Pat Marrin ’63 bids farewell to Pope Francis and the comic strip he inspired

“The real Pope Francis will be the focus of many official and scholarly examinations, but Francis,” with a little help from Pat Marrin ’63, “will also have a place among other beloved cartoon characters that live forever.”

As author and illustrator of “Francis, the Comic Strip,” Marrin published nearly 1,400 images in the National Catholic Reporter over the course of several years. Pat credits the comic strips he read as a kid with forming his “basic sense of truth and justice, right and wrong, heroism and cowardice.” Having gained a sense of morality from the medium, it comes as no surprise that he jumped at the chance to explore Francis’s papal legacy through a comic of his own.

To learn more about Pat Marrin ’63 and explore the archives of “Francis, the Comic Strip” visit https://www.ncronline.org/authors/pat-marrin.