''Dendō: One Year and One Half in Tokyo: A Missionary Memoir'' is a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

diary written by Brittany Long Olsen while she was a missionary for the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded durin ...

(LDS Church) in Japan. It is the first published missionary diary in graphic novel form, and won the

Association for Mormon Letters Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(AML) award in 2015 for comics. After returning from her mission, she scanned and edited it, before self-publishing it after being rejected by traditional publishers. ''Dendō'' received good reviews, praising Olsen for her wit and spirituality. It was purchased and displayed by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU).

History

Olsen drew in her journal every day on her 18-month mission to Japan. Olsen says that keeping a journal helped her cope with the "raw and emotional" moments. When she returned, she scanned all 600 pages, added shading, and replaced her handwriting with a font she made from her handwriting. After being rejected from traditional Mormon publishers as too niche, Olsen self-published through

CreateSpace On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, So ...

. The L. Tom Perry Special Collections at BYU purchased her original artwork for their 21st-century Mormon art collection, which was on display at their "Comics and Mormons" exhibit. Olson donates ten percent of the proceeds from CreateSpace sales to the LDS Church's missionary department.

Criticism and awards

The graphic novel won the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) award for comics in 2015. AML called the book a "wonderful blending of the modern missionary narrative mixed with a traditional comic style, humor, and feel-good moments". Deseret book reviewer Jeff Peterson said the book was a "joy to read" for Olsen's "optimism, self-deprecating wit and ability to always find the spiritual silver lining". Theric Jepson at ''Dawning of a Brighter Day'' said that ''Dendō'' was thrilling because Olsen "captured the day-to-day drag that makes up the most exciting eighteen (or twenty-four) months in a young Mormon’s life".

References

External links

Dendō's official page
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029130810/http://www.tokyomissionary.com/ , date=2023-10-29 2015 comics debuts 2015 graphic novels American autobiographical novels American Mormon missionaries in Japan Autobiographical graphic novels Female Mormon missionaries LDS non-fiction Works about Mormon missionaries Graphic novels set in Japan Graphic novels about Christianity American graphic novels