel, a small Christian animation studio, Hollingsworth holds a unique insight into the beauty of art, the intricacies of the creative process, and the ups and downs of the Christian creative industry. From moment of inspiration to the long road towards fruition, his work, and the efforts of his team at Pixel, seems to embody the concept of the Indy artist.

With the determination to inspire Christian creatives to pursue their vision without fear, Hollingsworth has pursued his own path with numerous moments that required him to lay it on the line for his own vision. He is a Christian who insists that the arts are given by God, and to be embraced by his followers. He sees the potential in Christians like himself, to create the beautiful, because God himself has directed them to do so. And he sees the misconceptions that rise within that creative space, as a roadblock to be demolished.

After meeting Hollingsworth in Nashville earlier this year, I had the fortune of getting an interview from him. We speak on several intriguing topics. His inspiration to become an artist, why Brainy Pixel came pretty close to shutting down, and what rescued them from that brink, his encouragement to aspiring Christian artists and creatives, and of course, his gritty graphic novel, Tenets Tales.

The City Gate: Let’s begin with you. What got you started as an artist?

Brannon Hollingsworth: It really all started when I was in the 5th grade. My teacher had asked the class to write a short story, and everyone groaned. But I relished the challenge, and wrote a short story. After that, I was hooked. I just knew that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, even though it took me a long time to get there.

TCG: So did this bring you to Brainy Pixel?

BH: It started several years ago when a buddy of mine who I’ve worked with in the past, asked me if I’d ever heard of this new thing called Youtube. Being a social media neophyte, I didn’t know what it was. So looked, and it was one of those early Youtube channels that caught fire. I believe he had almost half a million subscribers, and over 60 or 70 million views. So, we started the company to manage that effort.
The YouTube channel was where it got started. After that got going, we decided we needed to make new content. That’s kind the name of the beast with social media. We were both homeschooling dads, both very passionate about education for kids, and both taught in our churches. So, we wanted to make educational materials for kids. We created a kids show, got it out the door, gave it its own little channel, and it got picked up by Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). That was pretty cool, so we wanted to maybe try more of that. We tried making additional content, but nothing was really working. At least not as well as what had worked in the past. So we took some commercial jobs on the side and kept Brainy Pixel afloat on the sidelines. It was never our fulltime job. And then three years ago, we felt like Brainy Pixel wasn’t really doing it for us anymore. It wasn’t satisfying a creative itch. It wasn’t really making us happy, and we were individually thinking of shutting it down.
One Friday, my business partner who was the CEO called me up and said he was going to this film festival, and asked me to pray for him. Unbeknownst to me he goes there, and had this sort-of Abraham/Isaac moment with God, where he says “look, you put this love in me to be an animator, to help kids. But everything I’ve tried isn’t working. So either kill this thing, take away this passion that I have, and let me be at peace, or you show me how to do it. You lead me.”
So that began a total transformation that eventually led to a realization 6 months later through prayer, to go do a scary thing. That was to make a full-length feature animated film in the Christian space, which was not trivial. And it’s the exact opposite of running a YouTube channel by the way. But just really being obedient to God. He told us very clearly that what we were doing was good, but it didn’t glorify him. And so we decided we were going to change everything about the business. We were gonna be a Christian animation studio. We were not doing any secular work anymore. We’re only doing projects that glorify God. And honestly, we thought we would never work again besides our day jobs. Now everything has changes. Me and Michael are now fulltime with Brainy Pixel. Actually, just got off the phone with a major video game company right before you called. So our schedule is full, and it looks like it’s gonna be full for the next couple of years.

TCG: So what kind of people do have involved in an outfit like that in general?

BH: We’re actually a very small studio. The only “full time folks” there are myself and Michael. Everyone else is basically a contract employee. We kinda like it that way because then we won’t have to deal with the feds, and all those wonderful regulations.

TCG: Yeah the kind that everyone loves right?

BH: Exactly. But more seriously, we’ve got folks we’ve been working with for years now. We’re partnered with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and we’re blessed to have that partnership. They have a game design and animation department, and we actually work with the students there, portfolio reviews, short projects, some mo-cap (motion capture) work with them too. We help them in their educational process, because we’re really interested in growing creatives for the kingdom. In exchange for that, often we get interns. We help them grow their portfolios when they graduate, and learn what it’s like to work in the real world. Often times some of them transition into working with us.

TCG: Who have you worked with outside the studios that might be notable?

