RED HOOK — In a studio hidden away inside an inconspicuous CubeSmart Self Storage facility, a Catholic artist is drawing inspiration from her faith — one saint at a time.

A Brooklyn-based cartoonist and comic book artist known as Mindy Indy spends hours in her tiny studio space, bringing Catholic saints to life in comic book form.  

In 2019, Indy partnered with the Catholic publishing company, Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) to illustrate two comic books, “God’s Superheroes: Amazing Catholic Women” and “God’s Superheroes: Amazing Catholic Me.” Her super-charged illustrations were in display in the the series, which was released in February 2022. 

Indy was brought together with writer Mary Bajda by OSV through a Facebook application and now calls it, “The perfect meeting of worlds!” 

She recently finished illustrating a third book in the series, which will be available on Catholic bookstore shelves and through Amazon this fall. A fourth book will follow to completing the set second volumes for each of the first two.

The new books will feature another array of saints and holy folks on the road to canonization. Among them will be the Venerable Montse Grases who administered to Spain’s poor and hungry in the early 20th Century. 

It will also immortalize Italian teen, the Blessed Carlo Acutis who passed away in 2006, and recently had a second miracle recognized by the Vatican, paving his way for canonization. 

Dubbed “The Webmaster,” Acutis will become the first Millennial saint and Mindy says his inclusion is a fitting illustration of how young people can connect with the Church. She even admits to asking for his intercession while suffering through her own technology challenges.

“Every time I’m struggling with something on my computer or some stupid tech thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, Blessed Carlo, please help me,’ “ she said. 

“Fairly soon afterward, I’m able to figure it out.”

Indy moved to New York from Michigan in 2010 to seek career success but also found a deeper understanding of her faith. While Catholic since the cradle, she says attending St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village and joining the Samuel Group, a vocation discernment program, helped ignite a deeper connection to Catholicism.  

Beyond the OSV books, Indy has also worked with Mother Clare Matthiass of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal to produce another short comic series about the rules of discernment and following the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

“I bring along with me that faith aspect to it. I think that makes it better,” she said.

Feedback for the books has been overwhelmingly positive, Indy said, describing how a woman approached her at a comic event to express her daughter’s love for “God’s Superheroes: Amazing Catholic Woman” — a love so strong, she said, that she carries the book wherever she goes.

“It’s really great. When the artwork leaves my hands, I have no idea what happens. It goes into the world, and when people read a book, you never know,” she said.

While illustrating the books, Indy learned about several saints, including St. Kateri Tekakwitha — a Native American and one of the New York saints — and St. Walter Ciszek, a Polish man who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Gulag in the 1940s. 

While her book can be loved and appreciated by those of all ages, she noted it’s written in a medium often appreciated by children and young adults. She hopes that through comic books, a newer generation of Catholics can come to understand the saints and Jesus better.

“I made the point to not have halos for the saints, except for Jesus and Mary,” she said. “I wanted them to be more relatable to kids. Kids can look at that and be like, ‘Oh, this person was kind of like me.’”

She’s been a full-time freelance cartoonist and artist since 2010, and among her biggest accomplishments is her debut 50-page comic book, “AER HEAD #1.”