About SDG’s Dailies & Sundays
Q. Let’s start at the beginning. Who is SDG?
A. Hi! I’m Steven D. Greydanus. If you’re reading this, maybe you liked something I once wrote about God, movies, comics, politics, language, or some other topic. Or maybe you subscribed by accident while signing up for someone else’s Substack! Either way, I’m glad you’re here.
Among other things, I am
a Catholic deacon in the Archdiocese of Newark;
a film critic and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle;
an art-school graduate and cartooning enthusiast;
a high-school Theology teacher, and
a husband and father of 7—not in that order!
I’ve been writing about film since 2000, when I founded Decent Films, and most of what I write about film winds up there. I write other stuff too, including homilies that I preach at my parish and notes on other topics that interest me—often at great length.
Q. And why “Dailies & Sundays”?
The name “Dailies & Sundays” refers first of all to the daily and Sunday comics sections in print newspapers. Metaphorically, the name suggests the secular and the sacred, evoking the range of topics I write about. This includes:
the homilies I preach at my parish church and at the Catholic high school where I teach
thoughts on faith, philosophy, and spirituality
writing about comics (both daily and Sunday comics, but mostly “daily” writing—though some, like this piece on heavenly obituary cartoons and Jimmy Carter, will include bits of both)
film writing … and more! See the tags above to browse my work by category.
Q. Who exactly is the target audience for “All Things SDG”?
Good question! If you you’re mainly interested niche writing about one topic, I’m afraid my writing may not be what you want—no hard feelings!
If you like lengthy and/or nerdy deep dives into topics ranging from language to science to superhero movies, you might find something here to interest you. I write a lot about faith and God, which is off-putting to some people; I’m also obsessed with comics, which is off-putting to other people.
Here’s a typical sampling of some of the kinds of things I write:
Calvin & Hobbes Sunday: Do you want to build a snowman? (the most liked and restacked piece I’ve written here)
Reflections on voting as a pro-life Catholic (for a long time the most read piece I’ve written here, and one of the most important)
“The day Western civilization ended” (notes on Star Trek and good writing)
The a-hole version (Penn Jillette, Sam Harris, and the moral argument for God)
Religious and family trauma; forgiveness and its counterfeits (a Sunday homily)
Crisis of meaning on infinite earths, part 1 (long thoughts on superhero multiverse movies)
Cartoon Critic #1: A Shocktober “The Far Side” commentary (musings on cartoon art)
If two or more of these pieces are interesting to you, I hope you’ll consider a free or a paid subscription. Free subscriptions help make this work worthwhile. Paid subscriptions help make it possible!
Previews of the above articles:
Calvin & Hobbes Sunday: Do you want to build a snowman?
Today’s subject is a Calvin & Hobbes Sunday strip that’s justly beloved for a number of reasons, not least its rare heartwarming ending (a denouement a bit more complex than it may initially seem, as we will see). It dates to October 1990—almost exactly halfway through Bill Watterson’s brilliant ten-year career, which lasted from 1985 to 1995. Here’s th…
Reflections on voting as a pro-life Catholic
Read next: A referendum on elections: Why defeating Trump is the best move for the US and the GOP
“The day Western civilization ended”
About a decade ago, in my second round of seminary schooling, my fellow diaconal candidates and I had a canon law class with a punctilious professor, a priest and canon lawyer, who had very specific preferences for dotted i’s and crossed t’s. On the first day of class, while setting standards for papers written for his class, he portentously declared th…
The a-hole version: Penn Jillette, Sam Harris, and the moral argument for God
Among the theistic arguments I have long found most compelling is a version of what is sometimes called “the moral argument.” Perhaps I should say “a moral argument,” since many types of moral argument for God’s existence have been proposed, some more i…
Religious and family trauma; forgiveness and its counterfeits
This homily was preached at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in West Orange on Tuesday, March 11, the first day of the Novena to Saint Joseph ending on March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph. My thanks to my friend Paul Fahey, a Catholic counselor specializing in religious trauma, for his work in general and for specific su…
Crisis of meaning on infinite earths, part 1: The multiverse and superhero movies
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | more to come…
Cartoon Critic #1: A Shocktober “The Far Side” commentary
To kick off comics writing here at Dailies & Sundays, I thought I would start with an outstanding one-panel strip about which I have nothing (almost) but praise—and, given the imminence of Halloween, I think this classic from Gary Larson’s The Far Side