BH: I think our interns are just as notable as anybody else, but we’ve got some great mentors in the faith, and in the film space. Understand, just 3 years ago, no one knew who Brainy Pixel was. We knew nothing about the Christian film industry at all. Everything we’ve done, and everyone we know, and every connection we’ve made, has absolutely been God opening doors left and right, and us being obedient to follow. We have a refrain here at Brainy Pixel, and that is “don’t get ahead of God.” And let me tell you brother, that works. We’re currently partnered with a couple of guys at Red Sky Studios in Birmingham, who have worked with the Kendrick Brothers, and Dinesh D’Souza. They’ve also done their own film (Finding You). They’re great filmmakers, really skilled in post-production, and they’re wonderful mentors. Both in the film industry, and as Christian brothers. We’ve got a great brother who we love working with and is a great mentor to me. His name is (Disney’s Mulan director) Barry Cook. We’re working with (Gospel singer) Mark Lowrey. He is now our “Grandpa Mark” character in the Cubekins universe. We’re also working with a few other known artists in the Christian space that we can’t talk about yet, but hopefully we can talk about soon. There are so many people we like working with. I hate calling out one or two, because then the others seem like they’re not as important, but it really is a blessing to get to know these folks.

TCG: Let me pivot a little bit, because I really want to talk about Tenets Tales. I was blown away by it. How did you come up with the idea for that story?

BH: Tenets Tales is basically my Christian Hellboy series. That’s the way I pitch it. The way it started is kind of a strange story. Tenet was born in a totally different place. I started my writing career in the role-playing game industry so I’m an old school role player. A long time ago, when HTML was brand new, I created a website called Plainmarker, which was dedicated to Planescape. I specifically loved Plainescape, so I created a website dedicated to it. It got a bit of traction early on, and this was before social media. Just message boards, email, and the web. It eventually became big enough that it became the official Planescape website. We had thousands and thousands of members, multiple updates a day, volunteers from all over the globe. And I say all that to say that this is what allowed me to get a hook in with some of the folks at Wizard Of The Coast, including Jim Butler, who was the brand manager there at the time.
The open gaming license happened, which became a seismic shift in the gaming industry. The process created what is known as the D20 boom, which allowed many different companies to spring up. So it was kind of a wild west era where if you had a little bit of talent, and you could write, or design, you might get published. Jim Butler who I knew from Wizards, started his own company, and ran a contest for adventure designs, and he told me. My buddy and I entered and ended up winning against thousands of entrants. This was not full time. It was all nights and weekends. So, we got to go do some design for Bastion Press. That also led to me doing freelance design for several years as a freelancer. That success led me to talk to other gaming companies who said they would love to have fiction. Since my passion was actually more in writing fiction, than designing games, I pitched an idea to a company in New Jersey, that had a campaign called Crown: City Of The Fallen. I pitched an idea for a mosaic novel. Basically, a divided into stand-alone sections that tell a bigger story when you link them all together Kinda like Pulp Fiction.

TCG: Yeah Pulp Fiction is written that way. I think also, Traffic uses that same motif.

BH: Yeah. So I pitched this as an idea for a book, and me and five of my best buddies wrote this book. It’s out there, it’s called Skein Of Shadows. And my character was this guy who couldn’t lie, called Tenet. And one of the things we worked into the contract was the ability to keep the characters that we create. The world (of the story) was theirs, but we wanted to own our characters forever, regardless of what happens with the campaign. They agreed. So Tenet was from a city called Crown, run by a queen. I wanted to have a queen’s intelligencer, kinda like her spy. Someone she used to infiltrate areas, and learn secrets about people. I thought it was a cool thing, this guy whose job is lies, but he can’t lie himself. So I created Tenet, and I wrote the story Tenet’s Tale, in Skein Of Shadows. He was a totally different character. Actually a bit whiney. So that’s where Tenet was born. So we completed that project, and the book was published. But that character stayed in my brain and wouldn’t go away. So one day I thought I could turn him into a fallen angel, and I could write stories about him. So I was playing around with this idea of what was called The Wyrd War. It is essentially the supernatural battle of good and evil. Been going on since creation. And I’ve got all these stories in my brain about the Wyrd War, kinda like the MCU, before there was an MCU. So Tenet’s Tales is just one slice of the Wyrd War Universe. Heaven’s Hammers is another slice. Almost everything I’ve written actually touches it at some point. When you go read my work, you’ll see little drops and hints. As a reader, I love that stuff. And so, Tenet’s Tales though, is kinda my favorite. He’s my go-to guy.

TCG: So what is Tenet about?

BH: The basic story is he’s a fallen angel. Angels obviously have free will, because some of them chose to follow God, and some chose to follow Satan. And so when they fell, there was nothing saying they didn’t continue to have free will. And so that one thought unlocked a whole realm of possibilities for me. If fallen angels after they fell still had their free will, then they could tell the devil to go take a flying leap. He lied to them, and now they don’t like him anymore. So they could try to help people, or even (God’s) angels. That’s kinda what Tenet is. He’s hunted by Heaven, and hated by Hell, but he still wants to help mankind because of something that happened in his past. Now that past something is huge. It’s a big secret that if I tell it, people are gonna lose their minds. Their jaws are gonna drop, and it’s the key to who Tenet is. I can’t wait to tell that story, but I gotta get there first. This whole Tale has spawned this great big universe. I can tell stories about Tenet that go all the way back to the fall of man, and even before the fall of man, and the fall of angels. Tenet’s been around for six to eight thousand years, and I’ve got huge timelines of stories to tell for him, and they’re all listed, and outlined. It’s just about time and getting them all written.

