WHAT’S IN A NAME?

THE COMIC

Stage of Fools takes its name from the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. In Act 4, Scene 6, the eponymous character, reeling from betrayal and loss, responds to the blind Earl of Gloucester’s exasperated lamentation with these cynical lines:

When we are born, we cry that we are come

To this great stage of fools…. (King Lear 4.6.155)

The self-referential nature of Lear’s comment should call to mind the world in which the characters reside, the stage on which the actors perform, the life to which the audience is born, and the folly that which all endure—whether by the hand of others or our own.

In the same recursive vein, Stage of Fools seeks to call attention to the behaviors of unbelief perpetrated by the unsaved as a warning to those professing the name of Christ. Our sanctification is not yet complete, and in all things we must be vigilant that our words and deeds honor the Lord Jesus Christ. 

THE CAST

Chesil gets his name from the Biblical Hebrew word כְּסִיל which is defined as “stupid fellow, dullard, fool.”1 Aphron gets her name from the Koine Greek word ἄφρων which is defined as “foolish, senseless, unwise.”2Neither of them are believers, and as such their lives reflect this.

THE CARTOONIST

Kevin gets his name from the Irish word Caoimhín which is defined as “of noble birth.” Just kidding! His mother thought of it while reading a magazine on the toilet.

He began drawing at an early age, taking his first formal art lesson from the “How to Draw Garfield” page from the Garfield Bigger Than Life collection. It’s been downhill ever since. In addition to his artistic pursuits, he is a poet,3 teacher,4 programmer,5,6 audio engineer,7 and world traveler.8

Nunc Serio

Kevin Gillispie has served as a church planter in South Korea and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at The Master’s Seminary.
  1. Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998). ↩︎
  2. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 386. ↩︎
  3. He publishes regularly in Buc-ee’s restroom stalls across North America. ↩︎
  4. A cautionary tale of great pedagogical import.  ↩︎
  5. What do you get when you cross a gorilla with a computer? A Harry Reasoner. ↩︎
  6. If you get that joke, you’re probably too old for this comic. ↩︎
  7. SSCCREEEEEEEWWEEERRRROOOWWW goes the vocal mic.  ↩︎
  8. Fugitive.  ↩︎