TCG: Well that is quite an intriguing idea for a story.

BH: And the whole thing with the angels and having free will is that it allows me to explain now, almost anything supernatural. For instance, in the Wyrd War, Bigfoot exists. He’s just a fallen angel who’s decided not to side with Heaven or Hell. He just wants to be out in nature by himself. And now nature has changed to match his environment.

TCG: These are kind of two questions that could maybe condense into one. What do you see as your primary mission in what you do, and what do you want audiences to take away from your work?

BH: It’s very clear. Everything I make must glorify God, or not glorify sin. That’s pretty much it. God has given me these capabilities, and now he’s given me the opportunity. He’s allowed me to go full time with Brainy Pixel, and I can’t waste a single minute. I have to utilize every minute that I can, where if I’m not being a dad, a husband, a deacon or a brother in Christ, I’ve gotta use it for God’s glory and the growth of his kingdom. And the way I do that is by telling stories. By telling really amazing stories that make people thing about the Bible, and God, and Christ, and the Gospel, and the truth of the spiritual realm in different ways. So what I want people to take away from my work is that I hope they go “I have never thought of it that way before.” Like the Christian version of M. Knight Shyamalan. I wanna have that moment where everything shifts, and you realize you never saw it coming. You think the story is about A, but it’s actually about Z. And Z just hits you right between the eyes and makes you go “whoa, I gotta reevaluate my life. I gotta get on my knees.”

TCG: This question kind of speaks to that a little bit. What do you think Christians in general, maybe get, or don’t get about art, and the power of imagination Especially in how that helps, or enhances the Christian walk. Do they take it seriously enough? What is it about art and imagination that is so pivotal to the Christian faith?

BH: I think we need to stop being scared of it. If you’re a student of history, and you go back and look. For thousands of years, the Church was the source of creativity in the world. We led the arts, we led the sciences, we led philosophical thought, we led everything. That’s because that is what God made us thinking creative beings to do. We’re supposed to explore. Almost all the science we have today is because there were men of God trying to figure out the intricacies of the way God made creation. Isaac Newton, all these amazing scientists. You look at the work of Michaelangelo, Beethoven, all these guys, trying to figure out ways to express God’s glory through the lens of the gift God had given them. At some point, and I don’t know why, and if I ever had a time machine, and I could go back in time, I’d love to pinpoint the moment and figure out. Who was the dude that co-opted all that? That decided that the arts, “nah that’s really not the domain of the Church, but the domain of the world. And science, nah. Let the world handle that.” I’d like to go back and slap the taste out of his mouth. So we need to stop being afraid. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the fear. I’m not saying go whole hog, because going whole hog in the opposite direction is really no better either. You’ve got to tell stories and create art and music, and formulate theories, all through the lens of God’s creation. I think if you do that, if you have people around you who are constantly checking you, and if you are checking yourself against the word of God, and the Spirit of God, I think it will be ok. I don’t publish anything unless I run it through at least, three filters. I’ve got a couple of really good friends. Very astute students of scripture. I run it by them first. Then I run it by my pastor. I ask if anything is out of line. If something is, then I know to change it. The last thing I want to do is to lead someone astray.
Christ used stories to get points across to people because stories impacted people. Stories sink into our brain in a different way than a lesson. And we remember those stories. So we have to re-embrace our God-given gifts, but do it for the right reasons. Do it for God’s glory. Not for our own glory, not for riches, not for fame, not for social media followers. Do it for God’s glory. Check it against scripture. Check it against the Spirit of God. Check it against the Church of God. The true Church, not just a “church” in name only. The true brothers and sisters, the true living body of Christ. Check it against those things, and then create, create, create.

TCG: My final question actually relates very well to what you just said. What is the advice you would give anyone up-and-coming their way through this path?

BH: It depends, since there are so many different challenges. But one is, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone that you maybe consider to be more senior in the space. I have never had a problem reaching out to someone. I was scared to death typing an email to Barry Cook. But I did it, and he was the nicest, warmest, most open dude. I mean, I’ve got the cell phone number of a guy who’s worked for Disney. I could call or text him at any time. It’s crazy. Only God makes that kind of thing happen, so don’t be afraid. Secondly, do surround yourself with a very dependable truth saturated group. They’ve gotta be saturated in the truth of God. God’s scripture, God’s spirit, God’s Body. The have to be representative of those things in a real way, because false prophets will twist you. But if you surround yourself, and you listen to them, let them check you, and you remain susceptible to that accountability, then go out and create. Use your gift the way God has made you. Don’t be afraid. Go do it. But do it with the right checks in place.